Description
Investigate past human cultures through the systematic recovery, documentation, and analysis of material remains and their contexts. Plan and conduct surveys and excavations, date and authenticate artifacts and features, and interpret sites to reconstruct histories, lifeways, and environments. Produce reports, curate collections, and advise on site protection and cultural resource management.
- • Study objects, features, and structures recovered by survey and excavation to identify, date, authenticate, and interpret them.
- • Collect contextual data through field observation, stratigraphic recording, and review of archival sources.
- • Design and conduct surveys and site assessments to answer defined research questions.
- • Write technical reports and present research findings to professional and general audiences.
- • Describe artifacts' materials, size, shape, function, manufacturing techniques, and decoration.
- • Plan and direct research to reconstruct settlement, subsistence, technology, and social organization.
- • Compare findings from one site with regional archaeological datasets to identify similarities and differences.
- • Record provenience, stratigraphy, and site conditions with notes, drawings, photographs, and GIS.
- • Assess archaeological sites for cultural resource management and recommend protection or mitigation measures.
- • Recover and analyze artifacts, ecofacts, and human skeletal remains to infer past lifeways.
- • Collect, bag, label, and catalogue artifacts to maintain precise provenience and chain of custody.
- • Consult and collaborate with descendant communities and tribes to ensure respectful research and compliance.
- • Use site reports, artifact collections, maps, and remote sensing data to locate and evaluate sites.
- • Train and supervise field and laboratory staff, students, and volunteers in archaeological methods.
- • Advise agencies, developers, and communities on policies and projects affecting cultural resources.
- • Create and manage digital data records, including photography, GIS layers, 3D models, and databases.
- • Develop research designs, sampling strategies, and mitigation plans for field and lab investigations.
- • Develop and test hypotheses about the origins, development, and interactions of past cultures.
- • Lead field projects, manage logistics and permits, and enforce health and safety protocols.
- • Coordinate with planners and engineers to avoid, minimize, or mitigate project impacts to sites.
- • Clean, stabilize, conserve, and curate artifacts in collaboration with conservators and repositories.
- • Monitor ground disturbance and conduct salvage excavations or rapid documentation when sites are threatened.
- • Organize public talks, site tours, and museum exhibits to share archaeological findings.
- • Synthesize multi-site evidence to model cultural change, trade, and landscape use over time.
- • Research archival maps, land records, oral histories, and prior surveys to inform fieldwork.
- • Integrate paleoenvironmental data and traditional knowledge to interpret past land and resource use.
- • Prepare site forms, eligibility evaluations, and compliance documents for SHPO, NAGPRA, and NHPA Section 106.
- • Participate in forensic recovery and analysis of human remains when requested by authorities.
- • Teach or mentor students in archaeological theory, method, and practice.
- • Write grant proposals and manage budgets and schedules to secure and execute projects.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
