Archaeologists in the United States are employed by museums, government agencies, universities, and cultural resource or environmental resource management firms.  As a professional archaeologist you will need a variety of technical, quantitative, and communication skills and a solid grounding in the archaeology, history, or cultural background of the region in which you wish to work. 

As an archaeologist you can expect to spend your time doing a variety of the following tasks:

Surveying and excavating (other than an entry-level job, these will take a minority of your time)

Managing collections of artifacts, photos, maps, and field form data

Writing proposals to compete for projects

Writing draft and final reports

Meeting state or national regulations for the quality of your data collection and reports

Managing budgets

Assessing the significance of sites and making recommendations about their disposition

Coordinating staff members to complete a large task

Building and using relational databases

Educating the public about sites or archaeology (e.g., schools, town councils, and legislatures)

Creating exhibits and displays (photography, design, layout, illustrating)

The following courses offered at the University of Minnesota Duluth are examples of the types of classes that would provide a solid grounding for a career in archaeology.  This list is not exhaustive, so choose classes that will give you experience in the above list of tasks.

A). Archaeology and Related Classes – Take as many as reasonable

Archaeology Field School (you must attend one of these)

ANTH 1604: Prehistoric Cultures

ANTH 1612: Introduction to Archaeology

ANTH 3618: Ancient Middle America

ANTH 3622: Prehistoric Archaeology: Old World

ANTH 3624: North American Archaeology

ANTH 3640: What is a City? Archaeological Perspectives on Urbanism

ANTH 4697: Internship

FA 2100: Museums and Society

GEOG 2552: Introduction to Maps and Cartographic Methods

B). Technical skills

Business

ACCT 2001: Principles of Financial Accounting

ACCT 2002: Principles of Managerial Accounting

Blaw 2001: The Legal Environment

Mapping and Geographic Information Systems

GEOG 2552: Introduction to Maps and Cartographic Methods

GEOG 3532: Map Design and Graphic Methods

GEOG 4563: Introduction to Geographic Information Science

GEOG 4564: Laboratory in Geographic Information Science

GEOG 4580: Introduction to Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation

Geology and Soil Science

GEOG 1414. Physical Geography

GEOG 4451: Geography of Soils

GEOL 1110: Introductory Geology

GEOL 2300: Basic Mineralogy and Petrology

GEOL 2311: Mineralogy and Petrology I

GEOL 2312: Mineralogy and Petrology II

GEOL 3210: Geomorphology

GEOL 4300: Optical Mineralogy

C). Quantitative skills (I strongly recommend you take one statistics class)

CS 1011: Introduction to Computers and Software

PSY 3020: Statistical Methods

STAT 1411: Introduction to Statistics

STAT 2411: Statistical Methods

D). Regional archaeological and historical knowledge

Middle America and North America

AMIN 1106: American Indian Prose, Poetry, and Oratory

AMIN 1120: American Indians in the 20th Century

AMIN 2105: Survey of American Indian Arts

AMIN 2115: Ojibwe History and Culture

AMIN 3106: Indian-White Relations

AMIN 3260: American Indian Novel

AMIN 4630: American Indians and the Media

AMIN 3410: Fur Trade in Canada and the United States

ARTH 3380: Art of the United States: From Colonial to Impressionistic

CST 1020: Landscapes, Environments, and U.S. Culture

CST 1030: Frontier Heritage in Canada and the United States

CST 1040: American Immigrant Heritage

CST 1201: American Working Class History and Culture: The Struggle for Control

FA 2510: History of American Architecture: 1600-Present

HIST 1304: US History Part I: 1607-1877

HIST 1305: US History Part II: 1865-Present

HIST 2357: Women in American History

HIST 3316: US Social History, 1800-1916

HIST 3317: American Expansion, 1800-1900

HIST 3361: The American City

SPAN 2540: Latino Literatures and Cultures

Ancient Mediterranean

ARTH 3320: Ancient Art

CST 1004: From Classical Antiquity to Medieval Culture

CST 1022: The Bible as Literature

CST 3151: Ancient Egyptian Culture

CST 3161: Egyptian Literature and Language

CST 3055: The Ancient Near East

CST 3021: The Age of the Heroes: Homer and His World

HIST 3041: The Roman Empire.

HIST 3031: The Roman Republic

HIST 3333: From Homer to Alexander: Archaic and Classical Greece

HIST 3335: From Alexander to Mohammad

E). Oral, written and visual presentation skills

Write, write, write - long format, short format, fiction, non-fiction - just write

Acquire a second language – e.g., Ojibwe, Spanish, etc.

ART 1013 2-D Digital Design

ART 1605: Fundamentals of Photography

ART 1607: Freshman Seminar: Fundamentals of Photography

Biol 1039: Freshman Seminar: Biological Illustration

Comm 1112: Public Speaking

Comm 2929: Intercultural Communication

Comm 3116: Professional Communication