why does Jeannie want to be a historical archaeologist?

ar-chae-ol-o-gy N. Abbr. ar-chaeol. 1. The systematic recovery by scientific methods of material evidence remaining from human life and culture in past ages, and the detailed study of this evidence. 2. Abolishes the difference between There or Then and Here and Now; it restores unity (Emerson, History, 1841). 3. Shows that we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are (Talmudic maxim). [French archeologie, from Late Latin archaeologia, from Greek arkhaiologica: "the study of antiquity."]

There are many reasons why I am learning to become an archaeologist. For one, I've also enjoyed detective stories in the grand tradition of Sherlock Holmes ever since I was little. Archaeology, then, is where you play a detective through time. When your trowel flicks over that last bit of dirt, you see clues left behind by the people who were there before you. A sherd of broken wine glass here, a piece of ceramic plate there. They are all there to tell you a story. What distinguishes a good historical archaeologist from a bad one is in the way they tell that story. Some really bad ones don't even bother to tell a story at all. They just tell you they found 9 fragments of blue cloth, 3 glass bottles, 27 rusted nails, and so forth. To me personally, nothing can be more boring than laundry lists like these. You must be able to read into the artifacts and see what kind of story they are telling about the people who left them behind.

With an MA from Sonoma State University's Cultural Resources Management program, I hope to become one of the good archaeologists. But in order to do that, I must first finish my thesis, which is a whole other story.

For a more, shall we say, academic version of why I'm in archaeology, read my application essay to graduate school posted below. Or you can check out my archaeological résumé. Also, see a photo from my stint as a archaeological technician in West Oakland, California....

So you want to read the version submitted to the graduate committee, eh?

[OK, folks. I found this in my archives. It was written between November and December of 1994. Enjoy! (Man, re-reading this stuff is like a trip down the memory lane.... And Adrian, thanks for letting me into SSU!!!)]

Looking at my younger brother scrambling to get his college application materials together reminded me of how far I have come since I went through the same process four years ago. I applied to the Bioresource Sciences program only because I've always liked little animals. After I was admitted into UC Berkeley, because my parents were no longer watching over me constantly, my priorities got mixed up. Bad study habits did not help me too much, and my grades slipped horribly. Too scared to face my professors and too ashamed to ask my friends, I fell behind in almost every class I took and somehow struggled through the end of my freshman year. I dared not let my parents see my report card that summer; a mere 2.20 GPA was definitely not what they or I was used to back in high school.

In the following semester through random chance I signed up for Anthro 2, "Introduction to Archaeology", and found myself enjoying archaeology because, unlike the so-called "hard core" science classes, it is not about plugging in data at one end of the equation and expecting the answer to come out from the other end. Archaeology allows creativity, and because human behavior is often unpredictable, there is not a "right" answer. I've always liked history, because it is a window to the past, but I also learned that only through careful excavation and interpretation can one get an idea of how people went about their daily business. Historians have, for the most part, ignored the common folks, who were not considered important enough to be recorded. Through archaeology, we can attain a much better understanding of what American history is all about.

During the past two summers I had the opportunity to attend field school and to excavate under Prof. James Deetz at Flowerdew Hundred, Virginia. After learning about Colonial American history in classes for a whole year, it was exciting to be on the premises of a plantation that dates back to 1619. Finding artifacts like ceramic pot shards and broken pipe stems was only part of the game. Standing in the middle of the site with artifacts in hand, I envisioned early colonists walking around, smoking terracotta pipes and dumping out garbage that archaeologists can now find three centuries later. It was like a trip to the past through virtual reality, except that I was constructing the scenes. Flowerdew was a valuable experience, because it provided me with the actual material culture that could connect with the dates and places I learned about in the classroom.

Now, I am again at the crossroads of life where I need to decide what my next step should be. At this point, I would like to pursue a higher degree in historical archaeology. I want to see how the artifacts we find differ with historical documents, because the fact that they are different tell us a lot about the people being studied. After I receive my MA degree, I would like to work in California as a historical archaeologist for CalTrans or a private archaeological firm, such as Biosystems. By talking to various professors and graduate students at UC Berkeley and Sonoma State, I believe I am suited for the graduate program at Sonoma, because it provides a practical and solid training in Cultural Resource Management, which is exactly what I'm looking for. With my background from UC Berkeley and Flowerdew Hundred, I known I can contribute a great deal to the CRM program at Sonoma State.

I am ready to take that next step.