A big part of archaeological work is sweeping. Removing that fine layer of dirt from your Stratigraphic Unit is essential. However, this job can be tedious and mentally exhausting.

Firstly, this job involves using the same motions from your body over and over. This can be physically tiring. The tedium could possibly cause soreness and cramps.

Secondly, this job is mentally exhausting. Especially if you’re a perfectionist. The dirt will never be completely gone and, sometimes, you’ll have to sweep the same spot multiple times just for it to look clean. For me, this took a toll on my archaeological thought process and made me feel as if I was doing a bad job or not trying hard enough. I would always take a long time sweeping because I felt I was doing bad. There’s never a worse feeling then having to stop a task in the middle of it because you ran out of time.

One of the first jobs future students will be doing when they arrive on site next year is sweeping. Please keep in mind that it will never be perfect and try to do your job efficiently. BUT if you take a little longer than your peers, don’t beat yourself up about it. You should be swift, but you should also make sure your work isn’t bad. For many of us this was our first archaeological project so we had no idea if our job was acceptable or not! But we proceeded and with help from our trench supervisors we succeeded.

Good Luck!!

Hunter Powell