Maritime archaeologist

Written by Charlotte Boan Thursday, 29 May 2008 00:00

He works full time for Wessex Archaeology.

Salary range: £15,000–£25,000.

Skills/qualifications needed: A degree and HSE-recognised archaeological and scientific-diving qualifications.

What the job involves: There are lots of different sides to the job, and diving is just a part of it. There is a lot of office-based work, such as preparation. When diving a site we don’t know, we use surface-supply air and video the site. We often have to look back at footage to identify particular features. We also take measurements of features that could be diagnostic. It can turn into long days, particularly if you can only dive the sites during slack water.

Best part of the job: Finding out something new about a site and putting all the pieces together. It’s satisfying work and you get to go diving. You cover a whole scale of human history, going right back to prehistoric sites.

Worst part of the job: A leaky drysuit in cold water when you are trying to draw something! Mostly, the worst part is when the weather is bad and you’re not doing the type of work that you want.

Advice to jobseekers: There are not many permanent jobs in archaeology, so you have to persevere to find the work. It’s best to talk to someone in the profession first to get a realistic idea of what is involved. It’s a discipline – there’s a lot of hard work involved. You are an archaeologist first – diving is just a way to get the job done.