Jie Shen
Our follower count has suddenly shot up recently, so much so that one of the Trowels wondered if I’d secretly bought followers, haha. I have no idea where all these people came from, but my guess is that quite a few are undergraduates, maybe even first-years who have just started university. So we put together some common skills for archaeology students that we’d suggest picking up outside your major courses.
You can usually find these skills among your university’s general electives. Even if you can’t, there are plenty of free resources online. Unlocking a few extra branches of your skill tree outside your major can save you some hard work during your master’s or PhD (I’m catching up on GIS myself right now). And even if you change careers later, there’s a good chance these skills will still come in handy.
Of course, sticking with self-study is often hard. Be mentally prepared for that.
(These skills aren’t ranked. I’m just writing them down as they come to mind.)
The Office trio: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
These are the absolute basics, but plenty of people still haven’t really figured them out by their final year. People who can’t generate a table of contents for their thesis, make charts in Excel, or put together slides without oversaturated colors and more than three fonts are everywhere. Learning the basic functions of these three programs can make studying and working much more efficient, so I’d suggest starting here.
A second foreign language
I’m not going to nag you about English. Most people don’t like studying it anyway. But anyone paying a bit of attention to archaeology can see that Chinese archaeology is expanding rapidly, with more and more international collaborations. A second foreign language can give you an advantage when applying for further study or jobs. Worst case, you can switch careers and teach it (kidding). Japanese, Russian, Mongolian, Spanish, French, Arabic—which one to choose? Have a look at international collaborations involving China over the past couple of years.
GIS
Time and space are the two major dimensions of archaeological research. If spatial information is involved, there’s no getting around GIS. “Starting from the spatial locations of archaeological remains or phenomena, GIS builds databases and graphics/image repositories containing both spatial and attribute information. It allows different kinds of data to be displayed separately or together, queried, and simulated; reconstructs past social conditions clearly and directly; analyzes human–environment relationships across different periods in regional archaeology; and reveals information and insights often overlooked by traditional archaeological methods.” (From Methods and Applications of Scientific Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Cultural Relics Press, 2012.)
RTK
An essential tool for field surveys. One-button operation—and if you come across an exposed section you can’t reach, it can double as an extra-long hoe (kidding).
Drones
A camera, Plus version (?)—mainly for taking overall views of sites. Pick a nice day for site photos, but not too nice: big fluffy clouds can leave patches of shadow on the ground. Decide what you’re going to photograph before taking off, or you’ll fly around for a bit and run out of battery.
Python
I actually learned R, but a friend came back from the Max Planck Institute and told me everyone was using Python, so make your own call. It’s generally used for plotting and data analysis. What else can it do? I’ll write another post after I’ve learned it.
Statistics
Quantitative research is becoming more common, and archaeological datasets are growing, so statistics is pretty much a skill we’ll have to learn. You can learn to use drones and RTK at a field site. For the others, though, I’d suggest not limiting yourself to courses like “Archaeological Statistics” and “Archaeological GIS.” Try taking introductory courses in the relevant departments too. Understanding the basic principles before coming back to the applications will help. For example, a lot of archaeological statistics still consists of copying methods without knowing why they work. Statistics isn’t all-purpose, and there’s plenty of room for subjectivity in archaeological interpretations of statistical results. Applying methods without understanding their principles makes the results hard to trust. Archaeological data are also often complex enough that we need to adapt to what we’ve got, rather than just follow textbook methods. Understanding the principles makes us more flexible. Most archaeology students come from a humanities background, so this can be hard going (it is for me, anyway). But learning these skills does not mean we have to master them completely. It gives us somewhere to start when tackling problems later, so we know which tools to use, what their strengths and limits are, and whom to ask or where to look when we hit something we can’t solve.
Searching library resources
I feel this is a skill many people overlook, because most rely on CNKI and their university’s library collection for everything. The trouble with academic resources and literature is that there isn’t one platform that collects everything and lets you search it all. Many journals, collected volumes, or books are listed only in particular databases. Learning how to cover as many databases as possible when gathering literature is a skill in itself. And for foreign-language literature, each country or language has its own commonly used search platforms, which you need to find and learn to use. University libraries usually offer free talks explaining which databases they’ve subscribed to and which search platforms are useful. I’d recommend going along.
Reference managers
Quite a few people are still typing their reference lists by hand in graduate school, which really isn’t very efficient. Common reference managers include EndNote, NoteExpress, and Zotero. Universities usually provide free access to NoteExpress or EndNote, but you lose it after graduating, so I’d recommend Zotero. See our earlier post for how to use it. If you’re interested in an academic career, the earlier you start building your literature collection, the better. It helps you organize what you know and come back to it later.
Photography
I won’t go on about how important site and artifact photography are. Pretty much every archaeologist has a camera.
PS
Another essential skill. Who writes a report or paper without editing images? Who takes nice museum photos without touching them up before posting them on WeChat Moments? (Though I still don’t know how )
CorelDRAW
Another graphics program. It has advantages over Photoshop when laying out multiple artifacts and controlling their scales.
The history of philosophy and of ideas
Even with a humanities background, quite a few of us haven’t had proper training in critical thinking. Archaeological research ultimately needs a theoretical basis, and understanding theory takes critical thinking and a scientific approach. So I’d suggest catching up on this when you have time.
Physical and mental health
Keep up good exercise habits and stay in shape. That way, even if you fall into an ash pit, you can climb out nimbly before your professor notices. Look after your knees, ankles, and back, so you don’t twist an ankle on a dirt path or spend every evening after work flattened on your bed, missing your chance to study hard and publish in Nature. Keep yourself mentally healthy too: remind yourself that if you can’t carry on studying, you can follow the some of the Trowels and change careers. (All examples above come from ◼◼◼’s personal experience.)
Sunscreen mastery
Fieldwork is fieldwork. No need to add to your skin cancer risk.
Finally, this may offend someone, but drinking is not a general skill. If you can’t drink or don’t like it, don’t force yourself to learn.
It looks like a lot to learn, but you don’t have to schedule it all at once. Pick up one or two things each semester and get the basics down. You can go deeper later as your research needs develop.
Happy learning, then!
学习方法 | 一些考古er可以掌握的的通用技能
六把铲 · Oct 14, 2022, 12:18 PM
中文原文
最近关注量突然暴增，以至于有铲子怀疑我是不是偷偷买粉了23333。我也不知道哪儿来这么多人，但盲猜我们的关注者里应该有不少本科生，甚至是刚入学的大一新生。所以我们整理了一下一些考古学生常见的技能，建议大家在专业课以外的时间学习掌握一下。
这些技能一般来说学校的公选课里都能找到，就算没有，网络上也有大把的免费资源。在专业课以外点亮一些技能树，一方面可以省去读硕读博时候的苦工（比如我现在就在补课GIS），另一方面就算是以后转行了，这些技能也有很大几率能够派上用场。
当然了，自学难坚持是常事，自己做好心理准备吧。
（技能排名不分先后，因为我想到哪写到哪）
Office 三件套：Word，Excel，PPT这算是基本中的基本了，但不少人到大四也没怎么弄明白过。毕业论文不会自动生成目录，Excel不会生成图表，PPT里配色饱和字体超过三种的人比比皆是。把这三个软件的基本功能玩明白能大大提升学习和工作效率，所以建议首先掌握这个。
第二外语英语我就不劝了，反正大部分人都不爱学。但稍微关注考古圈动向的都能注意到中国考古正处于飞速扩张的状态，对外合作的项目越来越多。掌握一门二外在未来升学或者找工作的时候都能提高竞争力，再不济也可以转行去教二外（bushi）。日语俄语蒙古语西班牙语法语阿拉伯语，具体应该选哪个可以参考近两年的中外合作项目。
GIS时间与空间是考古学研究的两大维度，但凡涉及空间信息的都不可能避开GIS。 “GIS从考古遗迹或现象的空间位置出发，建立多种空间信息与属性信息并存的数据库和图形图像库，方便进行分层或综合显示、查询、模拟各类数据信息，直观、简洁地复原当时的社会状况，在区域考古研究中分析不同时期的人地关系，揭示很多被传统考古学研究方法所忽略的信息和认识。”（摘自 中国社会科学院考古研究所：《科技考古的方法与应用》，文物出版社，2012年。）
RTK田野调查必备工具，一键操作，遇到够不着的断坎还能当加长版的锄头用（bushi）。
无人机Plus版的照相机（?），主要是给遗址拍全景照的时候用。给遗址拍全景记得挑个好天出门，但是也别太好，如果天上有大朵大朵的云，地上很容易有一块一块的阴影。飞上去前想好自己要拍啥，不然转悠一会就没电了。
Python我其实学的是R，但我的朋友从马普所回来告诉我大家都在用Python，所以大家自行判断吧。一般来说是拿来作图和做数据分析，更进一步能做什么等我学完了再写推送。
统计学目前量化研究越来越多，考古学材料的数据量也越来越大，统计算是必然要掌握的技术了。无人机和RTK可以到工地上再学，其他几个其实我建议不要光上“考古统计”“考古GIS”这样的课，最好也去找相关院系开的基础课上。对其基本原理有所了解后再回来看应用，会更好一点。比如很多考古统计的应用都还处于照搬的状态，知其然不知其所以然。但统计不是万能的，统计结果的考古学阐释也有不少主观空间，不清楚原理就套用统计学方法的，其结果就很难可靠。另一方面，考古数据的复杂性往往要求我们面对数据随机应变，而不是只会套用教科书上的方法，了解了原理才能提高应用的灵活度。虽然大部分考古er都是文科生，学着会有点吃力（反正我吃力），但学习不是要求我们完全精通这些技能，而是给未来解决问题提供一个抓手，这样我们面对问题就知道用什么工具去应对，工具的优势和局限在哪里，如果遇到解决不了的问题该去找谁或往哪个方向求助。
图书馆资源检索我感觉这是很多人忽略的一个技能，因为大部分人都是靠知网和学校图书馆藏书解决一切问题。但学术圈资源和文献材料的一个问题就在于，并不存在一个平台能够集成所有的资源并且提供检索。很多期刊、集刊或者书籍只记录在某些特定的数据库里，如何在搜集文献的过程中覆盖尽可能多的数据库，这是需要学习的一个技能。更别提涉及外文文献时，每个国家或者每个语种都有自己最常用的检索平台，这也是需要专门去寻找和学习的。一般学校图书馆会提供免费讲座讲解学校买了什么数据库，或者有哪些好用的检索平台，建议大家都去听一下。
文献管理软件不少人研究生了还在手打参考文献列表，这样着实是有点没效率。常见的文献管理软件Endnote，noteexpress，zotero，学校一般都会提供Noteexpress或者endnote的免费版本，但是一旦毕业你就不能用了，所以还是建议大家用Zotero。具体使用方法见往期推送。对有志于学术的同学来说，越早开始文献积累其实越好，方便梳理知识体系，也方便日后回顾。
摄影遗址摄影和器物摄影的重要性我不说了，考古人人手一台相机基本是常态。
PS这也算是必备技能了，谁写报告写论文不需要P图呢？谁拍完好看的博物馆照片不需要P一下再发朋友圈呢？（虽然我还不会）
Corel Draw也是制图软件，在做多件器物的排版和控制比例尺的时候比PS有优势。
哲学史和思想史虽然是文科出身，但其实挺多人也并没有经历过专业的思辨训练。考古研究最终还是要有理论支撑的，要理解理论离不开思辨能力和科学精神，所有建议有空还是在这方面补补课。
身心健康保持良好的运动习惯和身体状态，这样就算掉下灰坑还能在老师发现之前身手敏捷地爬上来。保护好膝盖脚踝腰，免得走在土路上不小心崴脚，或者下工后只能瘫在床上，错失努力学习发Nature的机会。保持健康的心理状态，安慰自己读不下去也可以学习铲子转行。（以上例子均来自于◼◼◼亲身经历）
防晒霜精通下工地就下工地，不要增加自己皮肤癌的风险。
最后，虽然这话说出来可能得罪人，但喝酒并不是什么通用技能，不能喝或者不爱喝不用勉强自己硬学。
看起来要学的东西很多，但也不用一口气全安排上，每个学期学个一两样，达到基本掌握的程度就行，以后再根据研究需求深入学习。
那么就祝大家学习愉快！
