Welcome to R. Joe's ShovelBums.org

ShovelBums is the worlds largest provider of Archaeology, Academic, and Cultural Resource Management (CRM) related jobs. Since 1999 ShovelBums has filled over 36,000 positions in academia, archaeology and CRM.

If you are looking to start a career in archaeology or CRM it begins, and ends, here. This is where your peers and mentors all started (except the really old ones that I worked with back in the day when we only heard about jobs by word of mouth, fax machines, and printed letters). 

To join the ShovelBums mailing list please Follow this link and there are instructions on how to join. It only takes a couple of minutes and it is mostly painless. If you are in a hurry? Just send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and you will subscribed to the list.

ShovelBums is home to the Comprehensive International Guide to Archaeology, Anthropology and CRM Field Schools. (Temporarily on hiatus while doing some upgrades, hopefully to be back on line fall of 2018)

You can follow ShovelBums on Twitter https://twitter.com/ShovelBums

Or you can follow the ShovelBums facebook group https://www.facebook.com/ShovelBums/

You are also welcome to send a friend request at https://www.facebook.com/RJoeShovelBums (This is my personal page is more for keeping in touch with many of you than for posting jobs).

Well if you are slacker you can view the current jobs here (note that link brings you off site. My mailing list host changed settings and messed up my ability to have those posted here, I am working on a fix).

BUT! You really should join the ShovelBums mailing list by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You will then be notified immediately by email when a job comes out. Besides the immediacy of email, the emails you receive have full contact information in them, when the job postings that are archived online they have their email addresses obfuscated for security. So show your future employer you are smart and join the ShovelBums email list, it is relatively low volume, and you can choose a digest mode. But it really is the smart way to keep current on jobs. If you are curious what the last 10,000 job postings (providing over 45,000 professionals with jobs!) looks like check out the ShovelBums archive of jobs.

You can also follow ShovelBums on Twitter https://twitter.com/ShovelBums

Or you can follow the ShovelBums facebook group https://www.facebook.com/ShovelBums/

You are also welcome to send a friend request at https://www.facebook.com/RJoeShovelBums (This is my personal page is more for keeping in touch with many of you than for posting jobs).

First: Get a chicken.

Second: Send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. respond to what it sends back and you are set

Third: Get rid of the chicken.

My mom, who find herself quite clever, came up with the term in the 80's when I was describing to her what it was like being on the road doing "contract" archaeology back in the day. The term "can" be pejorative if used by someone who is not an archaeologist, a pompous professor who fails to realize that the majority of their students who end up pursuing a career *will* will end up as a ShovelBum doing CRM at some point, or a State or Fed employee who is secretly jealous of your capricious career. However, within the field of professionals, ShovelBums is a term used to signify that mutual understanding between professionals acknowledging that one knows what it is like to live on the road having to do the highest quality work, in the least amount of time, under arduous conditions. You can read more about the origin of the term ShovelBums here.

Errata ShovelBums in undergoing some intermittent upgrades. Sorry if you run into any glitches. If you do. Feel free to drop me a not using the contact form (it is located in the left hand column at the bottom).

Short answer: Yes

If you want to be an Archaeologist there is one thing that is required no matter where you go. You have to have a field school.

A field school will not only open your mind first hand to the wonders of archaeology and other cultures but it will also lay the ground work for building relationships that will span your whole career. Some of the people you meet during field school will become friends who you will still be socializing with 40 years from now. But always remember this, Archaeology and anthropology are incredibly small fields and everyone you interact with today will somehow affect your career tomorrow. So do not be a jerk at field school, do not go in believing you are the best thing to hit anthropology since Margret Mead. Go with an open mind, go as an anthropologist and observe, learn, and assimilate.

So go browse ShovelBum's Comprehensive International Guide to Archaeology, Anthropology and CRM Field Schools (TEMPORARILY ON HIATUS WHILE UPDATING THE SITE: Hopefully it will be back online in fall of 2018) and find a great field school. I guarantee you will have the best experience of your life! You have this one rare opportunity in your life, and your new career, to hand pick which one of some of the most interesting sites that are currently active anywhere in the world, that you want to work on. And even if you don't plan on becoming a professional archaeologist? A field school will change you, in a positive way, forever.

Trust me (I am a scientist!) when I tell you this opportunity is golden.  Go for it.

~R. Joe

That would be awesome! The deal always was that when you do find a job or field school through ShovelBums and we cross paths (and you had some extra per-diem cash in your pocket) I would love for you to buy me a beer and tell me about your career. More often than not I ended up buying a few rounds too. Not really a very efficient business model, but it is more fun. Unfortunately the truth is I rarely get to cross paths with people ShovelBums has helped so I set up this link where you can virtually buy me a beer if you like and I will drink it in real life :-) The best part? If you do support ShovelBums this way you get to have your name inscribed on The Hall Of The Chosen and receive eternal good field and lab karma - quite a bargain!

And if you are broke and can't donate? Welcome to your profession! :-) I'll buy the drinks. But no worries, I run ShovelBums solely to help you out. And I do hope ShovelBums is able to help you in a meaningful way in your career and someday we get to meet up and have a drink either virtually or in person.