Dig Deep: Assistant Archaeologist

ELEANOR BREEN, 28

JOB: Assistant archaeologist at Mount Vernon

SALARY: $30,000 to $35,000

EDUCATION: Bachelor's in anthropology from the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va.; master's in historical archaeology from University of Massachusetts-Boston.

WHAT SHE DOES: Breen seeks a broader understanding of George Washington, and colonial life in general, by digging the dirt at his Mount Vernon estate. For the past three years, she's mostly been unearthing the first president's whiskey distillery, which burned around 1814 and is believed to be one of the largest such operations of the time. (Old George was quite the entrepreneur; booze was another way to profit off the grains he farmed.) Other digs include delving into trash pits, which are "a pretty direct route to learning about everyday life and everyday culture," she said, and produce details "usually too mundane to write down" at the time. Among her coolest trash-pit finds: an iron fork with a decoratively carved animal-bone handle, perhaps used by George himself. Aside from digging, Breen also researches and identifies finds, writes in-house reports and, sometimes, academic articles on the artifacts.

WOULD YOU WANT HER JOB? "Indiana Jones"-style adventure it's not. A dig is a slow process, involving hand shovels, brushes and even dental picks to expose the delicate artifacts. At an excavation, square holes are dug systematically to examine the soil for hints of history, such as brick rubble, then a hole is carefully expanded around an artifact. And you get dirty -- "like Pigpen-dirty."

HOW YOU CAN GET HER JOB: You can learn the basics of dig etiquette at a field school, which is an excavation project supervised by a college, museum or other group, including Mount Vernon. There's often a fee to participate, said Breen, but prior training isn't usually needed and the experience can be enough to land an entry-level job. Degrees in archaeology, anthropology or a related field aren't necessary but are helpful.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: The Archaeological Institute of America compiles a detailed list of field schools. Find job openings at the Society for American Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology and shovelbums.org.

This article originally appeared in the Express on July 18, 2005