Àngels Pujol came out of one drought and has fallen into another. A professional archaeologist since 2003, the discontinuity of her contracts and the extremely tight income from her excavations led her to set foot in her partner's sector, agriculture and livestock. It was not a resignation for her, because her parents are peasants, but it was the way to seek some stability. She is now facing another drought. They have 30 brown cows and, now, problems with the pasture.
Pujol is lucky enough to have been able to work close to his home, in the exciting Roman site of Puig Ciutat, in Oristà (Lluçanès), but he perfectly exemplifies the precariousness of archaeologists: the U-Ranking report prepared by the BBVA Foundation and the IVIE Institute on labor insertion, made public last week, places this science of the past as the one with the worst salary prospects among more than a hundred university degrees. Five years after graduating, barely 10% of archaeologists exceed an income of 1,500 euros per month. Many drop out.
The precariousness of the sector is illustrated by the absence of reliable or up-to-date data: the Association of Archaeologists of Catalonia calculated (in 2006!) that there were between 250 and 300 professionals in administration or teaching and between 300 and 350 more as self-employed or in companies, as explained by its president, Isidre Pastor. There is no reliable global data.
In 2022, the Generalitat approved 1,420 preventive interventions, with 150 different directors: 5 of them were municipal archaeologists, 75 from private companies and 70 were self-employed.
They work on construction sites, controlling the appearance of remains of interest, in private companies that obtain a public concession to excavate, or in universities, where they combine teaching and field work. In this case, the campaigns are usually in the summer, and the workforce is student internships who are paid for board and accommodation (sometimes in sports halls, with mattresses). No excavation can be done without the validation of the administration.
“Many people have an idea of the profession as fascinating and adventurous, but sometimes it consists of spending hours watching a trench being opened,” exemplifies Carlos Caballero, one of the spokesmen for the recently created State Platform for archeology professionals.
It is no coincidence that this Platform has recently been established, just like the Professional Association of Archeology of Catalonia (APAC), born at the end of 2022. The construction crisis of 2008 had a devastating effect on archaeology, in the one that added that of public budgets and, in 2020, that of Covid.
The sector claims, first of all, to update the first collective agreement in the sector, from 2009, extended in 2012, and which establishes certain wage guidelines: between 9.03 euros/hour for assistants and 17.65 for the coordinator (and with the exception of the underwater technicians, who "shoot" at 23.36).
Outside of administration, most archaeologists are self-employed. “It is usual to charge a little more than the minimum wage for a month of work,” explains Margarita Rodés, a 29-year-old archaeologist and APAC secretary, “and if you go splicing contracts, then more or less strips, although it is usual to spend two months without work and then you must pull savings, if you have them”. “Dedicating yourself 100% to archeology is very slave and unprofitable, it's not just that it stops you from projects like motherhood, it eats up all your free time. If you want to do an investigation well, you invest a lot of time, and in this country nobody pays for that,” laments Pujol.
Enric Tartera is a partner at Iltirta Arqueologia, one of the companies with a certain weight in Catalonia: “Budgets are presented before work begins and often it is not known for sure what we are going to find and this ends with more dedication than expected. As a consequence, archaeologists are experts in doing a lot for little”. “When working on public cultural heritage –alert–, the regulations oblige archaeologists to present a report of the work carried out. If he does not show up, the archaeologist is disqualified from practicing, even if the promoter or the construction company goes into suspension of payments.
“The image of the archaeologist is that of Indiana Jones –says Caballero– and it is difficult to know if that has benefited us. On his day he gave us visibility to the general public, but the truth is that I have never found a snake in an excavation ”.
"Indiana Jones is to blame for my vocation, of course, but above all I was motivated by the desire to learn old things that are new," says Daniel González, who at the age of 26 has decided to reorient his vocation towards scientific communication in the face of lack of perspectives. “They take advantage of us, because they know that we are passionate about what we do and that if necessary we will do it for free. I know archaeologists who work in a supermarket or as a doorman and who volunteer on excavations on their vacations.”
“Many leave it, burned out –Tartera abounds–, I have friends who today work in the Post Office, are Mossos, prison officials or have raised an opposition. Field archeology is tough. Cold in winter, heat in summer, physical work...”.
“We sometimes work in very harsh conditions, lying on the ground, in extreme heat, under the ground, but on the contrary we are specialists with a scientific background”, adds Roger Sala, director of SOT Prospecció Arqueològica; is a company of three workers that has specialized in “x-raying the subsoil”, detecting what ancient structures it contains. SOT procures a gigantic saving of time and means in excavation.
“Archaeology is between a rock and a hard place – reflects González – and that is a big problem, but for all of us, because we work for society, we do not study the Iberians to keep the secret: on the contrary, it is so that we know our own past. We don't have the option of going private."
Possibly the factor that weighs the most in the precariousness of archeology is the lack of an industry behind it that supports or stimulates its raison d'être, which is the investigation of the past. Very rarely does a deposit become a source of (economic) income. "A chemist can do research at the university but also in private companies, something that doesn't happen with us," reflects Pau de Soto, who after combining scholarships, periods of unemployment (supported by his partner, an archaeologist) and contracts in institutions He obtained a position as a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) for three years, with another two depending on an evaluation.
She loves teaching, among other things because now she can direct theses or final degree projects, but she can also combine it with research, that is, field work. “I made my debut as a teacher and I can say that now I learn from the students. Some are brilliant."
