If I Make It As An Archaeologist... What Kind Will I Be?

(updated 2020 August 22) 

There are so many types of archaeologists! When I was first looking into digs (as you can volunteer for digs with little to no experience, though they do typically require pay), I discovered quite a few different types of archaeology. Now that I've read more into it, I also know there are different theories, or philosophies, in archaeology... But that's a whole other mess.

I believe there are a TON of different kinds, but here are the ones I have learned a little bit about...

Bioarchaeology: Looks at bones and stuff.

    Osteology: Study bones and stuff, also... if I'm understanding this correctly, bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology, and palaeo-osteology are all interchangeable, but don't quote me on that!

Ethnoarchaeology: This one is pretty cool, too. You compare current cultures to past ones in a sense that they have the same resources even though they may be on different locations in the world.

Experimental Archaeology: The most in-depth that I've found as far as volunteering goes. This stuff is sweet af. You get to try to live out like the ancient peoples did. Also includes testing out tools, for example, on materials to see if they match artifacts. I don't know if experimental archaeologists were involved in determining if crystal skulls were real, but they determined fake ones by observing how they were created and hypothesized what tools might be have been used. Then they took some crystals and went to town on them and compared results. Based off what they knew of past civilizations, they were able to determine that many of the crystal skulls (or all of them) were fake. There are some bomb ass looking digs in Ireland, last time I checked, for experimental archaeology. I've been there before. Wouldn't mind spending a summer there.

Feminist/Gender Archaeology: A lot of what I'm seeing is basically saying this is putting a feminist perspective. It seems to me that there's a bit more to it then that. It's recognizing that assumptions may lead to erroneous conclusions and that you could be testing or putting your research and efforts toward the wrong shit cause of those assumptions.

Forensic Archaeology: Work with modern cases, ya know, like what you see on TV.

Underwater Archaeology: Deep diving. Typically sunken ships and fallen cities. Or something like that.

I'm definitely missing a ton... I'll need to update this list later.