Archaeology Merit Badge

1. What archaeology is, and what it is not Requirement

Two jobs. First how archaeology differs from or relates to anthropology, geology, paleontology and history, which is four comparisons. Then how it differs from artifact collecting and treasure hunting, which is the badge's whole ethical position and the thing requirements 5, 6, 10 and 11 are built on.

2. The steps of the archaeological process Often forgotten Requirement

Seven of them: site location, background research and a research design, site survey and fieldwork, artifact identification and examination, interpretation, preservation, information sharing. LEARN THESE PROPERLY. Requirement 10 asks you to use "the steps of archaeological inquiry", which is this same list under a different name and with no number attached.

LEARN THESE SEVEN STEPS PROPERLY, BECAUSE REQUIREMENT 10 IS MARKED ON THEM UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME. Here they are called the steps of the archaeological process. Requirement 10(a) asks you to describe the steps of ARCHAEOLOGICAL INQUIRY from your work on a real project, and 10(b) asks you to use them to analyze a simulated site. It is the same list, renamed, and neither requirement mentions requirement 2 by number, which is why it is easy to arrive there treating it as a new question. The seven are site location, background research and a research design, site survey and fieldwork, artifact identification and examination, interpretation, preservation, and information sharing. Requirement 10(b) also asks how the environment and time affect INTERPRETATION, which is one of the seven.

3. Dating: two methods, and absolute against relative Often forgotten Requirement

At least two ways archaeologists determine the age of sites, structures or artifacts, then what absolute dating and relative dating mean. Requirement 4(a) asks you to compare the relative ages of your five sites, so this is the vocabulary that answer is written in.

4. Five sites, inside AND outside the United States Often forgotten Requirement

One line of text and the largest piece of work on the badge. The word "both" is load bearing: five American sites is not an answer and neither is five foreign ones. Choose them so their ages differ, because 4(a) ends by asking you to compare the relative ages of all five.

THE BIGGEST PIECE OF WORK ON THIS BADGE IS ONE LINE OF TEXT. Five sites, and the word BOTH means they cannot all be American and cannot all be foreign. What "learn about" costs is set out in 4(a): for EACH of the five you must point it out on a map, explain how it became known to archaeologists, describe what has been found there, explain how that answers questions archaeologists are asking, and explain why it may matter to modern people. Five sites and five questions is twenty five answers before you start on the comparison. CHOOSE THE FIVE WITH THAT COMPARISON IN MIND. 4(a) ends by asking you to compare the relative ages of the sites you research, so five sites of roughly the same age make a dull answer and a hard requirement, while five spread from the deep past to a few centuries ago make it write itself.

5. Do the following: the law, and who protects sites Requirement

Both parts required, and both on the same subject as requirement 6. Worth doing the two requirements together in one sitting, because the reading overlaps almost completely.

6. Do the following: why the past needs protecting Requirement

Three short explanations, all of them the direct consequence of requirement 1's distinction between archaeology and treasure hunting. The same subject as requirement 5, and best done in the same sitting.

7. Do ONE of the following, and discuss it Often forgotten Requirement

Three routes that cost nothing like the same. One needs a museum within reach, one needs your family to own something with a story somebody can still tell, and the third needs nobody at all but takes a week.

THE CHEAPEST OF THESE THREE IS THE ONE WITH A CLOCK IN IT. 7(c), listing a week of your family's trash, needs nobody outside the house and no travel, and takes seven days that cannot be compressed. If there is any chance you will take it, start the list on the first day of the badge and decide later. 7(a) needs a museum with a suitable collection near enough to reach and open when you can go. 7(b) is the odd one: presenting a family artifact or heirloom is the fastest route of the three IF your family owns something significant AND somebody can still tell you its history, and it is a closed door if not, because discussing the history is the requirement. Check with your family before you choose it.

8. A group who lived in your area over 100 years ago Often forgotten Requirement

THREE JOBS, NOT ONE. Their way of life across eight named categories, then what you would expect to find at an archaeological site where they lived, then how they influenced your current community. The first is long enough to feel like the whole requirement, and the other two are the ones left out.

THREE JOBS, AND THE FIRST ONE IS LONG ENOUGH TO FEEL LIKE ALL OF THEM. Job one is their way of life, across eight named categories: housing, clothing, arts and crafts, tools, trade and markets, rituals and religions, diets, and their relationships with other groups in the area. Job two is what you would expect to find at an archaeological site where they lived, which is an archaeology question rather than a history one and is where requirement 2's artifact identification step earns its keep. Job three is how those people influenced your current community. Jobs two and three are the ones that get left out. FOR SOURCES, try a county historical society, the local history room of a public library, a state or tribal historic preservation office, or a university anthropology department. Every one of those is also somewhere to ask the requirement 10 question while you are there.

9. Explore a career in archaeology Requirement

One career, researched for the training and education needed, costs, job prospects, salary, job duties and career advancement, then discussed with your counselor. Your research method needs your parent or guardian's permission whichever one you use, including an internet search.

10. Do ONE of the following: real project or simulated Often forgotten Requirement

THE FIRST REQUIREMENT ON THIS BADGE THAT NEEDS SOMEBODY ELSE TO AGREE, and it is the tenth of eleven. Both routes need a qualified archaeologist. Ask your counselor who they know on the day you start the badge, because this is the only part that takes weeks to arrange.

THIS IS THE ONE THING ON THE BADGE THAT TAKES WEEKS TO ARRANGE, AND IT IS NUMBERED TENTH OF ELEVEN. Both routes need a qualified archaeologist: 10(a) is at least eight hours assisting on a real project, and 10(b) is a simulated project designed by one. Requirement 11 then needs a qualified archaeologist or instructor to supervise whichever option you take there. So ask your counselor on the day you get the blue card who they know, because requirements 1 to 9 are all reading, writing and talking, and none of them tells you whether anybody within reach can help with these last two. The note printed underneath 10(b) is where the badge says who counts, and it is much wider than the word archaeologist: a professional archaeologist, a trained avocational archaeologist, a museum school instructor, a science teacher, an advisor from a local archaeology society, or other qualified instructor. A science teacher is on that list. Read that note even if you intend to take 10(a).

11. Under supervision, do ONE of the following Often forgotten Requirement

A qualified archaeologist OR INSTRUCTOR must supervise, and the badge never says here what that means. The definition is in the note under requirement 10(b). In practice whoever helped with requirement 10 is the person who supervises this, so settle both at once.

THE SUPERVISION REQUIREMENT IS IN THE FIRST LINE, ABOVE BOTH OPTIONS, AND IT IS EASY TO READ AS A HEADING. Whichever of 11(a) and 11(b) you choose must be done under the supervision of a qualified archaeologist or instructor. This requirement never says what qualified means; the note under requirement 10(b) does. In practice the person who helps you with requirement 10 is the person who supervises this one, so settle both in the same conversation rather than going looking twice. Note also that 11(a), the exhibit, needs somewhere that will display it, which is a booking as well as a piece of work, and that 11(b) needs a written report as well as the making.

Counselor signs it off Milestone

The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.

Usually comes after 11. Under supervision, do ONE of the following.

Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.