What is the basic requirement to become an archaeologist? Because this profession looks little bit rare and exclusive. I guess you must have good health record too right?

Just some highlights from the life of an archaeologist;
You will be working on field. In the rain, under the sun, in cold. Be prepared.
You will get to know all kinds of reptiles, bugs; wild life in general.
Depending on the budget/location of the excavation you might be living in a dorm/shack/tent for long periods.
You will be away from mom-wifeboy/girlfriend for months at times.
In summer time when everyone is enjoying their vacation on the beach you will be in knee deep mud.
You won't make much money.
You will be mocked (grave digger, dirt fighter etc)
Your family will most probably not understand your choice of career and nag you about getting a real job.
You will wake up at 6 in the morning and go back to bed after midnight.

I worked 6 years at an excavation here in Turkey. 1,5 to 2 months every year. We were working from 6 in morning to 18 with 2 hours break for lunch and 2X15 minutes breaks during day. Most days had to work with shovels, pcks in knee deep water and mud of course unless we fired up water pumps. 4 water pumps working at the same time; major headache. Frogs, turtles and snakes all over the place. Go back to excavation house covered in mud, no hot water in shower. Go to bed with 10 other guys in a classroom converted to a dorm. First year it was a tent. 4 years I was a student; made 100 dollars in total.

In my field of CRM we had hotel rooms, sometimes shared with at least 1 other person. We also received a per diem from anywhere between $100 to $200 a week depending on the location we were working. That can be quiet lucrative if the company is paying for a hotel on top and you cook in a lot. When I did work in Virginia we had to turn in receipts for only what we spent on food. We worked a typical (for the US) 8 hour day with 1 hour lunch and 15 minute breaks every 2 or three hours (I think).

The work could be just as intense though. We would often be mocked or looked at with suspicion by locals, especially in the mountains or areas where property rights government distrust are a big issue. Our sites would be vandalized by artifact hunters periodically, so we had to be careful to hide everything. Most people were very nice though and genuinely curious. You should expect to be asked about dinosaurs a lot. :( My girl-friend was in graduate school, I only saw her on the weekends if I was close enough to drive.

Basic requirements:
Don't mind getting dirty.
Attention to detail.
Be able to walk a lot and perform some intense manual labor-- you recall the scene in the first Indiana Jones movie with Jones walking across the top of the mesa wiping his brow while all the laborers dug around him. You are the laborer.
Have a love for history and the past in general.
An education in History or Archaeology with field school is required if you want to do more than tourism archaeology (You pay them to work).

Specific to the U.S.A.:
Have at least a BA or BS degree which qualifies you to dig. A Masters is required for crew chief positions, or BA/BS with lots of experience and connections. PhD required to be a field director, though an MA/MS with lots of experience can do it too. PhDs are often required to at least sign off on reports.

One of the reasons I switched fields was because of the advancement. I could not go anywhere up with out a Masters Degree. Since I built up a reputation as a cartographer and had some GIS skills I went into Geography for grad school. I was able to apply my interest in history/archaeology in my Thesis project however:

The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

It has been years since I was in the field though, so some things might have changed.

Thanks for the info. I guess the reality is, it's very different and tougher than what saw on movie. And i can't believe the pay can be so low? Because you're risking your life.

I guess it depends on what area of Archaeology you go into. The closest I came to risking my life was an irate elderly woman who wondered why I was digging holes in her front yard. She was nice once I explained why I was there... my crew chief ran off why she saw her and left me and another field technician to confront the poor woman. It turns out the State of Maryland never sent out notices of a planned high way expansion and the necessary environmental impact study that was to be conducted.

Other than that, it is no different that any other physical line of work.
Here it is: Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage

I saw a piece on TV, but never read the book. I understand it is good. Those phone books and used diapers contain a lot of data that can tell people in the future a lot about us. :)

Some of you didn't post what game they wanted so just a reminder;
I will be back tomorrow morning and give them games to whoever wants them so if you want them, do post now.

And I will just leave this here too: http://www.une.edu.au/cat/sites/smyrnaagora.php

I'd like to get Patrician 1+2

Well, ive read recently that scientists are as close as ever to clone mammoths. How it's related to archeology, everybody know. They found perfectly frozen mammoth some time ago, and now they are trying to restore it.

I don't know if they can restore the species (because it's DNA from one mammoth only, so lack of DNA diversity is a killer for breeding in long-term as i see this)

but it would be so damn interesting to taste mammoth steak :P

Here is your shot; buddy me on Gamersgate! You betcha!

Buddy me on gamersgate and we will see!

they are also interested in you!

Thanks, Cleidophoros!

Forgot to add.
Big thank you to Cleidophoros for the prize.

But when the stargate opens, you'll be the one they call.

Not sure if contest is over or if this belongs here but most awesome thing in archaeology for me is Megalodon . I really wanted to be an archaeologist after watching India Jones movies...but I realized I probably wouldnt find Holy Grail, shoot some Nazis and rescue hot chicks and meet aliens so I decided not to. And I blame meteors for killing such majestic creature as Megalodon. If I would win I would want Tropico Reloaded and I would want it to be gifted to mrmarioanonym.

Sorry mate I already gave them games. And that is a badass beast.

Not being harsh, this is a commonly occurring theme in our field, I woud get asked about dinosaurs and other large prehistoric beasts a lot. I just wanted to point out the the Megalodon falls in the field of Paleontology. Archaeology is exclusive to human and proto-human remains... specifically the trash they left behind that might provide clues about how they lived. (simple explanation)

Someone above mentioned cloning Mammoths, that is a little closer to human prehistory, but unless the mammoth remains were found in relation to a human habitat an archaeologist would not be concerned about them.

However, it is entirely with in the realm of possibility that mammoth or megalodon skeletal remains/fossils could have been fashioned into tools by humans. I don't know of any actual finds, but in this case, the animal remains would be useful to archaeologists. (There is a subfield called Zooarchaeology which focuses on animal remains on human sites.)

Now, while archaeologists don't concern themselves with several million year old megalodon fossils, we do fight Nazis and rescue hot chicks on a regular basis. ;-)