Elise Jakeman

Name

Elise Jakeman

Current Position

Senior Archaeologist at Umwelt (Australia).

Where did you study?

I completed a Bachelor of Archaeological Practice (First Class Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (majoring in biological anthropology) at the Australian National University, Canberra.

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I was a classic dinosaur kid who grew up into a history nerd teenager, but it wasn’t until my final year of school that I really got into archaeology. And then when I found that I could study archaeology at university, I knew immediately that was all I wanted to do!

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

Always busy catching up from fieldwork! Currently I am doing the artefact analysis and post-excavation reporting for the Newcastle Inner City Bypass project, which included the excavation of a depression-era shanty town, and some blue-sky constraints and opportunities assessments for suburb and administration precinct reinvigoration. Whilst the reporting can sometimes be seen as the less interesting aspect, it's the process that allows a site and its past to really come alive.

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries?

I think every archaeological discovery is interesting, right from the small ‘boring’ things to the big shiny things. Every little element has a part to play in creating the story. For example, during an excavation at the Canberra Brickworks Precinct, we encountered so many discarded bricks – perfect bricks, oddly shaped bricks, misfired bricks, broken bricks – and each one of these bricks told us about the events that had happened over the past 100 years. It would’ve been very easy to say ‘oh just another brick!’, but to me, every single brick was fascinating.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you had while doing archaeology.

One of my favourite memories was the appearance of a surprise skeleton during an excavation at a medieval castle in Germany. His grave had been perfectly half-sectioned by our trench, with his face peeping out from under the trench wall. ‘Not supposed to be there!’ we all said. And of course this happened in the last week of the program, so we couldn’t do much at the time, but we did go back the next year and rescue him.

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

Everything! It’s such a multi-faceted discipline. You have the opportunity to work outside, meet a wide range of interesting people, visit amazing places, and get stuck into some great research and analysis.