Jeremy has been at terra nova for a couple of months and to the best of my knowledge he is the only archaeologist among us. I asked Jeremy to blog about what he does and how he sees what he does in the grand scheme of things. Hello, my name is Jeremy Moore and I am an archaeologist. Now I know what just flashed through your head, visions of King Tut’s Tomb, ancient ruined cities, Indiana Jones, and the Dead Sea scrolls, you pondered locations such as Egypt, Pompeii, Babylon, and Athens. But unfortunately for Hollywood my job is much different from these thoughts. What I do is not glamorous, ninety percent of the time I am either digging next to a major roadway or off in the woods miles away from civilization. I do not travel to foreign lands every weekend; I mostly stay within the boundaries of New York State. You will probably never see my face on the cover of National Geographic, but this does not detract from the art form that is Archaeology.I work for a Cultural Resource Management firm based in Rensselaer, which may sound fancy, but I assure the words are less impressive than they appear. The art of what I do does not come from flashy terms or glossy photos in a magazine; it comes from the amazing ability to reconstruct the past. I am sure you have all wondered what the people that built that old house around the corner were like, or what was this area like before the Europeans showed up. Well, what I do is actually taking action to answer those questions. From tiny pieces of stone and stains in the soil I create a picture of a 4000 year old settlement. And with broken plates, shards of glass, and stone foundations I piece together the life of a building that has seen more in its time than I can ever dream of being a part of. Bringing the past into the light of the present is an art form that is an amazing experience to be a part of.But if I am honest with you all, the majority of the projects I take part in do not result in sentimental visions of days long ago, in fact most of the time we find nothing. But this is also beautiful in many cases because of why we are doing our job. We are employed mainly by construction firms to begin the process of constructing or modifying a project of theirs. Whether it is a new Lowe’s, a beautification project for a local road, or a new low income housing development, we are often the first individuals to break ground on the project. And while we are not digging foundation holes or tearing up blacktop, we are the beginning of a story. A story about a place where people will work, a place where people will play, a place where people will live, we may be bringing a new power line to a remote part of the Adirondacks or just clearing the way for another suburban family to start their new life, but we get to be part of what God has planed for a space on His earth. And being able to begin drawing that picture is an art form.The art of archaeology is not stuck in the past but in fact is an active part of how we live our lives today, with the new information revealed about our ancestors and the new developments it paves the way for in the future. Any artist will tell you that the mediums in which art can take place are endless, sculpture, canvas, photography, but when it comes to archaeology, the canvas is history itself. Every hole dug is a brush stroke that helps us build a picture of past and move towards the future, and this is the art that is archaeology.