Personal Statement
Having grown up in a country with a rich and diverse history really helped develop my love for the world and the wonders of its’ past. I have traveled a lot in Europe and I have visited many of the tourist accessible ancient cities and significant historical landmarks. I remember when I was in primary school, standing in the ruins of a house that has stood thousands of years ago in ancient Thracian city of Perperikon and feeling so incredibly small and insignificant. Since the excavations there have been going on for years, I got to observe professionals work on the excavation site. Their dedication and passion for what they were doing, despite the financial setbacks they faced, really fascinated me and made me interested in this field of work. Because of my current studies I do a lot of independent research for my course but because it is not directly related to my desired career I spend a lot of time researching the topics that interest me in my own time. I have attended talks on preventive conservation and I have done volunteering work in the community centre in my hometown where temporary antique exhibitions were displayed occasionally and thanks to that I have some experience with cataloguing. I believe that my experience with photography from the Creative Media course would also be very useful for cataloguing. Given the way documentaries gloss over the work practices in archaeology, instead focusing solely on the artifacts recovered, I have read whatever books on the topic my budget allowed. One of my favourite reads is “Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice” by Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn. Despite having read a lot on the work practices beforehand, many topics touched on in it were things I have never heard of, or considered relevant to archaeology before. I am used to working with a large team of people because of my part-time volunteering job in consultancy company so I believe I work well with others and I have the patience, commitment and dedication needed. In addition to English, I am fluent in Bulgarian and proficient in Spanish and French as I have studied the latter two extensively for 3 years in a specialized language school in Bulgaria. This has helped me better understand and appreciate the differences in social structure from nation to nation because a large part of studying a language is understanding the historical and geographical context of the people who used it. I think that my diverse academic experience in linguistics and creative arts allows me to seek different approach to solving problems and applying solutions, and analyse things from different perspectives. I believe that studying archaeology will help me further develop my analytical and critical thinking skills and help me gain valuable practical skills by doing hands-on work on archaeological sites that would allow me to pursue a career in the field. I aspire to be like the people working at Perperikon and that someday I get to make someone fall in love with this profession as my 11 year old self did.
