PRUE NEWTON

MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGIST

Prue Newton is a Sydney-based archaeologist currently completing a master’s in maritime archaeology. The former rescue diver is
down-to-earth cool as she delivers a treasure trove of life advice: maintaining a work–study–life balance, building a career in what
you love and staying mentally healthy whilst at it.

She shares the ins and outs of a niche workplace, how studying our history can affect positive change and what she’s taken away from a life-threatening situation.

Hey Prue! Tell us what you do!

I am an archaeologist. I work in the NSW area, based in Sydney. I am also doing my master’s in Maritime Archaeology – my research and what I do is more overseas.

Do you wanna know what an archaeologist is in Australia?

Would love to!

Unfortunately, it’s not like Indiana Jones. We protect and manage physical evidence from the past relating to historical Archaeology (non-Aboriginal or European) and Aboriginal archaeology. I work for a consulting company based in Sydney and we provide large public and private organisations or individuals with services including historical and Aboriginal archaeological assessments and archaeological excavation programs. We assess the level of archaeological, historical and cultural significance and condition of the remains that could be below where they are proposing to develop and work out how to best manage it. Everything is managed under the relevant Acts and in liaison with the Heritage Council of NSW and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council.

Archaeology in Australia falls under two categories:

One, historical archaeology. Which is sometimes referred to as European or non-aboriginal. So like significant sites and remains from the early European settlement of Australia in the late 18th century onwards.

Two, Aboriginal archaeology. Which includes places that have special significance to Aboriginal people and objects that were used by Aboriginals, for example to make tools or fish traps. We find thousands of artefacts across NSW which is exciting because they have lived in Australia for more than 60,000 years. They are the oldest living civilisation in the world, which is pretty special.

Wow! So what undergraduate degree did you do?

A Bachelor of Arts, majoring in history and archaeology. And now I’m doing a Master’s in Maritime Archaeology. I prefer European archaeology, like interactions with Ancient Greece and the Near East. Australian archaeology… a lot of people are like ‘oh that’s so boring’ because historical archaeology in Australia (European) is so young – a bit over 200 years old. But if we had archaeologists in ancient cities like Athens thousands of years ago, we would understand those cultures so much better now. It’s so important for recording and protecting our history.

So what made you want to do maritime archaeology?

I was always into history but never planned to be an archaeologist when I was younger. I didn’t go to uni until I was 23 – I worked as a confined space rescue diver before I did archaeology. I lived in Ireland for a few years and worked as a divemaster where I did most of my training, then came back to Australia and started doing confined space specialties in rescue work, and absolutely loved it. The diving was good overseas too, I specialise in wreck diving so I got to dive a lot of World War II wrecks which sparked a lot of interest in me.

I was trying to think of what I really wanted to do with my life –

I think the best advice I got was,
‘what do you do in your everyday life that you absolutely love?’

I was like…diving… and I’ve always been obsessed with history and human evolution. They were like, ‘great, make that a career’. I did some research and found maritime archaeology and thought I had better send myself to uni. I applied through Jubilee and got accepted into Macquarie University.

So straight out of school you became a rescue diver. How did you get into that?

Well, as a kid, I thought I was going to be a shark specialist. I definitely wanted to do anything to do with the ocean. It always fascinated me. I grew up surfing, spear fishing… it was always a constant thing in my life. That’s just sort of formed into this really strange career choice.

I thought I was going to do marine biology, but I didn’t want to study at the time. With diving you can go two ways: recreational diving (so an instructor) or commercial diving. I was doing more commercial stuff, I learned how to weld underwater – boats, internet lines, infrastructure, oil rigs...that sort of stuff. Which is really hard for females in that industry, especially ten years ago.

How old were you?

I was 23... 24. 

Wow, what was that environment like as a young woman?

It was pretty hectic. There was definitely a lot of sexist remarks and harassment, but I also had a different perspective back then compared to now. I found that they were saying that I can’t do the job because I was a chick… I thought well, if that’s all they’ve got on me, by stating the obvious that I’m a female, that’s good. They weren’t saying ‘you’re doing a shit job because you don’t have the skills’, that would have been more disheartening. Not to say the sexist slurs didn’t get to me but all the male apprentices were also getting harassed as part of that workplace culture. I sadly found comfort in that at the time. I think as women we have to be smart and realistic in our approach to sexism in these industries because we are dealing with both gender bias and workplace harassment.
It’s hard to separate the two sometimes because they are so intertwined. I dealt with it by doing my job and showing not proving I was capable, not tolerating [the harassment] by changing the people’s ideas around me from the bottom up. I think if you go into anything with the mindset that you have to prove yourself just because you’re a woman…you’ve already given up your power. The men that I worked with, a lot of them were super progressive, incredible and taught me so much, but also...there’s a lot of dickheads! There are a lot of dickhead women as well.

Did you study history at high school?

In year 11 and 12 I didn’t even actually do history! I was just like ‘I'm going to be a diver anyway’. I had a job lined up overseas, so I was kind of like ‘I don't need school’. Little did I know…

What job did you have lined up?

After school I went to the Whitsundays and worked on the Great Barrier Reef as a trainee divemaster. I definitely got my party wings there. Whitsundays is fun, but if you want to do more with your career it’s probably not the best place to go.

I then went and worked for a company called Aquaventures in Ireland. They are amazing. Ireland diving is very different to Australian diving. It’s big swell, VERY cold water; every wild element there is, you get that in Ireland. Training was hectic and challenging butI loved it. I became a divemaster there.

How did you then get into rescue diving from there?

We had a rescue there in 2011, it was the Fastnet Race, which is a sailing race like Sydney to Hobart. We took photographers out in a pretty big swell and it was coming up to dark – and then we heard ‘mayday mayday’. We found out that the Rambler 100 (one of the yachts that was coming first in the race) had capsized. Their keel had fractured and they had five crew in the water. Some of them were in their pyjamas; they were in freezing cold water for nearly three hours. So, Skipper Jerry Smith and the coastguard coordinated where the drift patterns were and calculated where the five crew were floating. There were really strong currents, so it was a high chance we weren’t going to find them or that they had died from hypothermia. We ended up finding them which was amazing! 

That particular rescue was what made me go ‘I want to do this’. I’m easily distracted usually but when I’m in a high-pressure situation with adrenalin, I become really grounded and focused.

That line of work must be draining…even if it is your strong suit…

Oh yes! Physically you have to be super fit, because you have to be capable not only for your patient but also for your team. I was training twice a day, seven days a week. It’s also really dangerous, so a lot of injuries. The physical stuff is nothing compared to the mental side. There have been horrific tragedies that you have to witness as part of the job.

Was there an experience that made you stop diving?

Three years ago was my last rescue job. Long story short, I had to do a rescue in a 150m long cave. When I was 100m in, I had a severe equipment malfunction and lost the majority of my air and buoyancy. We were in an open-air cavern, I could see the two people we were trying to save, [one had already passed away] and I could see [the other] didn’t have much longer, they were semi-conscious and not very coherent. Having a second person come in would have been hours, and I didn’t think [they] had hours. I took [them] as far as I could, and then we had 50m to dive to the last line where the support team could pull [them] out. My plan was to give [them] the remaining air which meant I would have to free dive – which wasn’t hard for me at the time – but without factoring in being over-exerted from having to drag [them] and other complications from the dive. I remember just hooking [them] on the last line after a few minutes and then I passed out. I had to get pulled out and resuscitated, which broke my sternum and ribs. My decision has been questioned but you’ve got to make those decisions really quickly down there and my assessment was that [they] wouldn't have lived if I’d left [them] so I stand by it.

Oh my god Prue…

It’s been a very long recovery. It was a horrible situation but a blessing at the same time because I’ve had to deal with a lot of personal issues. I’ve identified myself for so much of my life as ‘I’m Prue, I’m a diver’.

I think we are so achievement-based with our identities.

Like, we think we are no one unless we have something like a successful career title to our name or the material wealth of owning a house … I had to really work through that and identify myself as more.

So when did you cross over into archaeology?

It sort of overlapped. I was doing the rescue stuff as I was working for the archaeology company I’m working with now. So it was also a sign, because I did want to get out of the rescue diving industry to pursue archaeology, but I found it very hard to leave.

I’m sure there’s stigma around trauma and accidents, were you open about why you left?

I wanted to not make it a big deal. I also didn’t actually tell many people the extent of my injuries. It’s only really been the last year that I've been open about it, because I don't want to be a pity party. It’s not productive and people’s input, even though it comes from a good place, can be suffocating. Eventually I did say what was going on – my family, friends and colleagues have all been really supportive. I just didn’t want to burden anyone… I didn’t think it was really a big deal because I was being proactive with dealing with it.

You literally died and had someone bring you back to life…

Yeah… even though it sounds horrible, it's just not the worst trauma within this field. That’s nothing compared to a lot of other things that have occurred throughout my career – in terms of grief of loss and coming to terms with decisions I’ve made.

I was in that bubble of ‘this is normal,
this is what happens, this is the consequence of working in this line of work – this is the job.’

Not wanting to show weakness is a negative side of the mentality of this job. I was always worried that if I showed too much emotion in response to a job that they would pull me out and say I don't have the mental toughness or I'm too emotionally involved…especially being a woman.

That definitely became quite a roadblock in my personal life too. I didn’t talk to friends or family about it. I've started to slowly open up with friends about it and they’re actually quite hurt that I never said anything. I never really took that into consideration... that me not saying anything to them actually put a block in our friendship.

Even talking to you about it makes me feel uncomfortable...this is a huge deal!

We are so honoured!!! Truly!

Do you think that there needs to be different processes put in place for events like this?

Absolutely, there needs to be more support. When I was doing it, I didn’t even get a counsellor offered to me. It’s nuts. But I think it’s getting better… I still have a lot of friends in the industry. I found that the aftermath, or what I call the hangover, is worse than when you’re in the job. I had a doctor tell me that it’s like coming down off drugs, but with your own hormones. Just imagine anyone who works in these types of jobs – pumping adrenaline and cortisol most days, over years, which gives you a natural high, and then going cold turkey. Your adrenal glands, nervous system, organs are fried, and you have no way of getting that level of stimulation anymore. Then you have to sit in your thoughts… add some PTSD to the mix and you’re a bloody hot mess. I can understand why so many people turn to artificial highs like drugs. And that’s where the support I believe is most needed.

I think regardless of what you do, everyone should see a psychologist regularly… just to download. We don’t get taught how to deal with a lot of things in life, especially trauma which everyone goes through. We go to the gym to work out our body, why don’t we go to the psych to work out our brains. A lot more can be done for sure.

What does a typical day look like in your job?

It differs on what we’re doing, depending if it’s office or field work. If we were in the field, on a typical day we would get to the site around 7am. We brief everyone on site including contractors on what we are looking to find, why its significant and how we are going to do our work. If we are excavating, we grab our tools and plan out our trenches, do survey work, record everything that is found.

I like to say we are glorified hole diggers.
We dig a lot of holes.

With Aboriginal excavation, we always have a RAP (Registered Aboriginal Party) on site, who assists us and is our primary source for information. Together we dig square trenches at around 5–10cm down at a time and then we sieve all the soil to see if any aboriginal artefacts are present. Whereas historical archaeology, we usually use a machine to get down to just above the archaeology and then we manually dig to expose the remains.

It’s very physical in the field.
Which is what I like. Long days in the heat,
cold or rain with an awesome team.

Who is commissioning the digs?

The government, companies and individuals. Archaeological assessments are usually required to support any development applications that have potential archaeology in the proposed development area.

So if you found something, are there limitations on what you can and can’t build on top of?

So, they pretty much get categorised into nationally significant, state significant and locally significant. So the significance of the fabric or architecture of heritage buildings that are [still standing], that’s not us. We are everything below – footings and under floor deposits, that sort of thing. It depends on how intact it is as well, mainly date ranged… so early 19th century is going to be a lot more significant and has to be retained and protected, whereas local significant remains can usually be removed once it’s been archaeologically recorded and signed off by Heritage NSW.

What’s a dream day at work?

I’d like to be overseas. My [master’s] research is on a settlement called Lefkandi in Euboea, in Greece. The ancient settlement began
in the Early Bronze Age and cemeteries are dated to the Early Iron Age (EIA). It’s an important site because traditionally the EIA was referred to as the Dark Age and they thought there was a collapse of civilisation after the fall of the Mycenaean palatial civilisations around 1200 BCE. But a lot of the burials are wealthy warrior burials with rich imports suggesting otherwise. One of the Lefkandi cemeteries was built around a large Toumba building that was destroyed above two very elite rich warrior burials.

The male was a cremation burial and the female
was buried wearing a gold plated bra…
proper Xena style.

THAT. IS. SO. COOL.

And if that’s not extra enough, they were buried with armoured horses reminiscent of Homeric funerary rituals. The whole cemetery is formed around it like a hero cult. And then other burials have really prestigious goods, from say Egypt and the Near East, which suggests that foreign relations and maritime trade were still occurring at this time. So there’s a LOT going on in that, and it's what my last two theses have been on.

What's your current thesis research question?

My question is: are there significant trends in the distribution of foreign imports in the Skoubris, Palia Perivolia and Toumba cemeteries at Lefkandi which can be traced chronologically through maritime connectivity in the Early Iron Age?

This is to also determine what part maritime trade had in the funerary culture of Lefkandi and to provide a case study for the significance of continuity of both maritime trade and foreign relations in the development of the culture, economy and politics of Early Iron Age Greece. It’s a mouthful.

Oh my god! A mouthful and a half.

Yep. So I’m looking at that.

So it’s Greece for archaeology...where is your dream dive spot?

There is an underwater city known as Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt that I would like to dive. I did a paper on that ages ago. I love Ireland for diving, I know people wouldn’t think to go to Ireland, but cold water diving is really good. The visibility is better. They've got shipwrecks and they've got the fastnet, which is a huge lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. The surf is MASSIVE but there's beautiful reef underneath it. Everything is so wild; you’re constantly diving with seals, basking sharks, all that sort of stuff. I’d like to do a bit of reef diving in the Philippines, I’d like to go to Mexico and see the hammerhead sharks.

You touched on this earlier, but do you feel like your field is a boy’s club?

I have so many different perspectives on this. In archaeology it used to be a boy’s club, now women are pretty much... not running it, but there's a lot more women in it. That has changed heaps, which is good and needed in research.

In terms of the rescue stuff, it is very much still a boy’s club. But I feel like that’s appropriate… I do think that physically, men are generally stronger. Anatomically. They are just more physically suited to the job than most women. You have to be under no illusion that you will have to work harder to keep up with the men in areas of strength. With the physical tests, like you’ve gotta be lifting over 100kg, easily. I’m not saying that women can’t do it, because obviously they absolutely can and do.

With say the gender quota for example, it's 100% necessary in all other industries but not in rescue work. Just as an example, I know in other rescue services they are having issues because they need a certain number of women in the force. Women are doing the physical tests and not performing and getting exemptions, but still getting in over men because of the quota. That then is when they are a danger to the team, a danger to themselves and a danger to anyone they are trying to rescue.

When it comes to rescue services, we women should have the equal opportunity to go for the job, because we are capable, but we definitely shouldn’t be getting in just because we are female.

This work is life and death so it should be whoever
is the best and fittest human for the job.

Females and males ARE different anatomically. And there is beauty and strength in that. I think the inclusivity is more about providing the opportunity and then being treated equally within the workplace. That’s just my opinion, based on my experience.

So you’re working full time and finishing your thesis. Are you finding it hard to maintain or have a work life balance?

I just feel like studying – even if you’ve got it all together – it’s still so stressful. You create a proper monster in yourself. It comes at the cost of everything else as well. You look in the mirror and you’re like ‘I’m hideous and my life is going to shambles!’ and it’s like dude… it’s an essay. Because I’m at the pointy end of it, I’ve sort of just said ‘I can’t come to anything’.

I wrote down my three priorities and it was just 1) work, 2) thesis and 3) health. I get up at 5am every morning to do some sort of exercise, have my coffee and then I come home and go to work. On the days that I'm not working I write my thesis. Don't get me wrong, I'm literally having constant emotional breakdowns. If I ever study again… poke me in the eye, I’m never doing it!

What’s next for you then?

That's what I'm a bit stuck with. I think archaeology can be a really good instrument for a lot of things in society beyond research and consulting. So many people are interested in history, but I think that when people think about archaeology, it’s still an old man professor talking in university lingo. It needs to be discussed in an interesting and relatable way. I would personally like to be doing something about that.

I think for me, archaeology and history can be used to really bridge gaps in racism and identity within our society. By acknowledging the bias and then dissecting it in an educational and interesting way. For example, answer the question of why as humans we are evolutionary programmed to fear things that are different, by discussing the human condition using archaeology, DNA studies and history. It forces you to self-reflect on previously existing prejudices. It was built in our homo sapien ancestors to fear what was unfamiliar because they lived in a world with higher risks and lower survival rates. Humans tend to fear out of ignorance and lack of experience. But the beauty of humans is that we have evolved and so has our brain, so we do have the ability to challenge and rewire those instinctive thought patterns to face those fears and be open to understanding and embracing differences with no real risk. There’s absolutely no reason to not expand your mind in our current environment… if anything we won’t survive if we don’t.

So yeah, something along those lines.

Do you have any recommendations for people wanting to get into the same field, or thinking about it?

The biggest thing is networking. That was the biggest plus for me going to uni and being a little bit older. I spoke to more people, they were probably more of my age. I think a lot of people who go to uni straight after school don't know how to network and think they’ll do it when they finish uni. Sydney University and Macquarie Uni have some of the most incredible professors there in archaeology. Literally archeology royalty.

They are the people that you need to talk to. And! Volunteer on any dig you can whilst you’re at uni. If you’re going to do maritime archaeology, figure out if you like diving before you enrol. Archaeology is very competitive, it's actually quite hard to get a permanent job in a consulting company, the majority of people sub-contract. You’ve got to be willing to be really flexible – like travelling to get the work. Also, learn languages. If you want to do European archaeology or anything overseas: Learn. Languages. If you’re going to Europe to work, the majority of people there know 3+ languages.

Are you fluent in something else?

No. I suck. I’m learning Greek.

When someone gave me that advice at uni, I stupidly thought ‘Cool! I’m going to learn hieroglyphics!’

Follow Prue’s adventures via her insta.

Interview and edit Grace MacKenzie