Archaeology is a exciting new secondary profession that will be released in the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It is intended as a casual profession for players to enjoy in their downtime. It is focused on locating, piecing together, and appraising artifacts unearthed by the Cataclysm.

Interacting with an artifact you find is similar to other gathring professions. You will be able to track both artifacts and your regular tracking for gathering professions. Instead of tracking individual nodes, you will instead search marked regions on the world map (a shovel icon when viewing an entire continent).

 

01) Where to harvest artifacts.
Once you train Archaeology, you will have to look to your map for Digsites.  Digsites are located based on your level.  When zoomed all the way out, they will appear as shovel spades, when zoomed into a specific zone, they will appear as red areas.

02) Exclusive Digsites
Once you have located the Digsites on your map, you'll have to travel to them.  No other player will be able to use your Digsite, so you won't have to worry about sharing it with other players.

03) You can only find one kind of Racial Fragment per Digsite.
Each Digsite will give a specific type of Fragment that you collect from it.  If a Digsites race is based on Troll Artifacts, then you will get Troll Fragments when you are Surveying the area. 

04) Proper use of the Survey Ability
The Survey Ability can only be used when within one of the four digsites that are available to your character.  When you use the Survey Ability, a telescope with either a Red (Over 100 Yards away), Yellow (50 to 100 Yards away) or Green (Less that 50 yards away) light appears, pointing in the direction that you need to go.

05) Spoils of a successful Survey.
When you have a successful Survey, you large rock will appear on the ground and you will be able to loot a certain amount of fragments from your find.

06) More Digsites available to you as you level.
The higher your level, the more Digsites you will have available.  At level 85, you will be able to have a grand total of 16 available.

07) Archaeology Trainers.
Belloc Brightblade, The Horde Trainer is located within Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar.  Harrison Jones, The Alliance Trainer is located within Stormwind Keep in Stormwind.

01) Types Of Fragments
Artifacts are what fragments you dig up from the Digsites combine into. There are several different types of artifacts that you harvest, which is dependant on where your Digsites are allocated.  Until you have collected all Artifacts of a certain type, you won't recieve duplicates of them.

There are several different type of fragments to collect, which are listed below:

02) Where to find specific fragments
Where you find these fragments is dependant on your Archaeology level and your continent:

Type / Minimal Level / Location

Dwarf - Level 1 - Primarily found within Eastern Kingdoms

Fossil - Level 1 - Primarily found within Eastern Kingdoms

Troll - Level 1 - Primarily found within Eastern Kingdoms

Night Elf - Level 1 - Primarily found within Kalimdor

Draenei - Level 300 - Primarily found in the Outlands

Orc - Level 300 - Primarily found in the Outlands

Nerubian - Level 375 - Primarily found in Northrend

Vrykul - Level 375 - Primarily found in Northrend

Tol'vir - Level 450 - Primarily found in Cataclysm 

03) Keystones.
While Surveying a Digsite, you are able to find items called Keystones.  They count for as 12 fragments  towards whichever type of Artifact they represent.

The types of Keystones are listed below:

They have level requirements which reflect the areas you can recieve them in.

These Keystones can also be traded, so there's some profit to be made off of them if you don't wish to use them towards your own Artifacts.

01) Archaeologists can give group buffs while in Instances and Raids.
While you're in a group for an Instance or Raid, you will be able to offer additional support via buff.

02) Mounts and Vanity Pets.
Collecting Fragments yield random rewards, which can range from a peice of World of Warcraft Lore to a item ranging from Poor to Epic Quality.  They can also get you Vanity Pets and Mounts.

03) Items of random quality to sell and profit from via Auction House or Vendor.
There are new Bind on Account items that are currently only available through Archaeology.  These weapons, unlike Heirlooms, do not scale when you level.  However they will be more powerful than an Heirloom item when used at the intended level.

- Artifacts that you have already created can be sold at The Reliquary (Horde) or The Explorer's League (Alliance) for small profit.

- Remember, an artifacts value can often be judged solely on how many Fragments it requires to make it. 

04) Lore gaps for those interested in World of Warcrafts Lore.

The Work that you do all goes into a Journal that will appear in your proffessions tab.  All of the fragments you will be collecting aren't going to be taking any inventory space.