Frivolous thread for the weekend: As I understand it, Permatrace is plastic-based (polyester I think). so why does it smell like dead fish when it's wet? anyone know?

Got them 'ol Pipeline blues agin'...

Confirmed case and breakout in Surrey
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story...19,00.html

How do archaeologists deal with such things??

The lastest job advert from one of the consultancies suggests that they operate in internal market for leave and other benefits.

http://www.bajr.org/employment/ukemploym...sp?id=5066

"Permanent salaried employees have the facility to consider their benefit entitlements and also to take up to 20% of their salary to ?flex? their reward package to suit their needs. This includes the ability to "buy" or "sell" up to five days annual leave per year, purchase retail vouchers, childcare vouchers, health screening, dental insurance, travel insurance etc."

This seems to be the case even though this is a relatively junior position. I was wondering if this sort of internal market was commonplace in the consultancy sector and whether any BAJR-ites had experience of this kind of thing and whether it was good or bad.

Am a wee bit confused by the conference dates - on the forum it says that the conference is on september 23rd but on the calender its down as october 23rd! Just wondering which it is so can book time off of work xx

Sound familiar??

Quote:quote:However, Seinan Gakuin University Prof. Hiroaki Takakura, who is dealing with the matter for the Japanese Archaeological Association, which is cautious about the participation of private companies in archaeological projects, remains skeptical.

"What happens if private sector researchers undertake a one-year project to study an important ruin that takes more than a year to survey? I don't want them to take short cuts purely to meet the deadline," Takakura said. "The preservation of cultural assets involves proper research and the writing of reports as well as maintaining and exhibiting the finds. Can the private sector take on such a responsibility?"

Hello all,
I am trying to get hold of a copy of Posthole, the BASP software that looks for regular polygons in clusters of postholes. The link in the BAJR resources section doesn't seem to be active any more.
http://www.uni-koeln.de/%7Eal001/posthole.html

Since it's freeware, if anyone has posthole.exe tucked away on their hard drives, perhaps they could PM me. Alternatively, does anyone know of other computer applications that identify structures?

Thanks,
TRGW

I am pleased to report to BAJR that I have not so far been affected by the weather (unusual rainfall) and neither have my projects but....

On the news Tewkesbury Abbey has been flooded for the first time since 1760. Burford church has also been flooded.

While the damage to said beautiful buildings is unfortunate how far could archaeology/history contribute to the greater debate on cilmate change, and policy on building on flood plains, by mapping when buildings have been previously flooded and thus establish how unusual the weather event actually is.

The current weather has more or less not been recorded before and the flooding is exceeding the 1947 (worst in the last 100 years) which was a winter event.

So has the weather event never actually occurred before or in fact is it say a natural 200 or 1000 year event?

How as a discipline can we help?

Discuss.

Dr Peter Wardle
Goring on Thames

Edited until confirmed with BAJR

APPAG inquiry relating to pay and conditions in archaeology

The APPAG report The Current State of Archaeology in the United Kingdom (2002) states

Quote:quote:There is an urgent need to improve pay and conditions for employment in field archaeology so that they are commensurate with graduate entry level in allied professions such as local authority planning officers, civil engineers and university lecturers. The IFA, working with English Heritage (EH) and the other national heritage agencies and Prospect, should create a structure for training and qualifications related to career development that will set standards for best practice in archaeological work, one in which employers are obliged to support the continuing professional development of staff. Only those contractors that meet these standards should be eligible to bid for developer-funded work. In the longer term, the current fragmented commercial unit system which has resulted from competitive tendering should be replaced with a more stable regional, or more local framework of archaeological organisations.

http://www.bajr.org/crosswords/crossword.pdf

Its here... your chance to win a real life 4" Archaeology trowel...
This has been provided by Past Horizons Archaeology Equipment - which will begin trading in August.

The website will provide small archaeological equipment (trowels - drafting film) - and we hope in partnership with another BAJRite who will provide the larger equipment and supplies, from Spades to Archive boxes.

The tool section will help to fund the Free World Archaeology excavation section - currently over 350 sites around the world.
http://www.pasthorizons.com

Download the pdf.. and return your entries by 1st September.... and you can have a trowel! simple!

created by our fiendish compiler " Che Min de Fer " :face-huh:

Its hard, its fun.. its just what you need for Site Hut or Office!

You have just under 2 months!

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu