Hello to the forum. As a long time lurker of BAJR this is my first post so hopefully won't be too contentious.

I would like to canvass your opinions on how much of a barrier fieldies feel between themselves and post-ex team members (especially specialists). Who amongst you has recieved adequate or useful feed back on what you found, or who has ideas about how specialists could feature in ongoing training of field staff?

This question arose recently after I (as a specialist) noticed some alarming discrepencies amongst supposedly equally experienced diggers in what their on site recognition/ dating of pottery was.
[?]

I'm not asking much, but, does anyone have any idea where I might find a buried ship of around 16th century date? If anyone knows of any likely palaeochannels, silted-up anchorages, back beach deposits, filled-in meanders or docks, I would like to know about it. I've got some leads but I just thought I'd ask the board in case you'd heard a tale in an inn on a dark and stormy night.

Careful, it might be hallucinogEeEe**33nnnn..

Seems that Dr Jerome Rose is happy to allow anyone experienced or not to excavate Byzantine tombs in Jordan. Also seems to be the case that everyone will get the chance to supervise the excavation of at least one tomb too....experience not necessary.Worrying to say the least.Archaeology as a tourism business?Even if the excavations are directed by a qualified individual-what is the ratio of qualified/experienced staff to volunteers? How on earth can anyone justify allowing an unqualified/inexperienced volunteer "supervising" a Byzantine tomb? Scary but grotesquely ubiquitous.It goes without saying that I am all for public participation but, not at the expense of another nations heritage,professional standards and-certainly not for the profit of roaming academic institutions who should be employing qualified professionals instead.:face-huh:

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

http://www.pasthorizons.com/worldproject...asp?ID=244

Fancy some work in the good old USA??

an email to my wife who runs Past Horizons (http://www.pasthorizons.com) from the person who runs this site has told her that he would love to have some Euro folk on the site... looks nice to me!! Would go on it myself if I was free. :face-huh:



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

This is one primarily offered for comment by curators/Project managers/consultants but I would be extremely grateful if anyone else would care to comment.
In this imaginary scenario, a farmer "discovers" that he has a complete Bronze Age bowl barrow on his land.Its close to 20 metres across, has an encircling ditch, is kerbed all the way around and the entire mound is covered in stone.Mr farmer decides that he needs to build something in the spot that the barrow occupies and therefore, complete removal of the barrow will be needed.Mr Farmer then asks nice archaeologists for some advice, a project design/method statement and, just how long it will take and how many field staff it will need.

So here`s the game....how long? How many field staff? In precis form-just how would you do it? Cost is irrelevent in this scenario although we should assume that the process will take place in a commercial environment. As a final bit....what, if anything should be the role of English Heritage in this process? No trick questions guys, am just interested thats all......:face-huh:

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

BAJR has secured a page of editorial in a major construction and development magazine -

there is only so much to cram in... but I would like to explain the point of archaeology, the benefits and the pitfalls.. the process and what to expect..

I would prefer if it truely is a BAJR editorial, where the consensus decides what is important.

I have a month to produce it... so lets make it look good... this is a real chance to put forward out views on a national stage. No comedy please ! :face-huh:

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

From Colin White, Treasurer, The Twickenham Museum:

Missing artifacts from the Bushy Park Water Gardens archaeological
excavations, London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames

The missing artifacts were excavated by Christopher Currie during
excavations in 1997-1999. A full account of the excavations was published in Post-Medieval Archaeology, Volume 37, Part 1 in 2003. The artifacts are listed on pp. 118 - 122 and comprise tin-glazed tiles, pottery and animal bones (not listed).

Unfortunately, Christopher died tragically in May 2005. His colleague, Dr Neil Rushton told us that he has checked Chris's office and garage archive without success.

We have tried the following to no avail:- The Royal Parks, The Crown Estate, Priestmere Properties Ltd, The Museum of London (accession number BHY97), and The British Museum.

The BM's conservator, Maria Barlow, says that she handed the tiles to Christopher at the British Museum after conservation in August 1999. They were contained in a plastic 'tuppaware' type box; the box was about 8" x 12-15" x 6" deep and the tiles were wrapped in acid free paper.

We have been involved in research and restoration work on this project since 1996. The restoration of the Water Gardens is now fast approaching and The Royal Parks has been awarded a Heritage Lottery Grant to carry out a partial restoration. Part of the award includes funds to mount an exhibition at the Twickenham Museum http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk. This exhibition is now set to open in mid-April 2007, without any artifacts apart from an original painting.

We urgently need to locate these artifacts for use in the exhibition. If anyone has any idea of the location of them, please get in touch.

Colin White,
Treasurer, The Twickenham Museum
Clarence Cottage, Hampton Court Road, Hampton Court, Surrey KT8 9BY
Tel: 020 8977 5198 Tel/Fax: 020 8943 1812
colinhjwhite.g5@tiscali.co.uk



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

Metal detectorists and archaeologists bury their differences and work together to discover and record Dorset’s rich archaeological heritage.

Please take a look at http://www.itvlocal.tv and press the your uploads button on the left. Or directly to http://player.narrowstep.tv/skins/0018/n..._YourFilms
This is part one…. Part two coming soon.

This is the way to get a more positive outlook on the hobby and the archaeology... take it to the masses

Regards

Gary

P.s they gave us front page last week with the "Metal Detectives" [:p]


http://www.ukdfd.co.uk
Recording OUR heritage for future generations.

Due to a cock up with an advertising company - they only managed to get this advert to us today... closing date MONDAY!!!

If anyone is interested... Let them know immediatly

http://www.bajr.org/employment/ukemploym...sp?id=2917

Historic Environment Officer
Grade SO1/2 UKP 23,175 - UKP 26,928 (pay award pending)
(Initial Contract to March 2010 with potential for extension thereafter)

The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Britain's first UNESCO European Geopark, has a nationally significant historic environment, reflecting 7000 years of human occupation. The North Pennines AONB Partnership, the joint advisory body for the AONB, is looking to appoint a qualified and enthusiastic person to join our staff team to lead on matters related to historic environment conservation, research, interpretation and promotion.

The successful candidate will have a background in building conservation, planning, architecture, archaeology or a related field and will have experience of the production of conservation area appraisals and conservation plans. A track record of project development and delivery in partnership with landowners and a wide variety of public, private and voluntary sector organisations is essential.

You will be supported in this work by colleagues in the AONB Partnership Staff Unit and our Historic Environment Working Group. Reporting to the Area Co-ordinator (West) you will develop AONB-wide historic environment conservation projects, produce conservation area appraisals, encourage community involvement in the historic environment and assist other team members in project delivery where there is an historic dimension.

The post will be based in the AONB Partnership office in Stanhope, Weardale, and employed by the AONB Partnership's host authority, Durham County Council. Applicants should be qualified to degree level in a relevant subject, such as conservation, architecture or planning. Applicants without a degree may be considered if they have considerable relevant experience.

For further information please contact Chris Woodley-Stewart (AONB Officer), on (0138:face-thinks: 528801. Application packs are available from the Personnel Section, Environment, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UQ, on (0191) 383 3806, or e-mail maria.littledyke@durham.gov.uk.

Closing date: 5th February 2007. Interviews will be held in Stanhope on 16th. February.
Further details about the AONB Partnership and the area can be found at http://www.northpennines.org.uk.
We are an equal opportunities employer


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

Recently worked on an eval, found a sort of pondy-type feature the samples from which produced seeds - our enviro bod thought they were raspberry/blackberry, so I suggested to the supervisor in a frivolous moment that it was a jam pit. She went off to work on the report, and a bit later came back and said "You might like to read this."

Other Features – Jam Pit

One large feature was partially uncovered in Trench 4 [406]/[408]. This was a minimum length of 8.5m north-south to a minimum width of 1.50m. It was excavated on the southern edges, and the total extent of this unusual feature, including depth was not uncovered. In section, the feature’s southern edges had shallow, uneven and concave profiles varying from 0.08m to 0.3m deep.

The fills were dissimilar, but each contained 2 distinct fills, chocolate and raspberry/blackberry. The primary fill was composed of a dark brown chocolate (404), 0.29m thick. It contained a large amount of raspberry/blackberry seeds suggesting deposition during a very successful and huge amount of jam making one Autumn after the disuse of (404). The different fills suggest a change of fillings within the doughnuts had occurred, possibly moving from the covered chocolate icing on the top to the jam fillings (403) in the middle much appreciated by archaeologists at tea time throughout the country. Above (403) a fragmented, partially articulated skeleton of a cow was recovered. The in-situ skeleton and seeds provide evidence of greedy bovines who wanted to eat the jam, during production/storage. In this case it was fatal as it slipped in from the side and drowned. Consequently, as a result of this tragic accident, manufacture of jam had to stop and the jam pit was covered with 0.34m of brown, silty clay (400).

Associated with this sugary fabrication are 2 linears to the north, uncovered in Trench 3 and aligned north-south. These contain similar fills, and suggest that the jam pit [408] may actually have been a huge jam jar, the conserve flowing into the pit from production further to the north. The alignment of the jam channels is certainly nothing to do with the setting/rising of the sun and therefore a ritualistic interpretation can be ruled out. However, the shadow of the banks as the sun set may have been linked to an intricate time piece indicating when the consumption of jam/doughnuts was feasible. The large, open area to the east of the site can be interpreted as a communal place to eat the jam/doughnuts. The production site may possibly have been in the medieval village to the west, but as yet no recognisable features or artefacts concerned with jam production have been recovered from the recent excavations.


You can always tell a Brummie... but you can't tell him much