Following on the post of 'Theme tunes' how about your fave films..

Mine is the 'bone collector'

I am a student at Bournemouth university currently working on my dissertation for my MSc in osteoarchaeology. The topic I am looking at is Romano-British decapitation. I was wondering if anyone knows of any sites with this type of burial that have been excavated post 1991 (with the exception of Kempston and Dunstable). I need more examples of this burial type to add to my statistical analysis of head position. If you are aware of any sites which may help I would appreciate it if you could give me some details (i.e. the site name and which unit excavated it).

Thankyou for any help you can provide.

As detecting is currently being (barely) discussed, I was wondering how often people actually see/use them on site. My unit actually has a detector rather than calls in enthusiastic but dodgily unpaid people. However, I appear to be the only person who regularly uses it. I try to take it on watching briefs as often as possible and have frequently found some good stuff with it. For example, evidence for an early English Civil war seige consisting of musket balls, a cannon ball, baldric buckle and other finds or just the other day when I found a late Saxon silver penny (on what turned out to be a partly Saxon site). My problem is that if you don't use a detector (more than once) then you are throwing away most of the metal finds. However, when on a bigger site you are frequently moaned at for being a 'treasure hunting tosspot.' I suspect that people would sometimes rather not find metal artefacts as they are likely to increase post-ex costs. Thoughts please.

Does anyone know whether units still provide accomadation? Back in the 'Good Old Days' before PPG16 a condemed house was always available...

It seems that with the 'Professionalising' of the industry this practise has gone out of the window..... Unfortunately, wages and long term contracts have not kept pace with the housing market

What are your best/worst dig houses.... Mine has to be two condemed houses in the middle of sainsbury's carpark (canterbury). Overrun with rats sainsbury's, needless to say, hate all things associated with archaeologists and banned us from the store

Whilst I accept that those working in a position of employment with identical levels of responsibility should be on an equal pay footing, where are the incentives that will allow units to retain experienced and skilled staff in the long term? We all know the story, brand new wet degree working alongside archaeologist with 20 years experience-same value,same wage. It seems to me that the more experience a staff member brings to a unit, the rewards for such seem to move that valuable experience further and further away from where it`s needed most. It has been said elsewhere that one of the main problems here, is that not many highly experienced and multi-skilled archaeologists stay around for long and through sheer disgust, hunt grown-up jobs. This does`nt really do new archaeologists any good at all-after all, we all learnt our skills from an older hack. There are far too many reports of sites being run with the vast majority of staff holding less than a few months experience. A good number of sites are being run by staff with similar levels of experience. Here`s the question-how do we structure pay levels that reflect skills and experience in field archaeology as a specialism in its own right? How do we retain valuable staff within the specialism?

After a tea-break natter t`other day, I worked out that I take home just over 10 grand a year. Most of the peeps out there in trench-land I suspect, struggle to pay rent on that cupboard sized room in a shared house and, if really careful with their hard-earned cash, run some rotting sh*t heap of a vehicle too. I suppose I`m after a bit of advice really, if we are to continue to be seen in equivalent value margins to that of an average toilet cleaner, are there systems out there to soften the blow? Can we claim some state benefits to bring us at least, up to the living standards of the long-term unemployed? Can we apply for help with rent? Council (stealth) tax? If anyone out there has jumped through these loops before, please, lets have the info.....

What are your all time favourite (?) catch phrases used by the supervisor to conjole dejected workers back to the grind....

Purely from the point of view it was my first site it has to be...

'back on your heads'

Still intend to organise our first stab at communicating with eachother- and all else, on just what is ill in 21st Century British archaeology and what is goodly. Bit of a serious thread this...could do with knowing just what you guys out there would expect from a bajr conference. Whatever flavour you are- what would you like to brainstorm/present/argue over/experience at the conference? I`m afraid that lap-dancers or oily firemen are out...this time....

This week sees the 20th anniversary of the first ever dig I worked on. Boy do I feel old!

The site was a rather nice medieval site, on which I managed to remain completely unimpressed by the piece of Samian I found. I still remain unimpressed by Samian (unless it has erotic motifs!) although I would at least recognise it as such nowadays. The other main thing I remember from this site was digging a medieval midden that contained a two foot thick layer of oyster shells and which was about ten feet deep. I was working in a hole that was about four feet wide and whose top edge was well above my head, and I never even thought that it might be unsafe! No one even mentioned shoring. How things have changed. Of course, I also managed to completely miss the edges of this feature, which was in reality a good 6 to 8 feet in diameter. I hope I have learnt from this by now and can find an edge.

I think this calls for buns and cakes so I hope you will all dash out immediately and help me celebrate.

Cheers,
Eggbasket

Eggy by name, eggy by nature

I get calls from peeps out there that are teetering on the edge of applying for that dream job in Tescos. Sadly, a lot of these guys are young uns who already feel cheated and disillusioned. I`m running out of things to say to these guys to keep them in the job. A lot of the downside for them is that they seem to be going nowhere. It`s not that upwards seems to be their preferred direction-just that they don`t feel invested in. I know that some of the larger units/Uni`s/consultancies have training budgets for their staff, what about the other lot in small teams? Have the ideas of training courses discussed by Prospect/IFA come to any fruition yet?