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TWO Words! - SurfDog666 - 9th June 2005
Getting drunk and pi**ed up on booze is the favourite pastime of most archaeologists so why OAU in Zeugma would be any different doesn't seem worthy of comment.
The whole Zeugma project was supposed to be a major rescue excavation involving teams from many differnt countries sharing information and helping each other out. However the petty nature of certain members of staff from Oxford, France, Switzland and Turkey meant that virtually no information was shared to help build any sort of comprehensive picture of what the was going on in the short time that was allowed as the water was rising.
The view from the French that the OAU staff were lazy possibly comes from the fact that things were excavated stratigraphically, and many later phases of activity were investigated whereas the French team in particular basically dug straight down until they hit mosaics in a fairly hack and slash way.
OAU's involvement may have stepped on the toes of certain teams who were out there prior to Oxford's arrival, but seeing as the dam was built and the water was rising everyone should have been pulling in the same direction. Instead it got to the stage when no-one was sharing survey data that the Oxford team surveyed an area while the French team sat waiting so that they could survey it. Once both teams had finished the Turkish team started to survey it.
Much pettiness on all sides.}
TWO Words! - roywhiting - 12th June 2005
Steve Walsh is spot on.
Oxfordness is next to Godliness
TWO Words! - Fatty - 12th June 2005
Roy, you're a berk
darn those pesky archaeologists
TWO Words! - troll - 12th June 2005
Greetings you lot. This thread has the potential to get a bit painful for certain entities-I like this.... discussing professional ethics like this is paramount if we are to have any real stab at initiating change. Our work as archaeologists abroad is likely to be high profile and so it is here that we should be seen to be exporting respected professional ethics. Diggin abroad can be politically sensitive and I don`t believe that we can brush this aside in the pursuit of profit and kudos in the same way that it is in PPG land over here. A separate issue now current on this thread is the professional standards with which archaeology is hit. I`ve seen some tear-jerking tragedies in my short time on the circuit.Archaeology quite literally butchered alive by "professionals". Please don`t forget that I am trying to document examples of where this happened/happens within a commercial/research U.K context. The resulting document will be passed to BAJR first then on to the IFA (without names of places/people/unit names)in an attempt to show them what real archaeology is like. Examples please-not on here but via my e-mail.
As Oxford is just yet another commercial unit, I would say that it`s just another...commercial unit really. God not involved. God provides Prophet for the benefit of mankind, Units take profit at the expense of mankind. Just a quick one to Fatty,personal jibes don`t go down very well on here. Welcome to you but please, keep it to the issues on board. Oh, and before I forget, I don`t really think your suggested links found on your profile will make you at all popular either. BAJR is accessible to a worldwide audience, the most important of whom in my opinion, are children and young uns. We are lucky in that children in general, already have an interest in heritage and, archaeology especially. BAJR is an excellent and sadly, non-funded, resource that provides for all and, for children in particular, is an un-rivalled starting point when the favourite question "but why?" needs urgent attention! Please re-consider your suggested "cool links". Thanks.
TWO Words! - deepdigger - 12th June 2005
Yo! Fatty! get a grip mate, this site is accessed by kids for godsake mate. amend the links on your profile please!!
deep
TWO Words! - BAJR Host - 12th June 2005
profile edited - thanks for letting me know as well troll and deep... I did not go... but I can guess!
Fatty... first warning...and a not very clever post..
I have logged your IP and have located your address. please bear that in mind -
you are welcome on this forum... but no smut... no rudeness.
Another day another WSI?
TWO Words! - troll - 12th June 2005
I think I kind of brought this up on another thread but here goes...whilst we have standards and guidelines on ethics provided by a number of institutes in the UK, I have never heard of any guidelines or standards relating to professional ethics for the archaeologist working abroad. Have I just missed a number of lectures or, aint there any? Think there should be?[?]
TWO Words! - deepdigger - 12th June 2005
I've never heard of any,I always assumed that british archaeologists would try to apply the same standards as they would when working at home!!
deep
TWO Words! - BAJR Host - 13th June 2005
ouch... stop me..... my laughing corset has just split.......:face-thinks:
Another day another WSI?
TWO Words! - Tim - 13th June 2005
Surfdog666 is correct that the french went on a hack and slash policy but it was a last resort rescue/salvage excavation where minor stratigraphical details were irrelavent(most of the overburden filling/covering the buildings was destruction layers from the original earthquake/post destruction fire). The mosaics wouldn't have been found if everthing had been dug slowly and carefully like the OAU (and in a perfect world we all would) did. Which was more important to the world of archaeology/artistic history. There is obviously a certain degree of nationalistic animosity by the French against the British in general and they don't like people coming on to their projects or telling them what to do. As we all know destuction of Zeugma was something that shouldn't have happened.
Zeugma like Oetzi is one of the great archaeological discoveries that didn't benefit from people working together rather than for their own personal or professional reasons.
I know of several British archies who worked in Beirut in the 90's who also "got stuck in" in hack and slash mode in order to get the job done.
Little Tim