Find the Pay Rate of Archaeology Jobs in the UK

[lucy78green]

Most Irish and Northern Irish companies have nothing to do with the IFA, in theory the IAI is the Irish version, but I don't know anyone who actually joins

[Dinosaur]

Rome wasn't built in a day but it wasn't destroyed in a day either. Commercial archaeology took decades to make and will at least take years to destroyxx(, assuming we let it happen.

Eh? Commercial archaeology was created almost overnight by PPG16! Apart from a tiny amount of stuff (mainly in London) most sites prior to that had been central government funded, either directly from the MoW/DoE/SDD/EH etc, or latterly indirectly through the CP! That can all be taken away just as quickly by a change in government policy, eg if they decided that heritage should no longer be a material consideration in the planning system

[Doug]

Eh? Commercial archaeology was created almost overnight by PPG16! Apart from a tiny amount of stuff (mainly in London) most sites prior to that had been central government funded, either directly from the MoW/DoE/SDD/EH etc, or latterly indirectly through the CP! That can all be taken away just as quickly by a change in government policy, eg if they decided that heritage should no longer be a material consideration in the planning system

I should clarify- All heritage sectors are created instantly by a law, PPG16 (UK) 1968 and 1979 heritage laws (US). Yet, that doesn't mean a heritage sector was created overnight. Yeah, people started companies and started doing work but it took years to stabilize as lots of archies who didn't know how to run a dig tried to run a business and went bankrupt. Curators had to figure out what they were doing. What an acceptable report was.

Details, Details, Details, etc. take time to figure you could say we are still in that process.


If you were around back in the day it was like the wild west and it like that in every country that pasts a commercial sector law. Look at France now- no one is quite sure what is going on.

Overnight????????????????????????????????????- not sure if you ever had to do civics classes but it takes months and years to change anything in government. Look at Southport that has been going on for what roughly 2 years now and will be another few years before something happens. PPG16 didn't happen over night people saw it coming and people will see the end of commercial archaeology coming too.

[BAJR]

I must agree with Doug... and Dino should remember as well. I was working in York when it came in, and the rise of teh commercial started then - a few years later I was working for another company in teh area in competition... but as Doug says it evolved... and went in a direction that was not what was expected. Cut throat cost based archaeology was not teh point of PPG 16. plus, we had to learn the ropes, and if you look at the stats, the rise of the commercial can be traced in teh numbers of diggers... from a few hundred in teh 80s to thousands in the 90s and early 21st century... rising year on year.

People can see teh end of commercial archaeology right now. It is happening RIGHT now! now the question is.... shrug and let it die? OR evolve!

[Sith]

Most Irish and Northern Irish companies have nothing to do with the IFA, in theory the IAI is the Irish version, but I don't know anyone who actually joins

I daresay no one bothers in the republic, where being eligible to hold an excavation licence (by examination by a panel made up of members of the National Monuments Service and prominent academics) is far more useful and potentially lucrative.

[monty]

Find the pay rate of archaeological jobs in the UK ???????.............................what archaeological jobs in the UK ?? :face-huh:

[Dinosaur]

if you look at the stats, the rise of the commercial can be traced in teh numbers of diggers... from a few hundred in teh 80s to thousands in the 90s and early 21st century... rising year on year.

-ahh, so you've not been around long enough to remember Crickley Hill ads for hundreds of diggers every year, and I've shared a site campsite elsewhere with 130...and, eerm, think there just a tad more than 'a few hundred' employed on CP archaeology schemes at their height.....several of the ones I worked on had 50+. The infamous 1986 footie match between the CEU and Northants parts of the Raunds Area Project had 200 diggers turn up as spectators, not including the 22 players and the world's worst ref (sorry Tim, if you're still out there). Can't get my head around the silly little workforces we have these days, can't get anything done :face-crying:

[lucy78green]

I daresay no one bothers in the republic, where being eligible to hold an excavation licence (by examination by a panel made up of members of the National Monuments Service and prominent academics) is far more useful and potentially lucrative.

true, but even the common diggers (ie no licence) I know who joined in the past, found the fees to be too expensive in this day and age of short term contracts and unsure job market. From my occasional trip to conferences (in the North) I got the impression that most of the people on the panel of the IAI were all owners of the larger companies anyway, so I'm not sure what the IAI was for really. I didn't bother joining even when I could afford to as I found their different levels of membership confusing, and I could get a job just fine without being a member.

Back on topic, I find that there are less jobs nowadays, less job security, and the wages have dropped. There are people working on site one or two grades below the ones they used to have, and there doesn't appear to be the fresh influx of young blood from this years graduates that we used to get.

[BAJR]

Crickly Hill... far to south for my liking. But yes, I do remind people of the days when a massive workforce existed on a site. there was 70 plus of us on Elginhaugh Roman Fort. thing was, there was not that many sites on at one time. Research and all that... even the odd bit of Rescue

silly little workforces... damn right. did a Roman site once the same size as Elginhaugh with 7 of us for 6 weeks rather than 70 of us for 3 months. go figure :face-huh:

Sounds bad in Ireland though.