Ok, What are the current issues (apart from lack of storage) on the holding of finds?
At the moment I seem to be retrieving stuff from the skip that someone else has value judged and chucked. Admittedly this has ranged from a stoneware foot-warmer to unattributed medieval masonry.
Who's call is it to decide?
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you're getting into the realms of sampling now so careful.
what to keep, good question, at cardiff university they had such a large collection of pottery that they chucked it all into the foundations of the new archaeology building. you certainly can't keep everything and something must be done to prevent discarded stuff from turning up in the archaeological record elsewhere.
as to who makes the decision, is it down to the lowly digger to say this is rubbish, sling it inthe skip? or should his superviser be making that decision? i dunno, generally if i think something is rubbish i throw it out and if its not i dont, and if i'm unsure i ask, but again, you can't keep it all!!
deep
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I would hope that a sampling strategy was agreed off site before excavation started, but personally I wouldn't want to see anything chucked before it had been at the minimum scanned by the relevent specialist. Except maybe bricks - but then the specialist should come out and visit the site. Anyway they can then toss it away, or give it to a school, or fabric collection, or whatever.
A trickier question, I think, is what to do with the un-stratified stuff. Without context, are artefacts any more than curiosities? If so, why bother keeping them?
ML
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mmm...there are many 'unstratified' artefact surface scatters that I would not want to be binned. Of course, it depends on your definition of context. Such scatters have a spatial ie landscape context.
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And, it's important that anything found is not allowed back into the archaeological record to cloud the already murky past!!
deep
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Sorry knees I was thinking of spoil heaps, not artefact scatters. I know some units that routinely scan spoil with metal detectors, and I have heard of others who are hesitant to do so as that would create too much unstratfied metal that then has to be looked at by specialists.
Certainly important that discards are identifed as such. I've seen some sites where they were put into plastic bags with labels saying excavated by XXX on site YYY with a date. Not so good for the environment, maybe, but keeps it clear where it's come from. Also if it's discarded at a late date - say by an archive changing collections policy - presumably it will be marked.
Another muddy area is Victorian and later material. On one hand, this stuff is of academic interest and it is being retained for future study. On the other, there's so much of it, and it's so darn new! Pity the archaeologists of the future, what with all the crap we leave behind![:p]
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This is what our Guidance Paper has to say about find collection and retention:
The finds retrieval policies of the appropriate recipient museum will be adopted. All identified finds and artefacts will be retained according to the stated selection retention and retrieval policy appropriate to the material type and date. No finds will, however, be discarded without the prior approval of the nominated representative of the local planning authority.
You guys are on site - does that happen in your experience?
ML
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I am a finds spec. That is how I see it, that we don't have the right to discard as the finds belong to either the land owner or the county. I agree with sampling strategy for bricks and tile, weigh, Id and discard. I guess the main issue is placing a value on time frames. I.e. keep all Roman chuck the post-med. A lot can be done with post-med assemblages and their known historical contexts, which can be potentially used to reasses various earlier periods. But then you cant keep it all. I think this is always going to be a catch 22.
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How about offering stuff to local schools and history groups? Still a loss but at least they can be educational.
Save the Thornborough Henge Complex -
http://www.timewatch.org
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Visited Ely last Monday and happened to pass the site that the Cambridgeshire Unit dug a few years back that featured on a wet and muddy episode of 'Time/E-Bay Team'.
A large part of the site has now been laid out as a public garden and features, in one of the flower beds, a large mosaic eel created from pieces of pottery found during the excavations. A great way to use up those 'unwanted' finds.
