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The explosion in commercial archaeology has brought a flood of information. The problem now is figuring out how to find and use this unpublished literature, reports Matt Ford.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100407/f...4826a.html
Archaeologists are used to gathering data by scratching in the dirt. But when Richard Bradley set out to write a new prehistory of Britain in 2004, he unearthed his most important finds while wearing sandals and a sweater rather than work boots and a hard hat.
Bradley is one of a growing number of academics in the United Kingdom who are doing their digging in the masses of unpublished 'grey literature' generated when commercial archaeologists are brought in to excavate before any sort of construction.
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Bradley, a professor at the University of Reading, travelled around the country, visiting the offices of contract archaeological teams and local planning officials. There, he unearthed dozens of reports showing that settlements in England had remained strong during the Bronze Age and had not suffered a population crash, as academics had long thought.
"I became aware that what I was teaching would be out of date without looking at the grey literature," says Bradley.
My favourite quote is this...
Quote:?A lot of the best work is coming out of commercial units now ? a lot of the worst is as well.?
... well... there you have it. info is power 
However, very timely and very useful article. Indeed at Open Archive, we are pushing ahead with testing versions of the community/public report system. Have a gander at it while you are here anyway. http://www.openarchive.co.uk .. but look at the article above. most interesting.
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Yawn, should the article be retitled 'Academic Archaeologists at Least 10 years behind the times'? Most of the stuff mentioned in this article was discussed at least two years ago, and yet Commercial archaeologists are again criticised for the results of their work not being available. I particularly like the quote:
'Academic archaeologists are used to a system in which researchers conduct excavations and then publish their observations in monographs and journal articles, which are then available in libraries'.
Yeah, perhaps 20-30 years after they have finished on site! At least most commercial work does become available at some point, even if perhaps only in a grey literature report, and the finds are likely to be in a museum. In fact, why do we have to put up with the term 'grey literature', that in itself seems to convey a sense of boringness (OK, that's probably true in a lot of cases), but also invisibilty, or vagueness. Can we use another term? This just constantly reads to me as academics not liking the idea that they are not in control of the data!
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RedEarth Wrote:Yawn, should the article be retitled 'Academic Archaeologists at Least 10 years behind the times'? Most of the stuff mentioned in this article was discussed at least two years ago, and yet Commercial archaeologists are again criticised for the results of their work not being available. I particularly like the quote:
'Academic archaeologists are used to a system in which researchers conduct excavations and then publish their observations in monographs and journal articles, which are then available in libraries'.
Yeah, perhaps 20-30 years after they have finished on site! At least most commercial work does become available at some point, even if perhaps only in a grey literature report, and the finds are likely to be in a museum. In fact, why do we have to put up with the term 'grey literature', that in itself seems to convey a sense of boringness (OK, that's probably true in a lot of cases), but also invisibilty, or vagueness. Can we use another term? This just constantly reads to me as academics not liking the idea that they are not in control of the data!
Hi
Fully agree!
They are not "grey literature" they are Archaeological Reports and they form a major part of what should be the backbone of any archaeological research... the HER.
One example is that a lecture (who shall remain nameless) at a localish university has been giving a walk and talk around a historic town in my patch. The lecturer has been pointing out to students all the clues that indicate the location of the Saxon burgh and gos on to describe the layout of the burgh! However, the lecturer doesn't know about the eight evaluations which have taken place over the last ten years in the "Saxon burgh" which have shown that there is a complete absence of "Saxon" archaeology in that area, but do show Roman field systems!
What's really scary is that I get the impression from Bradley's surprise that many academics are blissfully unaware of what an HER is, or what it contains and so they don't seem to consult it when carry out "research". One factor completely overlooked is that many archaeological journals will not publish excavation reports because they have so many "academic" papers submitted. This is because universities gain points for academic publications (with points equalling funding) so most field archaeologists can't publish in the journals academics read!
Steven
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The whole tone of this article and others like it is very sad - if commercial archaeologists can't get support from academic archaeologists (some of whom presumably taught said commercial archaeologists as students) then what hope do we have?
When I was at university occassionally I would need to find a reference in a thing call a 'book', and it would usually involve a trip to a magical world called a 'library'. Like most magical places in fairy stories, sometimes the library would be easy to navigate and the book easy to find, and sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes I might even have to go to another library. But that was an integral part of the learning process, it's called RESEARCH - going to find the information you need, no matter where it might be. The apparent ignorance of what an HER is among some academics is staggering - I can only assume their ivory towers are bolted shut from the outside!
Imagine an alternative world in which commercial archaeology didn't exist but to make up for it a massive amount of funding was made available to universities for research. Would we then get articles complaining about how much data was now available, and how difficult it was to get hold of because so and so's project still hadn't been published several decades later? Perhaps we would... That doesn't then address the other issues of academic 'publication' - articles placed in obscure monographs that cost ?50 and are only available in select libraries, the vast amounts of undergraduate and post-graduate research that remains in those vast tombs of grey-literature the unpublished dissertation/thesis. I would love to be able to see a few of those, but I can't because they are, in most cases, not available.
Three words: Pot - kettle - black.
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Two points:
1) I still think there is plenty of scope for works of synthesis being conducted by archaeologists using commercially-produced "grey literature" as a principal source of information. Academics are the best-placed people to do this, as no developer is going to pay for it, and no curator will demand it.
2) Opening up archaeological information can work both ways. County archaeologists can ensure that all reports produced in their curatorial areas are made more widely available, e.g. by ensuring that WSIs stipulate that reports are submitted to OASIS. But the academic world hasn't yet moved into the digital age of freely-available information. It would be wonderful if I could access journal articles freely when researching a desk-based assessment. Freeing up information would then allow cross-fertilization - commercial and research projects would better inform one another. Freeing up peer-reviewed articles would also help counteract the fringe archaeology that dominates a lot of the internet, although I'm not sure how free access could work from an economic or copyright point of view.
?He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself?
Chinese Proverb
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I don't have anything to say directly on this subject other than - I like Richard Bradley and always enjoy his books. I think he raises a genuine issue that commercial and academic archaeologists would be amiss to dismiss out of hand. Secondly I have a great admiration for commercial archaeological organisations that, realising the limitations of the traditional journal route, have created their own publication outlets. I am thinking in particular of the Museum of London and Pre-Construct Archaeology (London) monograph series (but I know there are others as well).
Indirectly....It strikes me that the new PPS 5 guidance could be a way out of the dilemma of 'grey literature'. The guidance suggests (Policy HE12) that developers have a responsibility to ensure the publication and dissemination of the results of archaeological investigation and that this responsibility can be guaranteed by planning condition. As most commercial archaeology is planning related surely there is now a mechanism to ensure that the worst of practice highlighted in Richard's survey becomes a thing of the past.....(an unintentional pun!!)
With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind all passion spent...
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I do think that this is a real failing on the part of acedemics - this stuff is not hidden away and impossible to access! Its underuse simply shows how out of step with comercial archaeology the theoretical branch is. Students researching papers should be taught where this imformation is and how to access it - but if lecturers themselves dont use it then what hope is there!
It is amazing that this can be presented as a revelation now as field archaeologists have been trying for years for recognition and now the discovery of a wealth of material "previously unknown about" can be claimed by acedemics! Nice one - how about a bit of credit to us lot  ! !
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Indeed the most hated words I see...
Quote:Please be assured that we appreciate the interest of all those who would like access to the journals archived in JSTOR, not simply those affiliated with colleges and universities. While individual subscriptions to the entire JSTOR archive are not available at this time, there are several possibilities for accessing journals and articles archived in JSTOR:
So while free access to Grey Literature is desired and complained about... free access to academic articles and research is costly..
level playing field? OR should academics and the public be charged for access to grey lit, with a percentage going to to the developer and the Contractor? }
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Well, possibly, but the problem is one of enforcement affter the event, so to speak.
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BAJR Wrote:Indeed the most hated words I see...
So while free access to Grey Literature is desired and complained about... free access to academic articles and research is costly..
level playing field? OR should academics and the public be charged for access to grey lit, with a percentage going to to the developer and the Contractor? }
Not only is the 'grey literature' actually quite easy to access (via a trip to the HER, unit that produced it, or even record office/museum once it has been archived) and typically free, at the HER it is even linked to a GIS and so can be searched for more easily! How fantastic would it be if there was a GIS providing the location and details of every academically published piece of information (where suitable)? To some extect there already is, the HER, but that won't include things that it doesn't know about.
For academics to make complaints about the current system seems absolutely incredible.
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