9th June 2005, 04:53 PM
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.}
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.}