9th December 2005, 05:27 PM
The following was posted on Britarch in response to criticism of the IFA. It puts into perspective the situation in the UK rather well.
[I am a native Austrian, and worked there for much of my early years in the discipline. In Austria, there is nothing remotely like the IFA, and as such, there is no self-regulation of the discipline whatsoever. One result of this is, as you may remember from some mails on Britarch earlier this year, that one of our colleagues, Markus Koller, was killed on site about a year ago, when the trench he was working in collapsed. This event has had NO consequences whatsoever, as the police investigation ended finding that no one could be held responsible, based, at least mostly, on an expert opinion of one of my colleagues (who shall remain nameless) that general health and safety regulations could not be applied to archaeological excavations, and that no Austrian archaeologist had any idea whatsoever what could have been done to prevent this 'tragic accident' (which of course is as patently wrong as it is outrageous). Other than a conference which will be held next February in Salzburg, where health and safety on excavation will be discussed by, mainly, representatives of various archaeological institutions in Austria, that's it (I will be there and talk about the situation in the UK, btw.). And I fully expect that said conference will produce no tangible results whatsoever, either, as most of the participants will come up with the usual sad argument that health and safety cost more than we can afford, and that there is nothing that could keep a section from collapsing anyway (after all, many of the less internationally oriented of the Austrian archaeologists are still not using the stratigraphic method). And I know that since the accident, the same dangerous practices have continued at many an excavation. As a matter of fact, the 'collapsed' police investigation into the case of the death of Markus Koller now means that any excavation director can now send his staff down a 3 meter deep trench in loose gravel without taking any precautionary measures (and I have heard of at least 2 cases where this has already happened, apart from remembering pretty well that I myself worked down in such trenches in my early years). Here, an institution like the IFA, with whatever faults and weaknesses it may have, would come in very handy. It may not be as effective as we might wish, and may or may not expel or otherwise discipline people as frequently as some here might like, but it is definitely better than nothing. Put bluntly, if you don't like what the IFA does, try to change it from the inside, while you continue to ridicule it's shortcomings, both internally and in public. But sitting outside on your fence and complaining that 'they are not good enough' and 'who made them archaeological god anyway' is just cheap.]
We should consider ourselves lucky.
[I am a native Austrian, and worked there for much of my early years in the discipline. In Austria, there is nothing remotely like the IFA, and as such, there is no self-regulation of the discipline whatsoever. One result of this is, as you may remember from some mails on Britarch earlier this year, that one of our colleagues, Markus Koller, was killed on site about a year ago, when the trench he was working in collapsed. This event has had NO consequences whatsoever, as the police investigation ended finding that no one could be held responsible, based, at least mostly, on an expert opinion of one of my colleagues (who shall remain nameless) that general health and safety regulations could not be applied to archaeological excavations, and that no Austrian archaeologist had any idea whatsoever what could have been done to prevent this 'tragic accident' (which of course is as patently wrong as it is outrageous). Other than a conference which will be held next February in Salzburg, where health and safety on excavation will be discussed by, mainly, representatives of various archaeological institutions in Austria, that's it (I will be there and talk about the situation in the UK, btw.). And I fully expect that said conference will produce no tangible results whatsoever, either, as most of the participants will come up with the usual sad argument that health and safety cost more than we can afford, and that there is nothing that could keep a section from collapsing anyway (after all, many of the less internationally oriented of the Austrian archaeologists are still not using the stratigraphic method). And I know that since the accident, the same dangerous practices have continued at many an excavation. As a matter of fact, the 'collapsed' police investigation into the case of the death of Markus Koller now means that any excavation director can now send his staff down a 3 meter deep trench in loose gravel without taking any precautionary measures (and I have heard of at least 2 cases where this has already happened, apart from remembering pretty well that I myself worked down in such trenches in my early years). Here, an institution like the IFA, with whatever faults and weaknesses it may have, would come in very handy. It may not be as effective as we might wish, and may or may not expel or otherwise discipline people as frequently as some here might like, but it is definitely better than nothing. Put bluntly, if you don't like what the IFA does, try to change it from the inside, while you continue to ridicule it's shortcomings, both internally and in public. But sitting outside on your fence and complaining that 'they are not good enough' and 'who made them archaeological god anyway' is just cheap.]
We should consider ourselves lucky.