9th January 2006, 01:56 PM
Quote: "EH also have guidelines for the proper conduct of archaeological investigations. Perhaps a look at their guidance for standards and methodoloies may be in order before the IFA credo is accepted wholesale." - posted by Beer Beast
I don't think there is any rivalry between EH and IFA to get their documents used in preference, essentially because the documents they produce are not equivalents/alternatives; they are doing rather different things, and can be applied together (I frequently do that in specs, or when writing the archaeological requirements in a Design and Build Contract, or similar).
The EH documents provide technical guidance (not a standard) on the management of archaeological projects and on certain specialist archaeological activities. MAP2 in particular was written originally to provide internal guidance on the management of EH's own projects, and largely assumes that all projects are set-piece excavations. It requires quite a bit of adaptation/ad-hoc amendment to apply it meaningfully to, say, a PPG16 evaluation.
The IFA S&Gs on the other hand are intended to provide a 'Standard' against which the quality of a piece of work can be measured (usually expressed in a single paragraph) and 'Guidance' on the application of the standard. They are written to apply to each of the main types of archaeological project that occur in commercial archaeology. The technical guidance is less detailed than in the EH documents - presumably to avoid duplication of effort, and to ensure universal applicability.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
I don't think there is any rivalry between EH and IFA to get their documents used in preference, essentially because the documents they produce are not equivalents/alternatives; they are doing rather different things, and can be applied together (I frequently do that in specs, or when writing the archaeological requirements in a Design and Build Contract, or similar).
The EH documents provide technical guidance (not a standard) on the management of archaeological projects and on certain specialist archaeological activities. MAP2 in particular was written originally to provide internal guidance on the management of EH's own projects, and largely assumes that all projects are set-piece excavations. It requires quite a bit of adaptation/ad-hoc amendment to apply it meaningfully to, say, a PPG16 evaluation.
The IFA S&Gs on the other hand are intended to provide a 'Standard' against which the quality of a piece of work can be measured (usually expressed in a single paragraph) and 'Guidance' on the application of the standard. They are written to apply to each of the main types of archaeological project that occur in commercial archaeology. The technical guidance is less detailed than in the EH documents - presumably to avoid duplication of effort, and to ensure universal applicability.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished