10th February 2006, 10:12 PM
Aagh!..sorry about the broken post...try again..
Mercenary - I dissagree. For starters exactly how many old peeps out there are so loaded that they're digging just for the fun of it. I haven't met many and certainly not in numbers to suggest that they could have an impact on everyday commercial archaeology. Sorry, but that's a no-goer.
Additionally, by 'mature' I just meant people who are aged 30+ and might have been dissuaded by financial realitites in their early 20's to chose a profession with better financial rewards who subsequently decide that field archaeology is doable for them again, full-time. Anyone who is not a fresh-faced grad in their early 20's generally. Soory for any lack of clarity earlier. I know people who have successfully changed their careers in their late 30's and early 40's and have physically put younger people to shame with their exploits on site.
It's not exactly in the interests of the profession to want a decline in graduate numbers either, though I suspect you might not have been entirely serious in that comment. Any profession needs a healthy influx of grads. Not all stay but the ones that do show a commitemnet to make their way in the profession.
Mercenary - I dissagree. For starters exactly how many old peeps out there are so loaded that they're digging just for the fun of it. I haven't met many and certainly not in numbers to suggest that they could have an impact on everyday commercial archaeology. Sorry, but that's a no-goer.
Additionally, by 'mature' I just meant people who are aged 30+ and might have been dissuaded by financial realitites in their early 20's to chose a profession with better financial rewards who subsequently decide that field archaeology is doable for them again, full-time. Anyone who is not a fresh-faced grad in their early 20's generally. Soory for any lack of clarity earlier. I know people who have successfully changed their careers in their late 30's and early 40's and have physically put younger people to shame with their exploits on site.
It's not exactly in the interests of the profession to want a decline in graduate numbers either, though I suspect you might not have been entirely serious in that comment. Any profession needs a healthy influx of grads. Not all stay but the ones that do show a commitemnet to make their way in the profession.