13th February 2006, 03:04 PM
After some experience of the Irish situation, I have mixed thoughts about licenses.
The Irish system requires an individual to obtain a license for a particular piece of work. They have to apply anew each time. On many big schemes, where there may be more than one site affected, this can be a major obstacle to sensible management of a fieldwork programme.
I would favour some form of licensing or accreditation system that accredited the archaeologist with being competent. If necessary, the license could specify limits on their (e.g. running geophysical surveys but not excavations, or vice-versa, or curatorial work only). There would therefore be no need to obtain a new license for each project. Quality control on project design would still be available through the curators.
The route I would actually favour would be to do this through a chartering system, whereby work above a certain level of responsibility would only be available to 'chartered archaeologists', who could be struck-off for incompetent/dishonest work. I would apply this equally to field archaeologists, consultants and curators.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
The Irish system requires an individual to obtain a license for a particular piece of work. They have to apply anew each time. On many big schemes, where there may be more than one site affected, this can be a major obstacle to sensible management of a fieldwork programme.
I would favour some form of licensing or accreditation system that accredited the archaeologist with being competent. If necessary, the license could specify limits on their (e.g. running geophysical surveys but not excavations, or vice-versa, or curatorial work only). There would therefore be no need to obtain a new license for each project. Quality control on project design would still be available through the curators.
The route I would actually favour would be to do this through a chartering system, whereby work above a certain level of responsibility would only be available to 'chartered archaeologists', who could be struck-off for incompetent/dishonest work. I would apply this equally to field archaeologists, consultants and curators.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished