20th April 2006, 02:31 PM
I am also left wondering how Northants County Council think their retained Archaeological Unit will remain a viable business proposition if no-one is around to recommend archaeological planning conditions in the County.
Beamo, your comment about the Conservation Officer monitoring an excavation is exactly the kind of issue we should be highlighting. Current thinking from Government indicates that archaeology and the rest of the historic environment need to be considered together as integral to one another. This is fine and dandy, but frankly, all I see in the process is the importance of archaeology being sidelined and subsumed by the so-called "visible" heritage. It is clear to us as archaeologists that Conservation Officers are not the correct people to recommend and monitor archaeological works, because it is not their area of expertise, but others seem to think that this type of arrangement "will do". It's time to start objecting to this viewpoint forcefully and emphasising the importance of archaeology as a resource in its own right, otherwise what's happened in Northants will spread.
Beamo, your comment about the Conservation Officer monitoring an excavation is exactly the kind of issue we should be highlighting. Current thinking from Government indicates that archaeology and the rest of the historic environment need to be considered together as integral to one another. This is fine and dandy, but frankly, all I see in the process is the importance of archaeology being sidelined and subsumed by the so-called "visible" heritage. It is clear to us as archaeologists that Conservation Officers are not the correct people to recommend and monitor archaeological works, because it is not their area of expertise, but others seem to think that this type of arrangement "will do". It's time to start objecting to this viewpoint forcefully and emphasising the importance of archaeology as a resource in its own right, otherwise what's happened in Northants will spread.