1st September 2006, 12:44 PM
I have to say that I have never been convinced by the arguments for the split between curator and contractor, though freely confess that I was opposed to creating the split in the late 80's early 90's in the first place, seeing it more as an adjunct of the then conservative governments political agenda to cut local authority budgets and reduce the problem of archaeology in the development process. From the point of the archaeology it can be argued that in the days before the existence of local and regional research agendas and even EOP, the main thrust of archaeological research in our historic urban centres came about precisely because of the intimate link between the curatorial and contractual arms of local council archaeology services. That such services have been fragmented is to my mind regrettable simply because it has created a more adversarial approach to excavation and monitoring, which in itself has had consequences for quality, training and salaries.