6th February 2007, 05:37 PM
Actually, I think 250 person-days is 25 people for 2 weeks, not 10 weeks.
A couple of case-studies might throw some light on how widely estimates could vary, without more detailed information.
Early in my career I worked on excavations of 2 round barrows, each of which took 5 months for a team of 10-14, as far as I remember (say, 1300 person days each). Mind you, these were large barrows (from memory, up to 40m diameter), with several phases of enlargement, each involving filling in the old ditch and putting in a new one further out and enlarging the mound. One of them had a large and complex Beaker primary burial as well as inserted secondary burials.
Later on, I excavated 2 smaller, simpler round cairns and a fairly complex (but not very big) long mound, all in 2 seasons of 2 weeks each with about 15 people (again from memory - this is quite a long time ago). Say about 300 person days total for 3 monuments.
Both of these projects came before the days of competitive tendering; they were funded and managed by English Heritage and Historic Scotland respectively.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
A couple of case-studies might throw some light on how widely estimates could vary, without more detailed information.
Early in my career I worked on excavations of 2 round barrows, each of which took 5 months for a team of 10-14, as far as I remember (say, 1300 person days each). Mind you, these were large barrows (from memory, up to 40m diameter), with several phases of enlargement, each involving filling in the old ditch and putting in a new one further out and enlarging the mound. One of them had a large and complex Beaker primary burial as well as inserted secondary burials.
Later on, I excavated 2 smaller, simpler round cairns and a fairly complex (but not very big) long mound, all in 2 seasons of 2 weeks each with about 15 people (again from memory - this is quite a long time ago). Say about 300 person days total for 3 monuments.
Both of these projects came before the days of competitive tendering; they were funded and managed by English Heritage and Historic Scotland respectively.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished