8th February 2007, 01:48 AM
Frankly, if time team excavate a few burials in a 'rushed manner', A. it is nothing that doesnt go on throughout the year on professional sites due to time pressures, and B. I dont mind because I think TT has done a lot of good for archaeology e.g. public awareness of career archaeology, public access to and understanding of period based archaeology, presenting the joy of the interpretative process, enthusing youngsters to go to university in the mid nineties, and, of course, Mick Astons range of jumpers etc. (although advancement of field methodology is not one of their acheivements).
'This is irreplaceable heritage, and the mortal remains of people. A person is not a pot, and never will be.' Im slightly uneasy with this attitude. All archaeological deposits are irreplaceable. To me, human remains are an artefact or material class to be studied in exactly the same way as pottery (apart from perhaps in legislative/law terms). Importace comes with context. What about urned cremations, in this case a pot is also a person?
Muddy- Interesting about MOLAS method. Do you think this is a bit too selective on the recording front though? I mean, two nails and a photograph for each burial so that they can all be rectified is not too much more work. Or is it? Granted, it all depends on the scenario i.e. I would rather have the bones located to a cut and in a bag for post-ex than not at all. But surely not photographing each burial is only for extreme circumstances such as time pressures or where a value judgement has been made (e.g. county arch says only a sample of the burial practice is worth looking at). Otherwise I would be worried about losing information (e.g. grave layout, charnel practices, positions of neo-nates etc. etc.
g
'This is irreplaceable heritage, and the mortal remains of people. A person is not a pot, and never will be.' Im slightly uneasy with this attitude. All archaeological deposits are irreplaceable. To me, human remains are an artefact or material class to be studied in exactly the same way as pottery (apart from perhaps in legislative/law terms). Importace comes with context. What about urned cremations, in this case a pot is also a person?
Muddy- Interesting about MOLAS method. Do you think this is a bit too selective on the recording front though? I mean, two nails and a photograph for each burial so that they can all be rectified is not too much more work. Or is it? Granted, it all depends on the scenario i.e. I would rather have the bones located to a cut and in a bag for post-ex than not at all. But surely not photographing each burial is only for extreme circumstances such as time pressures or where a value judgement has been made (e.g. county arch says only a sample of the burial practice is worth looking at). Otherwise I would be worried about losing information (e.g. grave layout, charnel practices, positions of neo-nates etc. etc.
g