11th February 2007, 04:03 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Reggie
There is no need to go into great detail about PPPGs or into a rant about pay and conditions.
However, to place the excavation being viewed into context, there is nothing wrong (and quite a lot right!) with a short explanation of how commercial archaeology works - the levels of investigation (WB, evaluation, full excavation etc), the role of county archaeologists and the the planning system, developer funding etc.
Quite a lot of the time I find myself doing that anyway.Usually to people who are under the impression that because we've arrived in a Transit van with a local authority logo on it, we're wasting their Council Tax on this trivial rubbish:face-confused: Thankfully, the majority of people do seem to accept the concept of it being part of the planning conditions and getting the developer to fund it.
I think as well that it depends on whereabouts you happen to be working. I've found people tend to be a little bit more informed in say, a ancient historical town, where the archaeology recieves fairly regular coverage in the local press and their familiar with seeing archaeologists in action in the town centre. However, I do still get a feeling of frustration at having to explain that we're not (a) students or (b) going to stop the building from going ahead.[xx(]