5th June 2007, 06:24 PM
Feasible yes, sensible no.
If you didn't do the fieldwork, then you are going to spend an awful lot of time chasing your tail, and may miss out on intricacies of the site that didn't get into the record for some reason. It also helps if you can distinguish people who write appalling context sheets but know their digging from those who produce clear, coherent works of fiction. Stuff like that costs more time and therefore money, so the unit that dug a site will always have both interpretive and competetive advantages. However, if they made a total balls-up of the fieldwork they forfeit the former, and if they are asking for silly money they've lost the latter.
'can archaeological organisations also hold developers to ransom with post ex costs'
Not remotely. The developers can employ whom they like.
If you didn't do the fieldwork, then you are going to spend an awful lot of time chasing your tail, and may miss out on intricacies of the site that didn't get into the record for some reason. It also helps if you can distinguish people who write appalling context sheets but know their digging from those who produce clear, coherent works of fiction. Stuff like that costs more time and therefore money, so the unit that dug a site will always have both interpretive and competetive advantages. However, if they made a total balls-up of the fieldwork they forfeit the former, and if they are asking for silly money they've lost the latter.
'can archaeological organisations also hold developers to ransom with post ex costs'
Not remotely. The developers can employ whom they like.