15th January 2008, 11:39 AM
Trowelhead... without getting too deep into this, you are being snobby.. 'leave it to the professionals' ? When I go on site... I see many who would be very far from the definition of professional. we suffer from the problems of perception ourselves... looked down on by developers and architects, 'real surveyors' and technical land service groups... so that does not give us the right to look down on others... because 'we are professionals... you ain't so watch it bud'
I do feel like a professional, but am quite willing to listen to people who just might know more than me about certain aspects... to me a coin is a green disc... or a detector is a stick with a hoop on one end.. Too many archaeologists think they know how to use them... no they don't... its not as easy as turning it on...
So I guess you would say to the Geophysics people.. ach... amatuers.. I could do that... (much geophysics done by 'amatuer' groups) or.. you would say to a buildings analyst.. ach... easy... itsa brick wall.. (not of course taking into consideration that this amatuer has a detailed knowledge of brick typology for this area) I certainly hope you would not. You would listen and learn.
The mark of a professional is to not think they are somehow better.
An archaeologist is by definition the best person to carry out archaeology (if they can string together the words that 90% of the population of the UK can understand why) I quite agree... we do archaeology, HOWEVER... detectorists are finding sites, locating finds that we would NEVER find.. NEVER!.. As with your origianl post, it woudl neve been your site to have kept them away from... they found it... and eventually did the right thing... (remember they did not have to) I am sad it took so long... and am big enough to accept that as an archaeologist I had not made it easy for people to approach me... as I was a professional.. and they were untrained amatuers.
thats number one for everyone to ditch... chips off shoulders please.
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
I do feel like a professional, but am quite willing to listen to people who just might know more than me about certain aspects... to me a coin is a green disc... or a detector is a stick with a hoop on one end.. Too many archaeologists think they know how to use them... no they don't... its not as easy as turning it on...
So I guess you would say to the Geophysics people.. ach... amatuers.. I could do that... (much geophysics done by 'amatuer' groups) or.. you would say to a buildings analyst.. ach... easy... itsa brick wall.. (not of course taking into consideration that this amatuer has a detailed knowledge of brick typology for this area) I certainly hope you would not. You would listen and learn.
The mark of a professional is to not think they are somehow better.
An archaeologist is by definition the best person to carry out archaeology (if they can string together the words that 90% of the population of the UK can understand why) I quite agree... we do archaeology, HOWEVER... detectorists are finding sites, locating finds that we would NEVER find.. NEVER!.. As with your origianl post, it woudl neve been your site to have kept them away from... they found it... and eventually did the right thing... (remember they did not have to) I am sad it took so long... and am big enough to accept that as an archaeologist I had not made it easy for people to approach me... as I was a professional.. and they were untrained amatuers.
thats number one for everyone to ditch... chips off shoulders please.
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu