2nd September 2009, 04:23 PM
Damn...wish I had seen the long reply!
I would contour that although what you say is true in many cases, it is just that, the public benefit/private cost ratio is often non existent, where reading about another null result watching brief is not that interesting. (and thats for the member of the public who actually even knows about OASIS ... the HERs themselves term OASIS as a development tool rather than a public resource)
The output for the public that is more often wanted is the immediate... ie hey, we have archaeologists in town...WOW... ah.. we will have to wait for six months until you are gone and even then, we have to work out for ourselves where to find out what happened.. so by the time the report is out, I have lost interest. Sad but true.
I am of course able to reel off many sites that have public involvement AND/OR press releases.. BUT in general most of what we do is seen only by the few.
PLUS the crisis...AND the poor management. Archaeologists should stick to archaeology and get managers :face-confused:
I would contour that although what you say is true in many cases, it is just that, the public benefit/private cost ratio is often non existent, where reading about another null result watching brief is not that interesting. (and thats for the member of the public who actually even knows about OASIS ... the HERs themselves term OASIS as a development tool rather than a public resource)
The output for the public that is more often wanted is the immediate... ie hey, we have archaeologists in town...WOW... ah.. we will have to wait for six months until you are gone and even then, we have to work out for ourselves where to find out what happened.. so by the time the report is out, I have lost interest. Sad but true.
I am of course able to reel off many sites that have public involvement AND/OR press releases.. BUT in general most of what we do is seen only by the few.
paulbelford Wrote:external (the state of the economy, for example) and internal (poor management, for example)I agree with that, but I was perhaps not clear in what I meant (as usual) and I was trying to suggest that by trying to change our public perception from bearded stripey jumpered diggers to hi viz commercial professionals, we may have left behind the very thing that made people want archaeology and see it as important to them.
PLUS the crisis...AND the poor management. Archaeologists should stick to archaeology and get managers :face-confused:
For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he
Thomas Rainborough 1647
Thomas Rainborough 1647