9th April 2010, 11:19 PM
Personally I voted 2, I was lucky enough to attend Embra Uni in the late 90's when they ran a field school for all first years in both the Easter and Summer breaks ran by professional field archaeologists attached to the at that time 'Centre for Field Archaeology'. Maybe it's just me but out in the field without the 'lecturers' the whole process of the discipline was brought alive by dedicated knowlegable people who not only cared for the results of the dig (obviously), but were passionately dedicated to passing on not only the skills but also the theory behind what we were trying to achive as a team, and that I think is what was so important. No idea from whoever was ever dismissed out of hand, instead ideas were discussed with all, and although the concensus was led enevitably by the most knowledgeable, we were left with the impression that we had contributed as a team to one piece of the jigsaw of our prehistoric past. It was the same on my subsequent uni led digs. Does that mean that on graduation I was prepared for the commercial world? Well yes and no. As I say I do count myself very lucky indeed in that I had had a solid background in all aspects of field work and that includes all aspects of recording, drawing, photograpy, context sheets, surveying, sampling etc so I understood the process of archaeological recording and why we went through that process, however the first time I was on my own conducting a watching brief in a professional environment I can still recall the tight knot in my stomach and fear incase I should miss anything, I'm glad to say that it is an emotion that continues to this day. And most importantly I am still learning, still on site gleaning knowledge and ideas from my fellow archaeologists and realising that ultimately that I am just a small cog in a big wheel that informs all of humanity on what it is to be human, isn't that just about the most beautiful way of earning a living? Of course the truth is that archaeology is all about teamwork, like the very life we try to elucidate, and considering another thread on here those 'academic' archaeologists who look down at commercial types are a generation passing whose time has gone, we are archaeologists all, with different skills and abilities but we all have something to bring to the table.