24th July 2010, 11:52 PM
[quote=fieldworker].
First, does this happen and how frequently do curators get inadequate urban eval reports as a result? PROBALY TOO OFTEN, IF ANYBODY HAD THE TIME TO THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATE...
Second, if this happens with frequency, doesn't it mean there is an in-built, commercially driven bias against thorough, sequential excavation for urban evals, YES
Are we all just working in the dark, hoping we'll hit the right balance (and perhaps rarely doing so?)? PROBABLY
Is this how a profession should be working? NO
there may have been incompetent curators, there certainly are under resourced good ones....the point is not the person but the post...
steven has outlined how (properly resourced and staffed) local government authorities can assist with planning and help maintain high standards of professionalism in commercial archaeology
"to paraphrase, you [Dinosaur] advise developers to pay you to tell them how much you will charge to carry out works that you've defined the extent of and the need for" (Trainedchimp)
this is not good....reality is what we make it...some things take more than a single lifetime to achieve....it is not futile to resist accepting 'realities' that we find unacceptable...it is the resistance, and not the outcome, that defines us as persons and human beings
"Between snipe and clam
the fight doesn't stop
Both fall into
the fisherman's hands"
There may be many/too many more holes to dig - we might even have too much faith in their importance or our ability to 'understand' them;
"A thousand years
a million years
darkness all over-
Stuffs every gutter
fills every valley
- no one understands"
everyone is free to practice thier own art - but creative as it is, archaeology is an Investigative Science of humanity - at least as defined by its reliance on Physical Evidence,Verifiable Documentation, Definable Methodologies, and particularly by the impact of the Objective Results of one investigation upon the Objective Results of others....we rely on Scientifically defined 'Universal' Chronologies, which themselves are predicated on archaeological field data of high Integrity.....
These are 'realities' about the state of archaeological Knowledge - we have a choice as to our aspirations for the remains entrusted to us...
if we have any real interest in our 'results', then we would be wise to ensure the results of others are not spurious or partial, since no archaeological site can be understood in isolation...
we would not expect other professions to control standards without third party representation of public interests - commercial archaeology can not be allowed to set its own briefs
- local government heritage authorities must be Strengthened as part of 'professionalising' the profession........(probably a new thread, whoops, way off from original)
First, does this happen and how frequently do curators get inadequate urban eval reports as a result? PROBALY TOO OFTEN, IF ANYBODY HAD THE TIME TO THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATE...
Second, if this happens with frequency, doesn't it mean there is an in-built, commercially driven bias against thorough, sequential excavation for urban evals, YES
Are we all just working in the dark, hoping we'll hit the right balance (and perhaps rarely doing so?)? PROBABLY
Is this how a profession should be working? NO
there may have been incompetent curators, there certainly are under resourced good ones....the point is not the person but the post...
steven has outlined how (properly resourced and staffed) local government authorities can assist with planning and help maintain high standards of professionalism in commercial archaeology
"to paraphrase, you [Dinosaur] advise developers to pay you to tell them how much you will charge to carry out works that you've defined the extent of and the need for" (Trainedchimp)
this is not good....reality is what we make it...some things take more than a single lifetime to achieve....it is not futile to resist accepting 'realities' that we find unacceptable...it is the resistance, and not the outcome, that defines us as persons and human beings
"Between snipe and clam
the fight doesn't stop
Both fall into
the fisherman's hands"
There may be many/too many more holes to dig - we might even have too much faith in their importance or our ability to 'understand' them;
"A thousand years
a million years
darkness all over-
Stuffs every gutter
fills every valley
- no one understands"
everyone is free to practice thier own art - but creative as it is, archaeology is an Investigative Science of humanity - at least as defined by its reliance on Physical Evidence,Verifiable Documentation, Definable Methodologies, and particularly by the impact of the Objective Results of one investigation upon the Objective Results of others....we rely on Scientifically defined 'Universal' Chronologies, which themselves are predicated on archaeological field data of high Integrity.....
These are 'realities' about the state of archaeological Knowledge - we have a choice as to our aspirations for the remains entrusted to us...
if we have any real interest in our 'results', then we would be wise to ensure the results of others are not spurious or partial, since no archaeological site can be understood in isolation...
we would not expect other professions to control standards without third party representation of public interests - commercial archaeology can not be allowed to set its own briefs
- local government heritage authorities must be Strengthened as part of 'professionalising' the profession........(probably a new thread, whoops, way off from original)