28th September 2010, 02:53 PM
firstly, I'm pretty sure that archived archaeological material is never just thrown in with random finds? Museum displays arent aimed at archaeological proffessionals are they? So including something that looks nice in a display shouldnt really be an issue. All a museum does is presents the history of an area to the public in a nice way, do the public really care if something was found during excavation or by a metal detector... er i suspect not... will having any of these one off finds on display in Tullie house affect the known archaeological record of any area? not really.. its not like its redated Hadrians Wall has it?
secondly... you are basically saying that if something is not found by a qualified archaeologist it has no importance at all, I dont believe that, When you write your DBA's, do you ignore any HER entry that is a findspot?? seeing as a lot of them are not from within arch investigations? and are the results of someone finding something out walking or digging their garden or metal detecting? Because I dont and i know if i treid that one on I'd get my reports returned for ignoring them, ignoring something that could suggest activity within in area.
All I see in these kinds of discussions is the attitude that has always annoyed me... that an awful lot of archaeologists see themselves as better than everyone else, this comes out in peoples attitudes to things found by the public, community archaeology and relating commercial works back to the public... and at times it makes me ashamed to be an archaeologist,
I'm not even going to post my original comment on the millenium dig finds as ill prob get my post removed..... apart from to say it was shocking to hear they had gone but its surely another reason to educate people about the significance of finds and their context above their monetary value.....
secondly... you are basically saying that if something is not found by a qualified archaeologist it has no importance at all, I dont believe that, When you write your DBA's, do you ignore any HER entry that is a findspot?? seeing as a lot of them are not from within arch investigations? and are the results of someone finding something out walking or digging their garden or metal detecting? Because I dont and i know if i treid that one on I'd get my reports returned for ignoring them, ignoring something that could suggest activity within in area.
All I see in these kinds of discussions is the attitude that has always annoyed me... that an awful lot of archaeologists see themselves as better than everyone else, this comes out in peoples attitudes to things found by the public, community archaeology and relating commercial works back to the public... and at times it makes me ashamed to be an archaeologist,
I'm not even going to post my original comment on the millenium dig finds as ill prob get my post removed..... apart from to say it was shocking to hear they had gone but its surely another reason to educate people about the significance of finds and their context above their monetary value.....