12th May 2011, 06:27 PM
Am saving the possible barrow till last }
If anyone in authority actually cared they'd have (a) scheduled my site long ago (it's been known for over 60 years), and, (b) objected to the mineral consent (within the 21st century) without any adequate archaeological mitigation strategy being put in place by a previous curator (which to some extent compromises the position of the current curator). As it is, at least the client is prepared to shell out for a not insignificant amount of excavation and recording which in reality they could probably get away with less of, and with a level of enthusiasm and helpfulness, so good on them :face-approve:
The big ditches are really quite boring, people have been looking at them since the 1970s, pretty much same profile everywhere, and it costs around a grand to hand-dig each 5m ditch section (needs that much to be able to photo the sections) so only a dozen or so this time around. There are much nicer things to spend the budget on like buried ground surfaces, bank, palisade trenches, pits, C14, OSL, pollen (not holding my breath on that one), soil science, palaeoenviro, that kind of stuff...luckily the finds PX is only going to run to about a fiver at the current rate....a decent flint would be nice :face-crying:
But yes, I'm with the outraged contingent, 100% would be a nice way of filling in the 15 or 20 years to retirement, solid employment anyway.....
If anyone in authority actually cared they'd have (a) scheduled my site long ago (it's been known for over 60 years), and, (b) objected to the mineral consent (within the 21st century) without any adequate archaeological mitigation strategy being put in place by a previous curator (which to some extent compromises the position of the current curator). As it is, at least the client is prepared to shell out for a not insignificant amount of excavation and recording which in reality they could probably get away with less of, and with a level of enthusiasm and helpfulness, so good on them :face-approve:
The big ditches are really quite boring, people have been looking at them since the 1970s, pretty much same profile everywhere, and it costs around a grand to hand-dig each 5m ditch section (needs that much to be able to photo the sections) so only a dozen or so this time around. There are much nicer things to spend the budget on like buried ground surfaces, bank, palisade trenches, pits, C14, OSL, pollen (not holding my breath on that one), soil science, palaeoenviro, that kind of stuff...luckily the finds PX is only going to run to about a fiver at the current rate....a decent flint would be nice :face-crying:
But yes, I'm with the outraged contingent, 100% would be a nice way of filling in the 15 or 20 years to retirement, solid employment anyway.....