23rd June 2011, 01:53 PM
Marcus, I graduated in 1989 and got my first digging job in 1990 - the year of PPG16. If you want to dig and dig only you are stuffed. All the diggers that have been in a long time at the big units will stay there until they fall off the perch or culled. If you have no ties LIFO is the life and you have to live out of a bag. Then you get to old and its change job, find a partner with a proper job, become a desk jockey doing dull PM work or specialise in something you are interested in and try to make yourself indespensible. Capitalism rules and archaeology is in a market and the workers are right royally f****d as usual and blamed for being f****d. It is going to take many years, if at all (but lets remain positive), before job security in the field is a reality. The days of council run archaeology with associated benefits (a good thing or not) are long gone and will never return. How to change things is for young diggers with more intelligence than me to sort out. For those of us that have been through it and come out the other side - you have our full support.