17th July 2011, 10:47 PM
I think the real problem is that the general public (and I include the media) have absolutely no idea how archaeology in the UK works. Even the amateurs have little if any knowledge of commercial archaeology. This leads to the misconception that most archaeology that goes on is research and is done for the sake of the archaeologists not as a legal requirement necessary to protect our heritage.
Commercial archaeology is under the control of the developers and these are the people we need to educate to get them to understand the added value that archaeology could bring (bring them round to seeing it as good publicity rather than temporal contamination removal).
Commercial archaeology is under the control of the developers and these are the people we need to educate to get them to understand the added value that archaeology could bring (bring them round to seeing it as good publicity rather than temporal contamination removal).