18th July 2011, 10:37 PM
Wax Wrote:The public are not on our side because they want to be involved in archaeology and the advent of commercial archaeology replaced the need for the last minute amateur rescue dig which if we are honest is what a lot of past community archaeology was. People saw a drying up of opportunities to take part in archaeology with out realising that it actually meant that their heritage was better protected.
This is very true. It often seems to be the case that the local society, which previously may have undertaken rescue excavations of this type, are unaware that professional contractors have been on site in advance of developments 'on their patch'. To an extent, this could be addressed by contractors taking the time to contact the relevant local society, just to let them know that some work is taking place.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum