20th July 2011, 11:19 PM
P Prentice Wrote:marcus why should archaeology be any different to any other industry where amateurs dabble alongside professionals and the perception that we do it as a hobby is exaserpated by us settling for peanuts and not bothering to tell anybody why what we found is interesting in an interesting way
I can't really think of any other industries where this happens. I suppose you could say that DIY housebuilding is to the construction industry as the archaeology society is to commercial contractors, but even there the situation isn't exactly analogous, in that while the DIY housebuilder may work alongside professional builders, it's the DIY housebuilder who's in charge as it's their house that's being built. Certainly, when I deal with developers, the fact that archaeologists are paid so much less that most other so-called professions on a construction site doesn't help - when I turn up to a meeting with surveyors and site agents and park my crappy little car at the end of a row of gleaming Range Rovers or BMWs, it probably doesn't give them the impression that I'm representing a serious profession. However, I also don't necessarily accept that money can be taken as the sole measure of a profession.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum