15th December 2011, 10:15 AM
Martin Locock Wrote:If Jack has found instances when the site records in an archive are deficient or missing, perhaps curators should be checking them as part of the fieldwork monitoring?
I'd say that it's the responsibility of the contractor to ensure that the archive and report are of a suitable standard. There's been a lot of stuff on this thread about whether curators should correct errors in reports, and while I believe that they should, I'd also say that I think that if individual contractors took a bit more care, the incidence of such correction would be massively reduced. Similarly, on the thread about an archaeological police force, people have suggested that the IfA should act as an enforcer of standards. Again, there may be an argument for this, but if each contractor worked to a professional level (which is what we all claim to do), then the need for this would be limited. I'd draw an analogy with a football team that's not doing well - often, the response is to sack the manager, but ultimately it's the players on the pitch who aren't performing. People operating as professional archaeologists should be able to keep adequate records and compile a decent report without needing to be forced to do so by an external body, whether this is the curator or the IfA.
On the basis that I'm sounding a bit like a 1980s American High School movie, I'd just like to sign off by encouraging everyone to be the best you can be!
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum