DigVentures

[Marcus Brody]

I think that this is an interesting idea. I know that BAJR himself is already involved in something similar in the Rampart Scotland project, so to an extent it's already been demonstrated that this sort of thing can work. In terms of Dig Ventures, I do wonder whether it might have been better to hone the project on a few less high-profile sites first, rather than jumping straight into what is probably one of the most important sites in Britain. No matter whether the staff are indeed some of the best archaeologists in the world or not, the project will still be letting untrained volunteers loose on this site, so it might have been an idea to have at least one trial run on a less high profile project, to ensure that supervision methods work and an appropriate number of staff are available. However, I do understand that it may be necessary to have a high-profile site to attract a sufficient number of volunteers in in order to raise the required amount of money.

In terms of the staff CVs, I did have a query about Raksha's. I know that she still appears on Time Team, but it's by no means clear whether she actually still works as an archaeologist full-time or not. Although it says that she worked for MoLAS from 2000, it also says that she subsequently worked in a non-archaeological role for Westminster Council. I certainly know someone who worked on a Time Team project a few years ago who said that she no longer worked in archaeology at that time, which might suggest that she only worked as an archaeologist for a few years (other than on three-day TV projects). I don't mean to single her out, as I'm sure she's eminently capable, but I wonder whether it's fair to all the full-time field archaeologists slogging away 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year to describe someone who may only dig for 30 or so days in the year as as one of the best field archaeologist in the country. Again, I do appreciate the need for a recognizable public face to get the volunteers in. In general, however, I wish this project well, and I think that projects of this type are likely to become increasingly common.