26th July 2012, 11:38 AM
what if you looked at all excavation as a proceedure to retrive 160 radiocarbon dates, what dos fuzzy data or cost effectivness mean then. This so called industry is based on the principles of rescue. You rescue what you can and you get to rescue what you can by negotiating a silly price which will never cover fuzzy data or ever mean anything in cost effectivness. All your digs are pantomines. You will be constantly turning blind eyes to a myriade of recordable things and selecting your own narrow narative. Even the inadequate contract soon to end digger will be part of the stage. As oxbeast has pointed out you can get ones that have had fifty grand spent on them. how much more training does it need when you can get anybody to dig which is what fame does and its management has every compunction to hire any old digger because archaeology belongs to the people...In my experience the difference between a crap digger and a brillient one is not measurable partly because they cant be working on the same unknown and presumably are equally porducing relevant fuzzy data.
Reason: your past is my past