27th August 2012, 09:38 AM
Quote:introduce a lower age limit for archaeological field staff of 35. Nobody under that age would be allowed anywhere near a trowel (although of course they can play around at university and in record offices and even to undertake specialist work that didn't involve them directly in excavation to their hearts contentOf course, none of them will know how to excavate by the time they hit 35 - it just moves the current problem from freshly-graduated 21 year olds, forward a decade and a bit. Also, by that age they're likely to have mortgages and families to support, so they'll have to be paid more than the current starter wage to make it a viable option for them. Fresh graduates expect to earn peanuts and scratch about at the bottom of the economic ladder for a while. Grown-ups have an unfortunate tendency to need a living wage.
The problem remains about who would hire an inexperienced digger. Where will they get the necessary experience? We've apparently already decided that university digs are useless and commercial units don't have the resources to train them.
I think the minimum starter age for an excavator should be 70. Given the future lack of pension provision, people that age will be desperate for any kind of employment. They'll already have had bad backs/knees for a few years and will be used to it, therefore preventing the general background health-niggle earache for management (you can have exclusion clauses in contracts which remove liability for the worsening of existing medical conditions or commonplace site injuries like doing a hip). The coffin-dodgers are more likely to have driving licences, the mortgage will have been paid off and any kids will long-since have flown the nest. thus lowering their financial requirements. They'll have been watching Time Team for 50 years by then, therefore equipping them with all the necessary digging expertise, meaning that nobody has to train them at all.
Perhaps I've just missed the ironic smiley... :face-approve: