9th November 2012, 09:56 AM
Sometime Unit... ne'er a true word 
in a way we ( as a profession) have turned from archaeologists who dig archaeology and are interested in archaeology into companies who mitigate the conditions that are placed by an generally uninterested planning service for a resentful client who does not come to us from choice but from coercion.
now what is important is not the archaeology - but the bottom line, the overhead the profit. i am hearing more and more of bottom lines being cut so much that of course the archaeology suffers. remember? the archaeology that we used to dig? The base of the trench that we used to clean? the report that would contain something rather than a "nothing found" sentence that costs the client to tick a box. ?
So what are we worth and why? is this route sustainable? is there a point to the current model. or is it time to reconsider the direction as much as the career.
archaeologists manage to kick each other when they are down so successfully that this is a fight we can't win... unless we stop the madness.
click below to see what i mean... this is British archaeology... 2012 scroll to 2;38 to get to the point
[video=youtube;1u7I0MAGVno]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u7I0MAGVno&t=2m38s[/video]
in a way we ( as a profession) have turned from archaeologists who dig archaeology and are interested in archaeology into companies who mitigate the conditions that are placed by an generally uninterested planning service for a resentful client who does not come to us from choice but from coercion.
now what is important is not the archaeology - but the bottom line, the overhead the profit. i am hearing more and more of bottom lines being cut so much that of course the archaeology suffers. remember? the archaeology that we used to dig? The base of the trench that we used to clean? the report that would contain something rather than a "nothing found" sentence that costs the client to tick a box. ?
So what are we worth and why? is this route sustainable? is there a point to the current model. or is it time to reconsider the direction as much as the career.
archaeologists manage to kick each other when they are down so successfully that this is a fight we can't win... unless we stop the madness.
click below to see what i mean... this is British archaeology... 2012 scroll to 2;38 to get to the point
[video=youtube;1u7I0MAGVno]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u7I0MAGVno&t=2m38s[/video]