28th August 2013, 08:38 AM
archaeologyexile Wrote:but my point is that negative results bring the profession into disrepute and allow us to be characterised as red tape and thus more likely to be cut!
There is no such thing as a negative result. Go and ask any competent scientist. There is only a 'result'. If it looks like I'll not be finding anything I always make an effort to explain to the client why we had to look, or tell them at least its fairly cheap (the saving on a small 'found nothing of note' report over a few thousand quid on finds processing, C14, research and publication) and point out a few other sites where we didn't know if anything was there/didn't expect much but then found something very worthwhile. If you dont explain to your client why you're doing it, I can see how they might think you were a waste of their time.