19th September 2013, 10:17 PM
Always entertaining and only slightly ironic when archaeologists can't think beyond their own lifetime, or even 100 years. It's a very complicated question. Just been looking at accounts of some work done about 100 years ago - perhaps if some of the sites in question had been left alone we'd have more to look at now, but but now they are all scheduled monuments so it's far from easy. Other scheduled monuments that have seen virtually no work are understood on the basis of virtually no evidence, so what exactly being preserved? On the other hand, a none-scheduled monument being laughably preserved in situ in an urban area that is bound to have some sneaky services stuck through in the next century is surely a bit pointless.