24th June 2014, 12:14 PM
Marc Berger Wrote:'trial excavation' ? What wrong archaeological methods were used? If the archaeologists who did the evaluation have said that there is nothing there then is it a question of sample size? You would think that they were aware of any SMR reports. The interview makes it sound like you couldn't hope to miss a microlith but then northern Ireland works under its own myths and legends..Is there a licenced archaeological system there?
Dodgy local journalism aside, I take it that in that case, although the Mesolithic site was on the HER, it 'slipped through the net' and wasn't considered when designing the evaluation methodology. The site was then evaluated, presumably without the contractor being aware of the presence of Mesolithic material, & left the local chap who discovered it picking microliths off the spoil heaps.
My point is that standard evaluation methodologies just aren't suitable for all types of archaeological site and are particularly poor at dealing with Pal/Meso material, so the suggestion that DBAs/Heritage Statements could be eschewed so long as an eval is done is not sensible.