30th June 2014, 09:00 PM
Dinosaur Wrote:Part of the job of a good supervisor is to let trusted diggers just follow their noses, sometimes with spectacular results? In one extreme case for a fortnight, but the resulting ditch (which elsewhere had been massively under-excavated) was well worth the wait :face-approve:
I (and other people I've talked to) have noticed a distinct decline over the last decade or so in the ability of diggers to find proper edges etc, presumably because they're not allowed to have a play and learn how to it properly themselves any more - you can give them a few pointers but at the end of the day it's one of those skills you have to acquire by experience :face-thinks:
On my first day on site I was taught by an old hand to constantly 'question' what I was digging. I did question it and experience taught me that this advice was the truth. In turn this is one of the first things I tell the trainees I am now teaching how to dig.
Why are diggers not allowed to 'have a play' anymore? Is it just commercial time pressures or inexperienced supervisors, or that person management skills are considered less important than academic ones when it comes to promotion. Encouraging a new digger to be confident in their work is in my opinion as important as any technical knowledge... 'don't be afraid, you are not going to hurt the archaeology'....but then again I do see those who hold archaeology up on a pedestal may be mortified by this view.