3rd July 2014, 10:47 AM
Sikelgaita Wrote:I don't have much choice who I am training, they just get sent to me. None are archaeology graduates, although one is in the second year of their archaeology degree course. I don't think that a having a degree is any guide to whether that person (to quote Tool) 'will have a natural affinity for digging in the dirt'. I have met graduates who are great diggers, I have met graduates who think they know it all because they supervised the first years on the university training dig, I have met graduates who dislike the physical side of being a digger etc. I have met some non graduates who have that natural affinity for digging and also many who just don't get it etc. If that person wants to learn and work hard then that is all that I am fussed about.i think the singlemost important thing keeping contracts short and wages down etc is the assumption that anyone can dig and that the profession does not require graduate entry. on one hand the industry is intent on showing the world just how easy it is to do archaeology and then it moans about being seen as some kind of esoteric calling that does not require propoer pay and conditions - we are looking ever more like jobbing labourers for anitiquarians.
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers