9th September 2008, 11:11 PM
There are some interesting points made in response here 1man1desk, in specific relation to the motivation of small to medium business owners. If I understand you right, you are saying that many delay gratification in the short term in order to grow a business, on the promise (misguided or otherwise!) of a successful pay off in the future (as long as this goes hand in hand with a well thought out exit strategy). This is the entrepreneurial drive, it creates jobs and stability, and if youâre lucky, a nice new jag in the driveway. Nothing to disagree with here.
The architect/consultant engineer analogy works for me in relation to the UK, but can't be applied to Ireland, unless the work is infrastructural. The licence system makes no provision for a monitoring framework; there are no guarantees that licence eligible directors will produce a quality archaeological product, only that they will provide a state accredited service. I maintain the point that the artificial nature of the market makes this arrangement problematic, and disagree with the premise that archaeology is equivalent to any other environmental field. Thinking of archaeology as a non-renewable resource (like minerals, habitats and rare forms of butterfly) imbues it with a value independent of our engagement with it. The danger of this is that the process ceases to be inquisitive â the past is preserved by record, and the people who eventually interpret this record are not likely to be the same people that created it.
Some would argue that this doesn't matter, and within the narrow terms that commercial archaeology sets for itself, it can be very successful at identifying and documenting unknown remains, and undertaking these tasks in a commercially profitable way. But the past is ultimately preserved (by record) in the public interest, and the question remains as to how well this is being served. Unlike architects or consultant engineers, archaeologists are asked to bare witness to past behaviours that may have no parallel in the modern world. It's precisely this difference that makes the past such a powerful force for change. Are we information managers? If not, then how can we organise a structure to realise the potential of commercially generated information, and disseminate this widely as new knowledge about the past?
And have a Jag in the driveway.