21st December 2012, 02:58 PM
I have to say I agree with much that's in the article, although I need to read it again more closely as I wasn't quite sure what the IfA-bashing had to do with it. Certainly the on-site discard policy seems very poor in some cases, unless everyone on site is thoroughly trained in identification. It's not helped by at least some briefs I have seen stating that it OK to discard anything 18th or 19th century! How many people could really tell the difference between late medieval imported (and very rare) majollica and 18th century tin-glazed earthenware, especially while on site? I have also seen two recent evaluation reports on Roman sites that just recorded 'Roman pottery'. No-shit, Roman pottery on a Roman site, who'd have thought! The evident lack of specialist input in many reports is really not good.
Having said that, my criticism of the paper is that it's hardly fair comparing an excavation in the 1960s with one in the last ten years. The former was presumably targetting a known site of known (or at least assumed) date and so it would be quite reasonable to have an expert already lined up, while the latter might represent an unexpected discovery. The timescales involved, resources available, requirement of reporting (as dictated by the brief, not the IfA) might all be reasonable factors affecting the manner of finds reporting.
Having said that, my criticism of the paper is that it's hardly fair comparing an excavation in the 1960s with one in the last ten years. The former was presumably targetting a known site of known (or at least assumed) date and so it would be quite reasonable to have an expert already lined up, while the latter might represent an unexpected discovery. The timescales involved, resources available, requirement of reporting (as dictated by the brief, not the IfA) might all be reasonable factors affecting the manner of finds reporting.