?All archaeologists are evil?. Discuss

[Dinosaur]

I don't know about other archaeologists being evil, but I did run out of road pin mushrooms today and so we had to resort to impaling puppies on the top of them instead

That is evil :0

- considering where you're working, good would have been using tourists instead }

[the invisible man]

Sorry to be a bit off-topic (love the debate on whether evil exists...clearly it does, there are arse nal and leeds utd...) but the hard hat sub-topic interests me. Much of this is down to mis-use and/or misunderstanding of the concept of Risk Assessments and H&S Plans, as you will all appreciate. Itis common to have a blanket all-purpose generic RA and policy, ostensibly to cover the posterior (but could easily have the opposite effect if an incidient occurs due to inadequate assessment).

As geophysicists we are often put in even dafter positions than you lot - usually on road or pipeline jobs. We are there in an open field, cows and sheep grazing peacefully around us, skylarks singing, all well with the world, months before the big yellow machines arrive, and they make us attend an induction where we are told we must not smoke (none of us do anyway), we must wear hard hats (to protect against skylark pooh?), high-vis vests (so the skylarks can aim at us?) which are likely to be covered up by the Barty harness, gloves (well yes, sometimes) and steelies (errrrr...). One bunch told us we are not to climb over the gate where the vehicle was parked, we had to walk 100s of meters up a narrow lane with high banks and blind corners, carrying the instruments, to a gap in the hedge... Of course we never have site huts, toilets, etc, rarely is any effort made to check that the ground cover is safe to walk on....

[Dinosaur]

Most H&S has been invented by the construction industry themselves as a rod for their own backs....

[Jack]

Yep and Yep (invisible and dino).

Been in the green field position before.

Best thing to do is use the rules against them.

At the 'induction' say yes I understand your safety rules and will comply with the CDM regulations and health and safety law fully.

Then I'm presuming that you have your own risk assessments for your work..........follow these.
If your unlucky enough to be visited on site and someone says you should be wearing a hard-hat/goggles/spark-proof overall etc.
Then politely say....i'm following the risk assessment for this particular job...show risk assessment.
If they then say the site rules state mandatory PPE is required at all times then ask for the risk assessments for each piece of PPE. If they don't have one they are breaking the CDM regulations!

Also if the 'mandatory' PPE is inappropriate to the task and it would increase the risk of an accident to wear it, you (not the company, not the safety officer) YOU have a legal DUTY to work safely...as in don't wear the PPE.

Will see if I can find the relevant bits of the CDM regs..................but if you email the 'ask an expert' bit on the HSE website you'll get the same info.

[CARTOON REALITY]

If your unlucky enough to be visited on site and someone says you should be wearing a hard-hat/goggles/spark-proof overall etc.
Then politely say....i'm following the risk assessment for this particular job...show risk assessment.

You won't be laughing when that next urn burial explodes in your face Jack.

On my very first dig Tony Wilmot once told me a story about a particular variety of Georgian lead-lined coffins - they were so well sealed that as the ensconced body decayed they became like an aerosol can. He was (he claimed - and who am I to doubt him) once working beside someone who accidentally hit one of these with a mattock, the two of them were sprayed with the contents and had to be rushed to hospital.

I've never come across anything like these in Ireland (lead-lined coffins yes but not terribly well sealed) was Tony just pulling my leg? Could any of your readers enlighten me?

[Dinosaur]

Have been led-believe it's a common problem on Roman sites in hotter climes, but easily solved using a volunteer armed with a broom-handle with a 6" nail on the end (got this info from the person who'd been the 'volunteer' - somewhere in southern France in the '70s) xx(

[CARTOON REALITY]

Actually I'd heard that on sites where there were quite a few of these they stacked them in a field, covered them in a tarpaulin and threw pick axes at them!! (T. Wimott pers. com.) What I'm wondering is - is your source reliable Dino? Are these things real or a bit of archaeology myth?

[Dinosaur]

Dominic Powlesland's as reliable a source as Tony surely? :o)

Would have thought Mr Wilmott would have been using an asegai or some such, what with his enthusiasm for Zulu.... }

....pickaxes sound fun though :face-approve:

...hope that counts as a respectful treatment of the dead? :0

[gwyl]

Tony 'forwards not backwards' Blair rests firmly in that group. He had (and presumably still has) an obvious dislike of history but seemed to place an enormous amount of (self) importance on his future place in it.

I can confirm that. Did a watching brief for him. Profoundly uninterested in the medieval house and known post-medieval settlement sealed by a garden laid out by Capability Brown. Much more interested in chatting to my American colleague, not about archaeology (if memory serves me right), and also completely ignored my Slovak colleague. Cherie Blair, however, faked/demonstrated an engaged interest, and was rather charming.

[alisdair]

Bajr, In the name of the wee man! A thread about Dennis and Gnasher and even you can't answer D.I.N.G? Shocked :0!