BIG DIG

[Pedant]

quote:Originally posted by Mtgorry147

What? You mean ground force isn't real?

How sweet - it must be lovely not to be all old and cynical...

Body at work and mind on vacation

[Mtgorry147]

How sweet - it must be lovely not to be all old and cynical...

Body at work and mind on vacation
[/quote]

It must be. Any ideas who to speak to, to find out if it is?

[Pedant]

quote:Originally posted by Mtgorry147

How sweet - it must be lovely not to be all old and cynical...

Body at work and mind on vacation

It must be. Any ideas who to speak to, to find out if it is?
[/quote]

No-one I know, that's for damn sure...

Body at work and mind on vacation

[Silent Bob]

Is it just me or does the heart sink a little when you know that most of that very large and posh villa is being excavated by volunteers and students with little or no experience. Not their fault obviously. However, I would much rather be doing that than digging on any of the rather crap sites I've been on recently. Looks like TT has largely (if not completely) kept away from doing their own sites and latched onto other peoples. Hence none of that pesky writing up.

[deepdigger]

Hmmmmm, a lot of good comments here on a very emotive subject.
As I work in commercial archaeology the only time I would get to dig a site is when it's going to be built over or torn down!
To see some of the work carried out by these (TT) rank amateurs does make me sick to my stomach, although you know full well that if a commercial archaeologist was digging a villa site then a new supermarket would be built there within weeks!
The other thing that bothers me about it is the fact that good archaeologists (Aston, Harding, & Lewis) really have sold their souls to the Tv producers. I had real respect for these guys at one time, but no more!!

deep

[troll]

Yes,yes,yes,yes, they are a household name but then again, so is preparation H, andrex and femfresh. Tiz bad enough that alledgedly "professional units" can openly operate as heritage rapists with impunity in the current environment-without sensationalising heritage rape as "entertainment". Why have curators no teeth when it comes to work outside of the planning environment? Ban the f***whits from your counties. Since when can line managers apply pressure to their own staff? Might be nice if the same enthusiasm was directed at those in need of pressure. Ever thought of saying no? If curators crumble when pressurised by their own-is`nt it a bit of a national farce that they are the very people in place to safeguard our heritage? Giz a go! Someone find me a junior job in county mountying-want to see how this works.....anyhoo, TT is over.Dull, uninspired, patronising, boring and well, just, crud.

[mercenary]

I worked for TT when I was young and naive many years ago. It was such a bad experience that the diggers made a very forceful case that TT should never be let into the county again. The Council archaeologists agreed, and to my knowledge TT have not done anything there since. The county is also a very big and archaeologically rich one as well.

If you look on the Big Dig website it is clear that they have had trouble getting projects in many parts of the country. Interestingly the only dot in my region is a local group who appear to be working at the other end of the country.(Not where the dot is!)

I have also heard of other counties where TT have been blacklisted, so it definitely works.

I'm sure this is why they now do documentaries of other groups fieldwork, which I quite like. (Seahenge, Gresham Street London, Prittlewell etc.) Let's face it, they can make good television programs, but we've gotta stop them digging.

[deepdigger]

Yeah I think we all agree TT is well past its sell by date and now needs chucking in the skip!!

deep

[star-nosed mole]

I agree, haven't got the time for the usual 13 week long marathons of TT programs, but their documentary specials are actually well worth watching. I remember one in the old Steel City that even portrayed the problems that we have with knees etc, and the Prittlewell one was also pretty good.

Certainly way better than any other twaddle on the tv. Am fed up of people asking 'is it really like that extreme archaeology?' NO!

[Oxbeast]

I overheard Phil Haaaarding in the pub, talking about what he did. He actually said that any archaeologist should be able to do what he did, and he mentioned the Steel City programme. I liked it because it showed something that they rarely cover, but that plenty of people are interested in. And it showed the developer bitching about how much it was costing him, and slagging off the archaeologists 'scratching about'. And the steel smelting went wrong...

I reckon there is a role for them using their 'brand name', and following other peoples digs. I've really had enough of the narrow questions/narrative driven three day site trashing. And waiting for them to publish something decent is like finding hens teeth.

I reckon a programme following a big pipeline or road job might be intersting, lots of periods, and a landscape level approach. Still plenty of potential for running about pointing at things.

On a devils advovate front, TT has imroved awareness of things like geophys, fieldwalking, map analysis, archive research, etc. Often these are much more interesting and informative than the actual excavation.