Word has reached me that to carry out any archaeological, or even historical research in Liverpool and Merseyside is going to cost an arm and a leg!

The re-opened Merseyside HER http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/c...nt-record/ is now charging a daily rate for access of £500 (+VAT) with a minimum consultation time of half a day, meaning that at the bare minimum you'll be paying £250+VAT to look at any of the HER data.

Surprise, surprise they have no online resources to look at, and photocopying will cost 10p per page.

Nice to see that a public service is now out of reach of most of the public, and adds a massive cost on to DBA's.

In light of the massive changes and the throw away question from Jack on another thread What do you think EH has done for us. Me thinks quite a lot possibly more than the IFA.

Those of us in the echo chamber that is Twitter have been discussing the impact of unpaid internships and volunteer work in archaeology on the sector. Whilst we may be in danger of disappearing up our own behinds on this topic (and have a look at the hashtag #freearchaeology, if you feel the urge), it would be very interesting to get some input from the forum here. Having looked at the limited data on the subject in various reports and surveys of UK commercial archaeology, this doesn't yet seem an area that sees a lot of unpaid internships - and the IFA has policies about unpaid labour on site etc etc. However, this is an area where those of us at the beginning of a career in archaeology (and I use career with caution, given the likelihood of actually making a living out of it for a lifetime) are increasingly needing to gain an edge in a crowded market for jobs. Working for free and 'learning on the job' - is this a 'thing' for field archaeology's future? Or any part of archaeology or heritage/museums work? Is this something to be expected, if universities don't prepare graduates for the commercial field? Does an unpaid internship bring real benefits to the intern, or is it a cheap way of staffing a project? What happens if you can't afford to take an internship? What are the benefits of employing interns? Is this another aspect of the precarious nature of an archaeological career, and should we just put up and shut up?

You might also like to look at Sam Hardy's blog on Unfree Archaeology and the precarity of the archaeological sector: http://unfreearchaeology.wordpress.com/

Any (polite) thoughts on the subject would be welcome.

http://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/soils-dat...-of-mull-s

Quote: This Soils dataset provides soil type information for soils in the Glengorm area of the Isle of Mull. This is part of a study conducted in the 1980s and 1990s which examined prehistoric ritual monument locations and their visibility across the landscape of the area. The study included the application of a GIS for viewshed analysis.


Datasets incorporated into this study and application included soils, coast and lochs, coastline, drainage capacity of soils, land capability, rivers, elevation and slope aspects and distribution patterns of cairn, cist, duns, fort and stone sites.

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/c...on-5722721

Developers who built the council HQ building are in breach of a planning condition for not completing the archaeological work.
Cheshire West and Chester Council has issued a breach of condition notice against Swansea-based Liberty Properties Ltd for failing to produce a full report for publication in an academic journal and failing to deposit the archive at the Grosvenor Museum within three years of completion of the fieldwork.

Archaeologists carried out the dig prior to construction of the council offices, luxury apartments and Abode hotel in the largest excavation to have taken place in Chester in more than 30 years.

Traces of the medieval Benedictine nunnery and cemetery were also revealed along with more than 100 skeletons.


The company is warned that it faces prosecution in the magistrates court and a fine if fails to complete the post-excavation programme within two years of the notice being issued.

Hi All,

I am conducting a survey for my dissertation, which focuses on the use and implementation of sampling methodologies used in all sectors of archaeology. The survey can be found at the link below, and it is only 9 questions. It is aimed at being as broad as possible so that it gives more of an overview of how sampling is being carried out. If any of you fine archaeologists can find 5 minutes to tick a few boxes, that would be excellent!

Any questions you have, or any bits of odd archaeological knowledge that bubbles its way to the forefront of your wonderful minds that may help me in my research, please feel free to post it here! I welcome all feedback! (because this hasn't been marked yet so if you can see a massive flaw in my ideas Please point it out so i can do something about it :face-approve

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JV357P9 - survey can be found here!

thank you!

Hello all,

I'm after some advice about archaeology/heritage jobs abroad and wondered if any of you could help me?

My other half, who doesn't work in archaeology/heritage, has a job interview for a company in Ireland soon (found out yesterday). If he is successful I would move over to Ireland (Dublin area) with him.

What are the rules/regs of working in archaeology in Ireland? Do I need to get a licence? What's the job market like?

Any help/advice would be great

Thanks

IfA has recently updated Policy statements to include the use of training posts on archaeological projects. Other statements have also been amended in line with new Standards and guidance and amendments to the Code of conduct.

We recommend all IfA members and Registered Organisations have a look through the updated document and make it available to colleagues.

The document, which can be found here, includes the following Policy Statements

• Equal opportunities in archaeology
  
• Health and safety
  
• The use of volunteers and students on archaeological projects
  
• Environmental protection
  
• Self-employment and the use of self-employed sub-contractors
  
• The use of training posts on archaeological projects
  

i need to find some archaeologists fast. the clients window has changed and i will lose this job if i can not respond. i've exhausted all the usual avenues and the only people available have less than 6 months digging experience.
on the one hand there are a few local lads who can shift muck all day, have no degree but dont mind being donkeys for the site po who is old school work hard and drink hard, they cant drive and will have to be ferried to site.
on the other hand there are a clutch of female archaeology graduates, new generation pifas, who live miles away but can drive themselves to site. their cvs suggest they volunteered at local units whilst studying but dosent amount to much.
the site is a hard slog quarry job with some big fat prehistoric enclosures and a massive waterlogged section which will need constant pumping.
they need to start tomorrow - who should i hire?

It never ceases to amaze me how bloody cheeky commercial units are when they advertise for staff. Not only do they continue using the 'self employed' card, a certain northern unit take note, they continue to take the piss when employing excavation staff. So a graduate or entry level digger wanting employment with commercial units are expected to have a CSCS card AND IFA membership...on the crap wages they are offering thats extracting the urine. In 25 years as a field archaeologist I thought Id seen it all. The IFA for all their posturing has in my experience done nothing for anybody other than IFA members so diggers would be better of joining a union....thats if the unit recognises unions. By all means go get a CSCS card if your desperate but CSCS cards should be supplied and paid for by the employer, same as PPE and safety equipment.