20th December 2004, 07:37 PM
I think you might be being a bit harsh on regions which have closely connected contracting and curatorial divisions there. Yes it can be open to abuse, but so can any other system, i would argue that a contracting team allied closely to the curatorial probably gets more closely monitored than any other unit - after all the curatorial officer can see, on a daily basis, the material recovered, records/photos made - which should give a clue whether its all going to plan.
Yes there could be an element of getting work for the field team but as long as standards are maintained, so what? And if the two divisions get two matey then everybody else starts getting suspicious - developers wonder what all there money has actually paid for....
what is bloody useful is to be able to walk into the office and have an informal chat with the curatorial team about how the developers are pouring concrete or digging holes all over the place b4 u get a chance to look and getting them on the warpath for the archaeology's benefit.
Yes there could be an element of getting work for the field team but as long as standards are maintained, so what? And if the two divisions get two matey then everybody else starts getting suspicious - developers wonder what all there money has actually paid for....
what is bloody useful is to be able to walk into the office and have an informal chat with the curatorial team about how the developers are pouring concrete or digging holes all over the place b4 u get a chance to look and getting them on the warpath for the archaeology's benefit.