10th September 2009, 03:31 PM
david Wrote:SO what I am getting is that you are doing temporal contamination mitigation for developers because they are told to and for no other reason? (sorry to be harsh)
this does seem to stress the point that commercial archaeology and the pursuit of research/community driven archaeology are very different.
I quite like the sound of being described as a 'temporal contamination mitigation engineer' - archaeologist is such a messy word.
Effectively, yes I do feel that I am carrying out the work because the developers are being told to do so, but what that includes, when something of interest is found, is publication/making the results accessible and user friendly. Not to mention producing a probably quite boring but equally accessible report to boot! What more do you want? Does every site have to have two or three village elders present to make sure they know what's going on? Everyone has the opportunity to comment on applications anyway beforehand - do people also get to come and say 'I don't like those windows' or 'that paint scheme's a bit wacky' while the work is in progress? No, they don't, because developments would never be able to be completed if that happened. I totally agree with the sentiment that people should be able to find out about what's happening when it happens, but it is a bit difficult to insist on it as part of the planning condition not to mention the practical difficulties. There is a limit to the involvement the community can have as these things take place. That's why the aptly named 'community projects' are more appropriate.
I also agree that we are providing a service for the public, but there has to be some common sense about how this manifests itself. After all, you are providing a service for archaeologists but I don't expect to be able to turn up at your house, look over your shoulder, ask questions, eat your biscuits, use your toilet etc. Similarly, the local council provide a service for the public but I don't expect to be able to go and borrow their photocopiers...
We are temporal contamination engineers, the only difference between what we do and what other types of contamination engineers do is that nobody wants to see their findings in a museum or glossy report, and they certainly don't want to visit them on site.