1st August 2008, 03:36 PM
"My more general point is perhaps that the seperation (which is maybe now growing?) between England and Scotland (I'll leave everyone else out for the time being) isn't very helpful if you live fairly close to the edge of either. There are infinately more similarities in the archaeology of the region I work in with Scotland, yet the perception of English archaeology is very heavily southern biased."
Right enough - the problem with the use of modern political boundaries to define archaeology is that is doesn't really work for those periods when the political boundaries were elsewhere. I must admit that I hoped that once Scotland had its own assembly the level of anti-English sentiment would decrease as it would become apparent that it wanst all "England's Fault". From personal experience the opoosite may be happening - this is on the basis of being a Scot, living and working in NW England and married to an Essex girl (in the geographical rather than joke sense - she has never owned a pair of white stilettos in all the years we have been married) and going up to Scotland reasonably frequently where unkind comments based on her Englishness have been directed against her.
Right enough - the problem with the use of modern political boundaries to define archaeology is that is doesn't really work for those periods when the political boundaries were elsewhere. I must admit that I hoped that once Scotland had its own assembly the level of anti-English sentiment would decrease as it would become apparent that it wanst all "England's Fault". From personal experience the opoosite may be happening - this is on the basis of being a Scot, living and working in NW England and married to an Essex girl (in the geographical rather than joke sense - she has never owned a pair of white stilettos in all the years we have been married) and going up to Scotland reasonably frequently where unkind comments based on her Englishness have been directed against her.