24th September 2008, 03:24 PM
Quote:quote:
There is certainly a gulf between 'academia' and 'commercial' archaeologies. But this is not unbridgeable, it just requires a lot of effort by both parties to engage. Bob's Roman site provides a good case study of the right sort of approach. See also Richard Bradley's paper in the Antiquaries Journal a couple of years ago.*
Finally, it is interesting (and worrying) that no-one has yet made reference to the various regional research frameworks that have been painstakingly produced by a mixture of commercial, curatorial and academic archaeologists under the aegis of English Heritage over the last few years. Most of these are already at some stage of publication, and many are on line - just do a Google search on "archaeological research frameworks".
Does this lack of interest on BAJR mean that these frameworks are not known about? Or irrelevant? Or not good enough?
* Bradley, R. 2006,'Bridging the two cultures. Commercial archaeology and the study of prehistoric Britain', Antiquaries Journal, 86, 1-13
You're absolutely right, the gulf is quite bridgeable and I know of cases where this happens, but there are undoubtedly plenty where it doesn't and no-one is any the wiser. How would anyone know if someone from a university, especially from outside of the area, was doing work apart from word of mouth, which is not very reliable. Similarly, if some commercial work was being done it could be quite difficult to find out unless the papers picked up on it, or, again by word of mouth. In both cases the alternative might be waiting a long time until it is published, if it ever is. Again, a more joined up approach would be helpful.
The research frameworks are one of the best things to happen to archaeology in years as far as I can see. The one for my region is excellent because it is able to cover both academic and commercial work, and has very up to date information. They should be done more often. They are also much more useful than a lot of the detailed site-specific work paid for by developers, highlighting the need for more syntheses.