27th October 2008, 12:49 PM
Sir Mortimer Wheeler (allegedly) sold sling shot to tourists for a shilling each to find his Maiden Castle excavations!!
Problem with the bulk of finds is that they disappear into a warehouse somewhere, never to be seen again - if we are going to excavate and curate vast tonnages of finds, the burning question is "How do we persuade the politicians that funding should be available so that archives can be properly stored, in such a way that anyone who wants to look at them or use them for research, at any level, can get access to them?" With the follow on "How do we get the results of research into the public domain in a way that the layman finds interesting and informative so that they get some benefit from the amount of archaeological work being done with their money (even developer funding ultimately comes down to Joe and Jane Public paying for it via the costs of products!)
Problem with the bulk of finds is that they disappear into a warehouse somewhere, never to be seen again - if we are going to excavate and curate vast tonnages of finds, the burning question is "How do we persuade the politicians that funding should be available so that archives can be properly stored, in such a way that anyone who wants to look at them or use them for research, at any level, can get access to them?" With the follow on "How do we get the results of research into the public domain in a way that the layman finds interesting and informative so that they get some benefit from the amount of archaeological work being done with their money (even developer funding ultimately comes down to Joe and Jane Public paying for it via the costs of products!)