11th September 2009, 07:12 PM
I think you can argue for both, I've seen and worked on commercial projects which could be classed as either. I take my hat off to RedEarth for being honest enough to acknowledge the role of commercial archaeological companies as Heritage Contamination Clearance sub-contractors to the development industry but am also aware that this is not the complete picture. There are many examples where credible research has been done within the commercial sector based on developer funded projects which have substantially added to the body of knowledge available to the researcher. Is it that we as a body present a split personality to the client because we are a fundamentally schizophrenic discipline who can't even talk to each other in one language/voice let alone present a united front to those we should be selling ourselves to?