22nd February 2011, 06:46 PM
Q. What is produced? A. Information=knowledge.
Q. Why produce it? Knowledge is power.
Q. Who for? A. The communities we live in.
The principle aim of archaeology is discovery and research, with the commercial arm making the discoveries and the academics doing the research. The two cross over but the main point is what is in between? The rest of us. Stuck between these two monoliths fighting each other and also fighting for survival. Each monolith is in effect also cracked and fragmented. What 'archaeology' needs is gluing together. 'Archaeology' - the people who work in it as a profession and care about our heritage and want to see that it has relevence and meaning to all. Without that the three questions above should be binned and we should all go home and look for other work.
Meaning means value. Value for heritage is latent in all humanity. "Minimal interest". "Minority interest". Rubbish. Look at Saturdays Guardian in the Review section. We all know of the destruction of the Bamiyan buddhas. The Taliban did this to "consciously and deliberately turn their backs on Afganistan's long history... Today, in a political context of de-Talibanisation, we are returning to the notion of a historically open, culturally pluralist Afganistan". Many other examples could be sited of an elite using heritage (and its destruction) to underpin their power. Heritage is at the heart of all we do and all we are individually as a unique culture bearing species.
I could point out that visiting heritage sites/museums is the biggest recreational activity. Don't care. That would still leave open a charge of minority interest used as an insult. We all have our individual history, which connects us to our family history and then to our community/national/international history. There are no fault lines.
So where does 'archaeology' go from here after 21 years of being a profession? Commercial archaeologists are paid after the 'revolution' of 1990. Academics continue to be paid to research (and occassionally teach those pesky students). Community archaeology is even more fragmented than commercial archaeology. Lonely individuals, mostly, also struggling for crumbs of funding and fees. Closed little worlds not talking or helping each other. Jealous of others who may steal their ideas. But this is the time to come together and be the glue that binds the profession together. To present a unified face to the public. A face that says "lets work together to celebrate our shared heritage and story". We don't need to argue that it has meaning for everyone because they already know that, if they are asked. If they are talked to. All those who wish to work with and for the public need to get together and work together to push this agenda forward.
All the gripes about why we do this work, why is it so undervalued will be answered, if we just acknowledge that value comes from public engagement and public acclaim for this work.
We need a central point so that we can all get to know each other; to find out what we are doing; to share work and experiences and ideas in an open and trusting way. In this age of mass communication lets start talking and then meeting. Commercial archaeology has its part - academic archaeology has its part - we have a part to play also.
Q. Why produce it? Knowledge is power.
Q. Who for? A. The communities we live in.
The principle aim of archaeology is discovery and research, with the commercial arm making the discoveries and the academics doing the research. The two cross over but the main point is what is in between? The rest of us. Stuck between these two monoliths fighting each other and also fighting for survival. Each monolith is in effect also cracked and fragmented. What 'archaeology' needs is gluing together. 'Archaeology' - the people who work in it as a profession and care about our heritage and want to see that it has relevence and meaning to all. Without that the three questions above should be binned and we should all go home and look for other work.
Meaning means value. Value for heritage is latent in all humanity. "Minimal interest". "Minority interest". Rubbish. Look at Saturdays Guardian in the Review section. We all know of the destruction of the Bamiyan buddhas. The Taliban did this to "consciously and deliberately turn their backs on Afganistan's long history... Today, in a political context of de-Talibanisation, we are returning to the notion of a historically open, culturally pluralist Afganistan". Many other examples could be sited of an elite using heritage (and its destruction) to underpin their power. Heritage is at the heart of all we do and all we are individually as a unique culture bearing species.
I could point out that visiting heritage sites/museums is the biggest recreational activity. Don't care. That would still leave open a charge of minority interest used as an insult. We all have our individual history, which connects us to our family history and then to our community/national/international history. There are no fault lines.
So where does 'archaeology' go from here after 21 years of being a profession? Commercial archaeologists are paid after the 'revolution' of 1990. Academics continue to be paid to research (and occassionally teach those pesky students). Community archaeology is even more fragmented than commercial archaeology. Lonely individuals, mostly, also struggling for crumbs of funding and fees. Closed little worlds not talking or helping each other. Jealous of others who may steal their ideas. But this is the time to come together and be the glue that binds the profession together. To present a unified face to the public. A face that says "lets work together to celebrate our shared heritage and story". We don't need to argue that it has meaning for everyone because they already know that, if they are asked. If they are talked to. All those who wish to work with and for the public need to get together and work together to push this agenda forward.
All the gripes about why we do this work, why is it so undervalued will be answered, if we just acknowledge that value comes from public engagement and public acclaim for this work.
We need a central point so that we can all get to know each other; to find out what we are doing; to share work and experiences and ideas in an open and trusting way. In this age of mass communication lets start talking and then meeting. Commercial archaeology has its part - academic archaeology has its part - we have a part to play also.