21st March 2011, 02:16 PM
the invisible man Wrote:Unfortunately the "hobbyists", or amateur archaeologists, or the public simply interested in archaeology/heritage etc, are actually encouraged to be opposed to professionals and commercial archaeology and to somewhat demonize them as "the enemy" - by the very periodical under discussion. The editor in chief may well welcome cuts and the reduction of the commercial sector in the (misguided) belief that this will allow oppurtunities for the amateur.
Sirs,
You do the very periodical under discussion a disservice. Whilst the Editor-in-Chief’s views could be described as uncompromising in the extreme (particularly his libertarian principles in relation to commercially funded excavations) this by no means reflects the current editorial stance. Let us not forget, this debate was itself stimulated by the CA ‘Archaeology after the Cuts’ special, followed up by the special debate at the British Museum.
Yours recalcitrantly,
Diggingthedirt (Tunbridge Wells).