24th July 2012, 12:34 PM
Can but try }
The only way to learn how to dig holes is by digging holes - the main problem these days seems to be that there is no longer the opportunity for people to spend a few summers 'vol-ing' (I learnt to dig on school holidays) and learning to dig properly in a low-pressure environment like they could back in the '70s and '80s, and I'm afraid it shows. Basic skills like finding proper edges seem to have gone out of the window in favour of producing neat-looking (but often wrong) mass-produced sections and fill-in-all-the-boxes-with-any-old-garbage-as-long-as-it looks-neat-and-no-one's-likely-to-check-the-cross-referencing recording.
Unfortunately this has now been allowed to go on so long that often even the supervisors have the same poor skills, good for 'commercial' archaeology, b****y dire for the profession, certainly academically. I've seen a worrying number of cases (from several units) of paperwork that has been 'checked' but is still ridiculously wrong - why are there people being placed in supervisorial roles if they can't even manage the basics like checking if drawing A is on sheet B? And some of the 'conclusions' allowed through in grey lit reports are farcical (some would say some of mine too)
Ok, you can all shout at me now.....
The only way to learn how to dig holes is by digging holes - the main problem these days seems to be that there is no longer the opportunity for people to spend a few summers 'vol-ing' (I learnt to dig on school holidays) and learning to dig properly in a low-pressure environment like they could back in the '70s and '80s, and I'm afraid it shows. Basic skills like finding proper edges seem to have gone out of the window in favour of producing neat-looking (but often wrong) mass-produced sections and fill-in-all-the-boxes-with-any-old-garbage-as-long-as-it looks-neat-and-no-one's-likely-to-check-the-cross-referencing recording.
Unfortunately this has now been allowed to go on so long that often even the supervisors have the same poor skills, good for 'commercial' archaeology, b****y dire for the profession, certainly academically. I've seen a worrying number of cases (from several units) of paperwork that has been 'checked' but is still ridiculously wrong - why are there people being placed in supervisorial roles if they can't even manage the basics like checking if drawing A is on sheet B? And some of the 'conclusions' allowed through in grey lit reports are farcical (some would say some of mine too)
Ok, you can all shout at me now.....