23rd October 2012, 08:49 PM
I think Time Team did a lot of good in terms of raising the profile of the field profession. But I also feel that was its downfall. It was too concerned with fairly immediate results and less interested in the ideas and debate that the best of us try to feed into what we are interpreting at the trowel's edge.
So, it did us a great service in the sense that, in commercial archaeology, we were instantly recognisable and valued amongst construction teams on site because they had an idea of what we might discover and how it fitted into the structure of British material culture. That we have been accepted amongst construction companies and groundworker crews, has been substantially facilitated by Time Team as a TV phenomenon, along with other factors. In short, I think it made everybody within construction think about what just might be there and how cool it might be. The corporate client will always look to the PR (as is natural) but the construction workers on site are prepared to fit in around you because what you do has been demonstrated to be intrinsically (non-commercially) valuable (certain archaeological contractors please take note!)
But, without new ideas of interpretation, and because it contained a cosy parochialism, it was always destined to thrive and die within "the alternative to Songs of Praise" slot, to be savoured in the company of grandchildren and Viscount biscuits. Personally, I wd have liked Time Team to branch out abroad and demonstrate how archaeology can challenge preconceptions of the past by simply digging deeper and seeing where the evidence can take you. I wd love to have seen, for instance, a Time Team special on the West Bank (or, more riskily, Israel itself) to see how Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists go about confronting their respective and shared pasts and dealing with it. You never know, it might demonstrate that we are all fundamentally decent people!
So, it did us a great service in the sense that, in commercial archaeology, we were instantly recognisable and valued amongst construction teams on site because they had an idea of what we might discover and how it fitted into the structure of British material culture. That we have been accepted amongst construction companies and groundworker crews, has been substantially facilitated by Time Team as a TV phenomenon, along with other factors. In short, I think it made everybody within construction think about what just might be there and how cool it might be. The corporate client will always look to the PR (as is natural) but the construction workers on site are prepared to fit in around you because what you do has been demonstrated to be intrinsically (non-commercially) valuable (certain archaeological contractors please take note!)
But, without new ideas of interpretation, and because it contained a cosy parochialism, it was always destined to thrive and die within "the alternative to Songs of Praise" slot, to be savoured in the company of grandchildren and Viscount biscuits. Personally, I wd have liked Time Team to branch out abroad and demonstrate how archaeology can challenge preconceptions of the past by simply digging deeper and seeing where the evidence can take you. I wd love to have seen, for instance, a Time Team special on the West Bank (or, more riskily, Israel itself) to see how Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists go about confronting their respective and shared pasts and dealing with it. You never know, it might demonstrate that we are all fundamentally decent people!