9th April 2008, 03:45 PM
However, there was a terrible problem with what was called 'backlog'
Sadly this has not changed all that much and deposition of the archive often comes 5-10 years after the excavation (I'm not talking about small watching briefs here, where deposition is pretty quick in my experience), whether or not the report has appeared in the public domain. Terribly frustrating for curators and the public who are looking for displays which can really tell us something about the archaeology of the area. I'm not exclusively blaming the Units, many of whom are doing an excellent job with limited resources. Clearly though there is often a problem with getting major sites published and transferred to a museum - the latter often being short of staff and storage as well.
Sadly this has not changed all that much and deposition of the archive often comes 5-10 years after the excavation (I'm not talking about small watching briefs here, where deposition is pretty quick in my experience), whether or not the report has appeared in the public domain. Terribly frustrating for curators and the public who are looking for displays which can really tell us something about the archaeology of the area. I'm not exclusively blaming the Units, many of whom are doing an excellent job with limited resources. Clearly though there is often a problem with getting major sites published and transferred to a museum - the latter often being short of staff and storage as well.