what is the point of doing medieval archaeology anyway?

[Winders]

Never mind WWII, what about all the Cold War goodies? Be grateful that 20th Century archaeology can actually be done commercially in the UK (here in NZ archaeology by law stops at 1900).

[kevin wooldridge]

Here in Norway, apart from shipwrecks and some aboriginal sites, archaeology 'stops' at 1537!!

(thats the year by the way, not the time we go home!!)

[Dinosaur]

Never mind WWII, what about all the Cold War goodies? Be grateful that 20th Century archaeology can actually be done commercially in the UK (here in NZ archaeology by law stops at 1900).

The sheep have had my site since 1945 (good news for the earthwork bit of the site, keep having a WOW moment every time I look across the area, then an EEK moment when I remember I'm supposed to do something with it), and unfortunately the client doesn't seem to want to pay us to dig all the ones that seem to have wound up in shallow graves since then. Does NZ have sheep buried all over it too?

[Wax]

Hope you know what those sheep died of (anthrax?). Once excavated a pit containing sheep bones and underneath them a 1950s Tomatoe sauce bottle :p Great dating evidence

[Dinosaur]

Leaving 'em alone, have dug plenty of sheep by mistake on this quarry over the years, can spot the holes now just by colour - and bones sticking out of neolithic earthworks seem to excite people anyway }

....if they thought they'd realise that any bone on this gravel is likely to be less that 50 years old....

[deadlylampshade]

Going back to the orignal question it would seem to be as much point as this thread...

Are you trying to get a job with Digging the Dirt, P Prentice?}

[P Prentice]

Going back to the orignal question it would seem to be as much point as this thread...

Are trying to get a job with Digging the Dirt, P Prentice?}

Hello Deadly

Well done you

[deadlylampshade]

Oooh...close and a cigar as well then! What a clever Lampshade...:face-approve:

[P Prentice]

Oooh...close and a cigar as well then! What a clever Lampshade...:face-approve:

many smarts indeed

[GnomeKing]

while we are on the subject.....What's the point in Roman Archaeology?...

We have to make some pragmatic choices. It is too easy for more 'visible' archaeology (eg med and Roman features, post med structures etc) to eat up too much time and money on a project (especially if they have to be removed stratagraphically...)....simply machining it away risks damage to earlier archaeology...therefore such archaeology must be defined before it can be Surgically Amputated...even if its contribution to knowledge is minuscule or non-existent.

however...far too many projects (for many reasons) seem to get completely bogged down in the 'obvious'/later (boring!) phases, and nearly fail time and time again to deal adequately with the 'obscure'/ephemeral/earlier (yeah!) phases, from which much more 'interesting' research s likely to be generated....

Yes, archaeology is a valuable tool in Modern/Medieval/Roman studies. But is is just one tool, and some aspects of these periods are extremely well researched./'documented' already.

In Prehistoric Studies, archaeology is the only tool, and many aspects are ripe for speculation, conjecture, and new evidence.

There is a systemic imbalance in the profession in regard of complex multi-period sites, whereby expenditure of time and resources is massively biassed towards later or more obvious archaeology (e.g. Roman+), and consequently earlier/ephemeral phases are scrappy and hurriedly excavated, if they are observed at all...