Festival of BRITISH archaeology ?

[BAJR Host]

It all happened in 2003 when NAW which was UK wide and was September... changed...
Scotland kept on with September.. which is better for us up here
England and Wales went to July, to also tap into excavations happening down in that part of the UK

Archaeology Scotland are a separate charitable organisation ... and CBA work with them, but still work in Scotland separately.

Scotland has an archaeology month.. specific to Scotland... the other event.. which is great as well.. is in England and Wales. I think both fill the need... and there is no conflict in the events... the only problem (in my humble opinion) is the naming of the English/Welsh event, which has now decided to rename itself Festival of British Archaeology my vote would have been that both the Scottish Archaeology Month and the Festival of British Archaeology remain.. BUT the British is dropped from the non british event. Just becasue we are invited to participate... does not cut it with me... as it maintains a Them and US ... We (the scottish) are allowed to participate... thanks very much... but we, are already doing something in September.. thanks for the kind offer.. (doffs hat)

So the split actually came from England wales, which swapped to July.

As Weegie say... We are Thrawn!



"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers

[RedEarth]

Of course the bigger issue is with the CBA - Council for 'British' Archaeology is it not. Are they now in need of a name change since Archaeology Scotland exists. Perhaps they need an English and Welsh versions a la EH, Cadw, HS. Otherwise it does seem a bit farsical, especially when they do daft things like announce a Festival of 'British' Archaeology.

[Weegie]

I think that's going a bit far, RedEarth. The CBA still supports or hosts genuinely national initiative such as Young Archaeologists Club or trans-national ones such as the BIAB.

Leaving the vexed question of the Festival of 'British' Archaeology aside, there is still a need for devolved and national representative/lobbying bodies for archaeology so long as we have both devolved and national government. Except, of course, that there isn't any devolved government for England....

Brian

[BAJR Host]

Agreed brian .. the issue of Festival of British and the CBAs (genuine) national initiatives are different.

There is great potential though for Arch Scotland to take on the whole, where therer would be no need for CBA to carry out anything in SCotland, and they can work together as equal partners on a national level. It can be a bit confusing when you have the CBA, CBA regional groups.. CBA national groups and Archaeology Scotland, which is a partner and separate charity, but at the same time part of the whole... aw ma heid.

"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers

[RedEarth]

The whole thing seems unnecessarily complicated to me. If the CBA is indeed a national organisation (however that nation is defined, que emails from the inhabitants of Berwick and various off-shore rocks about not actually being part of the Union!) why does The Council for Scottish Archaeology exist? If I could draw ven diagrammes in a post I'm sure I could demonstrate the seeming pointlessness of it (in connection with BAJRs favourite comedians, I believe Stewart Lee does a similar deconstruction of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' whereby 'all things' of course includes 'bright and beautiful' and everything else in the hymn) [video]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f4DoDpJfvaU[/video]

The point is, why have more than one organisation if one is supposedly covering the whole country. If it isn't then shouldn't there be separate ones for each part?

[angi]

So have you volunteered to take along a set of flashcards to illustrate the point? [:p]

[historic building]

It is all getting a bit Life of Brian really.

[BAJR Host]

splitter!

thats the Popular Festival of Archaeology in Britain...

we're the British Festival of Archaeology :face-stir:

"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers

[RedEarth]

quote:Originally posted by angi

So have you volunteered to take along a set of flashcards to illustrate the point? [:p]

I think I can probably draw a circle inside a circle without too much difficulty, and even without using a compass!

If someone could just tell me how to insert an image....

[Oxbeast]

The CBA are also publishing a series on Scottish historic burghs http://www.britarch.ac.uk/pubs/scotland.html
So the CBA stil covers the whole of Britian in at least some respects.

On the timing of the archaeology event: does it really make any sense to put it just before the school holidays in Englsnd and Wales (which BTW are aparrently different for different schools now)? Surely you'd get more participation if it were during the school holidays? and you'd want it when the most research digs are on...