Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ukraine in Flames, UK Archaeology Inert? - WB 25th March 2022 image

Ukraine in Flames, UK Archaeology Inert? - WB 25th March 2022

SoupCast
Avatar
105 Plays2 years ago

Welcome to Watching Brief. As the name implies, each week Marc (Mr Soup) & Andy Brockman of the Pipeline (Where history is tomorrow's news) cast an eye over news stories, topical media and entertainment and discuss and debate what they find.

#archaeologynews #thepipeline #archaeosoup

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/archaeosoup

***

0:00 Introduction

2:08 Recap of ArchUK4Ukraine

9:26 Reactions

11:08 CIfA’s Response

14:41 CBA’s Response

15:52 Comparison to Other Responses

16:46 Homes for Ukraine Scheme

18:38 FAME’s Response (Blocking Us)

21:56 Accidentally Global? Heritage Alliance

24:50 Why is it SO Hard for Them?

31:26 Ways Forward – Closing Thoughts

***

Link of the Week:

Disasters Emergency Committee:

https://www.dec.org.uk/

***

Links:

6 Things UK Archaeology Can do to Support Ukraine NOW! :

https://youtu.be/bfQqzuWsUJ8

Call to Action Card, share freely and widely - No copyright claimed by PipeLine, Archaeosoup or Watching Brief:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U6Ar_gnLj_dYa1jaf6Z3zFMJmV9Uem6S?usp=sharing

CIfA’s Response:

https://twitter.com/InstituteArch/status/1506329326509244417?s=20&t=fR8ddrQHYeuHZjudimJ0hw

The Threat to Ukraine’s Heritage – An Open Letter:

https://www.theheritagealliance.org.uk/blog/the-threat-to-ukraines-heritage-joint-letter/

“DON’T MENTION THE WAR” A Week of Fawlty Comms from CIfA, CBA & FAME:

http://thepipeline.info/blog/2022/03/27/dont-mention-the-war-a-week-of-fawlty-comms-from-cifa-cba-fame/

Recommended
Transcript

Introduction to Soupcast

00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Soupcast, coming to you from Archaeosoup Towers. By popular demand, we're taking selected videos from the Archaeosoup back catalogue and bringing them to you as convenient podcasts. As the name implies, with Archaeosoup you get a bit of everything thrown into the pot. Archaeology, discussion, humour and debate. You can find out more at archaeosoup.com. So sit back, relax and enjoy our hearty helping of Archaeosoup.
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm not sure I can

Leadership in Archaeology: Silence on Key Issues

00:00:39
Speaker
say what I want to say about that. I think a very measured and polite response from me would be to say that it's weird that you can have a tagline of being the voice of commercial archaeology and not speak. It's strange that you can put out statements and pronouncements and survey results on the status of the profession in this country and not want to listen

UK Archaeology's Response to Ukraine

00:01:18
Speaker
Anyway... Hello and welcome back to Watching Brief for the week of the 21st of March 2022. I am joined at ever by my co-host Mr Andy Brockman and together... Hello Andy by the way...
00:01:33
Speaker
Good afternoon, Mark. Good afternoon. Together, we, it's fair to say, have been waiting. It feels like we're waiting for a train. Waiting for Godot? Waiting for Godot, yes. We're waiting in some ways for, yes, God-like figures to actually speak.
00:01:51
Speaker
and the extent to which they have or haven't I suppose is up to you guys to judge in the course of this episode. It's going to be relatively short watching Brief as we want to get this, as it were, out this week because next week we have some people lined up who are on the ground in Ukraine and who have experience of the risk to people and heritage that's resulting from the Russian-Ukraine war.
00:02:20
Speaker
But all of this really stems from this week's episode from a video that I put out on Tuesday asking the leaders of UK archaeology to take or to consider taking some of six simple steps to support and to aid our colleagues and fellow humans in Ukraine during this crisis.
00:02:46
Speaker
So some people are wondering what on earth is it that CIFA, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, CBA, the Council for British Archaeology, and FAME, or F-A-M-E, the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers, can possibly do about the situation in Ukraine. And I've made a handy dandy list here because we've had sweet F-A so far. So here we go, here's a list for you. And number one, at the very least, and this is in capitals, very least,
00:03:17
Speaker
make a similar statement of solidarity to that which we've seen from comparable institutions in countries like Germany, America and Ireland and so on, so forth. It costs you nothing. In fact, it looks quite good. Consider it. You know, an awful lot of archaeologists care about this and you're supposed to represent us. You are our leaders, supposedly. Number two, highlight the government sponsorship scheme. Even our
00:03:45
Speaker
cynical government when it comes to influx of people have actually set up a scheme that helps people help other people. This could be done as it pertains to charities and other institutions within the heritage sector and at the very least we can offer safe harbour to citizens who are archaeologists and their families. If you want to chart an institute for archaeology go down that route because you obviously like to define what what the profession of an archaeologist should be and you have your different status of archaeologist and different
00:04:13
Speaker
levels, then, you know, use it, do it, engage with archaeologists who are fleeing this war zone. Anything would be great. Number three, offer advice and information to encourage large units such as Wessex, Mola, and others to follow suit. Where you go, hopefully they would follow, and that doesn't mean put pressure on anyone, but just make the advice available.

Preserving Cultural Heritage in Ukraine

00:04:37
Speaker
On a similar note, number four, highlight the Hague Convention. Encourage the creation of forums in public spaces to discuss the importance of preserving heritage and cultural, even tangible cultural treasures so that people have something to return to in Ukraine as and when they can.
00:04:58
Speaker
Saving people is one thing but as archaeologists we also care about archaeology, heritage and culture. So highlight public conversations. Do a public conversation. Have public conversations at least. Number five. Reach out to the public and highlight the ways in which the historic environment is at risk. How history and modern warfare are connected and generally raise the standard of conversation surrounding the relevance of the historic environment in a generalized view of our lives.
00:05:26
Speaker
i.e. name the stakes. What's at risk? What is being lost in addition to people's homes, in addition to people's livelihoods? We've seen theatres and museums and other places being targeted indiscriminately. What is the risk? What are the stakes? Again, costs you nothing. But it could really help the public conversation here in the UK if nothing else. Number six, stop being so tone deaf.
00:05:54
Speaker
Tweeting about inclusivity, neurodiversity and ethics while burying your heads on this issue is...
00:06:02
Speaker
inconsistent to say the least and that's the most polite word I can possibly think of to use in this instance. If you want the kudos of managing this sector, if you want to be the chartered institute for archaeology, if you want to be council for British archaeology and not allow grassroots campaigns to represent archaeology on the public stage, if you want to represent managers and employers then
00:06:30
Speaker
Do it. Be leaders. If you want to run the sector, then run it. Lead. Do something. So many archaeologists care about this stuff. I care about this stuff. And I'm going to keep on hassling until something happens. So far we've seen a retweet from a SIFA sub-account, a subcommittee that so far, including this retweet, had tweeted 36 times. And that's it.
00:06:57
Speaker
Oh, we also saw a retweet from CBA as well, but nothing actually out of your own mouths. Please do something. Step up.
00:07:08
Speaker
Accompanying that video was a call to action card that Andy and I put together as a way of enabling fellow archaeologists in particular who wanted to see and hear more from our leadership. This wasn't so much the beginning of a campaign,
00:07:30
Speaker
because it's not intended as being a centralized body of work in that sense, but certainly a way of helping people to voice their concerns and frustrations that we had seen bubbling away on Twitter over the past, well, the past month or so since this conflict began. The intention was to ask a basic question, why hasn't the leadership
00:07:53
Speaker
of UK archaeology, and three large membership organisations in particular, the Council for British Archaeology, which is the bridge between the amateur and the professional world, represents effectively all archaeologists. It's an educational charity. The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers, which represents the effectively commercial archaeology, so they contract a unit to... Well, they are the voice of commercial archaeology.
00:08:20
Speaker
That's how they style themselves on their website, absolutely. And finally, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, which is open to individual members and effectively is the organization that oversees professional standards in archaeology and ethics. And it has many initiatives and committees and so on that look at things like ethics. And in fact, there's a SIFA International Group that looks at international relations. So we were effectively
00:08:50
Speaker
asking those organizations to make clear where they stood on the Ukraine issue and hopefully to take a lead perhaps in facilitating at least some initiatives to assist colleagues in Ukraine and colleagues who felt that they had to leave Ukraine because of the current conflict.
00:09:14
Speaker
Well, but also as well, in that sense, fellow human beings. This week I've received messages from people who are saying, look, they don't have to be archaeologists, but our museum is doing this, or our local archaeology group is trying to do that.
00:09:30
Speaker
This was, I suppose, a call to see some recognition from a centralized leadership and to encourage a bit of coordinated action, I suppose. And it's interesting as well that we should say that
00:09:45
Speaker
there have been bodies that have responded in the UK. For example, the Society of Antiquaries did. So it's not silence, but these are the three main bodies and hitherto, at that point, more or less three weeks into the conflict, we had heard nothing.

Criticism of Eurocentric Focus

00:10:04
Speaker
Initially,
00:10:05
Speaker
The hashtag had lots of shares, lots of enthusiasm, people were very interested in it, and it did seem to be gaining some traction.
00:10:17
Speaker
Though it's fair to say that there was actually quite quickly some pushback from certain quarters on Twitter in particular. They were making the argument that this sort of initiative
00:10:36
Speaker
this sort of call to action was racist, potentially, because it was focusing on a European conflict and where is our voice on all the other conflicts in the world. That said though, if you go back through yours and mine Twitter accounts, for example, when Afghanistan was being evacuated, we were definitely talking about this with regards to Afghanistan and so on and so forth.
00:11:02
Speaker
Interesting point to point out there. And also actually it was a very protectionist tone. It was a tone of why are we asking people to speak out. Now we've already heard and we've already seen in the clip that I put out on Tuesday.
00:11:21
Speaker
One of the reasons I was most concerned is that the UK was very much seeming silent in comparison to America, to Ireland, to Germany, to UNESCO. We were falling behind. But at the very least, after 24, 48 hours, we did get some response, didn't we, on this hashtag?
00:11:46
Speaker
First out of the traps was C for the Charlton Institute for Archaeologists. They responded on the evening of March 22, which was the day that we put out the call to action card on the video and the hashtag. It was a double tweet on their official Twitter account, and this is what it said.
00:12:04
Speaker
SIFA's board has discussed its concerns about what is happening in Ukraine, but wishes to keep its public statements clearly focused on archaeology and not on world events generally. It is keeping a close eye on actions from organizations like Blue Shield International, which are experts in the protection of cultural property in conflict zones. We are also discussing plans with the European Archaeological Association for directing Ukrainian archaeologists and their families to archaeologists who might be willing to house or employ them.

Historical Advocacy for Cultural Protection

00:12:30
Speaker
But we are not ready to contact members about this yet.
00:12:34
Speaker
Now, obviously we're grateful they responded at all, but there's a couple of things I think our viewers will make their mind up about. One is whether you can actually make that differentiation between just talking about archaeology and not talking about world events, when possibly the most significant event that's happened certainly in Europe of its kind
00:12:58
Speaker
since World War II, which is how a lot of the political and military and humanitarian experts are describing the situation in Ukraine, when that is also having a severe effect on Ukraine's culture, on Ukraine's cultural and heritage workers and their families.
00:13:16
Speaker
And also as an organisation who historically have campaigned for the ratification of the Hague Convention when it comes to cultural and historical sites. Indeed, the UK archaeological community, and I think this is one of the reasons certainly that I found the silence that you've seen hitherto from those organisations odd, was that the UK government was late to ratifying Hague and the archaeological community
00:13:45
Speaker
campaign for it over many years, including many members of SIFA and the organisations themselves, you know, that they had meetings with government about ratifying Hague 1954, the Convention on Compararity in Conflict Zones. So to have this major world event with a powerful element of
00:14:11
Speaker
of danger to culture, to heritage, to the people who work in those fields and not to respond seem strange. The other point I make is that the discussion of plans with the European Archaeological Association for
00:14:32
Speaker
taking in Ukrainian archaeologists and their families. We've got no time scale on that. We don't know when those meetings were had or what was being said. The government sponsorship scheme, the homes for Ukraine scheme, which is the main scheme that Ukrainian people will come into the UK on, has been in being for just under two weeks now.
00:14:51
Speaker
And in that sense, not being ready to talk to our members, as Sifa says. Sifa isn't organizing that scheme. Sifa can just point their members, who are citizens of the United Kingdom, to that scheme. That's also an alternative phrase as well.
00:15:10
Speaker
I think, again, our viewers will make up their minds about that, whether that's an adequate response or not. The second organisation that we approached was the CBA, the Council of British Archaeology. We emailed Neil Redfern, who's the director of the CBA, with the questions and asking how it responded to our call to action card. And this is what he responded.
00:15:39
Speaker
Quote, the war in Ukraine is having a devastating impact on people's lives. The CBA does not intend to comment on your email. The next edition of British archaeology will contain features reflecting on this horrendous situation and its human cost. End quote.
00:15:56
Speaker
Now, again, that is, you know, it's a response. Our viewers will make up their mind whether it's a valid response. It's a response. It's a response to you. It's not a response on Twitter to the hashtag or to people who've been asking for a comment. It's also worthwhile saying at this venture, neither of those organizations, CFA nor CBA, have actually made a statement of solidarity
00:16:23
Speaker
with Ukraine as as I say so many others in other countries have comparable institutions that is anyway so continue and also and and also organizations in this country the Society of Antiquaries our most venerable organization for archaeologists and historians was very quick to release a statement of solidarity very soon after the conflict began there have also been statements and
00:16:51
Speaker
initiatives and discussions of support, for example, the Royal Institute of British Architects, I know people, for example, in the performing arts community, have been discussing how they can help artists, performers, choreographers, directors, who may have felt the need to leave Ukraine, how they can be supported to work to keep their skills up, dancers need to do class.
00:17:16
Speaker
or they lose their fitness. Things like that have been discussed. And again, we shouldn't forget that all of these people have the capacity as citizens to offer a room under the sponsorship scheme. It's not just about employers or particular skills.
00:17:33
Speaker
No, I think we need to make clear that the government's homes for Ukraine scheme, which can be criticized on various grounds, but on the face of it, it's open for individuals and organizations, including archaeological units.
00:17:52
Speaker
to sponsor people from Ukraine to come to England and they will be able to, they need to be able to provide accommodation for six months, but archaeological units often provide accommodation for their diggers on projects. So this isn't something that, we're not being asked to do something that's out of their comfort zone, it's something that they do routinely.
00:18:13
Speaker
um and it's it wouldn't be beyond the wit of somebody at one of those organizations just to say look this is something you can do you as an organization could sponsor somebody offer a room for six months and they will be allowed to work they're allowed to be uh to draw benefits they're allowed to
00:18:30
Speaker
to take part in full-time education and so on. It's a pretty open visa scheme relatively for the UK. And in that sense, it's not a work visa, though. They can work doing anything. So they could be sponsored by an archaeologist or an archaeological unit or whoever, and they could work as a milkman or as a teacher. Whatever. That's exactly it. Look, it's not a perfect scheme, but it's there.
00:19:00
Speaker
the organisations could say, you know, we endorse the support, we endorse supporting people from Ukraine. The government scheme is there, use it. That's all they had to say. And they've chosen not to. Okay. So that's CFA and CBA. What about FAME, the voice of professional archaeology?
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, indeed. FAME, it's an organization that is there, as you say, to promote the voice of commercial archaeology, which is a factory of the big archaeological units, like Nola, and Oxford, and Wessex, and so on. Its chair is a person called Dr. Kenneth Aitchison, who people might be aware of in connection with Landwood Research, which is the organization that does the profiling the profession surveys.
00:19:50
Speaker
Fame, I have asked on many occasions for fame to comment on issues that we raised in watching brief. They've never commented previously. However, when I sent them the request for comments on the questions that we'd asked the other two organisations, CBA and CIFA, fame
00:20:14
Speaker
gave me, well, it's a sort of indirect response.
00:20:21
Speaker
It was an automated response. Let's say that for a start. Basically, there's been a lot of talk about bots and automated responses and so on in the course of the Ukraine crisis in terms of cyber and what's so-called cyber warfare.
00:20:45
Speaker
Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that fame are involved in anything like that, but I did get a cyber response to the request for comment and questions. And I'm quoting again, quote, this email has been blocked. Please stop trying to get quotes, comment from fame, end quote. I should add that the pipeline Twitter account has also been blocked by fame.
00:21:11
Speaker
Now, again, fame, obviously, is a private organization. It is perfectly entitled not to comment if it chooses not to. But I would just point out to our viewer and make up their own mind that fame is also an organization that operates in the public sphere. It has a public website. It states it lobbies on behalf of its members and

Open Letter to Russian Culture Minister

00:21:35
Speaker
has meetings with government.
00:21:37
Speaker
And therefore, it is entirely legitimate for me, you, anyone to ask them questions about what they do and the attitudes of the organisation. I should just say, I think that kind of view is disappointing.
00:22:02
Speaker
I'm not sure I can say what I want to say about that. I think a very measured and polite response from me would be to say that it's weird that you can have a tagline of being the voice of commercial archaeology and not speak. It's strange that you can put out statements and pronouncements and survey results on the status of the profession in this country and not want to listen
00:22:33
Speaker
Anyway, so varying degrees of success, ranging from kindly don't contact us ever again, to effectively we don't do world events, except actually, it seems that maybe by accident, these organizations are involved in world events, aren't they, Andy?
00:22:59
Speaker
Well, yeah, look, one of the most recent responses to the Ukraine crisis is an open letter that has been written by a whole series of senior members of the heritage profession in Britain. It's entitled The Threat to Ukraine's Heritage, an open letter sent to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Olga Borisovna Lyobimova.
00:23:25
Speaker
So it's writing to basically President Putin's Minister of Culture and the Russian government. It's very strongly, it's relatively short, it's very strongly worded, we'll link to it below. But essentially,
00:23:41
Speaker
I will read the last couple of paragraphs. It says, we urge you to do your utmost to end the war which creates an increasing threat to both life and cultural heritage and to plead the case with your own government for the avoidance of further destruction of cultural heritage in any form during this war. While bombing continues, loss of life and the damage and loss of historic buildings and collections and sites is inevitable.
00:24:04
Speaker
We are a group of UK conservationists, architectural historians, archaeologists, cultural commentators, authors and campaigners for heritage and the wider cultural heritage who have united this week to monitor threats and losses to architectural and cultural heritage in Ukraine during this war. Now among the signatories of that letter
00:24:25
Speaker
are Dan Fiona Reynolds, who's the chair of the International Trusts Organization. We've got the director of the Victorian Society, the director of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, even the editor, the architectural editor of the magazine Country Life, which has a reputation at least in looking at traditional British country with very nice houses and beautiful cows.
00:24:54
Speaker
but significantly, and significantly for the story we're telling this afternoon, it's also signed by Lizzie Glithero West, who's a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She's the Chief Executive of the Heritage Alliance, and among the membership of the Heritage Alliance are the Council for British Archaeology, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, and the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers.
00:25:23
Speaker
I'll leave our viewer to work that one out.

Disappointment in Leadership and Call for Action

00:25:28
Speaker
So where does this leave us at the end of the week? We started the week hopeful. I sort of started the week hopeful, a little bit annoyed by a lack of action. For my part, I suppose the one question I have is why is it so hard to make a statement of support?
00:25:50
Speaker
I don't understand. I really don't understand because it's not support, sorry, it's not support in to the exclusion of supporting anything else. It's starting somewhere and starting now. And I don't understand. Look, I think I've got a couple of responses to it very quickly.
00:26:17
Speaker
One is, journalistically, I find it very disappointing that those three organisations haven't engaged more fully with this discussion. And with this issue, to be frank, because sure as heck their members are, we see that in the response to things like the disaster's emergency committee appeal, which has broken records in terms of the amount of money it's raised.
00:26:44
Speaker
And many, many people in our profession, in the professions that they oversee, will have contributed to that appeal, if not many of the others that are currently underway. I think it's disappointing that they haven't responded to the situation in Ukraine. I think it's disappointing that they haven't shown any leadership in terms of setting up any initiatives or even just endorsing other initiatives.
00:27:09
Speaker
or encouraging public conversation about the value of heritage. Like these are, this is as simple as saying, do you like apple pie? Yes, apple pie is great. And they can't bring themselves and say, is heritage worthwhile saving heritage body? They can't bring themselves to say, yes, it is. It's great. I don't. Yeah, go on. I'm sorry.
00:27:30
Speaker
No, all I was going to say was, yeah, look, they have made their statements or chosen not to at the moment. They may change their mind. As it stands, obviously, so from CBA, we're waiting on a magazine to be published. Do you know when that's coming out?
00:27:47
Speaker
Well, the May and June edition is the next one to come out. It comes out I think in early April and the copy date was the 7th, according to the advertisers anyway, or at least the people that book the advertising for British Archaeology, the copy date was the 7th of March, so barely a week after the
00:28:13
Speaker
the crisis began. Now I have to say, and to be fair, Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, is very effective. He's got a way of commissioning good pieces. I believe there's an interview with me just there on the wall actually that he wrote.
00:28:34
Speaker
Well, you know, and I'm sure he showed you off to your best. Now, Mike does a good job of archaeology, but as you say, it is a magazine that only comes out every other month. And this is a fast moving international situation that
00:28:50
Speaker
Many of our colleagues are caught up in. And that copy date, unless they stop press and put out an emergency editorial, that copy date will not be able to... Which is possible, which is entirely possible. Yeah, it runs the risk of not being able to actually make a competent comment on the current state of affairs when it comes to how people who are concerned can help people in and from and in and around Ukraine. That's true. That is to say, in and around this conflict. Yeah.
00:29:20
Speaker
I don't want to say much more because I think if I do I'll either swear or I'll get too visibly angry. I've barely even touched on frankly abuse that came my way this week just for asking people to consider any of six potential courses of action.
00:29:42
Speaker
uh I am disappointed um I'm not going to stop I'm not I'm not bruised to the point of going oh archaeology is rubbish archaeology is great I love archaeology um this is the reason why I felt the need to comment on this at the beginning of the week in that sense but um hopefully next week we'll have other voices on and they they'll be able to speak for them for themselves yeah absolutely I mean the point I'd like to end on really is uh there's a
00:30:14
Speaker
a well-known phrase which is that don't ignore the possible in pursuit of the perfect.
00:30:23
Speaker
and yes, it will be fantastic. A statement, sorry, the perfect, the perfect, I'm not asking for the perfect, but people have just been pushing for a statement, you know, a statement, a non-committal statement of support is not perfect, sorry, go on. See, I told you I needed to be quiet, go on, go ahead. Okay, look, okay, the idea is that
00:30:51
Speaker
Yes, it would be wonderful to talk about Syria and Yemen and Tigray and indeed lots of us have done and we've done watching briefs on many of those issues as well. But it is a fact of life. It's a fact of politics. It's a fact of the media that the more complexity you add to something, the more difficult it is to actually get traction with it.
00:31:21
Speaker
Ukraine being so ubiquitous at the moment, being such an egregious case of aggression, it would appear. And having such cut through with the public, certainly at the moment, although one does hear suggestions that the public maybe started to become quote, Ukraine out, horrible phrase. It was an opportunity to both help people here and now who are facing the most appalling situation.
00:31:48
Speaker
fellow human beings, as you said, and also leverage perhaps further campaigns, further support for people in those other countries who are facing analogous situations. And I think the other thing, and it's the point I'd like to finish on, it was made by a colleague on Twitter today, or at least that I read today, I can't remember the exact date of the post was made.
00:32:14
Speaker
But this person observed that organizations, leadership organizations like CBA, like CFA, like FAME need to have a disaster plan that they can pull off the shelf in a situation like this.
00:32:31
Speaker
that has been pre-approved by any boards and committees and working groups, if necessary. And maybe just some pertinent details need to be tweaked and voted on, perhaps. Precisely. I think the thing that strikes me most about this is that when
00:32:56
Speaker
many organisations, both in the UK and internationally, were nimble and quick on their feet. The leadership bodies in UK archaeology have really been playing catch up and they're quite a long way behind.
00:33:15
Speaker
As I say, I won't say anything else. Next week, we have got some people lined up. We're still finalizing that. But these are archaeologists and others with connections to or living in the sphere of the conflict. And it sounds as though that's going to be a very good opportunity for us to step out of the way and give the platform to some other people as well.
00:33:42
Speaker
I'm looking forward to that. And as I said, I didn't want this frustration to bleed into that episode next week. So hopefully that'll be a good one. Probably quite a long one as well. We'll definitely give people the room to speak as and how they need to.
00:34:00
Speaker
Anything else, Andy? Are we waiting on any further comments? And where should people look out for it, if anything further? No, I'm going to be writing up the detail of this pipeline, so they'll be asking the pipeline coming out over the weekend. And the other thing I would say is, regardless of what anybody else says or thinks,
00:34:20
Speaker
follow the situation in Ukraine, and if you feel driven to, there are many initiatives to help people in Ukraine across many fields. Look them up. As for the last couple of weeks, our link of the week is the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal. That's the appeal that's set up by a consortium of British NGOs who are supplying aid to refugees, but also aid to people in country where it's possible to reach them.
00:34:48
Speaker
You don't need leadership to sign up to it, although the kind of leadership and expertise of international relationships and economies of scale that the representative bodies can provide if they choose to would be nice. But as individuals, we can all try and help our fellow human beings in Ukraine. And that's, in the end, the most important thing. Okay, guys, until next time, we do take care. Bye-bye.
00:35:34
Speaker
This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archapodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.