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“Crisis? What Crisis?” The Canaries Down the Coal Mine of UK Archaeology - WB 4th Feb 2022
89 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
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0:00 Introduction
1:40 Such Thing as a Good Rally?
17:15 Crisis? What Crisis?
32:31 Closing Thoughts
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Link of the Week:
LGBT+ History Month:
https://lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/
***
Links:
Metal detecting teen's top tips to find treasure:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-suffolk-60218383
IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS A GOOD RALLY? The Searcher
Prof Michael Lewis Head of Portable Antiquities Scheme:
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Crisis? What crisis? Archaeology under pressure in the United Kingdom, Archäologische Informationen 44, Early View
Paul Belford, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust:
https://dguf.de/fileadmin/AI/archinf-ev_belford.pdf
Has Groupthink & Gatekeeping Choked Public Archaeology Campaigning? - WB 30th Nov 2021:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Soupcast and Archaeosoup
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.
This Week's Watching Brief
00:00:28
Speaker
So sit back, relax and enjoy our hearty helping of Archaeosoup.
00:00:47
Speaker
Oh, and welcome back to Watching Brief for the week of the 28th of January, 2022.
LGBT+ History Month Highlight
00:00:56
Speaker
I suppose we're recording at the beginning of February, so this feels more like a February Watching Brief than a January one, but nonetheless, I am joined by my co-host, Mr. Andrew. Come on, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark. We're archaeologists. We're allowed a bit of flexibility on dates.
00:01:12
Speaker
Well, indeed, the calibration hasn't been performed on this particular set of results. Absolutely. I need to go and consult my bristlecone pie. Absolutely. But regardless of our margin forever, we have our ongoing watching brief that this week
00:01:32
Speaker
encompasses a couple of stories that we think are important, worthwhile looking at, including some print-operable PDF-type things. I've printed off this document here. Evidence, milord. And also as well, we also want to highlight right at the beginning of this week's episode that this week's link of the week, and I suppose of the month, I guess, to a certain extent, or rather pointing to this month,
00:01:59
Speaker
is for the LGBT Plus History Month. We've linked to the .co.uk website for
Controversy: Metal Detecting & Antiquities Scheme
00:02:06
Speaker
that. But I do believe there's events are happening all over the country and that's also well worth checking out.
00:02:14
Speaker
Ah, so lots to look at. Lots down below. Loads of links. Do check them out. But we're going to begin, I suppose, with the, not so much with the crisis that we pointed to in this video's title, but rather with, I don't know, is it a brewing crisis possibly in the positive antiquity scheme?
00:02:35
Speaker
I don't think it's a brewing crisis. I think it's a, if you like, a canary down the coal mine of UK or English in particular metal detecting, English and Welsh metal detecting. It's an article that has been published in the latest edition of the Searcher magazine, which is a metal detecting magazine, authored by Professor Michael Lewis, who's the head of the Portugal Antiquities Scheme, who's based in the British Museum. And again, our regular viewer will
00:03:03
Speaker
remember that the Portugal Antiquities Scheme is the voluntary scheme whereby any member of the public, but it's mostly metal detectorists, can report archaeological finds to what's called a finds liaison officer who are regionally based and it can be entered onto a national database which is then accessible to the public and
00:03:23
Speaker
if you make an application and the more detailed information is available to bona fide researchers. So it's a really important research tool, but it's also controversial, partly because it is only voluntary. There's no compulsion or anyone to record any archaeological find that they come across, unless it's treasure under the Treasure Act, in which case it's an offence not to report it.
00:03:46
Speaker
but also some archaeologists argue that it is too permissive in terms of letting metal detectorists off the hook in terms of either not reporting or not reporting in detail and almost serving
00:04:07
Speaker
encouraging metal detecting as an acceptable way of recovering historic archaeological finds. Some archaeologists argue that it shouldn't be recovered like that by members of the public. Well it's interesting because I mean recently we've covered a story haven't we where it's strongly suspected that metal detectorists have been using
00:04:25
Speaker
this database and others as a way of targeting their investigations and looking for sites where there's likely to be metal in the ground. And indeed eagle-eyed viewers of archaeosoup's, especially the Facebook page, will note a conversation that unfolded surrounding a video that was featured in the BBC archaeology news thread
00:04:49
Speaker
A young lady, I say because I'm increasingly old,
Improving Metal Detecting Practices
00:04:57
Speaker
was featured as a young treasure hunter. She was giving her hints and tips on how to find and what to do. There was some written subtitles in the video that did point to needing to get permission, for example, from the landowner.
00:05:10
Speaker
But the tone was one of, for example, she mentioned a couple of resources there as well, where these are databases that help you find things that you may well be able to find as recoverable and maybe even sellable artifacts. So it's in the water. It's in the water, isn't it?
00:05:29
Speaker
That's right. Now, this particular article by Professor Lewis is about metal detecting rallies. Metal detecting rallies is a form of metal detecting that's really grown like Topsy over the last few years. And essentially what happens is an individual group of individuals gets permission from a farmer, a landowner,
00:05:53
Speaker
and then stage a rally for metal detectorists, which they charge for. They are very controversial because for two reasons. Firstly, the sheer numbers of people involved. It's been likened to strip mining fields of archaeological material. And
00:06:16
Speaker
adding to the problem that that perceived problem is the, and as Professor Lewis points out in the article, that sheer number of people recovering potentially a lot of fines in the course of one day even, would completely overwhelm the ability of a local fines liaison officer to upload the information to the database, even if it was all recorded.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah. Were this a crop, this would be akin to a work gang. That's right. Going through the field and getting what they can, having to process it in bulk in that sense, what was recovered. So yeah, it's potentially an awful lot of work for the local FLO. Exactly. And potentially a lot of archaeological material that doesn't get
00:07:05
Speaker
either fully recorded or worse, isn't recorded at all. Now, as I say, it's perceived as a problem in the archaeological world that's been growing substantially over the last few years. Our regular viewer, regular readers of the pipeline will have seen a number of stories about
00:07:29
Speaker
metal detecting rallies, including the use of HGRs, as we've talked about, to specifically target known archaeology that isn't protected by scheduling. So what Professor Lewis is doing in this article, and I say it's in the searcher magazine, which is perhaps it's one of the probably two
00:07:51
Speaker
mainstream metal detecting magazines, but other to the other one being a treasure hunter. The search is probably the more traditional, perhaps slightly more conservative small see in terms of the hobby.
00:08:07
Speaker
It's billed as an exclusive briefing. And what Professor Lewis does is lay out potential issues in terms of rallies and the PIS and the failure, the importance of reporting fines fully with proper grid references and so on. And then he basically says, what is a good rally?
00:08:33
Speaker
Is it possible to have a good rally? And to cut to the chase, he suggests that as they're basically commercial operations, some rally organizers claim to be entirely charitable or partially charitable. But essentially, most rallies are money making operations for the landowner and for the organizer.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, often the charitable elements point to, for example, veterans, charities and this sort of thing. Yeah, children's charities, local hospitals, that kind of thing, which is fine. Charitable fundraising is in the bedrock of
00:09:16
Speaker
provision to facilities of services to people in need in this country. So, you know, not going to knock that down. The issue is how much of that is sometimes a cover for what's actually a money making operation. But anyway, that's, that's, that's another argument for another day. What Professor Lewis does in this particular case is say, look, Randy's potentially make quite a lot of money.
00:09:44
Speaker
And therefore they need to do more to support the recording process because the PAS is basically a free service to them. And what he suggests is, I'm quoting here, they must put their hand in their pocket to help you.
00:10:00
Speaker
And then he goes on to suggest that rally organizers should go a little bit further, but they should inform the relevant local authority historic environment record officer and the fines liaison officer to the area in advance of any rally.
00:10:18
Speaker
with the expectation that assuming their workload allows, they can offer first of all advice on best practice, which might mean actually avoid that site because it's too sensitive. It doesn't say so, but that's one of the implications there.
00:10:33
Speaker
and also advise on fines recording systems. And then he says, and this is again, this is one of the most serious suggestions, he suggests that rally organisers should employ a suitably qualified archaeologist to advise on best practice, including fines recording legal aspects related to fines, and the archaeological assessment of in situ fines on the day.
00:10:59
Speaker
and a suitably experienced and qualified finance team to triage fines and identify items that should be reported as treasure and or recorded on the PAS database. And then again, use suitably qualified experience fines expert to do the recording on the PAS database. So it's basically a way of trying to increase the amount of
00:11:25
Speaker
material that's recorded and uploaded to the PAS database and putting the onus on the rally organizers to organize that and above all to pay for it. Now, this is where it starts to get interesting because this is asking for basically an honor system. It would be purely voluntary.
00:11:48
Speaker
There is currently no legal requirement for, as I said, for fines to be recorded unless they're treasure fines. So you can see where the problem lies here, can't you? Yeah. I'm trying not to be cynical.
00:12:14
Speaker
Does the author have any mode by which they might speculate on the affordability of such measures for such events? Do they publish their books? Do they have a tax return? Is there something that might make this discussion a little bit more formal as opposed to nice suggestions?
00:12:42
Speaker
Right. Well, first of all, mental detection rallies are virtually unregulated, as are the organizers. Yeah. Yeah. I'll leave I'll leave that there. Okay. I think
00:12:57
Speaker
This has to be seen in the context of the consultation with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Digital over a reform of the Treasure Act which would extend the definition of treasure to material that doesn't have a precious metals content but does have historical value.
00:13:16
Speaker
And one of the suggestions there is that if you extend that definition, you have to have a means of identifying the material in the first place before you can even decide whether it has historical value. So it is moving towards potentially some form of compulsory recording.
Paul Belford's Crisis in UK Archaeology
00:13:39
Speaker
Now obviously that would have to be supported by resources in the field.
00:13:42
Speaker
Does that mean licensing? Well, everybody says at the moment they're against licensing. But I do think there's a subtext of this, which is by laying out such a clear agenda, what Professor Lewis is doing is saying basically, last chance saloon, folks. Either you self-regulate
00:14:06
Speaker
and mitigate the environmental damage that arguably you are doing to the historic environment.
00:14:14
Speaker
or we will regulate you ourselves. And we know also that the future rally was part of the consultation with the department for digital culture and engineering support. Okay and I suppose also as well there's an opportunity there for the metal detecting community who frequently at this sort of point in the conversation say that they do it mainly for the love of history and also as well they do have, and as I've said many times in the past,
00:14:38
Speaker
a remarkable repository of knowledge. An awful lot of people have essentially specialist knowledge on particular items that they're likely to recover. There's an opportunity for them to prove, to show their love, as it were, and to deploy that expertise and sort the house out before the house needs to be sorted for them. That's right. And in effect,
00:15:04
Speaker
what Professor Lewis is doing is basically asking the thousands of metal detectorists who take part in legal metal detecting every week to put pressure on the not more than 100 people who actually organize these rallies. In fact, it's probably less than that, much less than that. And basically say, what you're doing now
00:15:34
Speaker
isn't acceptable going forward, it's not sustainable going forward. We need to reform ourselves or we will be reformed.
00:15:41
Speaker
I know you said that we would leave it there just before, but I'm just going to push just a little bit more on the economic side of things. My understanding is that the payment tends to be in cash on the day. Would part of these potential restructuring endeavors involve transparent bookkeeping, potentially, hypothetically, where it's not already the case?
00:16:11
Speaker
That's an issue for the authorities, like in particular, imagine his revenue and customs, the tax man. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
00:16:20
Speaker
OK, well, as you said, this is one of the things that we're talking about this week that we're going to be returning to again in the future. I did double check, folks, before we recorded that it feels sometimes as though we often talk about metal detecting. But actually, if you look at our watching briefs, it's not as often as it sometimes feels. So we will return to this subject, but hopefully not, as it were, next week necessarily.
00:16:49
Speaker
I think, actually, that's a good point. And people have said we're anti-metal detectorists, because they should have been laid against me in the past. As it stands in the UK at the moment, or in most of the UK at the moment, metal detecting is perfectly legal. It is undertaken with permission and so on. And many metal detectorists cooperate with archaeologists. So it's not an issue of good and evil.
00:17:18
Speaker
um it is an issue of
00:17:22
Speaker
if you like, I think, social responsibility. And we cover mental detecting stories. I certainly cover mental detecting stories when I think there's a public interest. And then just do a mental detecting story for the sake of it. I talk about the issue when I think it's relevant, when I think people will be interested, and when I think it's something people need to make their minds up about. Yeah, absolutely. And in that sense, there are archaeologists out there who make this their specialist subject. But we try to, as you say, comment on it when there's public interest.
00:17:52
Speaker
Moving on to our second portion, in this instance, the paper I hinted at earlier, which was titled Crisis, What Crisis? Archaeology Under Pressure in the United Kingdom. This is written by Paul Belford of the Cluid Powis Archaeological Trust.
00:18:14
Speaker
And many other things. He's had a long and distinguished career in archaeology. He's been a board member of the Charlie Institute for Archaeologists. He's currently the chair of the Black Country Living History Museum in the West Midlands place. I know really well. It's absolutely fantastic. Anyone who's ever in the area of Dudley in the West Midlands do visit the Black Country Museum.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah. And also it shows the EAA urban archaeology community as well. Absolutely. The European Association for Archaeology is the European Archaeological Association. Which way round that goes? Yes. Yeah. That's not how you pronounce it. It's EAA. It's not ER. That's right.
00:18:53
Speaker
The point is, this is an archaeologist who is a venerable figure who is writing about this question of whether or not there's a crisis in UK archaeology. Now, this is a word that has become quite a hot potato in UK archaeology over the past year or so. Well, that's right. I mean, our viewer might remember when we covered the issue of
00:19:21
Speaker
whether archaeological organisations had, shall we say, cooperated with each other to draw attention away from an independent archaeological campaign, the campaign to say British archaeology, Chris Whitwood's campaign, and
00:19:39
Speaker
we were told in the course of researching that that certainly doesn't read from the CBA did not want to create the impression that archaeology was in crisis. He felt that was counterproductive for the campaign. They do. Yeah. Yeah. But despite that, a lot of people at academic institutions across the country have quite happily used the word crisis and the notion of an unfolding
00:20:03
Speaker
situation that has led to this paper which is, well as the abstract says, archaeology in the UK is facing a series of challenges which potentially threaten current systems for delivering archaeological services and training of new generations of professionals.
00:20:23
Speaker
Some of these are external problems such as proposed changes to the planning system and the realignment of government priorities for culture and education. We've touched on these in recent watching briefs in the past year or so. Others are long-standing internal issues like the persistently poor profitability of so-called commercial archaeology and the lack of diversity in the sector.
00:20:48
Speaker
However, the profession is unable and in some cases unwilling to develop long-term solutions to these challenges. These are potential opportunities to reshape professional archaeology in the UK for the better, but embedded interests make change difficult. And I would, I suppose, kick us off just by saying it's telling that this was not published in a British journal, was it, Andy?
00:21:16
Speaker
No, it was published actually first of all online in a German journal, in fact, a journal called Archaeologische Infomationen 44. Apologies for my German there, which is non-existent. I could hear you geeing up for taking a run at the summit there. I'm sure people will think of this.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, basically, it's a German archaeological journal. It's been published early access, open access as well, all credit to them for that. And actually, it's been turned around quite quickly. If you look at the information data stamps, the article was received by the journal on the 3rd of November.
00:22:02
Speaker
It went through the journal's normal editing and peer review process, I would imagine, within six weeks and was published on the 31st of January.
Critique and Suggestions for UK Archaeology Practices
00:22:12
Speaker
So we use the phrase hot off the press sometimes jokingly, but in archaeological terms, that's a very quick turnaround.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, and interestingly, I suppose what I would say from, you know, when you look at papers regularly, you'll notice certain things that haven't quite been done yet to this one. So it says, for example, that the pagination is preliminary, but also I'd say that some of the justification in terms of the text is not yet done, I think, or finished. There are lots of broken up words. So
00:22:41
Speaker
So in that sense, the information has been put out as hot as possible. If anything, it's a little bit underbaked in terms of the icing maybe on the cake.
00:22:52
Speaker
If that makes sense. I think that the contact... The content is there. To take that analogy, yeah, the ingredients in the cake are nourishing and somewhat crunchy. Yes. Yes. To be a bit more... Let's put that away. Let's put the cake away. On you go. In fact, this discussion was actually ambushed by cake. It shouldn't have been...
00:23:23
Speaker
No, in all seriousness, I think this is one of the most important articles I've read in some time, in terms of archaeological theory and practice. Now, okay, I might say that my time because it actually is someone independent of the work that we've done and the discussions that we've had picking up on many of the same issues. Yes.
00:23:48
Speaker
and doing it in a way that is evidence-based and lucidly written. And I mean, when I first saw this the other day, I saw the day after it was published, it popped up on my Twitter feed, and I read it and immediately tweeted out and say, look, everybody read this, share this, because it's pretty darn important. I believe this word goes a grenade.
00:24:13
Speaker
I did and I did that very deliberately because it's a grenade that's sort of been thrown into the middle of the archaeological established months. One of the things that Dr Belford does is talk about and illustrate actually with graphics, what he describes as the ecosystem of UK archaeology, of English archaeology, which takes in commercial archaeology, museum archaeology, higher education, community and so on.
00:24:40
Speaker
And so and each of those areas comes in for support but also sometimes quite stringent criticism.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yes, he describes inherent weaknesses, for example. He's naming individual bodies, he's putting them into relationships. And actually, it's funny, when I first saw these diagrams, I couldn't help but think that people like Colin Renfrew would be very proud of them. They're very, very processual.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yes. The Wheel of Civilization, I think, was one of Renfrew's favorites. Yes. Yeah, so then they're nicely colored as well. Anyway, that's one side.
00:25:25
Speaker
one of the most interesting graphics I think is that he has a five-legged profession basically with regulators, practitioners, national heritage bodies like Caddo and Historic England, research and teaching through institutes of higher education and of course the public and then he tries to locate various organisations like Council for British Archaeology, Society of Antiquaries
00:25:50
Speaker
Uh, C phone and so on within the, uh, you know, within those bubbles. Um, and there's, uh, look, we can describe it as much of like, I think people should just basically go out, find the article and read it. And then above all respond to it because what it is, um, it's, it's basically a call to action.
00:26:12
Speaker
It's saying some, as I say, some quite tough things, like, for example, that in Belford's opinion, a lot of, and this is, remember, this is somebody who works for, you know, runs an archaeological trust, that a lot of, for example, developer-funded archaeology is of little to no value, because it's done basically to tick a box on the development skill, you know, on a development application.
00:26:37
Speaker
on a planning application. That is really tough. At the same time, quite rightly, he talks about the threat to developer funded archaeology from any weakening of the developer pays, the political pays principle in environmental legislation, which again, the government just earlier on this week, the UK government announced a Brexit benefits bill, which will be a bonfire of red tape.
00:27:01
Speaker
Oh, you dropped, you dropped the alliteration right at red tape there. Breakfast, no sorry, Brexit benefits Bill. There'll be a, what was it? A bonfire of, bonfire of red tape. Oh, bonfire of, I don't know, what would it be, a banality at the border? There you go. Hey!
00:27:23
Speaker
I mean, you know, that one of those Brexit benefits to some people on the libertarian right side of British politics has been to free up the market by removing legislation that requires, you know, well, as Boris Johnson, current prime minister for now, as that index said, but the current prime minister said was was it
00:27:48
Speaker
back counting. For example, the opening of free ports, you know, in terms of the movement of goods. Yeah, look, I mean, like I said, if we go to Belfort's conclusion, he is absolutely, absolutely clear. He says, archaeology in the UK is in crisis. That won't be popular with
00:28:13
Speaker
some people as we suggested in archaeological organisations and then he says the first thing archaeologists need to do is recognise that this is a crisis that will affect all of us and the individual campaigns essentially rearguard actions to defend a system which is structurally fragmented and systemically weak.
00:28:34
Speaker
And then this is I think this is the sentence that really struck me more than perhaps all the others and it is probably again one of the more one of the most controversial and I'm not going to comment on it any further than just to read it out because I think people need to interrogate it themselves and then think very hard about the sector they're a part of because it says
00:28:57
Speaker
while the small size of the sector could foster collegiality. In practice, personalities have a disproportionate influence on relationships between organizations. And then he adds, joint advocacy is difficult to coordinate. The status quo is philosophically difficult to defend, but radical restructuring, however desirable, is practically impossible.
00:29:22
Speaker
And the reason he says that is there are too many vested interests in maintaining the current system, including some of the myriad bodies that purport to represent archaeology and archaeologists. I would ask our viewer who cares about this subject, and if they've stuck with us this far, they didn't care about archaeology, to ask who those
00:29:45
Speaker
organisations and individuals are and what can be done to bypass that influence, that blocking of a debate of the discussion and maybe some very difficult solutions. Yeah and again with the view to to tip turning around there a little bit I would I would add
00:30:08
Speaker
maybe think a little bit about the democratization potentially of archaeology and how such organizations and certain potential individuals, hypothetically speaking, may not enjoy the prospect of a broader systematic change because
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, more power for more people is less power for some people, I suppose you could say.
Unifying Archaeologists' Identity and Roles
00:30:35
Speaker
Now, interestingly as well, in the penultimate paragraph prior to the conclusion, see, that's another alliteration, penultimate paragraph, I'm sorry. We have here, and a very interesting...
00:30:47
Speaker
observation, that in other words lots of archaeology is neither, I'm quoting here, neither designed to increase fundamental understanding nor to deliver meaningful use. Clearly any work being done under such circumstances is of no public benefit and is of very limited benefit to the discipline of archaeology and archaeologists. This creates a problem. If a large proportion of the archaeological work being done in the United Kingdom, I insert,
00:31:15
Speaker
is essentially pointless, then how can it possibly be justified asking anyone, public or private, to pay for it? In the face of rising sea levels, mass extinctions and unsustainable pressures on the National Health Service, it is difficult to articulate the value of a few different coloured bits of mud in a random field.
00:31:35
Speaker
A third option, therefore, is to use this moment as an opportunity to completely rethink archaeologists' engagement with the various systems that they occupy. Archaeologists tend to embrace the diversity of their respective ecosystems rather too much. For example, those providing archaeological planning advice to local authorities or those working for national heritage agencies identify themselves as public servants.
00:31:59
Speaker
those working in HEIs identify themselves as academics, those in archaeological practice tend to identify themselves as being part of the construction industry, or even an even smaller clique, I would say, of of diggers, as it were, shuffle bumps, some people might say,
00:32:15
Speaker
Whilst they may, I'll go back to the paper, may be all of these things, their primary identity should be as archaeologists. Otherwise, archaeologists risk becoming simply apologists for archaeology rather than its protectors and visionaries.
00:32:32
Speaker
And I would say this also actually, I've stopped quoting, this also probably applies to our larger heritage bodies. We've talked in the past, for example, about historic England and whether or not they should be making value judgments on the economic benefits of certain projects or the long-term value of certain parts of a battlefield, despite archaeological evidence.
00:32:56
Speaker
when it looks as though actually, again, there's an economic component coming into it. We should first of all be archaeologists, and then from there bring in our particular specialisms. I think there's a lot to think about there, and I suppose, are we encouraging a particular actual reading of this, or is it more a case of just read it? Just read it and think, folks.
00:33:23
Speaker
Read it and think. I'll finish with two thoughts. One really I think illustrates the problem that Belford is talking about here and the other one is the hope that he supplies at the end. I think we're not talking about it
00:33:38
Speaker
a potential archaeological dystopia here because there is a lot of hope in the paper but it requires the sector to actually respond. But the first thing I'd say is that I've just received the latest copy of the private eye magazine, the satirical magazine, I'm a subscriber.
00:33:57
Speaker
And one of the spoof articles in it is archaeologists working on the HS2 have discovered the one of the biggest white elephant ever. It's in fact is HS2 itself.
00:34:14
Speaker
Now, that is referencing stories about mammoths and all sorts of other things that have turned up on DHS2 sites that have been worked on by many, many archaeologists. It's been a huge archaeological project. But it was also highlighting how that archaeology can be used to effectively distract, in the worst cases, some would argue, greenwash
00:34:41
Speaker
controversial projects like HS2, which critics say is an environmentally destructive 1970s solution for a 20th, 21st century transport issue, if it's an issue at all. So yeah, I'm not taking sides on HS2 at the moment here, I'm just throwing that out. And I know I've said before on what you've briefed that archaeologists
00:35:06
Speaker
have to be aware of the wider political environmental world that they're working in. One of the problems is being perceived as an apologist.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah and I think in that sense what the end of the paper there and what you have said in the past come together to advocate in that sense is not being blind to the fact that like it's on our voices and our expertise is perceived as mattering outside the little offshoots that we put ourselves into. So if archaeologists are unquestioning about for example I don't know building a road through
00:35:44
Speaker
or underneath an international World Heritage site. Which one can you possibly be thinking about? I don't know. And then that project is deemed to be unlawful.
00:35:57
Speaker
then archaeologists have have meandered into the realm of again not first of all being archaeologists but rather first of all being part of a civic or indeed government engineering aspiration and it's just a it's a weird one whereby we both first of all have to accept the power of our perspective and the fact that people want to deploy it therefore to green wash or history wash or culture wash their projects
00:36:26
Speaker
but also maybe understand and explore somewhat our limitations. And again, just to sort of point to something that you said in the past as well, maybe therefore work with other people who have convergent interests. So we're interested in the historic environment. Maybe we should be working with people who are interested in the environment more broadly in which that history is placed, this kind of thing. Sorry, I know I've stepped in there again. But what was the second thing you wanted to say?
00:36:55
Speaker
Well, I just wanted to, again, just highlight what Belford says at the very end of the art, at the very
Safeguarding the Future of Archaeology
00:37:04
Speaker
end of the conclusion. And it's like, it is hope rather than dystopia. He makes the point that if archaeologists just go through life accepting the crumbs that were offered, you know, it's really, really, really nice of you to go to your development site, sir, before you send in JCB, sir.
00:37:27
Speaker
It can always be a victim and we're not victims. What he says is that archaeology is meaningful research that deploys a wide range of approaches from hard science through social sciences, arts and humanities.
00:37:44
Speaker
And that's something, again, I think there's been too much emphasis personally, I think there's been too much emphasis on archaeology as a science, it's not, it's better than that, it's bigger than that, there's many more things than that, and that's one of the things that, as he says earlier on in the article, is that it's one of the things that's a problem, but also, well, it can be perceived as a problem, as opposed to something that enriches it. But he also says, and I think this is the crucial thing, and I think this is the thing, you know, we're back to, you know,
00:38:14
Speaker
that deeply flawed human being, some awesome wheeler whose archaeology is digging up people. He said archaeology is also a deeply practical human response to the need to know where we came from and where we're going. And then he concludes by saying archaeologist need to take charge of their own destiny. This is a crisis. And there is not a moment to lose if we are to safeguard the future of the profession. Yeah, yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah well and I could just point out as well because when you said initially in the conclusion that he said archaeology in the UK is in crisis that's literally what the first sentence is isn't it? That is it, full stop. Yes. So he's not shying away from that at all. Absolutely not. That's why I think this is such a powerful piece and deserves the widest possible circulation because people will criticise much of it, parts of it,
00:39:04
Speaker
people take different views on it. It is the most honest exposition I have seen from a senior archaeologist in a long, long time, I think.
00:39:16
Speaker
Okay, so that's been this week's watching brief.
Closing Remarks & Future Exploration
00:39:21
Speaker
A lot to think about there, a lot to digest, and I can't emphasize this enough, genuinely consider, maybe converse below with your fellow viewers, and also share in particular that paper around a very interesting perspective on archaeology in the UK in 2022.
00:39:42
Speaker
uh next week we possibly have an interview or two in the pipeline uh but but that's still coming together we shall see but regardless obviously our watching brief will continue next week and until then i suppose we would invite you to
00:39:59
Speaker
To get in touch, if there's anything that you want us to look at, any particular happenings in the world of archaeology or in your particular corner of the world, do get in touch in the email address on the screen below. Andy's DMs are open on Twitter and I'm available in various places, even a carrier pigeon. I'm happy to keep an eye out for one.
00:40:20
Speaker
Or now or now or now exactly. Yes or a raven or a raven. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man Oh the other day a raven completely messed up a project. I was working on it. That's that's that's another story I was like Oh Anyway guys with that in mind Yes, do you get in touch if you have anything you wanted to take a look at until then do take care and bye-bye
00:40:50
Speaker
This podcast episode has been produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network in collaboration with Archaeosoup Productions. Find out more podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com
00:41:06
Speaker
This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.