Hi,
It's Friday lunchtime and time for some musing on my behalf that perhaps
colleague up and down Britain might provide answers.
As far as I'm aware there are relatively few research excavations in this
country. Those that there are mainly training digs often carried out in the
furthest flung corners of these isles (e.g. Shetlands and the Orkney -Yes I
know this is Anglocentric. Apologies for those of you in the Highlands and
the Isles who think themselves as being more central.) at the back end of
the summer term. During the vac. many of the academics who run these digs
decamp to more exotic locations in order to further their special research
topics. Many go to the Med. but some go even further afield (e.g. South
America, and in one recently publicised case Madagascar)
I don't have a problem with academics carrying out their research elsewhere,
but was wondering how rare it is for archaeologists from overseas to come to
Britain, with a bunch students, to dig or survey British monuments. I cannot
recall one instance. Does anyone out there know of a case?
Iif as, I suspect, it is the case, such instances are quite rare, why is
this so? Surely there are few areas that would not benefit from research
excavations. Are so insular that we don't permit foreign researchers? Or is
British archaeology so unattractive to overseas archaeologists?
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