Dear all,
I have found commercial archaeological reports exteremely useful in my research. As part of my phd research I produced a review of all the major Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeobotanical assemblages in Scotland. All the commercial archaeobotanists and archaeologists in Scotland I corresponded with were extremely helpful and provided me with their unpublished reports and data, which I incorporated into my PhD.
I have published a paper on the Neolithic review as follows:
Bishop, R. R., Church, M. J. and Rowley-Conwy, P. 2009. Cereals, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Neolithic. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 139:47–103.
This paper has just (this week!) become freely accessible to download from the ADS website (previously was only available to download by members of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland):
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/psas/volumes.cfm
I hope to publish a similar paper on my Mesolithic Scotland review in the coming months.
I agree with the importance of a central online archive of full archaeobotanical reports. Whilst conducting my Mesolithic-Neolithic reviews I found a number of sites in 'grey literature' and large number of published site papers that did not present the archaeobotanical reports and data sets in full, which I needed for the review. Otto's description of the system in the Netherlands sounds particularly good.
Rosie
Dr Rosie Bishop
Dept of Archaeology,
Durham University,
South Road,
Durham,
DH1 3LE
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Sent: 04 December 2013 00:03
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Subject: ARCHAEOBOTANY Digest - 3 Dec 2013 (#2013-162)
There is 1 message totaling 33 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Mind the gap: commercial versus research environmental archaeology – how
do we reduce it?
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Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:47:12 +0000
From: Liz Pearson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mind the gap: commercial versus research environmental archaeology – how do we reduce it?
Many thanks to everyone responding to this topic. We've had many insightful comments on on-line databases (and whether they should be mainted by one organisation, or open to individuals contribute to), examples of collaborations between research and commercial archaeologists, interest in mentoring, the size of the dataset 'out there', not to mention the material archives sitting lonely and unloved on museum shelves.
Sorry to have taken some time to respond, but I've been watching the comments coming in with interest whilst juggling projects in various degrees of completion. We have much to consider, and rather than respond in detail to the comments coming in now, I think I'd best liaise with Wendy, and then we will get back to you all and will find the best way to proceed. Clearly this is a topic that is taking on some importance.
Regards,
Liz
Senior Environmental Archaeologist
Worcestershire Archaeology
The Hive
Sawmill Walk
Worcester WR1 3PB
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End of ARCHAEOBOTANY Digest - 3 Dec 2013 (#2013-162)
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