I am not entirely sure what Cornelius was saying either.  However I am pleased that a debate has resulted and that various colleagues have come forward to express opinions one way or the other.
 
Sarah May and Mary Beaudry have between them said it all really - we need to do this stuff and we need to convince others of its value.  However we also need (as Mary strongly emphasises) to convince ourselves that recording the mundane present is valid archaeology. 
 
Although we are 'doing' contemporary archaeology at Ironbridge we are not all in agreement about it. At present we have six full time office-based staff. Of these... one is strongly enthusiastic about contemporary archaeology, two are sympathetic but sometimes baffled as to its validity, one isn't bothered one way or the other, one is quite cynical and one is deeply cynical about it being 'proper archaeology' as she calls it. Personally I like it that my staff have such a broad range of opinions as it makes for interesting tea breaks, but clearly it will be an uphill struggle to convince colleagues.
 
As for the comments on the blog - I agree that a narrative cannot be removed - perhaps I should have written 'obscuring' instead, but I think the meaning and intent was clear if nothing else.
 
 
Paul
 
Paul Belford
Senior Archaeologist
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
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Tel +44 (0)1952 435 945
Fax +44 (0)1952 435 937

Ironbridge Archaeology is the archaeology unit of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

Website...
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The latest news is on our blog...
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-----Original Message-----
From: FAIRCLOUGH, Graham [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 December 2005 12:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

Dear All or Any

I would not claim to know all of what lies behind Cornelius’s comments, but the ‘right’ to read meaning into something (especially in the form of words, tricky things that they are) passes almost immediately away from the creator to the consumer, and one thing that I take out of C’s second point is a thought about ‘our’  response to change and to future archaeologies (the creation and passing on of the legibility of a future past). Is it possible to remove something from a site's ‘narrative’, official or not, once it has been put there (eg by recording)?  Physical material survival is not the same as survival within a narrative (ask any religion, especially at this time of year). How do you preserve ephemerality?  Where this thought leads us in terms of heritage, conservation, ARM, CRM is another matter, but reflexively it is an interesting one. How much does ‘fabric’ – material physicality - really matter?

 

God jul (och lyklig nyår)!

 

Graham Fairclough

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion List for Contemporary and Historical Archaeology [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MAY, Sarah
Sent: 16 December 2005 13:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CHA] Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

 

Dear All,

 

Thanks to Paul for the original posting, and for showing an integrated approach.

 

All of the conference session ideas are great and I agree that its hard to get contemporary archaeology incorporated into 'mainstream' recording practices.  I think there's something else in Cornelius's post though, though he's always so lighthearted I don't think he'd ever put it this way.

 

As long as we behave as if the contemprary archaeology work we do is not mainstream, people will treat it as a quirk.  If the archaeologist recording a site deems that the contemporary material is significant, why do we allow others to treat it as if it isn't.  Angela made a related point at the end of CHAT when she pointed out that we have to ask for money to do the work, doing it on our own time will keep it in the realm of a quirky hobby.

 

see lots of you at TAG and to the rest, have a great holiday

Sarah

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion List for Contemporary and Historical Archaeology on behalf of Cornelius Holtorf
Sent: Thu 15/12/2005 12:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

Two spontaneous comments from me - read them twice before you shoot from your hips

1. A fictitious message which I might write to another list, lets call it MEDITER-ARCH:

> Members on the list might like to know that my project in
> progress in Portugal is recording 4th century AD pot sherds.

2. A fictitous entry on my own non-existent weblog:

"We are recording these sherds as part of the project. At this rate, future conservation ethos is likely to require that this building is restored to a point in time that could be close to December 2005, thus removing this period of the site's development from the official narrative."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cornelius


-----
Cornelius Holtorf
Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens historia, Lunds universitet
http://members.chello.se/cornelius

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Belford <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, December 15, 2005 12:49 pm
Subject: Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

> Members on the list might like to know that one of our projects in
> progress at Stourbridge (developer-funded project under PPG16) is
> recording 21st century graffiti.
>
> http://ironbridge.blogspot.com
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
> Paul Belford
> Senior Archaeologist
> Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
> [log in to unmask]