coincidentally enough, the following thread appeared on the BAJR forum today. http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/showthread.php?3639-Sensible-Archaeology It's not specifically an attack on contemporary archaeology, but the contemporary material past (or at least high profile examples) appear somewhere in the scatter... John ________________________________________ From: Discussion List for Contemporary and Historical Archaeology [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laura McAtackney [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 06 October 2010 17:26 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: re. is contemporary archaeology crap? To add my own little anecdote ... I published an article on conducting archaeology at Long Kesh/Maze prison in British Archaeology in the summer of 2005. I can't remember the exact wording but the next edition of BA contained a letter asking, in rather scathing tones, why I bothered examining the prison site as the 'real' archaeology would be found in the below ground context. I was given a right to reply but didn't see the point: if you don't want to get it, you won't get it! > Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 14:43:55 +0100 > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [CHA] re. is contemporary archaeology crap? > To: [log in to unmask] > > I used to get a lot of "why dig, we know it all anyway" from military > historians in regard of Great War conflict archaeology. There was a > Chairman's piece to that effect in an edition of either the Bulletin of > the Western Front Association or "Stand To" the WFA journal. > > In addition, I did cite a retired Admiral telling me that there was no > point in digging at Thiepval (Somme Front Line) because it would be > "pulverised" in my contribution to Lila Racozcy's volume on The > Archaeology of Destruction. > > The letter in BA about the van and the community archaeology with down & > outs appeared in the current edition (114). The letter basically > suggested a link between some of these more avant garde projects and the > threat to the Bristol Department. For the Academics amongst you, the > letter and the two articles would make an excellent starter for a > seminar or essay question! > > Interestingly it's the same article that carries my article about a > Great War project and our identification of a missing soldier killed in > 1917. Clearly there's no point to contemporary archaeology - Private > Mather's family agree... Or maybe not! > > Best > > Martin > > -------------------------- > contemp-hist-arch is a list for news and events > in contemporary and historical archaeology, and > for announcements relating to the CHAT conference group. > ------- > For email subscription options see: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/contemp-hist-arch.html > ------- > Visit the CHAT website for more information and for future meeting dates: > http://www.contemp-hist-arch.ac.uk > -------------------------- -------------------------- contemp-hist-arch is a list for news and events in contemporary and historical archaeology, and for announcements relating to the CHAT conference group. ------- For email subscription options see: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/contemp-hist-arch.html ------- Visit the CHAT website for more information and for future meeting dates: http://www.contemp-hist-arch.ac.uk -------------------------- -------------------------- contemp-hist-arch is a list for news and events in contemporary and historical archaeology, and for announcements relating to the CHAT conference group. ------- For email subscription options see: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/contemp-hist-arch.html ------- Visit the CHAT website for more information and for future meeting dates: http://www.contemp-hist-arch.ac.uk --------------------------