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The New WHS Trowel
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A G Marvell FSA MIfA(
e-mail 
andrew@ggat.org.uk)
Synopsis Are we [archaeologists] in danger of becoming slaves to political presentation? Market-share might shape some decision-making, but are we really comfortable in the commerciality of the development bazaar? Is the Historic Environment a discipline? Does our main client, the general public, have a better conception of our identity than we do? A young archaeologist is travelling back from a conference by train. In the same carriage are three senior professionals (representing the contractual, curatorial and consulting branches of modern professional archaeology). The three seniors are confident in their well-defined identities, but worried about the impact of market and legislative failure.They are joined by a timeless archaeologist (the Old-Timer). The ensuing discussion takes a light-hearted philosophical approach to what an archaeologist can only be, for which we need to understand what archaeology means.The Old-Timer draws out that we have become too entrapped or over obsessed by certain pigeon-holing roles, which mean little or nothing to anyone else other than to the practitioners themselves, and that in the naming of things we are in danger of losing some of the fundamentals of the identity of our discipline.Whilst the seniors leave in irritation and frustration, the Old-Timer explains why this has happened and why we need to retain a simple core definition of the identity of an archaeologist with which the young archaeologist agrees.
*******This is a tale about an encounter a younger colleague of mine had a short while back.My younger colleague comes from the generation that sociologists like to label DigitalNatives or NetGens
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- that is they have never lived in a world where Information Technologywas not prevalent and thus are at ease with it in all its different aspects. Indeed, they havedifficulty in conceiving how one could exist in a world without ‘electronic’ social networkingand ‘instant’ rapid communication.Well, I think all of us should know something about the impacts of technological change onsocieties.For the rest of this story we shall refer to my younger colleague as ‘the Newb’ (as spelt‘newb’ not ‘noob’ – my colleague is not an idiot).
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If you are not familiar with the terms theyare items of modern slang, particularly used by gamers. If you like you can look them uplater in Wiktionary or the Urban Dictionary, but be reassured I don’t mean it to be derogatory.However, it is true, because despite having a good first degree and also a Master’s parttaught part research (well, these days you need that sort thing to get a foot on the ladder inthis profession) the Newb is new to the game of professional archaeology.My colleague had wanted to be an archaeologist from an early age and while at school joined the club for Young Archaeologists run by those excellent people at the CBA.
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Thisenthusiasm had continued through University but it had been a bit of shock to discover thatdespite having two degrees there were now archaeological National VocationalQualifications to be obtained, and also something called a CPD record to be kept, both ofwhich the Newb had just found out could be an essential part of the evidence-base for joining ‘the Institute’
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and progressing ever upwards thereafter.Anyway, to move things on, the Newb was travelling back from a conference by train and bychance in the same carriage around the table opposite were three other archaeologists allsenior in the profession. Now the Newb was far too junior to be able to identify who theywere and I can’t tell you if what happened was true or not or whether these people are true
 
to any particular or general character, but … let’s not spoil the story.The first of these worked in a busy world full of short form expression, mostly three letteracronyms or TLA for short so we shall think of this person as the CA. The CA had beenlucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when English Heritage started pump-priming local authority posts and over time had grown to have a rich and diverse remit. Onthe one hand there was the planning side of things with both forward strategy and casework,although the inquiries could be a bit of a pain – there are only so many times that you reallywant to subject yourself to legal cross-examination. On another the management of therecords: the gleaming new HER, which with a touch of MIDAS, had risen phoenix-likeovernight from the ashes of the tired old SMR.
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Then there was also the historic landscapecharacterisation work, the urban database, the agri-environment schemes, and even the oddhigh-level overview project. The County Archaeologist was at ease with the
Historic Environment 
and its Stewardship, and liked being in the ‘Association’.
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The CA wascomfortable with this identity, but … .The second was a Chief Executive (or CEO for short). The Chief Executive had once workedwith the CA on something called ‘the circuit’
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but was content to stay in the field for a fewyears more gradually moving up the ranks until opportunities came to direct excavations andthen the post-excavation studies had had to be done and the reports published, althoughmost of the Chief Executive’s junior staff were amazed at the notion that he, or was it she,had ever held a trowel let alone knew how to use one. At some point the Chief Executivehad found more by chance than design that management came naturally. Having honed upskills in this area appointment to one of the top organisations working in the field followedand the post-PPG 16 boom in ‘polluter pays’ archaeology had allowed the Chief Executive tobuild up the company. Yes, there had been a few hairy moments along the way, but one gotto know how to use laws of commerce and contract to good effect and turnaround QuantitySurveyors’ methods and ploys to your company’s advantage. Like any leader of a seriousprofessional organisation the CEO was accountable for organisational performance, and attimes it seemed endlessly so — to government, the board, clients, consultants, the staff,academics, inspectors — and for all of this the Chief Executive was well paid (at least byarchaeological standards). The CEO was talented, in this profession you don’t normally getthere if you are not, and at ease with delivering archaeological works and products. TheChief Executive liked being in the new Federation of Archaeological Managers andEmployers, ‘SCUMmy days’ were long gone, being famous was the thing.
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The ChiefExecutive was comfortable with this identity, but ….The third was a consultant, not I should add one of those with some qualification in ‘heritage’related studies whose closest experience of archaeological excavation had been watching
Time Team 
, but someone properly qualified for the role. Many years ago the Consultant hadexcavated and written reports, but following a spell with a government agency, anopportunity had arisen to join a private sector historic environment practice. The Consultanthad an authoritative knowledge of sectoral law, regulation, practice and values, and couldtake holistic viewpoints in determining alternative strategies that benefited both the resourceand the consultant’s clients. Although as was the case for the CA and the Chief Executivethere was no peer ‘club’, the Consultant was comfortable with this identity, but ….*******The three seniors were deep in conversation. The Heritage Bill was on the shelf, all theconsultation and politicising seemed to have been in vain. Would there yet be a greatreform? Yes a few bits might get coat-tailed (or did they call it ‘Christmas treeing’ thesedays?) onto other legislation and some bits and other things might be able to be progressedwithout recourse to statute, perhaps through revised planning guidance although theemphasis behind this, as was ever the case these days, seemed to be with speeding thingsup rather than ensuring measured decisions. It looked like there would be little changebefore the next election and not much chance immediately thereafter; the archaeologicalworld was contracting, recession was biting, units and consultancies were shedding jobs,and there was pressure on authority funded services, if these just stood still they were doing
 
well.“Hard times ahead, eh!” A kindly voice said.The Newb looked up. Standing in front of him was an Old-Timer, but how old was anyone’sguess. It wasn’t the face weathered from many seasons in the field, the favoured checkedshirt, or the faded knapsack that belied his credentials, but there was a hidden authority inhis presence. The only way that the Newb could describe it afterwards was that it seemed asthough the Old-Timer’s sinews had been stitched together by Ed Harris to form a ‘compleat’archaeologist at home in both time and space.
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 “Mind If I sit down with you?”“Sure” said the Newb. The others looked up and cautiously nodded.“Do you know them?” the Newb asked.“Yes from way back,” replied the Old-Timer, “but I don’t see much of them these days. Youcan see they are troubled.”“Why do you say that?” the Newb enquired.“Look, the profession’s become fragmented and has lost touch with its identity,” the Old-Timer replied, adding “and that’s not healthy at a time of pressure.”Almost at once the Consultant said, “Excuse me, I don’t agree with that, I know what I doand I’ve a pretty good idea where I’m going.” The others chortled their support.“Yes, you all know what you do and I know that you are very good at it, but do you know whoyou are?” replied the Old-Timer.“Well of course, we are archaeologists,” they said, with the CA adding, “working in differentareas of course; I am an archaeological curator”.“Well,” asked the Old-Timer taking up a philosophical stance that has run from Aristotle toWittgenstein and beyond, “and what precisely does that mean?”As the train sped across the country the debate raged on, wandering as these thingssometimes do into the more obscure ends of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Theydid agree that, as the tutor to Alexander the Great had observed, A is for A and not B, and,therefore, Archaeologist had to be for Archaeologist.
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By logical extension anArchaeological Curator could not be an Archaeologist proper – this was somewhat clearer inthe case of the Chief Executive and the Consultant. That there could be a separate identityof Archaeological Curator was accepted to be true, but not as the CA argued some highermore developed form of Archaeologist. A was A.The CEO claimed there was more of a case for the archaeological contractor but this failedthe same test. Reviewing this they agreed that contracting archaeologist or curatorialarchaeologist or consultant archaeologist maintained closer affinity to Archaeologist, but stillA was A and were not these merely descriptions of function rather than identity, althoughperformance created identity, and, therefore, they were not Archaeologists, but the separateidentity created through their existence, if indeed their existence was accepted.The Consultant who liked multi-faceted approaches suggested that the answer to thedilemma lay in there being multiple identities, each integrally correct. The CA and the ChiefExecutive liked this, but then for all of them a bit of ‘pick and mix’ often solved theirproblems. However, the Old-Timer was having none of this and observed that‘Archaeologist’ can only be defined as someone versed in the practice of archaeology, and,
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