Re: Hill-fort Survey | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Hill-fort Survey

Evergreen Dazed Jul 9, 2013 20:02:09

Replying to thesweetcheat

Point taken, it's a little vague in the project outline on the site but it does say they are using researchers and PhD students in Oxford and Edinburgh.
I don't read it as an opportunity to get people to do things for 'nothing', more an idea which can make use of the very many people who are interested in these sites and visit them on a regular basis. I mean, why not?
There are going to be precisely 0 people bothering to fill out that form if they haven't a clue or interest in what they are doing (your example about 'bumps').
I'd like to think of it as inclusive and an attempt to harness the considerable potential of armies of enthusiasts, who may do this stuff already anyway.
I do see the point you are making, but I know that if the project outline was £1million and it was reported that several jobs were to be created in order to carry out the survey, the response from this place would have been 'What about us?'

thesweetcheat Jul 9, 2013 20:12:10

Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:

There are going to be precisely 0 people bothering to fill out that form if they haven't a clue or interest in what they are doing (your example about 'bumps').
I'd like to think of it as inclusive and an attempt to harness the considerable potential of armies of enthusiasts, who may do this stuff already anyway.

The "bumps" example was obviously exaggerated, but the principle behind it is not. I have lots of enthusiasm and as someone who spends as much time out at sites as I possibly can, I may be seen to "do this stuff already", but I have zero training in surveying (although I can accurately draft plans to scale) or in archaeology. So whatever I would add is just a layman's amateur reflection of what I see. Fine for a site like TMA - in fact the whole reason for TMA - but not necessarily going to stand up to rigorous analysis by a professional or as a comprehensive addition to a database for future research.

You know yourself that an amateur may have a pet theory and can easily be blinded into thinking they've "cracked it", but sadly enthusiasm and unshakeable self-belief is probably not enough for this project to really produce something worthwhile.