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Evergreen Dazed E
Evergreen Dazed Dec 3, 2012 16:02:24
Replying to juamei

juamei wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
bladup wrote:
The only real problem i have with archaeologists is the digging and destruction, as there are so many ways of finding things out without all that destruction, and there will be even more in the future, we should stop now and leave them as much as we can, at least this would show we can collectively think ahead [to them and their new technologies] and not just about ourselves.
I think there are very few excavations these days (apart from development) as the thinking is exactly that - leave it for less destructive future techniques/technologies.
Tbh I think the lack of excavations is directly caused by lack of funding... John Barnatt gave a ballpark estimate of £100k to completely excavate a barrow in the peaks. Apart from the show sites, no-one seems to be prepared to give that sort of money.
By the power of greyskull, that is a lot of money!
I wonder how, exactly, a figure like that is broken down?

You would think (or it might be my naivety) that students of archaeology might be willing to contribute their time to excavate/produce reports for v little money, if a site was of particular interest.
I would guess getting radiocarbon dates may be an expensive business.

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 3, 2012 16:04:24
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Obviously hiring a metal detector and a torch may cost less than this amount.

J juamei
juamei Dec 3, 2012 16:11:44
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:
juamei wrote:
Tbh I think the lack of excavations is directly caused by lack of funding... John Barnatt gave a ballpark estimate of £100k to completely excavate a barrow in the peaks. Apart from the show sites, no-one seems to be prepared to give that sort of money.
By the power of greyskull, that is a lot of money!
I wonder how, exactly, a figure like that is broken down?

You would think (or it might be my naivety) that students of archaeology might be willing to contribute their time to excavate/produce reports for v little money, if a site was of particular interest.
I would guess getting radiocarbon dates may be an expensive business.

From the top of my head that was with "free" diggers (students + volunteers) & 1 qualified archeo salary. Carbon dates cost hundreds a pop. Other sciencey tests plus paying experts costs thousands eg snails, pollen, luminosity etc etc.

Sadly my memory is atrocious and I only really remembered the shockingly large figure at the end :)