Monday 31 August 2009

Vanishing up one's own...

Times headline:
Seventies campsite in Forest of Dean excavated by Oxford archaeologist
That's campsite as in, well, a campsite. From the '70s.

I used to work for what was then Oxford Unit about the same time as this campsite was in operation and I find it amazing how far archaeology has fallen of the ideals of my time. Okay, those ideals revolved mostly around the pursuits lots of beer and sex (preferably in close proximity), but archaeology did get a look in.

Still, there is a ray of hope here. If we're now excavating thirty-year old campsites, why not thirty-year old excavations? I could come out of retirement and start a whole new career by digging up all the sites I dug up previously to find traces of my previous diggings. Infinitely reductive archaeology; a whole new field.

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