I know a girl who has recently begun her PhD on religion in Pompeii and in a few years time she will be a doctor of archaeology. I should probably mention that she doesn’t have a scholarship but has decided to pay for it herself, so this isn’t a question of whether her research really is vital to our understanding of the Roman World, as universities will gladly accept most research proposals if you’re willing to pay ever increasing sums for 3+ years. In her entire life she has spent a single week on an excavation. One. Eins. Un. Uno. Before her thesis is done she intends to spend a further zero weeks involved in fieldwork. Now as her thesis will be on Pompeii digging isn’t necessarily a requirement, recording of standing remains is just as much archaeology. But what I cannot fathom is that she could end up teaching future generations of archaeologists when she doesn’t even know how to fill out a context card, record a section drawing and wouldn’t know what a box-section was if she tripped, fell into one and got her head stuck in it. Personally with the soaring value of university education I would want my money’s worth and if the person teaching me has less experience then some of the students in the class I’d want my money back. [more …]
Fieldwork fail
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