Prescot Dig

So this is it for this site… almost. A handful of us will still be here next week to sweep the stairs, clean the dishes and mop up the blood. It’s been a real roller-coaster in all aspects and it doesn’t seem that long ago that we were excavating large post-Medieval quarry pits in the rain, many of us not really knowing each other and getting our heads around size of the site and the amount of time we had to dig it. This isn’t Time-Team… it isn’t nice and fluffy with “only having 3 days to do it in”. This is dirty, backbreaking, and challenging contract archaeology. This site finishes and then on to another… the Sisyphean life of the contract archaeologist. This site has been very different to any other I have worked on though. The way it has been run with the website, Lorna’s outreach and the chance I have had to make the short films, etc has made it unique in many ways. L – P’s alternative approach has been an inspiration and I wonder if this will have any effect on any other commercial archaeology units. I suspect not…. most of the time they just want to get in and out as quickly as possible, get the next job and keep the money rolling in… just managing to make ends meet most of the time. This is not their fault, this is the system that they have to operate in and more often than not stifles the creative juices and numbs the soul. Anyway… I could go on a rant about the state of developer archaeology for several pages but I’ll leave it there.

Anies

This site has one of the most enjoyable I have worked on. There have been no “in-fights” to speak of and the team have been great… diverse and positive, all the people that have shovelled, mattocked, towelled and avoided work in the tool hut have been a pleasure to meet and work with. I’ll miss it a lot. I’m sure we’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when… but it’ll no doubt be in a muddy field or building site but most probably in a pub.