Participating in the Past: Viewing Archaeologists at Work

4.3 Viewing Archaeologists at Work

There are very few archaeological field situations where there are not some opportunities for the public to view archaeologists at work. The most obvious example is urban excavation where specific provision can be been made for viewing areas, which also may be utilised for general viewing of on-site construction work. One stage better is to allow the public onto site for guided tours under controlled conditions. Although this may be easier to achieve in more rural situations where there are fewer health and safety issues. Given goodwill it is clear that this kind of access can be arranged under almost any kind of conditions.

At minimum, the public need to know that archaeological work is taking place and to have available some kind of updated board or leaflet, etc, outlining the reasons for the work and its state of progress. There is no reason why providing proper information should impede the progress of work on site, whatever the time and resource pressures, and it is clear that a small effort is enormously appreciated by respondents. If the scale of work is sufficiently large, the public, and particularly children, appreciate an opportunity to speak to a ‘real’ archaeologist and it is clearly sensible that there should be a designated contact individual able to field enquiries from the public.