Participating in the Past: Partnership and Working with Local Societies

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6.4 Partnership and Working with Local Societies

Many professional organisations are well-placed to provide active support for local groups and local groups in turn, as noted earlier, often have considerable expertise to offer. Building such links is an important part in the role of community archaeologists, but where such posts are not in existence, greater efforts should be made by the professional archaeological community to broaden local skill-bases. Examples of such processes in action include the Medieval or Later Rural Settlement Group which runs training initiatives in Scotland with local societies, and the Forest of Dean Survey (IFA 2002, 38).

In some areas such activities focusing on local heritage, may be able to draw on local and regional economic development funds.

  • Recommendation 4: That all professional archaeological organisations at national and local level consider the development of specific training programmes aimed at developing the expertise of local groups, and local groups investigate external funding sources.