Pat Reynolds wrote:
 
>Ah, to be in a country so rich that students can pay for such
facilities!   
 
Yeah, right. The "facilities" cost the equivalent of a couple of hundred
quid and I get to schlep the dirt back in the holes at the end of the
class.  
 
>It's a completely different culture here (despite the
similarities in our earthenwares).  Here, students are hired or
volunteer for rescue dig work (i.e. to work on sites which are going to
be built upon, whether or not the students dig them).
 
Sounds great. And who volunteers to write the report at the end of the
excavation? Or do the artefacts just sit in boxes until someone "gets
around to it?" Last time I checked, certain archaeological units in UK had
a report back-up that stretches into the next century. Another reason that
I dig the non-site is to impress on students that a site that has not been
written up might as well not have been dug at all.To be honest, every
archaeologist knows that digging's fun but writing is a grind.  [Hope this
doesn't sound too grumpy; no offence intended, Pat!]
 
Adrian Praetzellis