In Australia my archaeological association has a minimum standard as
"honours in archaeology" and to cater for those people who had been working
as professional archaeologists for a long time without formal training a
more generalised "experience" standard. There are also recognised grades of
experience within archaeologists with different levels of responsibility
leading up to the head consultant who runs the project.
It has no legal standing that I know of and I am not sure how well it is
recognised by non-archaeologists but it at least gives me something to refer
to. Here in the West hardly any of the clients know of it but I always write
into my recommendations that work be carried out by an archaeologist with a
level of qualifications or experience that would be recognised by AACA. It
at least alerts them to the idea that there are standards. Clients also
can't tell types of archaeologist apart (such as prehistorians or historical
archaeologists) and have no idea of the appropriate experience grade needed
for different jobs.
I recently had to send the grades list with explanations of how to recognise
different levels of experience and specialisation's from someone's CV to our
Heritage Council after they included an engineer as an historical
archaeologist on their vetted list of consultants. As the Heritage Council
kind of run heritage over here it is scary that they cannot tell an engineer
from an archaeologist.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Giacobbe, John" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, 9 January 2002 4:49
Subject: Re: FW: What Archaeology Has Come To...
> Hi again:
>
> my only point was to mention that if we as a profession set some lower
> boundaries of training and self-certification beyond which one could not
> call himself an archaeologist, we could contact folks (such as newspapers,
> land managers, etc) and state that this guy is not a professional
> archaeologist.
>
> Along the lines that a guy who makes homebrew in his garage does not
qualify
> to call himself a professional chemist. They (the chemists, that is, not
the
> homebrewers) have a legitimate and universally recognized system of
> certification, while, sadly, too many of us cowboy archaeologists fight
> tooth and nail to resist any such standardization...
>
> but that's another argument...
>
> John
>
> John A. Giacobbe, RPA
> Archaeology & Environmental Science
> Stantec Consulting, Inc.,
> 8211 South 48th St., Phoenix, AZ 85044-5355, USA
> Voice: (602)438-2200 - Fax: (602)431-9562
> email: [log in to unmask]
> http://home.mindspring.com/~cerci1/index.html
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: James L. Murphy [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 1:24 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: FW: What Archaeology Has Come To...
> >
> >
> >
> > WE (all) could dismiss him as a pothunter and no doubt do, but why
should
> > he care? For the most part the people in whose backyards he delves
would
> > not appreciate the difference; nor, in my experience, do most
newspapers.
> > There is no patent or trademark registration on "archaeologist," RPA
> > notwithstanding. It doesn't help matters that the adjective
> > "professional" is ambiguous-- one can do archaeology for a living and/or
> > one can do it in a competent, educated, "professional" manner. Some do
> > both but there are lots of people who don't do either and still claim to
> > be archaeologists.
> >
> > Incidentally, I of course meant to write "It is sad that the guy is a
> > college graduate..." not "It is said..."
> >
> > James L. Murphy
> >
> > At 12:57 PM 1/8/02 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >
> > a minor note, but if we had a good, clear way to define what
> > actually is a
> > professional archaeologist,
> > perhaps we could easily dismiss him as a hack and pothunter (read
> > RPA
> > certification between the lines, perhaps)
> >
> > John
> >
> > John A. Giacobbe, RPA
> > Archaeology & Environmental Science
> > Stantec Consulting, Inc.,
> > 8211 South 48th St., Phoenix, AZ 85044-5355, USA
> > Voice: (602)438-2200 - Fax: (602)431-9562
> > email: [log in to unmask]
> > <http://home.mindspring.com/~cerci1/index.html>
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: James L. Murphy [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 12:32 PM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Re: FW: What Archaeology Has Come To...
> >
> >
> >
>
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