Reading Craig Spence's post about the rise of environment assessments in UK and its effect on archaeology is like having "deja vu all over again." California went through exactly this process in the 1970s and '80s when there was a great vacuum of qualified people to do highly focused research for historic period sites and consequently the archaeologists did it themselves. Historians were outraged. And rightly so in many cases, for the quality of work was often low... Things were quite ugly for a while with charges of "historical naivete" and "shameless poaching" being traded around. Eventually, this lead to the founding of an organization, the CCPH, which certifies historians in certain areas of specialization. Of course, using a "registered professional historian" doesn't guarantee good work, but as least it provides some assurance to commercial clients who otherwise have little more than their consultant's word to go on. UK is fortunate to have such a widely respected organization as IFA to assess archaeologists. The US equivalent, SOPA, has never really been able to get off the ground (I've been a member for 16 years). Unfortunately, SOPA has recently dropped its area certification in Historical Archaeology. OK you lot, no more procrastinating -- get back to work! Adrian Praetzellis Sonoma State University