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current archaeology number 58 In this issue . . . Viking York and neolithic Causewayed Camps are tw o of the numerous offerings in this latest issue of Current Archaeology. After the Editorial asking where recent graduates have gone, the Diary deals with Treasure Hunters, Plough Damage, and Medieval Moats and Villages. In the Viking period, York was the capital of the Viking kingdom of Jorvik. The current excavations at Coppergate, York, are revealing some of the workshops of the Viking city, wit h the Vikings in their role of peaceful craftsmen and traders. Roman Mirrors were made not only of polished bronze but also of glass. Glenys Lloyd-Morgan describes some of the varieties found in Britain, and suggests their possible dates. In Books we discuss The Roman Villa in South-West England, The Roman Villa, and then reports by the RCHM on Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Stamford. Hill-forts of Britain is then followed by Egypt: the Black Land and The Riddle of the Pyramids. Suddenly, neolithic Causewayed Camps are in fashion. No less than six have been excavated in recent years, and here we give brief reports on all six—Hambledon, Crickley, Orsett, Offham, Briar Hill and Great Wilbraham. Mean- while aerial photography has also doubled the number known, and we conclude by asking the big question: what were they? Were they ritual or defensive? Rescue Archaeology: the Next Phase is the title of the latest pronouncement of the Department of the Environment. We print i t in full and without comment. Following the upheavals at Poole (where the trial of the former museum curator ended in an acquittal), newcomers Keith Jarvis and Ian Horsey are engaged in writing up the back-log. Here they describe the recent work not only at the Saxon burh at Christchurch but also at the late Medieval port of Poole. Peter Fasham then describes the work of the M3 Archaeological Research Committee in advance of the possible routes for the still controversial M3 motorway skirting Winchester. Finally Letters deal wit h the Four Mother Goddesses, the Stone Age Trade', Burnt Daub, Wigglers and Smoothers, and Graduates in Archaeology. Cover Photo: Excavations in progress at Coppergate, York, with the church of All Saints, Pavement in the background. Photo: York Archaeological Trust. 323 Editorial 324 Diary 326 York 329 Roman Mirrors by Glenys Lloyd-Morgan 332 Books 335 Causewayed Camps 341 Rescue Archaeology: The Next Phase 343 Christchurch and Poole by Keith Jarvis and Ian Horsey 347 The M3 by Peter Fasham 350 Letters
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current archaeology No. 58 Vol. V No. 11 Published September 1977 Edited by Andrew & Wendy Selkirk, 9 Nassington Road, London NW3 2TX, Tel. 01-435 7517 Printed in Great Britain by David Green (Printers) Ltd. 18 September 1977 (9.76.7) CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY IS PUBLISHED SIX TIMES A YEAR FOR A SUBSCRIPTION OF £3 ($6) A YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY 9 NASSINGTON ROAD LONDON NW3 2TX Back Numbers 50p each (1-4 out of print) Binders to hold 12 issues £1.75 The Vanishing Graduates. What is happening to the recent graduates in archaeology? The over-rapid expansion of government expenditure in recent years has encouraged the belief that all archaeology graduates wil l be found a place within the state archaeological services. Thus the current slowing of government expenditure has come as a shock to many, and as a letter from Mr Scarre on p. 351 reveals, archaeology graduates are finding, often to their chagrin, that they must seek jobs outside archaeology. This is neither a new, nor an unexpected development. It has been calculated that there may be up to 600 graduates a year with at least a partial degree in archaeology, of whom only some 20 may find full-time jobs as field archaeologists. Thus archaeology must inevitably accept the position occupied for so long by history and the classics, in which only a very small minority continue in the subject, and the vast majority become accountants or lawyers, civil servants or industrialists. Unfortunately however the belief has arisen that if you cannot do archaeology full-time, i t is not worth doing archaeology at all. This is a major catastrophe, for it means that the young graduates, who should be forming the backbone of the local societies, are abandoning archaeology altogether. Yet they are urgently needed. The rescue crisis is not going to go away, and we cannot expect the increasingly restive taxpayer to shoulder more than a small part of the total burden. Much of the work of rescue archaeology must always be done by the independents, and since the state has already invested so much money in educating graduate archaeologists, one hopes that some at least of them wil l put their training to use in their spare time. Indeed, wit h the prospect of increasing leisure, many may well find that they can do more real archaeology as a spare-timer than does the so-called full-time archaeologist, who devotes his archaeological career to processing planning applications in a planning department. But if the recent graduate is to be lured into spare-time archaeology, major changes are necessary. Local societies must launch vigorous recruiting campaigns to attract recent graduates and make them feel welcome. The graduates themselves must look on local societies wit h greater sympathy, and realise that beneath the sometimes old-fashioned exterior, there is often a native wisdom that is not to be despised. But above all, the universities should accept that the vast majority of their graduates wil l only do archaeology part-time, and they should therefore adapt their training, not to carrying out the major set-piece battles that only a very few wil l be privileged to undertake, but to the guerrilla warfare of the weekend archaeologist. There is a daunting amount of rescue archaeology ahead, and the spare-time graduate archaeologist must be expected to play a major role in the campaign. 323

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current archaeology

No. 58 Vol. V No. 11 Published September 1977 Edited by Andrew & Wendy Selkirk, 9 Nassington Road, London NW3 2TX, Tel. 01-435 7517

Printed in Great Britain by David Green (Printers) Ltd. 18 September 1977 (9.76.7)

CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY IS PUBLISHED SIX TIMES A YEAR FOR A SUBSCRIPTION OF £3 ($6) A YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY 9 NASSINGTON ROAD LONDON NW3 2TX

Back Numbers 50p each (1-4 out of print) Binders to hold 12 issues £1.75

The Vanishing Graduates.

What is happening to the recent graduates in archaeology? The over-rapid expansion of government expenditure in recent years has encouraged the belief that all archaeology graduates wil l be found a place within the state archaeological services. Thus the current slowing of government expenditure has come as a shock to many, and as a letter from Mr Scarre on p. 351 reveals, archaeology graduates are finding, often to their chagrin, that they must seek jobs outside archaeology.

This is neither a new, nor an unexpected development. It has been calculated that there may be up to 600 graduates a year with at least a partial degree in archaeology, of whom only some 20 may find full-time jobs as field archaeologists. Thus archaeology must inevitably accept the position occupied for so long by history and the classics, in which only a very small minority continue in the subject, and the vast majority become accountants or lawyers, civil servants or industrialists.

Unfortunately however the belief has arisen that if you cannot do archaeology full-time, i t is not worth doing archaeology at all. This is a major catastrophe, for it means that the young graduates, who should be forming the backbone of the local societies, are abandoning archaeology altogether. Yet they are urgently needed. The rescue crisis is not going to go away, and we cannot expect the increasingly restive taxpayer to shoulder more than a small part of the total burden. Much of the work of rescue archaeology must always be done by the independents, and since the state has already invested so much money in educating graduate archaeologists, one hopes that some at least of them wil l put their training to use in their spare time. Indeed, wit h the prospect of increasing leisure, many may well find that they can do more real archaeology as a spare-timer than does the so-called full-time archaeologist, who devotes his archaeological career to processing planning applications in a planning department.

But if the recent graduate is to be lured into spare-time archaeology, major changes are necessary. Local societies must launch vigorous recruiting campaigns to attract recent graduates and make them feel welcome. The graduates themselves must look on local societies wit h greater sympathy, and realise that beneath the sometimes old-fashioned exterior, there is often a native wisdom that is not to be despised. But above all, the universities should accept that the vast majority of their graduates wil l only do archaeology part-time, and they should therefore adapt their training, not to carrying out the major set-piece battles that only a very few wil l be privileged to undertake, but to the guerrilla warfare of the weekend archaeologist. There is a daunting amount of rescue archaeology ahead, and the spare-time graduate archaeologist must be expected to play a major role in the campaign.

323

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