Spending on Archaeology: Britain tilts further away from “experts” in favour of populism (but the CBA only half complains!)

Leaders of the CBA have co-signed a letter published in The Times criticising the UK Government’s proposal to cut funding to the 43 UK Universities that deliver archaeology degrees and pointing out that

“Contemporary archaeology is founded on meticulous excavation and state-of-the-art scientific analyses using the principles of physics, chemistry, biology and statistics — everything from satellites to scanning electron microscopes — thus blending the sciences with the humanities through questions of identity, power and belonging. An archaeology degree course provides grounding in the sciences, scrupulous training in fieldwork and a feeling for the debates embracing our history” …and much else.

Agreed, and yet, the CBA is supporting an increase in Treasure reward “bribes” given to metal detectorists, 90% of whom lack the comprehension or sense of decency to donate their Treasure finds to museums for free!

Money is tight, of course. But should we be regretting a reduction in spending on Archaeological education while supporting an increase in the payment of Dane Geld? Apart from the moral considerations, which are obvious, should not the CBA be applying some cost-benefit analysis?

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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