An archaeologist’s view of consortiums
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 11/02/2021

Archaeological consortiums, or joint ventures, are nothing new but in recent years with the increase in large infrastructure projects they seem to have become more common. The idea behind them is a good one – bringing together archaeological companies with complementary skill sets and expertise, to provide large teams with local knowledge able to fulfil project requirements. A big selling point of these consortiums is that they can deliver projects smoothly, on time and on budget. They use all the right buzz words like pragmatic and innovative solutions, sustainability and delivering excellence, setting the standard… But what does this actually mean for the field staff working on these projects? The Digger’s Forum undertook a survey to ask just this question, which in turn led to many other questions, some of which will be addressed here.

The field staff working on these projects are employed by the different companies of which the consortium is made up, so how does this look with regard to pay/conditions/contracts of people working side by side for a period of potentially many months if not years? Different companies have different excavation and recording methodologies, how has this been addressed on these projects? Are there differences in training and development between the companies? Are these consortiums looking at the issues encountered on these projects and learning from them going forward?


Subsequent DF report:

 https://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/FULL%20REPORT-an%20Archaeologist%27s%20view%20of%20consortiums_0.pdf

CATHERINE GIBBS, MOLA