Child Care for Archaeologists

Some of us have normal baby pictures. I have some like this:

That's me at a tender age, plopped into a test excavation unit at Fort Mason, San Francisco, circa 1978. My mom was getting her CRM business started at the time and got the contract to do monitoring and Phase I excavations there. I remember her saying that the Army guys she was liaising with were flabbergasted that their archaeologist was not only a young woman but showed up with a baby on her hip!

If you think about it, the excavation unit is the perfect child care facility: lots of dirt to play in and the kid can't get out. Hopefully I'll have a chance to do this with my kids some day.

Wal-Mart vs. the Mound

The city of Oxford, Alabama, which had intended to bulldoze an ancient mound to use it as fill on the site of a new Sam's Club, has apparently reconsidered.

Bishop Laments Unemployment for Archaeologists

A stimulus program I can agree with, from Religious Intelligence:

The Anglican Bishop of Rochester has called on the British Government to continue to promote the work of British archaeologists abroad during the recession.

Peers in the House of Lords warned ministers that one in five of the 6,500 professional archaeologists in work last year have lost their job in the past six months because of the downturn in the building industry.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali asked at question time in the Lords: “Are the Government continuing to promote the valuable work of British archaeologists abroad, especially in the Holy Land and the Middle East generally?”

20% is a pretty steep number, but not implausible given how much the cultural resources management (CRM) industry is dependent on construction (quite the devil's bargain, if you ask me). Anyone know whether CRM work is upticking in anticipation of stimulus money?