Comment on "Present and Future of the British Schools, Institutes and Societies Abroad"

Roger Matthews

doi:10.5334/pia.252

Abstract

What we write is always coloured by personal experience – an unimaginably dull world would otherwise result. Prior to joining the Institute of Archaeology, UCL (IoA), in 2001, I had spent my entire professional archaeological career, since 1986, as a fulltime employee of two of the bodies here the subject of discussion, directing the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (BSAI) from 1988 to 1996 and the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara (BIAA) from 1995 to 2001. My default view of the British institutions abroad is that they are immensely valuable and productive organisations that provide a rich array of services and facilities to the British and international academic communities while at the same time conducting first-rate research in the field, in libraries and in museums, as neatly summarised here in Bill Finlayson’s thorough overview. Perhaps above all, they provide an intellectual focus for British and other scholars to interact at a range of levels with the academic communities of their host countries, and thus to generate, facilitate and execute truly international and trans-disciplinary projects that have a major impact in the world of archaeology and beyond. In what, according to our daily media, appears to be an increasingly polarised world, the role of the British institutions abroad in nurturing academic relations between British and hostcountry scholars, even or especially in circumstances where a physical presence in that host country is not currently possible (e.g. Iraq), is of incalculable value.

Highlights

In a recent short article Richard Hodges (2005) underlines the dramatic decline in fieldbased research within the context of British university departments of archaeology
Less short-termist and individualist hitherto – it is difficult to think of British-based projects, at least in western Asia, that match the long-term engagement and commitment of archaeological endeavours such as excavations at Hattusa, Arslantepe, Sheikh Hamad, and a host of other projects, especially German and Italian, whose research designs are structured in terms of decades rather than seasons
The only convincing British candidate in this league is the 25-year project at Çatalhöyük in Turkey, whose director, Ian Hodder, is no longer based at a British university

Summary

Introduction

In a recent short article Richard Hodges (2005) underlines the dramatic decline in fieldbased research within the context of British university departments of archaeology. Writing as someone who has not excavated since becoming a British university academic four years ago, I wholeheartedly concur with Hodges’ view here.

Results

Conclusion