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This paper is in response to a discussion following Moshenska’s 2009 paper, “What is Public Archaeology,” published in the first issue of this journal. Moshenska proposed a model for breaking down the various parts of archaeology into marketable commodities, arguing that the relationship between the various interested groups could be understood as an economic relationship of supply and demand. My aim here is not to question this model. Rather, I would like to call into discussion the ethical and economic implications of understanding and presenting archaeological practice in this way. Moshenska, and the first discussant Burtenshaw (2009), see the remit of public archaeology as a disciplinary critique, which focuses on the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of the production and consumption of archaeological “commodities,” placing it “firmly between supply and demand” (Burtenshaw 2009:49). Effectively, Moshenska and Burtenshaw are arguing in true utilitarian fashion that the importance of archaeology to the public can be measured in terms of its monetary turnover. In doing so, they have a concrete objective. Especially in Moshenska and Burtenshaw’s (2009) final forum response, it becomes clear that behind the attempt to assess the economic value of archaeology is a perceived need to justify its existence in the modern world. Flatman’s (2009) praise for Moshenska’s model is telling: “if you outlined [it] to any politician, then they might just get it, surely the acid test.” In a time where large cuts in public spending are taking place and UK universities are being reconstructed as freemarket companies selling employability, most academics are apprehensive about the future of their subject. Is it not therefore logical and instrumental to our future to demonstrate that we, too, are contributing to that slogan that has become the panacea of the Western world: economic growth? Certain uneasiness with this idea becomes apparent in Flatman’s response: while generally agreeing with the model, he claims to be concerned about the precedent it sets. So is calculating its monetary profit the right way to try and secure a future for archaeology? My answer to this question rests on two different considerations. The first is philosophical: Should we put a monetary value on archaeology? What are the implications of doing so and what is the precedent Flatman is concerned about? The second is economic: Can we really apply a supply-and-demand model of economics to archaeology? What alternatives to this form of valuation are there? Will having a market valuation of archaeology be beneficial to its future? In order to get to the bottom of these questions, we need to go back to the very basics of the value of archaeology, by considering how this value is created and, thus, on what basis the demand for archaeology rests. I would contend that the production of commodities, however real and saleable they are, was never the objective of archaeology, nor the reason for its existence. Seen in a wider economic context, possessing knowledge of the past is not necessarily useful, and it does not respond to a predictable need. The valuation of it lies in a much less rational sphere. This becomes apparent when we consider the relationship between the commodities and the discipline of archaeology. For example, the laws governing the protection of archaeological remains, upon which the commercial archaeological sector is founded, were not created in order to provide a market for the commodity of archaeological skills. They were created in recognition of the fact that, behind the commodities and providing them with value, there lies a debate about the past which shapes our identity today. It is this debate that is the actual objective of archaeology, and it is also the reason why people value the commodities that result from it. After all, an old pot with a hole in it is something to be thrown away. Once it becomes, by virtue of research, a 2000-year-old vase of Roman Samian ware (slightly damaged), it is a valuable object, a collector’s item with a story to tell. This point is, for the main part, tacitly acknowledged in all of the forum papers. I, however, find it central to the discussion, since, if we acknowledge that an emotional attachment to knowing the past is where the underlying reason for archaeology’s value resides, moving the focus away from it threatens the existence of a marketable commodity. If we accept this basis for the value of archaeology, the heritage Present Pasts Vol. 3, No. 2, 2011, 80-82 doi: 10.5334/pp.50 |
