Out today!
Article posted today by Alison Campsie, writing for the The Scotsman, about the concerning loss of archaeological officers in local authorities. Some highlighted quotes below:
'Levels of archaeologists employed by councils.... have fallen to the "bare minimum" with numbers at risk of further fall, it has been warned.'
'There are now just 19 archaeologists and Historic Environment Record Officers employed across Scotland's Councils' yet they 'are responsible for the protection of roughly 90 per cent of historic sites in Scotland, with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) responsible for around 10 per cent.'
Bruce Mann of Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service commented that "There is a recognition that for the vast majority of historic sites, this is the mechanism that protects them. We don't know the full extent or where all the sites are yet. That is the nature of it." He added: "In terms of local authorities, we monitor everything and we assess what the potential impact is for archaeology, whether that is upstanding buildings or sites not yet fully discovered. It is the professional interpretation that we have got. We have a site marked on the map and then you have the blank areas in-between. What we need to understand is what potentially is in the blank areas in-between."
Find the article by Alison Campsie in full here:
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/scotland-risks-who…