A Discussion of Current Risk and Future Reward

An Ethnography of UK Developer-Funded Urban Archaeology and its 21st Century Construction Industry Context

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7159397
AutoresGuillermo Díaz De Liaño (0000-0003-0108-9732, Museum of London Archaeology, autor de correspondencia), Sadie Watson (0000-0001-7188-3611, Museum of London Archaeology)
Año2026
Volumen51
Número1
Páginas65-77
Fecha de publicación2026-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Field Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0093-4690 • E-ISSN: 2042-4582
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00934690.2025.2574131
OpenAlexW4415651155
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas52

This article presents an ethnographic exploration of the relationship between archaeology and construction in the context of developer-funded projects. Although what follows is a UK-focused discussion, much will be relevant in countries where the Valletta Convention has been ratified (Council of Europe 1992) and where developer-funded (or preventive) systems operate, so an international context is provided to widen the scope of this study. We provide some contextualized background to both occupations, examining major differences and some similarities in practice. We then analyze communication between both disciplines, as well as the perception of archaeology as a risk for developers, before arguing that the notion of incommensurability helps us understand both issues. This phenomenon can be observed in the need that archaeologists have to “translate” when interacting and working in developer-funded contexts and by the issues caused by uncertainty, which is a key tenet of archaeological epistemologies, as recently explored by Frieman’s discussion of unproof (2024); both elements are also affected by the unequal relationship of power within which this specific archaeological praxis exists

Construction industry · Context (archaeology) · Current (fluid) · Ethnography · Excavation · Materiality (auditing) · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology