The History of the Council
The Council for Independent Archaeology had its origins in the
Congress of Independent Archaeologists, held at Wolfson College,
Cambridge in July 1985. This was a great success, and was followed
two years later by a second congress, also held at Cambridge in
1987. This was followed by a third Congress, held at York, at which
it was decided to form a separate body, the Council for Independent
Archaeology, principally to organise the future congresses. Andrew
Selkirk, who organised the first three congresses, was elected Chairman,
Mike Rumbold became Hon Secretary, and Kevan Fadden the Hon Treasurer.
Since then, six further congresses have been held: The first Nottingham
Congress, on the Role of Local Societies in Rescue archaeology,
has since been published, but is now out of print. In addition one-day
meetings have been held in alternate years at places associated
with distinguished 'independent' archaeologists. Click
here for details of the meetings
There have been two major recent developments.
The Valetta campaign
The first was the campaign against the Valetta
convention which appeared to align the government to the licensing
of archaeology. Our campaign attracted over 1600 signatures and
led to a splendid display of sophistry on the part of the government.
It appears that for the time being at any rate, the government is
unlikely to move openly in this direction, though constant vigilance
is needed to ensure that the government does not backtrack on its
undertakings.
Resistivity Meter
The second has been the development of our Resistivity
Meter, which we are able to supply to our members at a very
low cost. Click here for details.
Our members
The Council has over 400 members,
both institutional and private.
The council warmly welcomes new
members. We hope that all members
will accept our basic belief of
the dangers of over-centralisation
in archaeology, and the importance
of maintaining and supporting a
thriving independent sector.
Many members will inevitably be amateur archaeologists, or in the
non- governmental sector; however professional and academic archaeologists
are also warmly welcome, providing they share our basic belief -
as many of them do - of the importance of independence.
Click here for subscription details
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