Writing Resources
We face massive misunderstanding on the part of greatly of the general public as to what it is we do for a living Funding as mentioned by another responder is a major problem Sexy projects get money as well as attention equally important but less attractive projects may not because they aren't seen as public relations opportunities There is often resistance to survey public salvage archaeology on the part of local residents in an part not just natives especially if undertaking an excavation to for example salvage a site before a highway is built delays the highway project by a few months Archaeologists are often seen as meddlers in local affairs In addition there is a surprising number of individuals who think that most archaeological substance is just garbage anyway or not worth studying at all As well as a remarkable number of individuals don’t think archaeology is a real job There are ongoing problems of site preservation in the face of development see above as well as in the face of looting or robbery There are cases of archaeologists working in certain parts being threatened or in certain cases actually facing physical violence from looters Usually this is because the looters don t want to face either losing their source of objects for sale legal or illegal depending on the part or don t want to face legal repercussions if their actions are clearly illegal Tied into this are the collectors private individuals as well as museums the world over who buy artifacts off the art market either not caring or turning a blind eye to the illegal looting as well as sale of objects They are providing a market for looters a very lucrative market Looting is an extremely damaging exercise Greatly of what archaeological investigation as well as reconstruction is about is context where an artifact was found in relation to other objects buildings features etc
