Had a very productive 10 days in Provence working with CEREGE/CNRS on investigating old channels of the Rhone River at Avignon.

A robust and integrated mix of geophysics, geotech and some portable OSL profiling; the results from the investigation are already very interesting.

Aimed at examining the geomorphological development of the river, its history, archaeology and environmental history, a great example of geoarchaeology in practice.

This issue becomes even more acute when it is publically-funded research that has been published and it costs the same academics that undertook the work and the general public a handsome amount of cash to access them at a later date.

Now that I am not privy to the benefits of a broad institutional library subscription and work in the private sector access to literature can sometimes be a problem, especially from scientific journals. Usually this can be overcome but greater levels of open-access would be a huge benefit.

There are some open-acces archaeology journals or repositories, e.g. FASTIONLINE, ANTIQUA if you have a Mediterranean focus, but it is unlikely this kind of publishing can truly prosper when academic ratings are based partly on impact factors. These ratios which contribute to research funding from publicly-funded UK Research Councils are dervied from the very same journals that publishers charge so much for. A bit of a vicious circle.

I’m not claiming any kind of moral high ground, good peer-reviewed journals are necessary for maintaining high standards of research (I’ve had enough rejected proofs to realise this ).  I was given an opportunity to publish in a peer-reviewed international journal during my publicly-funded PhD research that combines bi-lingual and open-access (after a couple of years moratorium). The journal does have an impact factor but that doesn’t mean it has to restrict access.

So as of this month my first little paper is now free to download.

Neolithic chambered cairn

Fishtraps

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops. Nice to see the palaeoenvironmental side of archaeology getting the limelight.

My prediction is:
Birch-hazel-bit of deciduous-people-burny phase-more people-sheep-fewer trees-now.

Nice bit of geophysics for a Monday afternoon.

Lovely stuff and…
world’s first still life of an orange.

With some updates to the webpage, this is coming along nicely.

I always thought physics would save the world. I just wish I was better at the maths!

There is an interesting point about open access publication & peer-review. Perhaps a move away from the exclusivity of knowledge is on the way.

OHCCMAPP

Last nights presentation in Lochmaddy was a a great success, following on from a packed house in Stornoway earlier in July.

Stornoway Gazette article

Should be interesting…

Back in March, a very productive week in Euboea was had with French and Greek colleagues. The microfossil, sedimentology & geochronology is now in…time to roll up the sleeves again. A few key sites offering some insight into human – environment drivers of climate change over the Holocene.

A definite highlight was coring an infilled bronze age harbour on the Attic coast…some famous historical events at the site. More to come.