• Descent 302 is published on 15 February and it will soon be on its way to our subscribers.

    In the newsdesk, read a review of the underground events at Kendal Mountain Festival, plus tales of cannibalism and the Cavefish Asteroid.

    In regional news, we have three new connections in Ogof Agen Allwedd, a report on the iron mines of Anjou, an extension to Big Sink Cave in the Forest of Dean, a new dig in Yorkshire's Marble Steps Pot, student parties, an obituary for Tony Boycott, a tight find in the Peak District and a discovery in County Kerry with extensive formations.

    Click here for details of this edition

What is your interest in digging?

Keris82

Member
To those who go on digs...Are you qualified in archaeology or geology? Do you work in that field or is it just an interest in discovery? Just curious. I've always wanted to study archaeology but never got round to it and ended up in office work instead!  :coffee:
 
Personally, it is mostly the discovery element that motivates me. However, as I dig in mines from time to time, there is also an element of industrial archaeology. On a wider issue, it's never too late to take up archaeology. I was always interested in the subject and after I retired I studied archaeology at the University of Sheffield - thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
My interest these days is supplying buckets and nets to many of the UK
diggers , must be good ,keep being asked for more . I believe I may
have made coming up to  one thousand buckets . ;D
 
Keris82 said:
To those who go on digs...Are you qualified in archaeology or geology? Do you work in that field or is it just an interest in discovery? Just curious. I've always wanted to study archaeology but never got round to it and ended up in office work instead!  :coffee:

To cavers interested in cave science it would be an anathema to 'explore' caves without including an element of cave science in their work, whether it be carrying out measurements, plans and sections of the passages found, allied with a photographic and written record, or doing more involved hydrological, geomorphological, biological or archaeological studies. However, many caves in the UK have been sealed off through land, rock and sediment movements during the various ice ages and therefore contain relatively few deposits of archaeological interest, unlike caves in, say, France.

To purely sporting cavers 'exploring caves' even cave formations can be an anathema because they are interested in the physical and mental workout element of caving rather than avoiding breaking delicate projections for which they could well be criticised. Certainly wasting time carrying out experimentation, making observations and writing down notes in the cave or doing scientific reports afterwards is beyond their comprehension.

It also depends what you mean by 'digs' because this can be as little as a few minutes or hours work to pass a short obstacle in an existing or newly discovered cave system, or it could be a project requiring many days, months or years commitment to a specific site or region, where the long-sought-after breakthrough can often elude many contributors to the work through the years.

What do you mean by 'qualified'? There are no 'qualifications' involved in making discoveries - 'exploration' requires a balance of enquiring intellect, experience and instinct, coupled with a good nerve, tempered by a sense of staying alive. You can guide but no more teach and grade the essence of exploration knowledge than you can inspired artistic or musical composition and realisation. In professional work - mine being in film-making - you can go on a work training course, as I did for film editing, and learn all about the science behind each aspect of the job - gamma, grading, decibels and peak programme meters - but such courses don't actually tell you how to edit (the decision-making process behind where, how and when you make edits) because this is something which is learnt gradually through instinctive ability and experience.
 
@Clive G my question was more in a broader sense as to why people go digging or otherwise. I wondered if they do it just to reach undiscovered parts of cave systems or if there are more scientific reasons behind it. I'm just curious really and its interesting to hear what people's reasons are for doing what they do.

For me it's more a sporting thing because i know little about the science of caves but i would like to find out more and am interested in studying archaeology if it wasn't so expensive!
 
Keris82 said:
@Clive G my question was more in a broader sense as to why people go digging or otherwise. I wondered if they do it just to reach undiscovered parts of cave systems or if there are more scientific reasons behind it. I'm just curious really and its interesting to hear what people's reasons are for doing what they do.

For me it's more a sporting thing because i know little about the science of caves but i would like to find out more and am interested in studying archaeology if it wasn't so expensive!

I think the whole spectrum of reasons for exploration are covered as a whole throughout the sport.
 
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