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!
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.