Sounds like National Trust bosses are still seeking to push through cutting the two curatorial jobs at @AveburyNT—downgrading the curator role & cutting 2 FTE to 0.5. This’d be sheer vandalism at Britain’s best small archaeology museum, a collection gifted to the nation in 1966.
Letters sent by the leading @StoneAveWHS archaeologists last month—and the museum’s Advisory Board—haven’t yet led to action. The Trust has cared for the Keiller Museum for 26 years so far in its 82 years—it is a key element of the visits made by 250,000 people a year to Avebury.
Trust bosses seem committed to cuts in curatorship, archaeology & education—Apart from 'Treasure Houses' where they're creating new Property Curators due to the significance of the properties. World Heritage Site status clearly doesn’t tick this box—due to free public access?
The presence of a full-time Curatorial team, with specialist knowledge of prehistory and the archaeology of the WHS, has proved essential in developing research and public understanding of the monuments that form the core of the Avebury NT estate.
Research on the Keiller museum collections has been at the heart of some of the most influential research projects on British prehistory in recent years: from Whittle’s re-assessment of the Keiller excavations at Windmill Hill to Parker-Pearson’s Beaker People project.
If the cuts go ahead, key aspects of the recent @HistoricEngland Research Framework for the Stonehenge Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site could simply not be implemented and current research projects (eg “Living with Monuments” Project) would be severely compromised
Research at the Keiller Museum isn’t just an academic concern. There’s huge public interest in the results of such work. Part of the NT’s function is as a research organisation, as reflected in its IRO status. Research draws visitors and revenue to Avebury impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/Ca…
Quite apart from breaching the stipulation of the original 1966 Keiller bequest to the nation, a lower grade part-time post would fail to provide much more than routine visitor management—without new research programmes, without effective education and public outreach.
The proposals would also go against the Trust’s own claim in July, that it will "refocus efforts to protect cultural heritage, with limits on cuts to staff caring for houses, gardens and collections" nationaltrust.org.uk/news/our-spend…
The decision hasn’t yet been made but may be imminent. The global archaeology community would be scandalised by any such cuts at the heart of this most loved prehistoric landscape. Trust bosses must rethink & use some of that £1.47 billion to save these roles & others like them.
Just a final bit of context, so we keep this in proportion >>
https://twitter.com/profdanhicks/status/1311383676563922944?s=21
Will @archaeologyuk and @InstituteArch be expressing a view on this news from Avebury?
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