Working for commercial clients: the practice of development-led archaeology in the UK

This paper describes current practice in development-led archaeology in the UK. Key issues are explored with a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of market-based provision. It addresses concerns over the way in which the growth of archaeology as a business has not been accompanied by an equivalent growth in the public benefi ts of our activities. This is seen, in part, to derive from the way in which conservation policies have been applied, exacerbating a division between the archaeology of cultural resource management and a diff erently theorised academic sector