Research excavations accompanying large construction projects have become the most important collective experience for Polish archaeologists over the last twenty years. The lack of substantive control from the state over the selection of the contractors conducting these excavations has resulted in the erosion of the rules of methodologically proper conduct, and even (sometimes) in the excavations losing their status as research activity. Despite having great traditions in the realisation of large-scale programs of archaeological research, the Polish archaeological community proved vulnerable to phenomena such as the loss of corporate solidarity, professional ethos, and sense of mission.