Re: Nighthawking | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Paulus wrote:

tjj wrote:

The whole question of metal detectoring is a different matter though. Thankfully, by and large the archaeological world has stopped vilifying detectorists and started to some extent working with them which why the Portable Antiquities Finds Scheme was set up. Without some of the truly amazing finds such as in Staffordshire and more recently near Stirling, our knowledge of the ancient world would surely be less!

Spot on June! If there's summat working well, it should be developed. Simple as.

May I ask - to those with real emotional vents against MD's: have you queried in yourselves as to why this issue gives rise to such exaggerated emotional responses? If y' get wot I mean... If not...

You know the psychology of Born Again xtians? The "nothing will stand in the way of my notion of Jesus" stuff? Izzit akin to that psychological realm do you think? Or is the subject a simple humanistic one?

Yours, intrigued - Paulus

I can only speak personally here, but my point of view is that once the historical evidence has been destroyed by a metal detector who is a treasure hunter rather than an archeologist (i.e. someone who only cares about the find, not the context), there is no going back and retrieving it. I find this terribly sad, not to say rather selfish.

With the current large numbers of people out there doing this, there must be an awful lot of irrepairable damage being done to our heritage. I don't think the few (admittedly amazing) finds that have come to light recently make up for this.

I also doubt whether the voluntary scheme is having much impact on the situation. Presumably the more responsible detectors would have reported their finds anyway? I don't know, I'm no expert on this.