British Archaeologist thinks "figures" are not worth discussing

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I thought it only right that David Connolly should be aware of the fact that I had discussed his paper delivered at the Newcastle Conference on this blog, so I sent him the links to the two posts here and here and invited him to reply. This is his response:

[Edit: Sadly the individual in question demanded I remove his reply to which indicated that he considered that to respond to my discussion of his "figures" would suggest that there - in his words - "would be anything (sic) worth replying to". He also indicated that he thought what I had written was nevertheless "very funny" and thanked me for that. Dave Connolly pers. comm. 18.03.10]

Well, I am not sure that we should be glad that the British archaeological heritage is in the hands of people like Mr Connolly who paint superficial pictures in academic presentations and who only laugh at attempts to get a clearer idea of what the effects of their current short-sighted polices are. David Connolly presented a paper at an academic conference which deliberately set out to play down the scale of erosion of the archaeological record due to artefact hunting. He did so by techniques which can be seen to be as lacking in intellectual honesty as the selectivity and word-twisting of the propaganda of the pro-indiscriminate-trade lobbyists over the other side of the Ocean . He just laughs when this is pointed out.

That is actually typical of the whole pro-collecting lobby in British archaeology, none of whom, experience shows time and time again, will engage in proper debate of the issues. They just dismiss anything they do not like to hear as "irrelevant". Mr Connolly and Mr Sayles probably got on very well together at Newcastle in what the organizers call "the informal networking breaks which we planned into the event for this purpose".

That's all right Dave, you carry on laughing at your own jokes and ignoring what you do not want to hear. Meanwhile some of us will carry on attempting to discuss in a more rational manner the implications for archaeology in Britain and in general of what you "archaeologists" in Britain are doing with public opinion about artefact hunting and collecting.

Vignette: British pro-collecting archaeologist clearly cannot cope with the weight of the problem he faces.