"Crassfest", it's Official

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Gill Evans of Central Searchers the organizer of the commercial metal detecting rally which was criticised by Heritage Action the other day now complains on a metal detecting forum:

That photo was one of our detectorists who was detecting at the Crassfest which hertitage action took and put on their site without anyones permission.

Now from her previous showings we may conclude Mrs Evans' dictionary skills are not of the highest calibre, but one would have thought even somebody with minimum education would be wary of uncritically repeating words they do not understand... So the commercial artefact hunting detecting rally held at the bank Holiday weekend on an ancient site is officially branded a "crassfest" by the organizers themselves. Not only was the searching of collectable bits and bobs from medieval ridge and furrow carried out by a band of could-not-care-less yobbos in blue anoraks and types like "Big (we know where yer live) Mick". We now know it was led by uncomprehending individuals like Mrs Evans, unable to discern what Heritage action were commenting on and unable to determine the meaning of the words she parrots. That still does not compensate for any archaeological damage done though, does it?

Commercial metal detecting rallies fly against the oft-repeated (only in the UK) mantras about what an "archaeologically beneficial" hobby artefact hunting is. They prove that much of what is said about artefact hunting in the UK by its supporters is just a load of tosh, which is why those supporters try their damndest not to talk about the subject in any detail, and try (as we have seen most clearly in the case of Central Searchers), to hide away any evidence that may be visible to the outside world that not all is as it seems. So what the world sees is a group of people hiding what they do from public view, and unable to come up with any articulate arguments why commercial artefact hunting, carried out in the way it currently is, is "a jolly good thing" for Britain's archaeological heritage. They rely on having "Big Mick", the PAS to legitimise them, and secrecy to shield them from such questions.

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