A few weeks ago I wrote ('Commercial Artefact Hunting "Festival" in East Yorkshire') about the way the newspapers had reported a commercial artefact hunting rally and the way a state-funded archaeologist said he "supported" it. The activity was justified to the public by saying it was a "charity" event. So now the money has been counted, how much did it raise for the landowner, how much for the businessmen running North East Weekend Searchers (NEWS) and how much went to Help for Heroes in the end? How much has the state earnt from the payment of taxes (income and VAT) on the proceeds, and how does this compare with the costs to the public purse of any PAS work on the finds necessitated by the rally participants taking them from the archaeological record? How much of the entrance fees have individual "metal detectorists" participating recovered by selling off the surplus finds on ebay and as scrap metal? And then the MUCH more lucrative photographic reproduction fees it is reported some of them gain for mere pictures of the dugups? How much archaeological information was lost to poor information recovery technique? I guess these are all questions that will remain without answer. I do note however that there is a thread on "Detectorist.co.uk" on this topic and an awful lot of detectorists are taking some interest in my views on the rally, which is good. Maybe they would like to ask Mr Smith and NEWS for the answers to these questions.
Saturday, 15 October 2011
How Much for the Heroes?
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A few weeks ago I wrote ('Commercial Artefact Hunting "Festival" in East Yorkshire') about the way the newspapers had reported a commercial artefact hunting rally and the way a state-funded archaeologist said he "supported" it. The activity was justified to the public by saying it was a "charity" event. So now the money has been counted, how much did it raise for the landowner, how much for the businessmen running North East Weekend Searchers (NEWS) and how much went to Help for Heroes in the end? How much has the state earnt from the payment of taxes (income and VAT) on the proceeds, and how does this compare with the costs to the public purse of any PAS work on the finds necessitated by the rally participants taking them from the archaeological record? How much of the entrance fees have individual "metal detectorists" participating recovered by selling off the surplus finds on ebay and as scrap metal? And then the MUCH more lucrative photographic reproduction fees it is reported some of them gain for mere pictures of the dugups? How much archaeological information was lost to poor information recovery technique? I guess these are all questions that will remain without answer. I do note however that there is a thread on "Detectorist.co.uk" on this topic and an awful lot of detectorists are taking some interest in my views on the rally, which is good. Maybe they would like to ask Mr Smith and NEWS for the answers to these questions.
A few weeks ago I wrote ('Commercial Artefact Hunting "Festival" in East Yorkshire') about the way the newspapers had reported a commercial artefact hunting rally and the way a state-funded archaeologist said he "supported" it. The activity was justified to the public by saying it was a "charity" event. So now the money has been counted, how much did it raise for the landowner, how much for the businessmen running North East Weekend Searchers (NEWS) and how much went to Help for Heroes in the end? How much has the state earnt from the payment of taxes (income and VAT) on the proceeds, and how does this compare with the costs to the public purse of any PAS work on the finds necessitated by the rally participants taking them from the archaeological record? How much of the entrance fees have individual "metal detectorists" participating recovered by selling off the surplus finds on ebay and as scrap metal? And then the MUCH more lucrative photographic reproduction fees it is reported some of them gain for mere pictures of the dugups? How much archaeological information was lost to poor information recovery technique? I guess these are all questions that will remain without answer. I do note however that there is a thread on "Detectorist.co.uk" on this topic and an awful lot of detectorists are taking some interest in my views on the rally, which is good. Maybe they would like to ask Mr Smith and NEWS for the answers to these questions.
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