This is a prime example of the failure, utter failure, of outreach concerning WHY there is a Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and (for the moment) Wales, and only there, and what it is actually about. French tekkies apparently want to carry on plundering sites back home:
Il faudrait peut-être demander à nos amis anglais d'agrandir la carte des référents de découvertes du Portable Antiquities Scheme et y inclure la France et mettre en place un système de pseudonymes ?Will we see the PAS rushing to make it crystal clear why not, without hiding behind the "funding" excuse? But then of course where do foreign tekkies think the money is going to come from? Why SHOULD the British public purse fund their culture-depleting hobby, any more than the French public should be forced to subsidise the British? [Of course the PAS has no "pseudonyms", as the collector's names do not appear on the public database; that's the "other" detecting finds database.]
ARE the PAS the "friends" of metal detectors in France, artefact hunting against the law? The latter seem to think this relationship exists. I think we all need to know the truth - though the last time this question came up, the PAS steadfastly maintained a strategic silence. Which is probably why it is coming up again.
Not all Frenchmen fortunately are so misled about what the PAS is all about. A point also ignored by Bloomsbury.
Vignette: Why is there this partnership? To whose ultimate benefit?
"ARE the PAS the "friends" of metal detectors in France?"
ReplyDeleteWell clearly they would say that metal detecting in France is criminal (which they do) whereas if the finds were reported to PAS they would have to say that was responsible (which they do).
Looks like Glasgow Uni needs to add a fifth definition to its list of metal detecting variants ....
"Criminally responsible nighthawking".
Or would that be "responsibly criminal metal detecting"? Oh what tangled webs....
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