A Few Questions for British Archaeologists: Getting it out in the Public Domain

How difficult can it be for the archaeologists in the little green isles off the coast of Europe to answer a few yes/no questions about artefact hunting?

1) Are archaeologists who are concerned about the scale of artefact hunting wrong (is it the case that it is only in their imaginations that there are issues to be addressed)? Yes/no?

2) When artefacts are removed from an archaeological context, is it true that the only information we actually need to make the damage good would be its two-dimensional position on a map to the nearest couple of meters (is it the case that there is nothing more involved in making an archaeologically valid record)? Yes/no?

3) Is allowing this to happen in totally unregulated, and incompletely 'mitigated', the best form of sustainable management of these sites we can provide? Yes/no?

4) When archaeological information is removed without adequate record, is the damage done proportionate to the physical depth of the hole (in other words when the hole is shallow, is the damage to the ability later to interpret that site by the taking of the artefacts/evidence always minor)? Yes/no?

5) Does it make a difference to the amount of damage done whether the artefacts are hoiked out of the ground for personal entertainment or whether they are removed for commercial profit? Yes/no?

6) Is the archaeological damage of a different nature when the artefacts are dug out in the day or night, with or without the knowledge of the landowner or someone in charge? Yes/no?

7) Is asking a coroner whether the object is Treasure (defined as silver or gold or prehistoric hoard) the best we can do to define archaeological significance? Yes/no?

And then all those insular archies who answered "yes" (or "perhaps yes, not too sure, what else can we do?") to the above seven questions, would they reply the same if instead of Hartlebury in Worcestershire it was a site at Har' Tel-Barach in the Delta of the Nile, or instead of Islip, Oxon it was Isin, Iraq? I do hope they'd give the same answers, to do otherwise would be myopic and illogical. There is only one archaeological record, the record of the past of us all, and it is just as badly damaged by artefact hunters digging holes in it whichever side of the Watford Gap it lies.