Hedging the Issue of Artefact Hunting

British archaeologists may have, as Peter Tompa claims "made peace with metal detectorists", but they tend to be very cagey about talking about the imagined relationship in any detail. A commentator on the Heritage Action blog (Karl 4/09/2013 at 12:15) asked:

"Why don’t [British] archaeologists speak out in public for all to hear and see? Why don’t the various heritage bodies do the same? Why is it left to “in the pub” ? so as to be off the record? Why is there a culture of hidden resentment but a public face of acceptance [...]?

I suppose we could ask Worcester "community archaeologist" Rob Hedge for an honest answer to that. A week ago I invited him over here to discuss what he'd earlier publicly  apparently said about "good" artefact hunters. Readers may remember that he had previously offered to respond, but only in private emails. So far, he has declined to take up the invitation to give the British archaeologist's side of the story. Perhaps he finds the paradoxes too difficult to explain to a wider audience, though in that case I'd ask what he'd doing in community archaeology - the whole aim of which is surely to explain archaeology to a wider public.

 'Tweet Tweet: Debating Archaeology Policy in 140 characters', "Following on from the artefact hunter looting at Kidderminster ...."

'Focus on Metal Detecting: Archaeology and Artefact Hunting' "A simple question about their "partners", and a couple of British archaeologists lose their cool.... I was musing here yesterday..."

Heritage Action has a point that I expect the Kidderminster archaeologists will want to ignore too:

the ONLY distinction that can be drawn between most detectorists (who don’t report all their finds) and the people that attacked this site (and didn’t report their finds) is “lack of permission”. The damage they do is the same. Same action. Same effect. Same loss of knowledge for the rest of society. The damage inflicted on Kidderminster is identical to the damage inflicted on communities up and down the country thousands of times every week. Legally. People – especially landowners – should know. . The people that sneaked past this notice with detectors were plain nasty…. . [...] . but please, please let’s not allow people to get the idea that such unpleasant, antisocial neanderdunces and their few hundred fellows do more damage than those thousands of perfectly legal non-reporters who get permission. That’s a damaging falsehood the public has been fed for 15 years. They do vastly less.

And for one reason or another, British archaeologists totally ignore that and pussy-foot around the issue, and try and sweep it under the carpet, instead of facing it. But the eyes of the world are on you.

Heritage Action: 'Every community attacked!', 8th September 2013.