Tombaroli: "Once an underclass, amateur heritage-hunters are our allies".

In Italy, artefact hunters with metal detectorists are not actually the enemy of archaeology which they are usually thought, writes Bettany Hughes, breathlessly-excited PAS presenter. "Once an underclass, amateur heritage-hunters are now the allies of archaeology", she suggests. In a wandering Daily Telegraph article (paywall) she rehabilitates the sullied image of the Tombaroli:

There are still a few self-seeking tomb-raiders who operate illegally – and are rightly vilified. But the dedication of a network of non-professionals adds hugely to our total sum of knowledge. 

Like the discovery of the Etruscan tombs the other month, I guess she means. 

For centuries archaeology was the preserve of well-to-do amateurs. Then came the democratisation of heritage-hunting via the metal-detector [...] Initially archaeologists were suspicious. But those Italian [amateurs] incarnate a global shift in both professional and public opinion.

Enough of this complete nonsense, see Heritage Action ('Bettany Hughes damages Archaeology!', Heritage Journal, 4th September 2013). This is just totally tendentious writing. This is the same problem that we have with metal detectorists working on archaeological projects, in the eyes of artefact hunters it does not matter that there were archaeologists involved, for them its a metal-detecting expedition.

So when the Italian conservation authorities with a huge and largely uncharted tunnel system underground on a major site decide they need a better idea of what is down there they turn to people with experience of exploring such tunnels. In the same way as in the 1950s the Polish conservation authorities wanted to explore flint mines in Krzemionki, they also invited cavers (and later mining engineers) to take part in the project - with very interesting results. Whatever the "headlines" say to Ms Hughes, the Tivoli expedition was commissioned by Benedetta Adembri, ('Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio, Direttore Area Archeologica di Villa Adriana  - Tivoli (RM), and supervised by archaeologists, the 2007-9 season by Hubert Manderscheid (interim report here) while currently the project is led by Vittoria Fresi. Any amateurs going down there and removing artefacts (pottery and red sea shell mentioned) without a permit would be committing a crime in Italy. It may be for Ms Hughes that it is "volunteers now make headlines about history", but it is not the truth to make out that they can achieve anything much without strict collaboration with the conservation authorities, and in doing so, applying archaeological methods to their searches. Now, can she say the same thing about all those metal detectorists in the UK she insists on going google-etyed over? I doubt it. Not with any sincerity at least.

Bettany Hughes, 'It’s amateurs who dig deep to discover Emperor Hadrian's buried treasures' Telegraph, 27 Aug 2013.

Vignette:  The tunnel "discovered by amateurs" according to Ms Hughes. In fact, it was hardly "lost".