Still waiting. Silence.This is the letter I sent on 21st October 2010 to Steve Moore, Garretts Sales Manger who had invited me to contact him with "any questions" further to the points I had made and he seems to be under the impression he'd answered (see here) .
Dear Mr Moore,
Thank you for your reply, much appreciated.
I'm not really sure you understood what I was asking about. I was talking about "responsible use" of metal detectorists on historical sites, you answered with a comment about "responsible recovery of artefacts". There is a huge difference.
That last sentence, sent to a metal detector manufacturer, was a bit optimistic I guess.My computer tells me "No results found for "Mr. Garrett's Golden Rules", so it seems to me that you have not really answered the point I made earlier about these principles not having been actively promoted through the company's marketing material.
Seeking permission and staying off protected areas is of course merely doing what the law says. I asked you about best practice and the ethics of using these machines on historic sites for the discovery of collectable archaeological artefacts. The only comment you made on that was to offer the notion of "leave sites better than you found them". But this betrays an apparent lack of understanding that once an artefact hunter has removed any number of objects from their context in a "site", filling in the holes and not dropping any cigarette ends (or whatever) is hardly going to repair that damage. The metal detector can be a very destructive tool if used in the wrong places, responsible use is keeping off such vulnerable places, not tidying them up after they've been archaeologically gutted.
The 2009 battlefield detecting survey project which you mention is not exactly what I had in mind when I was asking about collaboration. It is however exactly the sort of collaborative project with detectorists providing technical help to an archaeological survey team that Mr Howland has written so disparagingly of on his blog.
You seem to have avoided addressing the main issue I was writing about which is the reported use of Mr Howland's reputation in your marketing, despite the manner in which this individual writes about what in England and Wales is regarded as responsible detecting, and in particular his writings about archaeologists.
I assume you are aware of what he writes in between his many mentions of Garrett products on his "Malamute Saloon" blog "http://stoutstandards.wordpress.com/malamute-saloon/ "
If not, I am sure you are a busy man and will not have time to trawl through the entire blog so have taken the liberty of making a few extracts of the many nasty comments he has been making in recent months (the blog is set up in such a way that you cannot link to individual sections, you have to scroll down by date).
Does Garrett endorse or condemn the position espoused by Stout and Howland here?
September 12th 2012: "why would anyone want co-operation with archaeology when en masse they refuse to accept the hobby for what it is[…]. We are the experts, not them. Many hobbyists are kippers – two-faced, yellow, and no guts. […] I never cease to be amazed at the lengths some hobbyists will go just so the arkies can rub their noses in their excrement".
November 9, 2012" "so-called heritage crime is in reality, an ersatz criminality, invented by archaeology as a whole, to protect jobs, and to safeguard and maintain lucrative prices on the international antiquities market".
November 24, 2012: "archaeology’s out-of-control reptilian element"
February 18th 2013: "Remember…. Archaeologists can be odious reptiles with manners to match, though if you support their theories, they’ll lend you money".
February 18, 2013: "IT DON’T BEAR THINKING ABOUT I was at an archaeological get-together recently, where the ‘hot dog’ stall was run by very large, tattooed, sweaty woman, who from downwind, obviously hadn’t taken the advantages of soap and hot water for a week or three/..." [you can read the rest yourself, you should hope your customers might find it amusing]. [further down] "At a recent nocturnal hole-digging event in Staffordshire with members of the Antiquarian & Joseph Goebbels Appreciation Society – […]"
March 6, 2013: " These hooligans, who go under the name, ‘Heritage Actioneers’, are easily identified by the uniformity of their dress and demeanour; unkempt beards, brightly coloured woolly jumpers, dishevelled hair, bobble hats, and their revolting habit of spitting and swearing, their loose morals, and quaffing vast amounts of real ale. The menfolk of the species are even worse."
April 24, 2013: "For years I have been saying arkies are bigger despoilers of the heritage that any other faction, and far worse, their specialised vandalism is greater than even the most dedicated of thieving nighthawks could ever do[…] heritage yobbos. Time Team? More like slime team".
June 19th 2013: “Well?” snarled an unpopular Finds Liaison Officer to a bewildered detectorist waiting in line at a Treasure Rally to have his finds identified…”I suppose you can’t wait for the likes of me to die, eh, just so you can come and piss on my grave.” “Certainly not,” the detectorist replied. “Once I get out of here, I’m never going to stand in a line again!” [This is about the Portable Antiquities Scheme]
June 19th 2013: "loose confederation of heritage organisations, not least among them, the Council for British Archaeology (CBA). […] Left-wing politics and theory have for many years gone hand-in-blouse with Left-leaning archaeologists, historians, and others, who hanker for the Marxist life. […]What most of archaeology’s rank and file didn’t realise at the time, was they were being cruelly and unashamedly prostituted to assist Soviet intelligence […] Soviet intelligence or on their willing helpers in academia."
July 30th 2013: "It’s always a sure sign hard times are here again when a CBA Director, mounts his high horse to lay claim the moral high ground in the heritage stakes.[…] thrown the toys out of the CBA’s pram […] full-throttle CBA ‘bullshit’[…] Heyworth’s soothing foreplay etc etc" [Dr Mike Heyworth MBE is the Director osf the Council for British Archaeology and is often the butt of Howlands patronising and vulgar remarks]
August 7, 2013: “CULTURAL RESEARCH AND PROTECTION…C.R.A.P. Underwater cultural heritage??? Huh? What dat den? Another mealy-mouthed, self-important catchphrase, posturing as some kind of a self-righteous concept I suspect. Of course, all this like much of that foisted on an unsuspecting public, is absolute utter, utter, claptrap! It must be resisted, fought, and exposed at every turn."
August 16, 2013: "radical arkies (the Comrades) hate most of all, simply because the quality of finds made by amateur metal detectorists outshines anything they can muster".
September 18, 2013 [Just above a Garrett ATX mention]: "heritage hooligans would have to justify their repellent and/or money wasting fancies!"
Does this kind of talk on a publicly accessible blog advertising Garrett products and published by individuals clearly identified as associates of your company reflect the image your company wishes to project? I would hope not.Thank you for giving your attention to this matterPaul Barford
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