Florida Archaeologist on the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Lisa MacIntyre commented in a thread on a metal detecting blog near you on Britain's Portable Antiquities Scheme. She thinks "the PAS thingy" is a "fantastic idea" for introduction into US archaeological practice, and begins:

But first I must ask a few hard questions. I will use Florida in all my examples… Who decides “fair market value”? Should the finder be allowed to bargain back and forth? What if the finder does not agree on the price? Can they just walk away? Do they have an obligation to disclose the provenience? Where would the money to purchase such finds come from? States that are cutting food stamps, SS, unemployment benefits, and every social service out there are going to have a very hard, if not impossible, time garnering support to funnel money into this kind of program.

It is very difficult to discern from this what the archaeologist stateside imagines the PAS actually is and does. She seems for some reason to imagine that the PAS turns archaeological finds into cash. Quite where she got that idea from is anyone's guess, but if she spent less time insulting her European colleagues, and attempting to trash their work without attempting to understand it first, and instead reads up on the matter she is attempting to talk about, she might have a better chance of having something to contribute. Then she comes up with an "idea":

One solution [to the problem of the lack of money for purchase] might be that instead of selling” the item to the state, the item is [...] kept by the finder but allowed to be photographed and documented. Just a thought. 

Whoaaah! What a jolly novel idea Ms McIntyre. Golly gosh, quick, write to Roger Bland and suggest it to him !!! He'd probably love to hear from a clued-up American with an idea how to do things he'd probably not thought of before!!! All those years.....

On a more serious note, how can any heritage professional who quite clearly has not the foggiest idea what she is writing about dismiss the work of preservation group Heritage Action without having the faintest inkling of the background? That is simply unprofessional. 

Lisa McIntyre claims that Paul Barford "does not allow anyone the [...] privilege [of posting comments] on his blog". I submit that the woman clearly does not know what she is talking about here either. As I recall never having tried to actually add a comment or correction to this blog, she'd hardly be in a position to judge. Try me. Ms McIntyre, you are perfectly at liberty to add a comment below explaining what you thought the PAS does and what on earth it is you think you are talking about. I bet you don't though. [UPDATE. No, of course she will not. Unwilling to admit that she might have mischaracterised the PAS and take the opportunity to expand her knowledge, the Florida archaeology graduate is now busy sheltering among the closed minds of her supportive metal detecting buddies calling me names, blaming me for pointing out her error. The invitation, though, still stands.]

UPDATE UPDATE 5th Feb 2014
Nope. Now her excuse is I am a "nasty person" and you have to have an account to use the Internet and there "you have to sign in with your personal info". Yeah Google and Wordpress tend to want you to do that. How inconvenient.