Thugwittery International

News from a foreign colleague:

There is a fierce battle, both PR and legal, currently going on in Romania between advocates of free detectorism and professional archaeologists. *****  is an old friend, and he put together a petition to ask the government to toughen the laws against detectorists. He is now the target of spam, insults, threats, etc. I told him I knew someone with a very thick skin in such matters, and I gave him your e-mail address. Meanwhile, he has recruited a journalist from a leading TV station, who shares his opinions and is eager to disseminate serious information about the dangers of free detectorism. He (the journalist) wanted to interview you, or at least to get some opinions about the situation. I gave him your e-mail address as well. 

There is a lot of it (thugwittery) about in metal detecting circles it seems. Nigel Swift and myself (and perhaps others) have received "we know where you live" threats, in my case actually followed up by an attack on a member of my family by someone waiting outside my house after an English metal detectorist threatened to contact his Polish metal detectorist pals ("got a little surprise for you in your home country. in communication with a couple of polish people, got a little job for them. Play with fire and you get burnt, little boy" - 22 July 2011). Nigel also has had the police in, twice. Meanwhile two metal detectorists persist in trying to post our home addresses wherever they can that thugwittish tekkies can more easily find out where we live. Most recently John Howland for no reason at all attempted this the day before yesterday of all places, on Peter Tompa's blog (February 17, 2014 at 3:20 PM). This type of behaviour is intended to harrass and intimidate and is precisely the sort of thing which one can expect from Britain's metal detectorists. it is sad to see that the malaise is present in other areas of the international artefact hunting fraternity.