Arguing with Morons

Yesterday I showed two senior archaeological colleagues here in Poland what metal detectorists in England do by showing them the Kent Mercury online photos of metal detectorist Sweetman beaming all over his face as he stomped around in a raggedy hole and pulled out an Early Medieval grave assemblage. Needless to say, they were flabbergasted and asked why the man is not in prison. I discovered at the same time that the discussion with metal detecting morons is still going on over on the Kent Mercury website. I found there tht Mr "Warr", though he has abandoned his blog, is still making libellous comments elsewhere (see under 03-03-2014 18:07:20). Here, for what it is worth, is my reply to this farrago of nonsense, which is buried quite deep down on the KM page:

Paul Barford wrote:

Mr “Warr”. First of all, the name is Barford (like the car) and I have already told you that your paranoid accusation that I created any kind of a Facebook (or any other) account under your name is pure fantasy and a false assumption (not to mention libellous). Unlike a number of metal detectorists, I say what I say under my own name with the unfortunate consequences we see on threads like this which, when metal detectorists are involved, quickly degenerate into personal attacks rather than any kind of discussion.

Once again, I am not “Christina” and have no idea who she is, though support her position over what happened to this grave assemblage which was thoughtlessly trashed by selfish artefact hunters after a treasure reward and in disregard of the Code of Practice to the Treasure Act.

Your ideas on how archaeology works are wrong. Ask the Kent FLO to explain it you better than she obviously has done so far. That’s what she’s paid for (rather than to falsely say that in trashing archaeological contexts these detectorists “did well”).

These metal detectorists did not “find history”, they destroyed the archaeological context of the stratified items they hoiked out on this site. There is nothing praiseworthy in that, any more than looting of ancient sites in Syria today. History there is being “found” and “dug out”, but ask your FLO to explain to you and other members of the public in Kent why it is not being “saved”.

Your insulting remarks about heritage professionals are quite uncalled for. ”Thumbs ups” or “thumbs downs”, you show yourself to be a real philistine and an ignorant one at that. The concerns expressed about what happened here are nothing to do with professional jealousy, it is a matter of conserving the heritage of England’s past. Mr Sweetman totally wrecked an important part of it and that IS a matter for public concern and should be being discussed. This is not what the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme were set up (at great expense) to condone, but to discourage.

I really do think the Kent FLO has an obligation to step in here, that is indeed what she is paid for, and her complete silence is both damaging and damning.