We may all welcome it as absolutely brilliant that Shepway Council bans artefact hunting on its land, "because removal of an archaeological object from its context, unless carried out by a professional archaeologist can cause loss of valuable information". Quite right, as we saw in the weekend hoard hoiking and the A20 Medway Anglo-saxon grave trashing and many other cases. Let us hope other councils follow. It is however scandalous that in their policy statement they refer to the NCMD code of Conduct and not the PAS/CBA one. This is obviously yet another segment of the public that has obviously not heard about it from local archaeological outreach organizations.
Monday, 22 September 2014
Focus on UK metal detecting: Two Codes.
We may all welcome it as absolutely brilliant that Shepway Council bans artefact hunting on its land, "because removal of an archaeological object from its context, unless carried out by a professional archaeologist can cause loss of valuable information". Quite right, as we saw in the weekend hoard hoiking and the A20 Medway Anglo-saxon grave trashing and many other cases. Let us hope other councils follow. It is however scandalous that in their policy statement they refer to the NCMD code of Conduct and not the PAS/CBA one. This is obviously yet another segment of the public that has obviously not heard about it from local archaeological outreach organizations.
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3 comments:
Since those who are paid to won't, I've written to the council pointing out their error .....
Dear Sir,
Your metal detecting policy document specifies that any metal detecting carried out under permit shall be in accordance with the NCMD Code. That is the wrong code, it is the one composed by detectorists and is both self-serving and inadequate. You should be specifying the official code - the only one approved by all the archaeological bodies.
You are, effectively, saying Hunters' Rules are OK for what goes on, not conservation ones - which is rather unfortunate, this being international rhinocerous day!
Other than that, bravo for your change of policy.
Regards
Nigel Swift
Heritage Journal
"Since those who are paid to won't, I've written to the council pointing out their error ....."
Give 'em a chance, I only wrote to them this evening.
Roger Bland has assured me he will be writing to the Council personally.
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