Artefact Hunting: A Truly British Disease

A metal detectorist matter-of-factly reports that his son's school (inspired no doubt by the PASt Explorers feature of the PAS website) had purchased two Viking detectors for artefact hunting  (“Hoikology now on the national curriculum?"). This is very worrying, but no surprise. PAS outreach is having the effect of only increasing the number of people going out with metal detectors onto unknown numbers of potentially productive sites and hoiking unknown quantities of who-knows-what artefacts. "OK, if it is all recorded" the fluffy bunny archies say - totally ignoring the fact that already PAS is admitting

(a) they are not getting more than a fraction of what is coming out of the ground now, and
(b) even if it was all handed in they've not got the resources to record much of it, they cannot cope now.

"Vexatious" I know, but it is the truth, though I am sure the majority of people are quite happy just ignoring it like the metal detectorists say, and carrying on blindly regardless.

Vignette: A Truly British Disease