Friday, 25 November 2016

Artefact Hunters Hit Cissbury


Police investigate damage to historic West Sussex hill-fort 25 Nov, 2016 reads the press release. the text is short on detail, but full of a tedious series of quote after quote about how these "nighthawks" are in fact from a totally different planet from the nice men with artefact collections and their 'metal detecting' [sic] 'can be a valuable tool in adding to our knowledge of the past'. Or not, of course, since that is entirely voluntary and PAS figures show that probably about 190000 recordable items are disappearing annually without record into artefact hunters' pockets. .

PCSO Holter said [...] "There has been outrage from the ethical metal detecting community at this news. "The overwhelming majority of detectorists adhere to The Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting and report their finds to both the landowner and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). They have a love of the outdoors and history, and fully respect farmland”. 
 Yeah, and the other one has bells on it.

Now of course someone will tell us why digging holes in archaeological contexts and removing artefacts (archaeological evidence) without proper record when it's against the law and not reporting what you find is any more archaeologically damaging than digging holes in archaeological contexts and removing artefacts (archaeological evidence) without proper record when it's within the law and not reporting what you find.

meanwhile a FLO has jumped to the defence of the 'different planet' model on Twitter:
‏@PeterReavill 4 godz.
PAS in the Marches podał/a dalej Sussex Police RE: rogue metal-detectors read - call a stick a stick by recognising a problem we can deal with it
Well, let us call it rogue metal detecting, illegal metal detecting, damaging and illegal artefadct hunting. Now we've got naming iot out of the way, how does the FLO propose 'dealing with it'? How, Mr Reavill? Can you tell us how, after twenty years of PAS outreach, headpatting, cajoling, explaining (?), just what else do you propose doing?

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2 comments:

  1. Ordinary Bloke25 November 2016 at 10:47

    "The overwhelming majority of detectorists adhere to The Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting and report their finds to both the landowner and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS)".

    That's a barefaced lie, PC Holter! It's the exact opposite of the reality, as PAS will tell you. How is the police providing the public with false information helpful?

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  2. Paul Barford25 November 2016 at 11:51

    PC Holter obviously knows very little about the milieu he's talking about, he's just saying what he's heard other people say. The police probably want us to think (like the rest of the jobsworths) that there's "no problem" with metal detecting per se, otherwise we'd be asking why there are not more rural patrols. But that the police do not know their whatever from their elbow is one thing, what about that FLO?

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