Saturday, 17 December 2016

It’s high time this dreary succession of “I dug it up myself” incidents was stopped in its tracks.


Heritage Action ask: 'Should we employ choirs of angels to praise detectorists full time?'. It seems some artefact hunters want nothing less.
Treasure has been found at Barlaston, Staffs. But Councillor Follows of Stoke-on-Trent City Council didn’t get it about conservation saying “It is a real credit to the finder for treating the discovery so responsibly and reporting it correctly” But in fact the finder was legally obliged to report it. Who but detectorists get praised for obeying the law? Not you, dear Reader, or me – else we’d need choirs of angels singing our praises full time!) As for him acting responsibly, he didn’t. He flouted reponsible behaviour in multiple ways, dug down more than a meter,  and totally destroyed the historical context. Worst of all, he dug it out himself because, diddums, archaeologists hadn’t arrived for an hour and a half. If that’s not irresponsible, selfish and ignorant goodness knows what is. But let’s not blame the Councillor. The blame lies with PAS for not outreaching to him and the whole country about how detectorists ought to behave.
Unlike Heritage Action, I do not think it matters a hoot or not whether in this particular case this particular 'only intrestid n th' 'istry, not in it fer th' munny' hoiker waives 'part of' the Treasure Ransom. to get a bunch of old objects with no context in a spotlit museum show case for a bit of oooo-ahhh show-and-tell. 




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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous17 December 2016 at 00:58

    "Unlike Heritage Action, I do not think it matters a hoot whether or not...."

    Indeed. We only mentioned it because it's the first time perhaps ever PAS has said something in the press that artefact hunters won't like and we hope they'll say it often in future.

    But as for being consequential, no. The only significant, constructive thing PAS could have said is that this man is a destructive dolt and we hope the "reward" will reflect the fact as a warning to others of his ilk.

    Wouldn't it be refreshing if the National Council for Metal Detecting issued a statement saying yes, they agree, even though PAS lack the resolve.

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