Friday 29 September 2017

Detector-Producer Responsibilities? Minelab CTX used for Context Trashing


Cressy and Andy the 'citizen archaeologists' shown context-trashing in a film they made ('CTX 3030 Finds me a Roman hoard') used a Minelab CTX 3030 dedicated Treasure detector. Here's the producer's blurb, it is
the ultimate high performance treasure detector! Discover more historical treasures with the most accurate target identification available.[...] With a full colour LCD and advanced Target Trace discrimination you will find more treasure, even amongst junk littered areas, in all ground conditions. [...] With the unrivalled performance of the CTX 3030 you’ll experience The Future of Discovery! [...] You can go detecting anywhere with this versatile TREASURE detector.
Of course that 'junk' may be other archaeological artefacts, just not Treasure. The notion of using a TREASURE detector on a known Roman site may not strike Minelab marketing department as a bad idea. Those of us who see the archaeological record as something other than a source of precious collectables will regard this somewhat differently. They may consider that CTX stands for 'Context Trashing and Extermination'. Context extermination is all a sixty-centimeter keyhole dug straight down into a sensitive archaeological deposit like a hoard by somebody armed with such a machine can achieve. The US-based firm markets their Treasure Detectors in the following terms:
With accurate target identification and discrimination - you'll find more treasure and dig less trash using a Minelab Treasure Detector!
Minelab Treasure Detectors are the FIRST CHOICE for:
Easy-to-use entry level detectors
Family adventures
Serious treasure hunters Professional and amateur archaeologists  
Beach and deep sea detecting [wreck trashing too? PMB]
From the entry level GO-FIND 20 to the ultimate CTX 3030, Minelab has the right treasure detector for you.
Perhaps somebody should tell  these profiteering clowns exploiting the selfish greed of foul-mouthed diggers that professional archaeologists are not engaged in a hunt for 'treasure', but that what is of value to their research is precisely what their tools destroy - the spatial and stratigraphic context of archaeological evidence in relation to other pieces of that evidence. Detector producers should be held corporately responsible for the wording of their own marketing. Responsible dealers should not handle products the marketing strategies of which associate them with the destruction of the archaeological heritage.

It is a standard tekkie mantra (oft repeated for them by the PAS) : "we ain't in it fer the munny".. so it is odd that the Minelab website has a bottom strap  which reads:

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