Friday 9 November 2018

The PAS 'Would be Lost Without you Good Folk' [UPDATED]


Referring to me, metal detectorist Norman Smith from Newton Aycliffe seems to have got a bit confused:
I remember him going to war with us 15yrs ago. I'm out of the hobby now but find it ironic that he seems to have gone to war with PAS these days. They'd be lost without you good folk [emoticon]
The PAS would, arguably, not have been set up twenty years ago  without the threat of artefact hunters digging up and pocketing huge numbers of collectable artefacts all over the country. If all the metal detector users lost the use of their legs and were prevented from going out in the fields pilfering the heritage assets for personal entertainment and profit, we could shut the PAS down immediately and save the country a whole lot of money. It's probably going to shut down anyway soon, forcing action to be taken over the 'metal detectorists'. Looters and heritage pocketers only become 'good folk' through there being a PAS there so people can make believe the 'metal detecting problem' has been fixed. In face the PAS cannot cope with the scale of the problem (see Karl here, the PAS itself and of course Hardy).

And where are all those objects Mr Smith found with his metal detector all those years ago, nicely archived with the individual documentation of findspot and transfer of title in some museum collection? Or destined to land in a skip and used as landfill?

An artefact hunter displays collection
UPDATE 10.11.18
Mr Smith claims that the whole lot has been deposited in a place of worship:
Actually, they're on public display in Ripon Cathedral. Roman, Saxon, Medieval and Bronze Age gold...next question
We may wonder what metal detecting is seen as having to do with God's work. Then it came to me, it's an illustration of Matthew 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field" Let us hope that the Church, following through the logic of Christ's teaching there required full documentation of transfer of title of *each* of those objects from landowner to finder. Did they Mr Smith?And anyway, I find it hard to believe that the Church is curating an entire ex-metal detectorist's collection (see the still from a video of what one of them looks like here, collection scanned acrooss from here - it's important to have a picture what it is we are talking about). Note one visitor who  mentioned these things suggested 'Don't miss the small collection of metal detectorists finds kept in the library / treasury'. Where are the rest now? In any case Mr Smith's contemporaries, many of whom probably have also given iup or died off also had collections, they cannot all be in the library of Ripon Cathedral between the Creationist pamphlets and inspirational paperbacks.  Which part of the Code of Practice for Responsible metal Detecting in England and Wales (Revised) talks about this?



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