Satisfyingly odd this title to a Times article by David Sanderson (28th Feb 2020): " Gangs of detectorists plunder UK’s historic sites at night". Where's the phrase "a Minority of Illegal..."? Jolly good. It gets better:
Win Scutt, a senior curator with English Heritage, said that while they would be sorry if a coin was illegally taken from the soil, “what is more serious is the damage they are doing to the archaeology underneath. “We are trying to keep these sites intact for future generations because it is that precious information in the soil,” he said. “What they are doing is like burning a library of early manuscripts that have not been copied down. This is our last chance to get that information about centuries of history, particularly pre-history.” [...] “What really upsets me is the damage they are doing to the very fine archaeology that we would normally take apart very surgically,” Mr Scutt said. “It makes you weep really. They are stealing our history. We are trying to preserve these incredible libraries of information that is buried under the soil for when scientific techniques get better and better.”Ixelles Six/Helsinki Gang of artefact hunting supporting object-fixated archaeologists, please comment. Put Mr Scutt in his place. Or, maybe, admit he has a point and you were wrong.
Mr Scutt doesn't have a point, he has THE point.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Brian, you are right.
ReplyDelete