UK artefact hunters on Mr Fudge's 'Metal Detecting' Forum, replying to a comment on the 'British Archaeology' facebook page suggest "Serious education required in the Archeological world!" and then play the victim, as usual:
Angela Woods Why do we all get tared [sic] with the same brush?? [emoticon]That'll be Wil Partridge. The FLO is there to liaise with all members of the public, not just a minority group, though note one of them claims there are "millions" of the muddled blighters. According to her Facebook profile, Angela Woods studied „Business management” at: Training 2000 and has a husband Shane.
Leigh Griffiths Claiming many of us drop out of education around the age of 16, not true!
Andy Holbrook Yep so many dumb twats on that group lol
Angela Woods Yeah I have a degree for nothing. The complete arseholes!!!! They don't have a clue what sort of people the millions of detectorist are!! Wow so we are ALL UNEDUCATED DROP OUTS [emoticon], [emoticon], [emoticon]
Mac Weth Bloody idiots
Mac Weth I have forgotten more than they know
Ali Potter Very sad that they can't see the good we do, after all it helps them! If we find any items, report it they then can decide if it's a site they should be digging!! We have done the foot work... leaving items to decompose [sic] in the ground means we loose [sic] our heritage. Like any part of the human race you have minority who are bad. Or are they tarring us by their own standards???
Gcb Detects We’re the reason half them ppl are walking round a museum and have history to look at and we are the reason that all these boards are found [discussion lists exist?]
Tom Hayes Let's all leave our history to get forgotten and smashed by farm machinery and decay shall we. IDIOT.
Claire Beswetherick we rescue it not leave it to be mulched up yr after yr ...well said Tom
Peter Pesti One of archaeologist [sic] said to me if I haven't got proper GPS better if I don't detecting [sic] anymore. I said to him, we just checking [sic] the top soil. Every year the ploug [sic] moving [sic] everything. He said he don't [sic] care.
Julie Argent Unfortunately some archis won't change their views on detectorists, ever. We know there's dodgy ones among the masses, same as there's dodgy archis!!
Andrew Fudge Salisbury's Flo has that attitude believe it or not. Should be sacked
Daniel Spencer I believe he's been dealt with and all should be OK ongoing!
Andrew Fudge what's been done mate? Once you got that attitude it dont [sic] change
Brian Newton-smith that is so true needs to be gone
Marty McSweeney What a bellend
Chris Belcher-Banes Most FLO’s are dickheads. Who keeps them in a job??
The trope of "archaeologists would be out of work/they'd have to close orl the museums if it were not for us" is a tired one that you'd think the British archaeological bodies (not least the PAS) would have addressed by now... but hey...
One shudders to think what a fieldwork report written by some of these would look like.
Sounds like the Salisbury FLO is doing a good job, judging purely by the ire of mere artefact hunters.
ReplyDeleteI do hope being "dealt with" doesn't mean he's been told to do a less good job.
I see a second part-time Salisbury FLO post is being advertised and the job description doesn't say anything about needing to suck up to exploiters so I doubt anyone has been "dealt with".
Wow what a one sided post. I have seen the insults on both sides but will state the wedge between the groups was not made by detectorist. This is sad it's viewed like this from both sides and frankly it's not professional or productive and resembles more a political mudslinging match, the sooner we connect as people searching for the same thing the better the standards and communication becomes. I would gladly sit down or email to help this and discuss problems and opportunity's with the hobby if a better relationship is what is wanted?
ReplyDeleteANOTHER anonymous poster reckons they know better than me what I wanted to say on MY blog. If you look, it's me reporting on what I found in the detecting social media about collaboration with archaeologists. I give the link, so people can check for themselves if the comments I report on were actually made.
ReplyDeleteIf "Unknown" wants to see some archaeologists saying nice things about metal detectorists, they can go to the PAS forum http://forum.finds.org.uk/, to BAJR, to the EPFiRN website https://www.helsinki.fi/en/networks/european-public-finds-recording-network, follow the FLOs on social media http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2019/12/scheme-contacts-pas-on-social-media.html.
There's plenty of webspace devoted to archaeologists saying metal detectorists are cuddly-wuddly good guys doing no harm at all, and that the resording of contexts as they are destroyed by this collecting is not what is important, it's getting the loose objects that's wonderful. That is not my view, and you'll not find any of that here. And if you look, you'll find plenty of justification for me holding that opinion.
Are we "people searching for the same thing"? Well, no. In my view we are not. And that's the problem, trying to present artefact hunting and collecting as "citizen archaeology" is just a crap argument. And the straight-from-the-tekkie-mouth sentiments reported in the post above are more confirmation that we are not engaged in the same kind of activity at all.
There is no "wedge" between the sides, archaeologist colleagues have been trying for two and a half EXPENSIVE and mostly fruitless decades to build a bridge, to span the abyss that exists. It's cost millions, and 24 years later we are still hearing the type of comments about the likelihood that this "partnership" will ever be possible as we see here.
Trying to achieve the unachievable while producing lame and specious arguments about unicorns arriving soon with public money is what is unproductive and unprofessional.
>I would gladly sit down or email to help this and discuss problems and opportunity's with the hobby if a better relationship is what is wanted?<
Go on then.
Where are you going to start? And with what? And why?