Upcoming commercial artefact hunting rally openly touting targeting a "Huge Roman Fort Complex". on a 630-acre farm near Doncaster. This is not "responsible metal detecting" and anyone going on such a commercial event has no right to call themselves "responsible metal detectorists", they are simply looters and the British archaeological community, media and government should say so. Why are they not?
Also if they are too tipsy to drive, they are too tipsy to be wandering around a working farm, with all its hazards. The fact that this is allowed on such events should affect their third-party insurance should there be a claim. Has the company insuring them been informed of this circumstance? It is like the cannabis cake that was irresponsibly being distributed at a Coil to the Soil rally at High Melton near Sprotbrough, Doncaster a while back. Manchester detectorists were arrested with cannabis (here and here). The Sussex Heritage Hunters figured a cannabis leak in their club's logo.
This is not to mention of course that if an intoxicated artefact hunter finds something in an archaeological context, they are in no condition to make adequate notes of the context and associations and avoid damaging either.
No comments:
Post a Comment