Nighthawks and Not Nighthawks and British Archaeo-apathy

               Archaeo-apathy            

Over on social media, East Yorkshire Police have been congratulated by archaeologists for doing their job:

Great work by East Yorkshire Police. They detained 2 males on land with metal detectors in the Kilham area of East Yorkshire. They were reported for theft related offences and metal detecting equipment seized

You can almost sense the "Yaaaay!!!" 

 
I think we need to take that in context (archaeology is all about context) East Yorkshire, has a population of 600,260 people. Most are not artefact hunters or collectors. In fact, if we take the ratio between Sam Hardy's estimate of 27000 detectorists versus the population of England and Wales (just over 56 million), the ratio is going to be something like 1:2074. That would mean, statistically, that in East Yorkshire there are something like 289 active detectorists in the county. But, according to PAS statistics today, YORYM (so East and North Yorks together) in last three months those 280+ detectorists reported enough finds to make 52 records. That means, since it has been a mild winter, that most of the collectable finds made by those 280+ folk detecting legally (or at least not getting caught detecting illegally) are simply being pocketed unrecorded. And that is knowledge about the past of their communities stolen from 600,000 inhabitants of East Yorkshire who are neither metal detector owning pilferers or artefact collectors and their children's children. 

So I do not see what sense it makes for British archaeologists to be happy that two non-reporters trashing sites for their own selfish gain are brought to account, while not giving a moment's thought to the 200+ other non-reporters in the exact same region of the country who week after week freely and legally trash sites and pocket artefacts for their own selfish gain. The effect of both groups (smaller and larger - caught redhanded and not in any trouble with the law) on the archaeological record is the same. The same trashing and erosion, the same knowledge theft from us all by clandestine artefact pocketing.

Archaeologists are failing in our duty to preserve the archaeological record by consistently failing to actively try to STOP the larger group of knowledge thieves. Yes, the Police have in this case done their job, helping uphold the pathetically inadequate British laws that really do very little to actually protect the archaeological record from this kind of destructive pilfering. The question is, is British archaeology doing its job totally failing to inform and educate the public or lawmakers about what is currently happening to the accessible parts of the archaeological record and what can be done to safeguard it for future generations? My answer to that is that from where I am looking at it, they are doing sweet eff all. British archaeology is failing current and future generations by not getting the message across loud and clear: Stop Taking Our Past. It is easy to pretend this is something "somebody else should be doing, like the police". In fact this is something that concerns, affects, and is the responsibility of all of us.