Another Metal Detecting Business set up to Empty the Fenland Fields of the Archaeology

Marcio Garcia and his friend Kevin McClagish have set up their own metal detecting club and have been scouring Fenland's fields for treasure (Sarah Cliss, ' History hunting detectorists hoping for that big find here in Fenland' Fenland Citizen/Msm money 2nd August 2023) Metal detecting is a serious business and is proving hugely popular in Fenland.

Launched just over a month ago [...]the iDig group is already holding regular digs and attracting dozens of people every time.[...] There is a finds liaison officer from Peterborough Museum on call in case something truly special is unearthed[...] Marcio and Kevin decided to set up their own group after attending digs where Marcio said items had been purposefully planted for someone to find.
“I found a gold coin and I was so excited, I had never found anything gold before. I went through the whole process of reporting it, photographing it and recording it, but then it turned out to be fake,” said Marcio. He said: “I don’t know who put it there, whether it was the dig organiser wanting to keep people interested or the landowner wanting to keep people on his land or if it was someone wanting to cause trouble, but it was just so disappointing and it is not the first time it has happened. “We decided we would set up our own club, we don’t care how small it is, but it will be honest, people will not be finding any fake coins or anything like that.”

   No labels on the finds showing what came from where (Fenland Citizen)     

Just looting away the real archaeological content of the archaeological record wherever they can set up their -commercial pay-to-dig artefact grabfests. Here's a shot of the haul on one day - note how selective this is, artefact hunting does NOT produce a picture of the archaeology of the sites and assemblages it exploits. [Any PAS-supporting archaeologists who disagrees with me and can back up their words is welcome to comment below - I dare you]. Marcio has another little gem of an excuse:

"I enjoy getting out in the fresh air [...] and I like to unearth and pick up all the old metal that’s lying around and could be dangerous if someone steps on it, like tent pegs, barbecues, and rotten cans that have got buried in the sand. “I have a two year old little boy and the thought of him treading on something that will hurt him worries me.”

So don't let your kid trespass on other people's ploughed fields then. He also finds rings (hoorray eh) and has a magic spray that gets the corrosion off all the dugup metal objects, without giving him detectorists' dermatitis it seems from the photos.

Back in the Old Days, when all this "let's be nice to looters" malarky started in England, there were two foci, there was Tony Gregory in Norfolk, and colleagues in the Fenland. All great guys but IMO totally wrong. I'd like tro see their reaction to this commercial looting, and hat they are doing to the archaeological record, because yes, this is reflecting (among other things) an "interest in history". But then, it's those other things that are the problem. Here more visibly than they were in the 1980s.

Hat tip Dave Coward