Metal detectorists, dugup antiquity collectors and coin fondlers all say they have a passion for the past and they say they "hate" looters who bring dodgy stuff onto the market. They claim they'd like to see something done about the problem. Nevertheless, anybody who criticises the status quo that allows it to go on, well, obviously that's somebody you have to attack if you are a metal detectorist or coin collector. Furthermore, they try very hard to persuade fellow metal detectorists and antiquity collectors that nobody in, or out of, archaeology really listens to these guys (so they can be safely ignored). So it is nice to find an honourable mention in the acknowledgements to an article published in Volume 20 of the International Journal of Cultural Property May 2013 (Peter B. Campbell, 'The Illicit Antiquities Trade as a Transnational Criminal Network: Characterizing and Anticipating Trafficking of Cultural Heritage')
"Illicit antiquities research is a small but dedicated field and a synthesis such as this would not be possible without the scholarship of individuals like Paul Barford, Neil Brodie, David Chippendale, Ricardo Elia, David Gill, and Simon MacKenzie to name just a few".
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