Populist Politicians Create Archaeological Heritage Disaster in Poland

In Poland last week there was a huge scandal as the Polish parliament voted in changes to the existing law on archaeological preservation that were written only for the metal detectorists (the government thinks there are 100 000 of the darlings, Sam Hardy deduced it was half that, my own work leads me to believe that it's actually less than 30 000). This was only done because government sees a potential "100k votes" from grateful metal detectorists, to whom they've granted the free-for-all ability to trash archaeological sites at will. Of course they've hedged it round by fine words like "access to/participation in the heritage" and othe such crap, and promosed that "one day" there will be a phone app for tekkies to share their finds, especially the ones that will now be eligable for a reward. This seems an open invitation to initiate a eriod of looting for financioal gain (and you don't pay taxes on rewards), but also detecting tourism from abroad, where countries still have legislation requiring the buried heritage to be treated with more respect than Poland now proposes. This proposal abandons the current system linking metal detecting with regional conservation programmes (much like Denmark's) to an anarchistic free-for-all. I wrote a breakdown in English (with Polish bits) on the earlier version, I will be working next week on a shorter breakdown of the new one, the one that was actually voted in.All in all, a disaster created by politicians who've not a clue about heritage management, no desire to learn - so this project was created and not conslted with the archaeological community, just the ones trapped in the ministerial system (appointed the same government that is interested in passing this law in double-quick time).

Not all Polish archaeologists are sitting back letting this happen. I was involved in a small way all last week with a group following closely the progress of this legislation, debating its consequences, preparing a very powerful (we hope) lobby against this act getting any further (first the Senate and then to the President). I think there are other action groups working in the same way. One official could not agree to abandon their principles, and spoke out publicly about this, putting their own job on the line. Others may follow suit. There is a petition from the Scientific Association of Polish Archaeologists against these thoughtless changes in Poland's already fragmented and clunky heritage laws. You might like to consider signing it, to show this is not just affecting Poland's heritage, but this is a European concern. Of course, being Poland, the page is not very transparent especially if you do not speeky-the-Polish, try putting the link [https://www.petycjeonline.com/protestujemy_przeciw_zmianie_prawa_dla_poszukiwaczy_zabytkow?s=103030620] into Google Translator. There's some well-known names there already, and I harbour a suspicion that the several blocks of anonymous ones could hide employees of the state service for the protection of historical monuments who will not be so keen to have their names shown on a peition criticising the proposals of politicians associated weith the ruling coalition. If their names becioome known, they could face consequences. Poland deserves better.