1.4: About this Resource


There are a great deal of muddled messages coming out of the British archaeological establishment about collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record (usually, inaccurately and narrowly, termed there 'metal detecting'). The British Museum has called artefact hunters 'citizen archaeologists' (e.g., British Museum 2016 Annual Review),  British newspapers tend to call them 'amateur archaeologists' (e.g., Akbar 2014, Lockhart 2017, Freeman 2020), the fashion has spread of calling all artefact hunters 'responsible detectorists' (sic), where if you go deeper into it, the term really means all and any artefact hunters that do not break the (rather liberal) laws of the land. But very few of these make any reference to how the archaeological record is treated by these people, and what archaeology is and is not. Although there is plenty of material in the literature in Britain (on paper as well as online) on these topics, because of its quantity and fullness, finding a way to and through them is something many artefact hunters find difficult. It has long been clear that some kind of educational resources are needed to back up the educational work of bodies like the Portable Antiquities Scheme (https://finds.org.uk/) and other bodies, and since these have been slow in appearing, this resource aims to fill the gap until something better is created.

This guide is created to guide the metal detector user, artefact hunters and collectors and other members of the public through the concepts involved in the British heritage debate. This is a private initiative and is not intended to be a guide to archaeology in general, there are many aspects not covered here. These texts are tailored specifically to deal with the main questions arising in the course of discussing the archaeological effects of artefact hunting on the archaeological record. The part of the record being discussed in the terrestrial one and primarily the situation in Europe, specialist areas such as underwater archaeology are not directly referenced.

I have arranged the texts in blocks in what is intended to be a logical sequence, but hyperlinks may be used to lead to other posts out of sequence for clarification.

This is very much a work in progress, any substantive comments about comment from fellow archaeologists and potential users will be gratefully accepted. This is subject to the general principles I apply to comments on my Portable Antiquities Collecting and Heritage Issues blog, to which this is an appendix. The same disclaimer also applies here.


References:
Arifa Akbar, 'Found: 50,000 treasures unearthed by Britain's amateur archaeologists' , Independent Wednesday 27 October 2004
Keely Lockhart, 'Top five amazing treasure finds by amateur UK archaeologists' Telegraph 4th January 2017.
Laura Freeman, 'Hurrah for the heroic detectorists digging up our heritage' Telegraph, 7th Feb 2020.
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