Artefact Hunting and Archaeological Responsibility

What price a piece of the past in your hand? ( Photo: eBay ) For some time now in Britain archaeologists, artefact collectors and the media have been talking of "responsible artefact hunting" (often in the form of "responsible metal detecting"). The resource, arranged in the form of a blog, is about this concept. What is responsible artefact hunting? It is argued here that this should be seen above all from the point of view of avoiding damage to the archaeological record. The Code of Best Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales  sets out some of the basic principles, and in its fourth section it says that "being responsible means ...finding out about archaeology". Obviously the artefact hunter cannot take responsible decisions by perceiving the potential archaeological effects of their activities without that understanding. The 'Code' itself however, cannot help gain that understanding. It is formulated merely as ...

"Responsible Artefact Hunting". The underlying message in the current partnership in the UK between heritage professionals and artefact hunters is that when it is done responsibly, the latter can provide useful information for archaeologists while avoiding damage to the archaeological record.  This however raises the question of what "responsible artefact hunting" actually is. What does 'responsible' mean in general? Dictionaries give definitions of responsibility  that read something like: 'a form of trustworthiness; the trait of being answerable to someone for something or being responsible for one's conduct' and the antonym irresponsibility (irresponsibleness): 'a form of untrustworthiness; the trait of lacking a sense of responsibility and not feeling accountable for your actions'. It might be worth considering how the term operates in some of the common collocations: 'responsible dog ownership', 'responsible d...

Unlike the situation in most countries, the collecting of archaeological artefacts is not illegal in Britain. It is claimed that current policies "provide an opportunity for individual finders to demonstrate how, if undertaken responsibly, artefact hunting can add value to archaeology, and lead to a better understanding of the past" (Fischer 2016, 3). In general, however, artefact hunting has long been seen seen in most other parts of the world as a negative phenomenon  'the looting that is ravaging the material remains of the ancient world [...] there is an increasingly profitable market in archaeological antiqui­ties, a market which threatens to undermine future research and the dissemination of its findings to the public. Unless checked, archaeological plunder today may well destroy our ability to inform ourselves and future generations about the past' (Miller in 1982). As Elia put it in 1997: 'Archaeological sites, the material remnants of our human...