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Why it matters
Why it matters
A detectorist on a public forum recently said it all - "30 years ago I used to go out and come back with my pockets stuffed. Now, it's never more than half a dozen coins, from anywhere".
It is inarguable that over the past four decades detectorists have removed many millions of artefacts from the fields. The effect upon the resource is now all too evident. “My local fields have all been hammered, I have to travel further afield” is a commonly expressed complaint on detectorists’ forums. In most cases society has been told nothing about the finds or where they came from and they have been taken home, put in private collections, discarded unrecognised or sold on eBay and no trace of either the artefacts or the knowledge remains for the rest of us.
The problem extends beyond the artefacts themselves. Detecting very commonly takes place – entirely legally – on any of the estimated one million known archaeological sites in England that have no protection at all – indeed, these are the very places that are sought out by hobbyists using official archaeological records. In addition, detecting focuses just upon a limited few artefacts not the whole story and in so doing removes the whole story.
In the words of American conservator Catherine Sease: "When artefacts are pulled out of the ground without proper excavation and documentation, their context is irretrievably lost without ever being known. Context is extremely important to the archaeologist; it is, in fact, what the discipline of archaeology is based on. It gives artefacts their legal authenticity and archaeological significance."
It is clear that to be interested in only a limited set of artefacts such as those that are immediately recognisable or attractive or saleable and to discard the rest of the artefacts or archaeological material that surrounded them is to destroy the site.
Detectorists’ cars at a 500 strong “Near Avebury” Metal Detecting Rally in an area of immense archaeological fame. No proof of Portable Antiquities Scheme recording was required from participants. (Credit Heritage Action)
A responsible detectorist has recently said that non-reporting detectorists range from "the lazy, the ill-informed and the unaware, all the way to the criminally active and criminally negligent."
Criminality amongst a section of detectorists is certainly a major problem. An unknown number of "nighthawk" detectorists detect without the landowners’ permission or loot protected sites at night. Yet the loss of knowledge attributable to the activities of the majority of the hobby that chooses (perfectly within their legal rights) to tell no-one about their finds eclipses that lost by nighthawking.
All detecting is erosion of a finite resource and comparable to the erosion of any other resource such as wild flowers or birds eggs but in our view a situation in which not only is such erosion going on but the majority is clearly unwilling to offer even a modicum of mitigation to society in return is insupportable – and unique to Britain. See our Erosion counter.
The justifications offered by hobbyists are "it’s legal" (it is) and "the Scheme’s only voluntary" (it is). But in fact, shorn of the knowledge of its context any artefact is little more than a bauble. Knowledge of where it was found – the exact spot, the depth, the position it was in and details of what lay near it – is part of our communal history and should not be available for anyone to keep to themselves or destroy.
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