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local tv: metal detectorists vs archaeologists
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moss
moss
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Re: In the gloom
May 31, 2007, 08:03
Paul Barford wrote:
Apart from Joe Boggins' back bedroom, Roman brooches and coins metal detected unrecorded in many cases from archaeological sites in Britain can be bought on ebay to be collected by Japanese teens or by Connecticut hillbillies and Ohio rednecks. Fine, nice for them, but this raises the fundamental question whether the keeping of contextless objects as seried collectables scattered between thousands of ephemeral personal collections all over the world a good way to be curating the archaeological record?


Could'nt agree more, as Littlestone says knowledge is far more important than the price of said artefacts in the market. But of course we are dealing with human nature here, the need to acquire 'treasure' to own it, to sell it. An Indiana Jones mentality, for the archaeologists, the prize is academic recognition, for the metal detectorist its the thrill of the hunt.
So called treasures don't belong to the MDs or the landowner, they belong in the wider community and we have to recognise that history is not in the ownership of any individual but is an ongoing process that must be recorded in all its truth......
the government, in the form of David Lammy, does little to inspire confidence when all it can do is congratulate the hobby in its treasure seeking activities, but there again this is the 21st century we are in the business of selling everything that has any value - Ebay at least teaches us that lesson.
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Re: In the gloom (Paul Barford)
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