The Righteous Seeker

"Buffet" the pie-gobbling middle class metal detectorist tries to set himself up above the others of that ilk, he claims:

I don't collect items, I find them and record, bag and tag the items and give them to the landowner as part of the history of their home and surroundings. The enjoyment of sitting down with someone and explaining the age of a buckle, the usage of a strap end or the value of a coin is as exciting and interesting as
making the actual find.

This is an interesting perspective. Instead of launching the detector-typical cheap personal attacks and name-calling (“Barfordisation”), he might like to contribute something concrete to the debate by using his blog to tell us what he thinks of the other type of metal detectorists. The ones who actually do collect the portable antiquities they find, those who do not “tag” them and “record” them, and those do not give them all to the landowner. Many of them sell some of them on eBay (though we do not know in how many of those cases the profits are split with the landowner). So for example we have the wonderful Mike Pegg video “metal detecting down to Earth” of which a small extract can be found on YouTube. I made a blog post about it a few weeks back. In this video, Mr Pegg is enjoying sitting down and explaining the age of a buckle and strapend, though I cannot see any “tags” on his finds in a heap on the table, some of which have broken out with bronze disease. Maybe the anonymous blogging non-collecting "metal detectorist” could tell us all his thoughts on the ethics of this kind of metal detector use and collecting. I guess "Buffet" must feel the same distaste as me when he sees all those detector finds on eBay, as they quite clearly belie the deception that these individuals are only interested in it (“detecting”) “out of a passionate interest in history”. Not all of them are, and I am sure we'd all like to hear “Buffet's” views on those others.
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Buffy the Pie Gobbler Blogs and Gobs

Buffy the Ham Pie Slayer strikes again. He says: "I notice that this Blog has reached across the water to the depths of Poland and Warsaw in particular". Hardly surprising as its author or one of his mates sent me a message inviting me to look at his handiwork. Needless to say, hiding behind his pseudonym, does not advance any argument about the erosion of the archaeological record or the Valetta Convention or any meritorial matters I have raised about portable antiquity collecting, but focusses largely on my mistyping, and quite unneccessarily lectures me on the use of the word "perjury", (I had earlier expressed surprise that a person claiming to be "working in law" would misuse it in the way the author of the new blog did).

Never mind, the guy clearly has nothing to say about what I have posted on my other blog about the ethics and archaeological implications of collecting or any of the wider issues, so intends merely to continue (as do most artefact collectors it seems) a series of personal attacks. It seems that, despite being so concerned in the earlier posts on his blog to point out how unlike the rest of the metal detectorists in the UK he is, he intends to behave in this respect in no way differently from any of the rest.

Buffy the Ham Pie Slayer blogs about portable antiquities

“Edward” “On Blogger Since December 2008” left the following taunting comment on my blog:

"[I] think you should go take a look here: http://paul-barford-blog-response.blogspot.com/ regards Edward”

A blog about a blog. The author of this blog turns out to be coy about using his real name (as are most artefact hunters). He reckons “Who I am by name is irrelevant”. He appears to come from Monmouth and refers to himself as “BUFFET, The Ham Pie Slayer”; presumably related in some way to this. He defines himself as “Middle aged, middle class, professional working in the field of law”, though the lawyers I know can generally use apostrophes correctly and spell.

“Buffet” has ambitions to create new terms:

Like a child entering the world kicking and struggling, a new fledgling word enters into our language and that word is 'Barfordisation'. So, how are we to define 'Barfordisation'? Primarily, Barfordisation is used to describe a misrepresenation of facts. The selective use of the unknown as the expense of the known if it does not fit the argument presented. It is speculative yet perjorative (sic) in its useage. It distorts the argument and twists it to fit the agenda.

Hmmm. What “knowns” would they be then “Buffet”?

I do not think the anonymous “Buffet” understands what the Heritage Action Erosion Counter represents either, he writes:

“Suddenly all metal detectorists become 'artefact hunters' in order to swell the numbers and exaggerate the statistics”.

This claim is really baseless, it seems to me however that Heritage Action spell out what their concern is in plain enough English. There then follow some pieces of detecting dogma no doubt firmly affirmed by the detectorists’ new partner the Portable Antiquities Scheme:

Farmers chemicals & heavy farm machinery would have their toll on these artefact's and increase their numbers as they disintegrate to become 'partefacts'. Knowledge only becomes known when we unearth (sic) the facts. if we don't unearth the facts we know nothing at all so the status quo is kept. But
this is the gist of Barfords arguments. He doesn't want the artefact's removed from the soil but he offers no solution to his self satisfying problem. For Mr Barford, no knowledge seems to be better than increased knowledge. What purpose would that serve?

Um, Valetta Convention? Heard of it “Buffet”? Know what its for? Thought not. Ask the PAS to explain it to you. If they can.