The Hidden Dark Underbelly of UK "Metal Detecting"

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So yet another metal detectorist attempts to distract attention away from the issues being raised by preservationists like myself; Steve Taylor announces (see the post above) the imminent arrival of a third anti-Barford blog. It seems I am onto something with my comments on British policies on artefact hunting. These people are really hoping if they shut me up, the problems that I identify will continue to be ignored. Probably they are right, these are all things the PAS should be saying, and they show zero interest in doing anything at all in that area. Thirteen million quid over as many years and we still have people like 52-year old Steve Taylor strutting around showing off their contempt for anyone who thinks about artefacts in any way different from himself, as he says on one of the few bits of the Portable Antiquities Society website still accessible to public view:

I cannot stand archaeologist or F.L.O's probably for good reason. I believe the objects in the ground belong to all of us, not just museums.

Or Candice Jarman:

I passionately believe that archaeology belongs to the people - to all of us - and not to archaeologists. [...] In todays straightened (sic) times, can we afford to support so many University Archaeology Departments and Archaeology Units from the public purse?

and John Howland:

Across the Shires, the arkies are squealing like stuck pigs with their holier-than-thou protestations. Like the bully-boys they are, they can dish it out but can’t take it back. I’ve waited for over thirty years for this wonderful day to arrive; ‘tis music to my ears..... Well done Alan Melton. [my hyperlink - PMB]

Together with all the fellow anti-archaeological shout-down-the-opposition crowd: Jeb, Sheddie, Deepseeker, Belzoni, Baz, Kevmar, Clive Hallam, Edward Thompson and the many dozen others, too many to remember individually, whose idea of engaging with archaeology is to simply disrupt anything that looks as if it might develop into a sensible discussion about important issues (like the ACCG coineys then). That there is such a groundswell of non-compliance and opposition in the UK should not be shielded from view by the tendency of the advocates of artefact hunting intent on producing the impression that "the majority of artefact hunters are responsible". But it is not them that is doing the damage to the archaeological record which is being done by laissez faire wishy-washy pseudo-policies on artefact hunting in the UK. What does Britain plan to do with the rest? Ignore them and hope they go away? Pretend they don't exist and maybe they'll come round? Or take steps to deal with them that are inevitably going to cramp the style of the responsible guys? But then, is it not precisely the passivity of the majority of the "responsible guys" towards the extent of the loutishness in their ranks of the hobby that leads to this situation?

Unidroit-L has Another Commentator?

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Over on the Unidroit-L microforum for dealers in and collectors of dugup ancient artefacts (especially round ones with pictures on) the sole content these days has been a series of postings by its owner - coin dealer Dave Welsh, to which he appends his own "comments". Most of the other members of the forum apparently sleep through Welsh's monologuous renderings of why the entire preservation-orientated archaeological and museum world is evil. So it is a pretty quiet forum

There was the inevitable post about former CPAC member Korver's letter of resignation to President Obama leaked to the coiney press, and to my surprise I find that instead of Welsh's lengthy "comments" at the bottom, there is a whole post cut-and-pasted (without the embedded hyperlinks) from my 'Portable Antiquities Collecting and Heritage Issues' blog labelled "Commentary by Paul Barford in his Blog" (sic - should have read "one of his blogs").

Surely it would have been enough to insert a link?

Anyhow, let us see how many of his members are bothering to read to the bottom of Welsh's posts and feel constrained after reading my post taken from another context and provocatively inserted into Welsh's monologuous crassfest to join in the debate on whether resource preservation is about helping US commerce to profit from illegally exported antiquities...

I am sure there are many on that discussion list who think precisely in the same way as Korver .

Mental Illness in the Upper ranks of the ACCG?

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I must admit it never occurred to me that an explanation of the sheer illogicality of the arguments of the US coin dealers lobby was mental illness. Now I have seen two posts made simultaneously by two of them, I am beginning to think it a reasonable explanation of the inability of the officers of the ACCG to engage in meaningful debate. Look at this:

Our observations are as much ourselves as what we observe. It is a dance where we lead and the universe follows. Sometimes, a number of us get together within a temporary, and carefully constructed matrix and we build ourselves a box to contain what we create, together. [...] What is the universe's response to this? It forgets us, because we can no longer dance with it -- we are stuck in a box! Frustrated, by this, the universe then does its best to dance with all of the boxes together. It finds this quite difficult to do and often has to eliminate a few boxes who can't keep step with the rest. But at best, it is a clumsy dance full of trial and error. We call this evolution. Those of us who are vigilant quickly step outside of our box and say "I am here!" and the universe either starts to dance with us or at least marks us down on its dance card for later.

Deep philosophy? Wayne Sayles seems to think so, but put it in the context of the entire self-gratulatory text and try and work out what the author is trying to get at. Beats me. But - like Peter Tompa's conspiracy theories - it apparently appeals to Sayles' sense of reality.

Then we have this from the same stable ('What will it take to get their attention?'):

Indeed it seems that the Constitution of the United States of America, as presently interpreted by unelected bureaucrats whose biased interpretations are validated by left wing activist judges, might mean little these days. That is however an illusion. The Constitution is a supreme and eternally enduring covenant between the US Government and the people. It transcends the transient affairs and management of any Governmental agency, and also the judiciary, and will never become insignificant. Any bureaucrat or judge seeking to manipulatively negate or disregard that covenant might perhaps consider that being strung up on a lamppost along Constitution Avenue is by no means out of the question, when so-called “civil servants” charged with the administration of the affairs of our Government demonstrate that they have other allegiances, and that the desires of the American people are not important to them, or that the courts will not respect those desires. [...] it would [...] be wise for those who administer our nation's affairs to bear that possibility in mind.

If any US readers have any difficulty in seeing what is wrong with that, imagine its author had written instead of "US Constitution" - say - Magna Carta and see how it looks. In other words judges who decide that the law says something other than what coin collectors (for it is they - pars pro toto - constitute here "the American people") should bear in mind that they might fall victtim to the sort of of violence we see currently playing out of the streets of Cairo? think somebody is getting a bit carried away and revealing a bit too much of his true nature. I bet he has a gun at home, too.

I sincerely hope and trust that our present difficulties will not come to such an extreme. The conduct of those responsible for the State Department's notoriously abusive Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs does not, however, engender any feeling of confidence. It seems to me that those in control of this agency are very far out of touch with the concerns and feelings of many of our citizens. It can be affirmed that their actions and decisions completely disregard the legislative intent of Congress, and have provoked an increasing sense of anger, resentment, and a growing public view that the oppressive abuses of this out of control agency must be stopped. It could, and no doubt will, be argued that those offended by the oppressive conduct of this agency are a minority. That is true. But it is not the American way to take unjustifiable oppression of any minority lightly. A terrible Civil War with a huge death roll was fought over such an issue.

The slave owners would apparently not give up their practices any other way.

It seems to me that people who - apparently in all seriousness - come out with such Glennbeckery; warning lynch mobs may round up the lawmakers and judges of their state over a load of old dugup coins, and talking about dancing with the universe in little boxes, really should seek professional help.

An Odd Type of People's Archaeology Being Promoted Here

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Candice Jarman and his new echo Richard "Sheddy" Lincoln seem to have lost their sense of direction. Candice set up his smear-blog to defend his "friends" the British metal detector doing what they do legally and reporting everything to the PAS. recently though he's been increasingly (and tellingly) coming to the defence of the international no-questions-asked market in dugup antiquities, and now (even further from the original target) the people he calls "underclasses" (sic) protesting and looting museum storerooms in Egypt. And on the way raising the question of the "folly of repatriation". This is the "People's Archaeology" that Britain is spending so much through the PAS fostering - museum raiding? The breaking and taking of artefacts from museums and tombs in Egypt is "is not an attempt to loot but a cry of frustration from the poor and dispossessed!" trying to get back their past - just the same as Candice:

There are too many people today who are telling us what we should do and how we should think - the minority trying to impose their views on the majority. In archaeology, we see this in people like Paul Barford, David Gill and Colin Renfrew. The past belongs to us ALL - not just to archaeologists - this blog is just part of the fight back - to reclaim archaeology for the people!

Candice declares:

I passionately believe that archaeology belongs to the people - to all of us - and not just to archaeologists.

Vignette: Candice on the metal detectorists' crusade to break down the museum store doors, Archaeology for the People !