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?

Metal detecting Candyspite reaches new lows

[category: metal detectorist nonsense]

Metal detecting Candyspite reached a new low on Sunday, (Candice Jarman Damien gets caught out!). Apparently Candice reckons it is some kind of character fault to be socially committed, and to show it he has dragged up a ten-year old article from www.freemasonrywatch.org which tells us that:

Three UA students were arrested on charges of trespassing Friday night for protesting animal abuse at a showing of the Shrine Circus - a circus which has been accused of failing to meet the minimal federal standards for the care of animals. Tucson Police Department arrested Jeff Jensen, a biological anthropology junior; Rebecca Feather, a psychology junior; and Damien Huffer, an anthropology freshman, after they entered the Rodeo Fairgrounds, 4801 S. Sixth Ave., and passed out literature about animal abuse [...], the circus rented the land for the weekend, making it private property.

Candice expects his metal detecting audience to frown on such activity. We do not know how many of them are Freemasons, animal lovers or whether any of them campaign for animal rights, what we do know however is that it appears from a recent PET report that the Shrine Circus deserves more than just a few people handing out literature when they come to town. I wonder what Candice Jarman believes in strongly enough to risk arrest protesting about it? Would Candice support the Shrine Circus if they came to his town, or would Mr Jarman join the protesters, or would Mr Jarman join the many who would just turn aside and walk away mumbling that "we don't want any trouble around here"? ("Head down, blinkers on, avoid making eye contact with those outsiders with "ideas"...") Is Candice perhaps a Freemason?

It appears now that Mr Jarman intends engaging on slime attacks on people who appear to be supporting one bloke's conservationist blog, even people they have never met on the other side of the globe. What actually was Jarman's aim in posting that text to his hate blog? Who is next? Colin Renfrew maybe?

Perhaps more on Mr Huffer at a later date

he darkly warns, note that its more "on Mr Huffer" he promises, not any coverage and discussion of what he actually says and stands for.

Mr Jarman is now busily drumming up "support" for his blog and this kind of argument among UK metal detectorists and US "coiney" collectors and dealers. I am quite sure that there are a lot of people in both milieux who are quite happy to see the discussion on artefact collecting brought down to the level of black propaganda and personal attacks in 2011.

Vignette: Animal Rights protestors November 2000, where are these young activists now? Are they ashamed now of what they did ten years ago? Should they be?

The Important Things Responsible Collectors Talk About

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From an Ancient Artifacts Collecting forum near you, Candice Jarman is on his witch hunt again:

Hi Folks, Anyone have any info on Damien Huffer? You know the sort of stuff I am after - you can contact me offlist for discretion and privacy. Thank you! Take care, Candy

Damien Huffer has a fine blog devoted to questions about the ethics of collecting of antiquities from Southeast Asia, not exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a British metal detectorist to consider a threat, but it seems Candice Jarman's after all the dirt on him all the same. And Mr Haines is apparently perfectly willing to let his "responsible" forum be used to gather dirt to fuel personal attacks.

So when are collectors going to stop all these personal attacks on their critics and get on with engaging with their arguments? Or is making up stories about the "Other" about the limit of their abilities? "Metal detectorists", what more can one say?

Photo: Damian Huffer at the 2009 TAG Conference.

Detecting Around Scheduled Sites

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There is a nice bit of unwitting irony here about a metal detectorist in the UK telephoning the police about alleged so-called "nighthawking" occurring in a field next to Woodhenge. While this is praiseworthy in itself, the contributors got diverted into moaning about the location by these gentlemen (Nice one! but as has been said, Detecting a henge!"), forgetting that "next to a scheduled site" is "detecting eye candy" for them all. This is an almost obligatory element of the adverts of an upcoming commercial artefact hunting rally. Two thousand detectorists attended King Alfred's Rally next to a hillfort and the Water Newton Rally was next to the scheduled Roman town site (and even closer to fields emergency scheduled to keep them away from it). I wonder if these alleged "nighthawks" were detecting as close to Woodhenge as the detectorists in the rally attended by a metal detectorist supporting archaeological colleague at Thornborough Henges?

Metal Detctorists in Action

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I found this last night when looking for something else and thought it was worth sharing. It's called "UK metal Detecting Lincolnshire, Market Rasen Rally" (the Northern England Weekend Searchers and the Lindum Rotary Club). The sound levels are a bit uneven (very loud at the beginning).

The first value it has are the depiction of the people here and musical accompaniment, draw your own conclusions. I was interested in the message being conveyed by the artefacts being handled singly and in piles shown in the introductory sequence (the first minute and 20 seconds), particularly that 'silver penny' at 55 seconds. I have one just like it, purchased as a museum replica in the Jorvik centre (I think) back in the early eighties. Then there is a sequence of a very deep hole being dug at the Market Rasen rally. Who says metal detecting is always carried out "at shallow depths"? This is irrespective of the attempted humour at three minutes (saw that one coming).

"Please view my other videos it says". Yes, that is a good idea - let us see what artefact hunting looks like in the flesh from the viewpoint of a metal detectorist.

This one seems to be related (foreign viewers might like to know that the object at 0:50 is a so-called scotch egg - in a moment this man with the strange headgear is going to eat it!).



And you though the English were quiet reserved people...
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