Stew and Trace in Nighthawking Report

Those still following Monmouth "detectorist" Buffy's ramblings on what a thoroughly nasty person I am for questioning the current UK policies on artefact hunting and collecting will note that a few days ago 14th Jan (in a post called Godwins law or Barfords Law?) I was held up to his fellow "metal detectorists" as a class obsessed snob (or something) for referring to two of their fellows as "Stew" and "Trace". Buffy expresses his solidarity with them: "Why would anyone want to do this other than to underline some cultural and social separation in order to manipulate the readers opinion[?]". The present author is a bad guy: "the mere mention of 'Metal detectorists' seems to bring about a change in Mr Barford revealing a deep seated social and class based resentment that manifests itself in the aforementioned manner".* Anyway to come back to solidarising with "Stew" and "Trace", Buffy will see now that the case to which I refer is one of the case studies in the Nighthawking Report which came out today.
Anon 2009 Nighthawks and Nighthawking: Damage to Archaeological Sites in the UK and Crown Dependencies caused by Illegal Searching and Removal of Antiquities, Strategic Study Final Report, Oxford Archaeology for English Heritage). Buffy's fellow metal detector users Stuart and Tracy Nighthawker are on page 68-9 and also mentioned in several newspapers today. I am sure however that they are well gratified to see Buffy is at least still on their side.

*Actually it is aimed at those in the pro-collecting lobby who (on the basis of arguments marshalled by US coin collectors) try to present all collectors of portable antiquities as erudites engaged in serious research which will add to archaeological knowledge. They clearly are not. Not by any means all of them, it was the PAS and the Hawkshead Review which have has been talking about the social background of artefact hunters.

"За Волгой земли для нас не было".

"I am Vassily Zaitsev".
Василий Зайцев (let's get the spelling right, one 's') was facing Hitler in one of the most atrocious battles of the so-called Eastern Front. I wonder, in using such a bold comparison, Person-hiding-behind-the-pseudonym-Buffet thinks he is "defending". I wonder what 'threat' he sees across the Wye?

"Buffet's" blog is aimed at my main blog "Portable Antiquities and heritage Issues" and is named "paul-barford-blog-response". The reader will easily note that he has not actually responded to any of the points raised there about portable antiquity hunting and collecting. But then, there is nothing new about that from the whole sad pro-collecting lobby, the British archaeologists among them. All they can do is pretend to be heroic saboteurs and snipers. They may take random pot-shots at the "messenger", but the issues sadly remain wthout a proper response from the whole pro-collecting lobby who usually drag any discussion down to the level of ad hominem attacks.

Ray Blaker gets it wrong too

Ray Blaker Says: December 2, 2007 at 5:12 am

Hmm, maybe one of these guy´s should go back home (To Poland), and open his mouth there (Although I doubt he has the courage to do so), as in his home country they are robbing and pillaging throughout Europe, and selling on the black market. Instead he comes here and tries to destroy a system that is
working, and improving every day !!