This blog is intended to cover side issues emerging from the discussions of artefact collecting (including metal detecting) on my "Portable Antiquities and Heritage Issues" blog. This allows answering misleading points which may require it without sidetracking of other discussions onto unrelated topics, thus freeing the main blog for more serious stuff.
Steve Taylor, pictured here a jobbing gardener from the Gloucestershire region apparently wants to be taken seriously as a knowledgeable local history hunter. He has been involved in collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record for, he says, 30 years and is still very visible on a number of detecting forums. He also makes a lot of videos of fairly standardised format under the name 'DETECTINGFORGOLD'. The one below published on You Tube on 24th January 2016 ('Metal detecting for hidden history, uncovering a large Saxon/Celtic brooch') is typical of the ilk. Note the comments underneath, Mr Bluejelly remarks:
Just noticed a thumbs down dislike symbol , there are a few sad bastards around who hate anyone else finding nice objects and sharing them on You Tube. Can't understand why anyone would dislike metal detecting videos if they were a true hobbyist. Always a few retards in the hobby ! lol :
The notion never seemed to occur to him that there might be a few heritage conscious individuals looking on who consider that collection driven exploitation of the archaeological record in the manner shown here is damaging to the public interest. Anyhow, Mr Taylor responds thus:
+MrBluejelly I do the video's for free, and you always get the faceless people who criticize you, for whatever reason. They never come out of the woodwork, to have a debate on line.
Here below is the video, and then below it let us see what happens when people using their real name, not some screen pseudonym publish comments critical of the way metal detecting is depleting the archaeological record and the attitudes of metal detector users to comments.
I thought it would be an enlightening insight into the way some metal detectorists in the UK think and attempt to enter the international debate on the issues surrounding collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record. These are all real comments sent to me from Mr Steve Taylor for publication on my blog and retrieved from the rejected comments folder of my blog. Note the engaging way he creates an offensive screen name (he uses others, worse) and then the way he twists my surname and the misogynous terminology common among the mostly middle-aged-male detecting community. The first batch are from a post I did about the nasty trend among artefact collectors to use doxing as a weapon against their critics:
Paul Barford and his
amazing talking arsehole has left a new comment on your post "Antiquity
Collecting, UK Thuggish Louts and Their ...": I would be very careful about accusing people of stalking and posting personal
information on line, as I have a whole file on you, which was also recorded on
Google at the time. Along with your Steve Taylor scrap metal dealer. Those who
live by the sword , die by the sword.
Then the reaction to the capture on film of some illegal metal detecting going on near his home
Paul Barford and
his amazing talking arsehole has left a new comment on your post "Kingscote
Illegal Artefact Hunting: Update": I recognize the one on the left who looks like a Neanderthal, low brow, small
brain, works in the dark, lives in Poland, hey that's a photofit of you Paul.
Tell everyone how you sent two criminals to Poulton, on Spot the hoard contest
you ran ! Happy days
by the way, I am English (one wonders at the press Mr Taylor follows). More on the nighthawking issue
Paul Barford and
his amazing talking arsehole has left a new comment on your post ""Detectorists"
Responsible detectorists caught "Ni...": I have an agreement signed on some bog paper Paul, I'll send you a copy. Be
careful of the Van Gogh sunflower in the middle. lol Maybe the next series will
feature a guy with a giant penis on his head, then we will all know how famous
you have become Paul.
This incomprehensible scatology is followed by an attack on the Portable Antiquities Scheme when I discussed a funding problem:
TAKE A GOOD LOOK at this behaviour,
for these are precisely the sort of people the PAS wants to grab more
and more millions of public quid to make into the "partners" of the
British Museum, archaeological heritage professionals and to whom they
want us all to entrust the exploitation of the archaeological record.
Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a "policy".
Continuing the series of comments retrieved from the 'rejected' box of my blog, we get a telling view into the mind of a long-standing member of the British metal detecting community. Here is Mr Taylor referring to what I said about a Californian dealer publishing a text about 'Slaying Barford' - it is not just metal detectorists who fantasize about extreme resolutions of their problems with critics. After a long break from previous posts, it rather looks as if the self-focussed Mr Taylor has some kind of a notification system set up to alert him to the appearance of his own name in the blogosphere:
Paul Barford and
his amazing talking arsehole has left a new comment on your post ""California
style"": Lol ! Do you fancy another game of chess Paul, although I'm two games up !
How's the angina and blood pressure. I've now retired and ready to play again.
[I believe this is a xenophobic reference to one million Poles living in the UK and a 'final solution' to the UK's 'problem' with internal expatriates]
LOL? Another shameless reference to the 'Final Solution' ...
TAKE A GOOD LOOK at this behaviour, for these are precisely the sort of people the PAS wants to grab more and more millions of public quid to make into the "partners" of the British Museum, archaeological heritage professionals and to whom they want us all to entrust the exploitation of the archaeological record. Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a "policy".
British archaeologist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. Since the early 1990s (or even longer) a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context and their effect on the archaeological record.
Steve Taylor, pictured here a jobbing gardener from the Gloucestershire region apparently wants to be taken seriously as a knowledgeable local history hunter. He has been involved in collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record for, he says, 30 years and is still very visible on a number of detecting forums. He also makes a lot of videos of fairly standardised format under the name 'DETECTINGFORGOLD'. The one below published on You Tube on 24th January 2016 ('Metal detecting for hidden history, uncovering a large Saxon/Celtic brooch') is typical of the ilk. Note the comments underneath, Mr Bluejelly remarks:
