By Nigel Swift
Over in the States a 13 part TV series called American Digger is about to be aired. Former professional wrestler Ric Savage and his team of relic hunters “scour target-rich areas, such as battlefields and historic sites, in hopes of striking it rich by unearthing and selling rare pieces of American history”. As the publicity guff says, there are millions of historical relics waiting to be turned into profit and American Digger hopes to claim “a piece of that pie”.They’ll pinpoint “historical locations such as Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields” and use “state-of-the-art metal detectors and heavy-duty excavation equipment” and sell the finds “for a substantial profit” which they’ll share with the property owners.”
Pretty crude. Lots about artefacts and money, nothing about context or knowledge loss or archaeological vandalism. Do Americans have the term oik? Dunno. But how could American Diggers impact negatively on us here in Britain?
Well, hundreds of them come over here on organised “detecting holidays” each year so with a TV show about to claim historical relics can be turned into big profits it seems probable there’ll be a spike in the British detecting holiday industry with the current hundreds of customers perhaps becoming thousands. In addition, if the format works well over there it’s surely a fair bet it will happen here in due course – “British Diggers” – why wouldn’t it, it’s legal innit?! So in my view, apart from expressing a snooty distain for America’s trash TV the British should be very concerned how the programme might affect us here.
Oh, but finally……
We British can forget the snooty distain. Hundreds of mass detecting rallies take place over here and a lot of the loot is secretly not reported or openly flogged. So what’s different? Well, we do it worse. Here, archaeologists ATTEND such events and don’t openly admit they oppose them. That doesn’t happen in the States. And as for TV programmes, we’re way ahead of the Yanks. Years ago we televised a mass detecting rally on a Roman site at Water Newton. On several occasions. Nationally. Live. At peak time. And archaeologists were present, lending it a false veneer of respectability, and it reeked of heroic triumphalism and the local archaeologists who bitterly opposed it weren’t put in front of the cameras. Whereas none of those things are happening in America. They’re merely crass over there.
So it seems to me – and I’ll be happy to be shown how I’m wrong – that far from looking down on them we need to regard their crassness as something we British can only aspire to. God Bless America, where an entrepreneurial or vandalistic spade is called just that, where people dig destructively for money or self and make no bones about it, where archaeologists object to them doing so and make no bones about it and where detector manufacturer Minelab has just donated $41,000 to fight attempts to prevent the destruction and makes no bones about it.
How much less morally repugnant that is than the public hypocrisy that blights Britain – where detectorists all claim they report all their finds even though most of them don’t, where archaeologists pretend to believe them despite knowing the statistics show it’s not true and where not Minelab but you the taxpayer pays not $41,000 but £1,500,000 a year to sustain the activity in it’s current unacceptable form. And to employ a battalion of archaeologists who, whenever the subject arises, tell your hapless fellow citizens it’s just fine to let absolutely anyone (including ex-professional wrestler Rick Savage – why not?) onto their fields so long as they say they’re “responsible“!
_____________________________________________________________
More Heritage Action views on metal detecting and artefact collecting
_____________________________________________________________
The Heritage Journal 
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
10/03/2012 at 12:38
Tim
What I find strange is that in Britain there is this weird pressure on archaeologists to “include the public” in archaeology on all costs. It’s true that we are being paid by the public and we have a duty to show them our results in an engaging way.
But there is no obligation on our part to include the public in the process of archaeology. After all there is a reason that you have to train for several years to become an archaeologist.
Here in Germany most archaeologists realize that the public has an interest in their work and grudgingly stage an “open excavation” day for the press and the interested public once a year. Maybe that isn’t the best way either but it’s strange that in Britain you can’t not include the public if you don’t want to! And that’s what leads archaeologists to show up at detector rallies even if they know it sends the wrong message.
10/03/2012 at 13:10
heritageaction
Including the public in real Archaeology is one thing, pretending detectorist-run metal detecting rallies are part of Archaeology is another and is what makes Britain unique.
Not that most archaeologists think that or attend them. PAS archaeologists do, but very, very very few British archaeologists have done so. Indeed, since it was done a few years ago the Bylaws of the IfA have been re-written to effectively forbid it unless you are a PAS employee!
10/03/2012 at 13:45
Tim
See, that’s what I mean! You don’t even question involving the public.
You don’t have to let 10 year-old school children dig sensitive sites! If as a member of the public you’re constantly being told that “everyone can be an archaeologist”, of course you are going to run off to the next field with a metal detector.
The PAS is just one symptom of this general mindset among British archaeologists.
I don’t say that this is wholly a bad thing, though. As a consequence of all the “outreach” archaeology is much more present in the minds of the British public. It’s a lot easier to put archaeological interests over commercial ones when the public is interested and aware of the problems.
(And I know I sound snobbish but believe me, this is not intended as an attack against amateur archaeologists. I know a few who are better excavators than many professional archaeologists. But these are extremely dedicated people who race home from work so they can watch over a building site in the rain. They are being included because they are assets to heritage management not because archaeologist think that the local primary school has some sort of right to dig their site!
To reiterate: the public has a right to be involved in the results of archaeology but not the process. That said I will always show around any visitor to a site even when they visit unanounced.
10/03/2012 at 14:40
heritageaction
Well, we are mostly neither archaeologists nor amateur archaeologists, we are below those groups – we are “ordinary people”!
We are in favour of “good” amateur archaeology (as are you) and not poor (as are you). As for public involvement under strict archaeological control and standards, that doesn’t seem unreasonable or without advantages (but we stress, under strict archaeological control and standards).
“The PAS is just one symptom of this general mindset among British archaeologists.”
More a case of making the best of a poor fait accompli !
10/03/2012 at 17:04
Tim
You know, upon rereading my comments they look unnecessarily contentious. I hope that it’s clear they’re in no way directed at your organization. I guess the mentioning of detector rallies and the PAS just triggered something in me that’s been smoldering for some time….
Anyway, I’m glad we’re on the same page.
10/03/2012 at 18:46
heritageaction
Same page, same volume! We absolutely agree that if archaeologists have taken the trouble to develop protocols to maximise knowledge and minimise destruction there’s no reason for non-archaeologists not to be bound by them.