Today our Artefact Erosion Counter reaches 10,500,000.
This is 500,000 more than when we last highlighted it just one year and nine months ago. It suggests that ten thousand metal detectorists remove 29 artefacts each from British fields each year, mostly without telling anyone, and that this process has been tolerated for more than 30 years.
Of course, the exact figures are unknown. But one thing’s for sure. If ten thousand people are constantly flocking to the fields, undeterred, to peck at the ground (some of them for three or four decades) they are finding an awful lot more than the derisory five items a year each that they are reporting to the authorities (as reflected in official figures published a couple of years ago).
A year of searching, probably 250 hours, rain and shine, for three bits of flint and two corroded Roman coins – who would do that? Well the average detectorist apparently, according to what they claim and what is reported to the authorities. In fact they suggest half of them find even less than that each year!
There is a huge gap between what is being shown and what is even remotely credible (only a minority of detectorists has reported anything to the Portable Antiquities scheme ever!). The difference is stolen history, plain and simple.
We can do no better than repeat what we said last time:
This is not heritage protection. In fact it is uncivilised behaviour towards heritage and it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. It’s time to call time on the erosion.
The Heritage Journal 
5 comments
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10/03/2011 at 12:18
m sammons
I dont know who you are but you seem another idiot like Tony Robinson i think you will find at least 90% of detectorists are honest and do this hobby for love of the history behind the items they find and declare those items because they are interested in keeping our heritage intact and you will find the the British Museum is bulging with items found by detectorists so get of the backs of the people that are legitatmetly going about there hobby that they enjoy.
10/03/2011 at 12:41
Pat
“i think you will find at least 90% of detectorists…… declare those items”
I think you will find PAS’s statistics say they don’t!
Hence the problem.
It’s not really that hard to understand is it?
18/09/2011 at 21:37
dharrs
HERITAGE ACTIONS CONCERN FOR HISTORICAL ARTEFACTS TO REMAIN IN THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION IN WHICH THEY WERE UNEARTHED IS LAUDABLE.
PRESUMABLY THEY ARE VIGOUROSLY LOBBYING THE BRITISH MUSEUM TO RETURN ARTEFACTS TAKEN FROM NATIONS WORLDWIDE IE ELGIN MARBLES.
ALSO I BELIEVE ,ARCHAEOLOGISTS PRIVATE COLLECTIONS COULD BEAR SCRUTINY.
JUST A THOUGHT.
DAVID
08/08/2012 at 13:22
David Rowe
Clearly there will always be those who actions are dictated by averice – they will of course include people from all classes and walks of life, including Detectorists and Archaeologists. However , notwithstanding that fact ,the introduction of the Portable Antiquities Scheme has resulted in a vast number of items being reported, and recorded, that previously went unrecorded. The article in the Heritage Journal will do nothing for Archaeology – recent Detectorist finds such as the Staffordshire and Frome Hoards illustrate the value of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and the contribution to Arcaeology and our History made by responsible Detectorists.
Pegasus
08/08/2012 at 14:52
heritageaction
“The article in the Heritage Journal will do nothing for Archaeology”
Won’t it? Have detectorists a higher propensity to report than farmers? I strongly doubt it – see our erosion counter and compare it with the amount that gets reported to PAS.
In any case, how do you justify UKDN holding up as Best Practice a scenario in which someone other than the owner is to be put in charge of reporting items? Or indeed, of keeping or selling them once he gets them home, since that’s what this is REALLY about, who gets the goodies, although neither UKDN nor any detectorist will admit it.