Recently, a band of French policemen entered the house of an ordinary citizen and seized many thousands of metallic historical artefacts which he had been privately caring for. In response, a group of French archaeologists issued the following deluded, anti-British statement in support of the police actions:
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Whole sections of knowledge of the past have thus been lost
Archaeology is a profession, the use of metal detectors outside the legal framework is prohibited
The State must guarantee the rights of future generations by transmitting to them a preserved natural and cultural heritage and will do everything in its power to prevent such destruction from happening again.”.
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Such elitist nonsense! Have they not heard that in Britain there are 27,000 metal detectorists plus thousands of visiting ones from France, Holland and the USA, and that nearly all of them report nearly all their finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and to the landowners, and that mass amateur metal detecting is therefore hugely beneficial to the country and humanity?
Or do they prefer evidence?
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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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4 comments
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23/02/2020 at 10:13
Paul Barford (@PortantIssues)
“guarantee the rights of future generations by transmitting to them a preserved natural and cultural heritage” The French had such a lot they could have learnt from Britain while it was in the EU, yet they chose not to follow the uniquely British path over that kind of “environmental protection”. Odd that.
23/02/2020 at 11:50
Richard Bennett
French Academics for you. What else would you expect?
23/02/2020 at 12:58
heritageaction
Exactly. Evidence-driven conservation carers!
05/03/2020 at 19:55
Graeme Kirkham
This individual [is accused of having – Ed] systematically and purposefully looted archaeological sites over a period of time, thereby destroying the contextual evidence which would have given these artefacts some historic value and enabled them to tell their story. Metal detecting is potentially a useful tool in archaeological fieldwork, based on a research design. Anything else is treasure hunting and looting our communal past. The French legal framework is considerably better in terms of the way it values and protects the evidence of the past than the current system in England.