The ubiquitous lie

By Nigel Swift

It’s not just the police and archaeologists who are misleading farmers and the public about the realities of metal detecting. Here’s a metal detectorist who is showing off his finds as a sort of mobile museum:

“Unfortunately there are detectorists out there who detect on land without permission and over the years these people have ruined the chances of gaining permission to detect on land for those law-abiding detectorists, who follow a strict code set out by the National Council for Metal Detecting.”

It’s a lie, the same verbal claptrap employed weekly to fool thousands of landowners, the implication that because most detectorists aren’t nighthawks therefore most detectorists are responsible. The “strict code set out by the National Council for Metal Detecting” is useless, a pack of nonsense designed to allow detectorists to not report finds and avoid following the proper official code. The NCMD won’t even endorse the proper code.

Once again:

Why aren’t landowners, taxpayers, stakeholders, and legislators told so, weekly? Why is cultural damage being enabled?

.

__________________________________________
More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
__________________________________________