Metal detecting: let’s ban the word Nighthawking (the police agree!)

We agree with Mark Harrison, Head of Heritage Crime Strategy Historic England, who has just said that he does not like the term nighthawking: “It almost romanticises it, but they’re stealing artefacts that belong to all of us.”

We agree (although we disagree with his other point that the majority of detectorists reported their finds – that’s just daft and defies both statistics and logic).

But our main objection to the term nighthawking is that it’s not inclusive. If not reporting is stealing from all of us then MOST detectorists are nighthawks. Ooh, how dare we say that? Well, we’ll desist if anyone can show it’s not true.

We thought that as members of the public and stakeholders we’d tell PAS the same thing but on the PAS Twitter Account, Portable Antiquities @findsorguk, it says …

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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