Heritage Action refers to a post of mine where I highlighted the contents of the June 2012 number of “The Searcher” magazine "which of course show, in a way that cuts through all the comforting platitudes from PAS and the Culture secretary like a knife, just how money-oriented every one of the suppliers and (what must be) a massive number of the exponents of metal detecting are". I pointed out that it is “worth popping along to the local newsagent’s and getting a copy, just to see what these people get up to, what they think is worth talking about, and what they do not”. As Heritage Action points out, though PAS is currently heavily involved in the organization of the magazine's "Best find" competition, PAS is nowhere on its website as part of its "outreach" urging members of the public to use the magazine to find out "what these people get up to, what they think is worth talking about, and what they do not”. Or join any metal detecting forum. Why not, if they see what their "partners" as doing as some form of amateur archaeology? Could it be that PAS is actually aware that it is not true, and that closer familiarity with what metal detectorists do in England and Wales would show that to be the case? Why do the PAS apparently consider it unnecessary for members of the public to find out for themselves what "metal detecting" is actually about?
Friday, May 18, 2012
May 18th 2012: Why No "Outreach" about "Metal Detecting" Magazines?
Heritage Action refers to a post of mine where I highlighted the contents of the June 2012 number of “The Searcher” magazine "which of course show, in a way that cuts through all the comforting platitudes from PAS and the Culture secretary like a knife, just how money-oriented every one of the suppliers and (what must be) a massive number of the exponents of metal detecting are". I pointed out that it is “worth popping along to the local newsagent’s and getting a copy, just to see what these people get up to, what they think is worth talking about, and what they do not”. As Heritage Action points out, though PAS is currently heavily involved in the organization of the magazine's "Best find" competition, PAS is nowhere on its website as part of its "outreach" urging members of the public to use the magazine to find out "what these people get up to, what they think is worth talking about, and what they do not”. Or join any metal detecting forum. Why not, if they see what their "partners" as doing as some form of amateur archaeology? Could it be that PAS is actually aware that it is not true, and that closer familiarity with what metal detectorists do in England and Wales would show that to be the case? Why do the PAS apparently consider it unnecessary for members of the public to find out for themselves what "metal detecting" is actually about?
Friday, May 4, 2012
May 4th 2012: Why is there no Bibliography on Artefact Hunting and the Antiquities Market?
I wonder why there is no reading list on "portable antiquity issues" for public benefit on the PAS website? A text called "Congenial Bedfellows? The Academy and the Antiquities Trade" points out that not only has the role of "facilitating actions of academic experts" previously been overlooked in studying the antiquities trade (and here the PAS certainly is a prime culprit). It argues that "academic expertise is indispensable for the efficient functioning of the trade" and suggests that:
a knowledge-based ethical environment for academic practice would allow scholars to make more informed choices about the propriety or otherwise of their involvement with the trade.I would broaden that to "with artefact hunting" as the two are inextricably related. In such a situation, is it not a hindrance that Britain's mega-million public funded outreach Scheme for dealing with portable antiquities issues does not have on its website a section where the public who pay for it can find information on the issues surrounding collecting of archaeological artefacts? A search of this "resource" will not bring up even a smidgen of information for the general public who pay for it can find information on the issues surrounding collecting of archaeological artefacts (except the section on "how to buy antiquities"). Where is the bibliography containing the link to that article? Nowhere. The PAS do not consider it part of their 14-million-quid outreach to provide such a basic piece of information even as a few dozen bibliographic references, so if the PAS is not going to do it in Britain, who is? (see the 1970 UNESCO Convention article 10).
On what basis are archaeologists at present in Britain making their decisions to make more informed choices about the propriety or otherwise of their involvement with artefact hunting and the trade? Certainly, I would suggest, nothing balanced coming from the PAS. the latter just present one side (the 'propaganda of [their own] success') of the story.
Where, after fourteen years of so-called "outreach" and fourteen million pounds of public money thrown at it is the PAS bibliography of Portable Antiquity Collecting ISSUES?
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