Home Metal Detecting

Archaeologists and the like

softparadesoftparade Posts: 9,276 ✭✭✭✭✭
Anybody ever get harassed by one when detecting? The antiquities federal laws. I'm not talking about something absurd like galloping out into the field of Gettysburg with a detector and a shovel where Picketts Charge went down. Just normal everyday detecting.

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Comments

  • softparadesoftparade Posts: 9,276 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My spelling is brutal. Posting on a phone and the damn browser won't let me edit.

    EDIT, miserable spelling fixed image

    ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240

  • This is not unheard of. Solution? I dunno exactly. Ask permission first. Remain on private land. Try to establish rapport with authorities. The Custer Battlefield was a very sucessful co-operation between detectorites and the authorities. Be SURE you are where you have the right to be where you are. Ask. Be nice. Accept 'no' when you receive it. Be grateful when you get a 'yes'. It ain't gonna get easier in the future so........
    It's as big a part of the biz as your equipment, perhaps bigger.
    Many, many perfect transactions with other members. Ask please.
  • gripgrip Posts: 9,962 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>This is not unheard of. Solution? I dunno exactly. Ask permission first. Remain on private land. Try to establish rapport with authorities. The Custer Battlefield was a very sucessful co-operation between detectorites and the authorities. Be SURE you are where you have the right to be where you are. Ask. Be nice. Accept 'no' when you receive it. Be grateful when you get a 'yes'. It ain't gonna get easier in the future so........
    It's as big a part of the biz as your equipment, perhaps bigger. >>



    Good advice!
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I wouldn't say I have been harassed, exactly, but I have definitely encountered Snooty Archaeologist Syndrome, in a few places where I was detecting legally and they had no right to sneer at me.

    Which is not to say I don't respect archaeologists- I certainly do. I wish I'd gotten the formal education necessary to be one. But sometimes they're ivory-tower academic types who can't see the forest for the trees, or the trees for the pollen analysis... whatever. You know what I mean. It is a little too much like hard science for me to be a good fit in a career like that, but I certainly find much of what they do fascinating, and important. I wish that feeling were reciprocated a little bit, and that we "amateurs" were given at least a little grudging respect instead of being treated like marauding barbarian hordes. (Admittedly, we DO have more than our share of bad apples and barbarians in our midst, though.)

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  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    True LordM, there are those who use the guise of metal detecting to pillage sites of historic value. They are not the same as we hobbyists, but nonetheless taint us with their behavior. Just as many CEO's are saddled with the Enron mantle (although they run their firms honestly), we pay the price of 'association' with those who use our technology for illicit purposes. There are good and bad in most every field of endeavor. Our responsibility is not to stray from our code of ethics and to report those that operate beyond the law. Cheers, RickO
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