A report commissioned by British Heritage in reference to “Nighthawks” (individuals and groups that illegally use metal detectors on private property and archaeological sites) was released today.
I am sure that the radical archaeologist movement will jump on the findings of this report to attack the British Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and the coin trade. But there are a few things that we need to take into consideration:
1. Nighthawks are BREAKING THE LAW. They are trespassing on private property or protected sites and STEALING . One reason is probably an attempt to avoid the landowner from receiving their appropriate compensation.
2. Metal detectorists and the PAS have made contributions to our understanding of the past! See yesterdays blog entry – Important Roman coin hoard found – Reported via PAS.
3. Regardless of whether or not the PAS or other reasonable laws exist there will always be those that break the laws. Alcohol and cars are both beneficial to society and yet people still break the law by drinking and driving and lives are actually lost.
4. By enforcing reasonable laws, law abiding citizens will exert peer pressure on others and society contributes to the enforcement of laws. (In the report discussed in The Guardian article it shows how responsible detectorists work with archaeologists to protect sites). Expanding on my illustration in point 3, there are no plans in the works to ban either cars nor alcohol but the penalties for drinking and driving are better enforced, the public is better educated and less people drink and drive.
5. In Peter Tompa’s Cultural Property Observer blog he points out “In any event, even assuming nighthawking is underreported, based on the large numbers of artifacts properly reported and recorded under the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme, most metal detectorists in England and Wales appear to follow the law.”
To read more about the report you can read the article Treasure raiders scooping up UK heritage | Science | The Guardian.
Tags: metal detectorists, nighthawks, PAS, Portable Antiquities Scheme
We have a lot of laws whose only purpose is to help us enforce other laws. For example, it is against the law to remove the serial number from a pistol because that helps us against gun murder. It is against the law to possess a pistol with no serial number because that protects us against serial-number-filing.
The message should be that PAS prevents nighthawking, while confiscatory regimes cause looting because folks often prefer having holes dug by locals they know rather than correct national governments.