This is a terrible argument. Ploughing a field where there is a site can wreck it, yes. But objects don’t go that far and often the site remains well enough below ground or visible from the air that keeping the objects in situ and reporting immediately is still best practicehttps://twitter.com/boggywood/status/1115342878283313155 …
There are plenty of laws to criticize, the one on metal detecting though exists for good reason.
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And people who desperately want to use metal detectors don’t care about archaeology or the sites, they want to find something cool, and possibly sell it.
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And the law is not perfect in the UK. Many report finds but then you have some fool like this https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/14/metal-detectorist-destroys-5000-year-old-tomb-digging-treasure-8902479/ …
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Also, telling archaeologists to inform everyone about the law is like telling shopkeepers to tell people it’s wrong to shoplift.
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The onus is not on them, and the law is easily found online within a 2 second google search.
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And these people know the law, and they know they are breaking it. They try their hardest to circumvent it.
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End of conversation
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& it's quite funny to see people using the same tired arguments that were used decades ago. I also said the vast majority of finds were small - not big hoards - it is frankly nonsensicle to treat a field that's been ploughed for a thousand years as