29th January 2008, 03:33 PM
Regarding the possible demise of PAS. To be honest I'm not sure I am that concerned (apologies to those reading this who are employed by it). Prior to the existance of FLOs many museums (certainly in this area - North West) used to (and probably still do) look at artefacts brought in by members of the public. These were regularly published in the local journal, which is infinately easier to reference that the PAS website; these finds generally made it on to the HER/SMR too, and were sometimes even published with a (contraversial, I know) grid reference. Meanwhile, most of the museums are grossly under funded, threatened with closure and lacking in facilities, and they were essentially doing the PAS job, on a smaller and less formal scale in the first place.
As I'm sure many detectorists are not 'in it for the money', having a captive audience in form of the local FLO is simply encouraging them to detect more than they might have been before. This is fine as long as the PAS or something similar exists, but if it stops what then? You can't un-invent the increased interest once you have created it.
The perceived snobbishness of professional archaeologists (however you define it) towards detectorists is perhaps to be expected. Many have spent years working in their field trying to get some recognition, whilst a detectorist might spend minutes working in their field and get enless praise for what is, essentially a fluke (although I'm sure there are many detectorists who spend far longer than the professionals in research before the start, there have been several cases, I'm sure, where the detectorist had literally picked the machine up for the first time). You can see how an archaeologust might be a bit bitter about it. Also the issue of qualifications, although a bit of a red herring and probably enough of a sore point amongst archaeologists, is not a valid way to attack archaeologists as snobs. It is simply a mechanism to try and guage someones reliability (however inaccurate). What equivalent is there for detectorists? They could be good bad or indifferent and how is anyone supposed to know at first glance? It has to swing both ways (sorry, that sounds a bit wrong!)
As an archaeologist working in the commercial sector I can't say that I have benefitted from the information that the PAS has made 'available' without considerable effort, which is hardly ideal when trying to compile a DBA with a limited budget. And when I hear that museums can't take a single box of pottery because they are too full, I do wonder what the overall benefit of the PAS is to anyone other than detectorists.
As I'm sure many detectorists are not 'in it for the money', having a captive audience in form of the local FLO is simply encouraging them to detect more than they might have been before. This is fine as long as the PAS or something similar exists, but if it stops what then? You can't un-invent the increased interest once you have created it.
The perceived snobbishness of professional archaeologists (however you define it) towards detectorists is perhaps to be expected. Many have spent years working in their field trying to get some recognition, whilst a detectorist might spend minutes working in their field and get enless praise for what is, essentially a fluke (although I'm sure there are many detectorists who spend far longer than the professionals in research before the start, there have been several cases, I'm sure, where the detectorist had literally picked the machine up for the first time). You can see how an archaeologust might be a bit bitter about it. Also the issue of qualifications, although a bit of a red herring and probably enough of a sore point amongst archaeologists, is not a valid way to attack archaeologists as snobs. It is simply a mechanism to try and guage someones reliability (however inaccurate). What equivalent is there for detectorists? They could be good bad or indifferent and how is anyone supposed to know at first glance? It has to swing both ways (sorry, that sounds a bit wrong!)
As an archaeologist working in the commercial sector I can't say that I have benefitted from the information that the PAS has made 'available' without considerable effort, which is hardly ideal when trying to compile a DBA with a limited budget. And when I hear that museums can't take a single box of pottery because they are too full, I do wonder what the overall benefit of the PAS is to anyone other than detectorists.