Metallic Finds Rates on excavations

[P Prentice]

the problem at the moment is that metal detectorists are the only people currently gathering statistics regarding finds in the plough zone. half of them may well be verging on criminal, some definately are, but there is rarely a requirement from curators for contractors to recover anything from the topsoil with the result that the single largest remnant component of most excavated sites is machined off and ignored. if the pas is telling us anything it is that crucial and irreplacable data is being lost to the machine strippers and that a considerable number of sites must only exist in the plough soil. the other thing to consider is that detecting is a skill. fortunately most detectorists are not very good but it often seems as if the most criminal ones are better.
we need to more detecting ourselves and get good at it.