Paul Barford, a British archaeologist living in Warsaw, Poland, just published a fascinating post about British Archaeology Dropping the Ball .
The premise of the article explains that British archaeology is not being represented accurately in the public eye through media. What most individuals few as archaeology may not be the more agreeable professional opinion, however media outlets are spinning information received from metal detecting as true and undeniable facts.
Barford stresses his concern:
The way the legislation is framed in the United Kingdom makes archaeology very much more dependent on public opinion than in many other countries. For this reason, surely it is very important that we should be very careful how archaeology is presented to the public. It is on the basis of what they pick up from the media (rather than professional publications) that the wider public forms an opinion on what archaeology is, what kind of archaeology Britain needs. This is especially important when more and more elements of the system existing a few years ago are being shed under the umbrella of the financial state the country is in and the necessary cutbacks. Who is going to protest the loss of an HER somewhere if most of the people in the area have no idea what it is, what it does and that they ever had one?
Please check out Paul's article entitled British Archaeology Dropping the Ball
Paul Barford Bio:
Since the early 1990s a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context.
Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues
