Artifact Theft by British Archeologists !!

Archeologists, don't
let them fool you.

In Britain, where artifact collecting is held in high regard by the public, the archeologists are no less vociferous than their US counterparts in calling for a ban on private antiquity collecting and the repatriation of all objects to their homeland. It seems from information brought to light by the investigations of metal detectorists that all this loud posturing is no more than a diversionary tactic, attempting to cover up the corruption and theft within the profession. Britain has a wonderful government scheme for logging all finds made, but what do we find? The figures are telling, in 2011 (the latest year for which figures are available, it seems - wonder why?) of the 97,510 objects logged by the PAS in Britain, only 1848 of them (2.19%) came from "Controlled archeological investigations". But the finds responsibly reported by metal detector users and relic hunters accounts for over 86% of finds recorded with the PAS. That is an appalling statistic. Where are the finds excavated by archeologists going? The answer is supplied by a metal detectorist able to speak freely on a Texas metal detecting blog in a discussion about whether we should introduce a similar scheme for supporting relic hunters here:

when you consider that FEW archaeological digs even bother to register their finds with the PAS…one has to ask the question WHY?  Are orthodox archaeologists complicit in a system of under-the-counter supply to the more shady market outlets? We have to be told. 

Why are British archeologists and academics silent about this? Why are the police not involved?  That is a very good question.