Britain's PAS - Rescuing History

James Fielding writes on " The PAS - Rescuing History:

The metal detecting community in England and some of the more enlightened practitioners of the actual art and science of real honest archaeology, as well as the British Museum no less, have come together to discover, document, recover, study, curate and display the neglected artifacts of an ancient age. And they are making fantastic inroads in mutual cooperation, as well as historic finds, with their marvelous Portable Antiquities Scheme or PAS for short. As a result, English history and the tangible remains thereof, have received a tremendous boost in popularity, with the citizens and certain savvy academics, sporting a newly renewed interest in the lives of those who lived thousands of years ago through their everyday objects and coinage.
Of course, none of this came easy, as the old guard, somewhat yellowed and musty, in archaeological circles, organizations and institutions fought tooth and nail against it...as they still do here in America. The sounds of tiny gnashing teeth, an amazing side job in hysterically dissing artifact and coin collectors, along with the infantile name-calling habit, are still heard in certain puddles of these folks who choose to live in the academic basement of archaeological origins and practices. 

Mr Fielding astutely points out that despite this, there are some 21st Century archaeologists that have been turning to experienced metal detecting practitioners for help in racing the clock in recovering items being destroyed by chemical-based farming, road building, new structures and the like. Metal detectorists would do well to emulate this here in the United States before its too late.