But what reason do old school Archaeologists have for hating the hobby? What do we do that can be seen as bad?
Because
they went to university and
you didn't so they get their panties in a wad when some ordinary geezer with a metal detector unearths something from a field they probably drive past every day. They like to think their career path enlightens them with arcane knowledge that mere "members of the public" like us cannot begin to fathom, when in fact, anyone who is interested can teach themselves as much as they know without going to university, and be as meticulous about uncovering artefacts as Baldric & Co. *
When you look at the way certain famed and respected archaeologists and historians spout their "facts", you'll find that they haven't done any donkey work (ie. hands and knees in muddy fields, or going through boxes of papers in dusty archive basements) since they were students themselves. Often, the facts they present as absolute are shot down a few years later as utter BS. - they've decided something was a certain way, and that's that. When their fanciful theories are be shown to be wrong, it might be thanks to some bloke with a metal detector.
They certainly don't want some electrician or mechanic showing them up (not least because they have no idea how to wire a light switch or change the oil in their own car),
they want
their name on the placard at the museum,
they want to be doing nice little speaking tours to hushed rooms full of people awestruck at
their momentous hoard discoveries. They don't want you to be the man in demand telling of your finds, what have you done to merit the glory? (Apart from tramping up and down wet muddy fields in the cold for years, sifting out horseshoes and pop cans, obviously...)
That said, for all the hundreds of conscientious, sensible detectorists like I hope we all are, with more than a passing interest in what we find and the relevance to our society, history and culture, it only takes 1 bell-end in a shellsuit hacking a field to bits without due care and attention, then e-baying the loot, to reinforce the prejudices those archaeologists have. Sadly, I fear there are more than a couple of these, and they don't give a toss, so long as they are making a bit of bunce. I can understand why some people might despair at what is being lost, deliberately or through ignorance, when they spot someone out in the middle of a field with their coil.
* Obviously the chaps who do all the DNA tests on bones and carbon dating etc are the real professionals, the real clever ones, but they aren't the ones getting sniffy about detectorists.
