RECREATIONAL METAL DETECTING AND ARCH AEOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Critical Issues Concerning Danish Metal-Detector Finds (original) (raw)
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Since the early 1980s, metal detector surveying conducted by amateur archaeologists has contributed significantly to archaeological research and heritage practice in Denmark. Here, metal detecting has always been legal, and official stakeholders pursue a liberal model, focusing on cooperation and inclusion rather than confrontation and criminalization. Like no other surveying method since the invention of the shovel, the metal detector has contributed to increasing enormously the amount of data and sites from metal-rich periods. Virtually all of the spectacular and ground-breaking discoveries of the past decades are owed to metal detectors in the hands of amateur archaeologists. And it is these finds and sites that today constitute one of the very foci of archaeological research. This article provides an overview of the current status of liberal metal detector archaeology in Denmark 30 years after its inception, and attempts to identify the reasons why this popular hobby never developed into the problem it has become in other parts of the world. It concludes that the success of the liberal model in Denmark is the result of a very complex interplay of legislative, historical, cultural, and social factors. On this basis, it is discussed whether the Danish experience can be used as a source of inspiration in the necessary progression towards a new legal agenda for responsible metal detector archaeology.
Private Metal Detecting and Archaeology in Norway
Metal detecting has become a popular hobby in Norway. The use of metal detectors is legal, as long as one has the landowner‘s permission, and complies with the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Act. As in other countries, the relationship between private metal detecting and archaeology is complex. The perspectives and experiences of archaeologists and heritage management representatives in regard to what challenges and positive effects that arise from private metal detecting varies greatly. With this article we wish to address various sides of the relationship openly.
The current model of archaeological metal detecting and its success in Schleswig-Holstein.
Martens, J., Ravn, M. (Eds.) 2016: Pløyejord som kontekst. Nye utfordringer for forskning, forvaltning og formidling. Artikkelsamling. Conference held at Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo, 18.04.2014, 2016
In Germany, each state has its own legislation concerning heritage management. This paper focuses on the system used in Schleswig-Holstein, and a number of recent research projects are presented. In 2005, the State Archaeological Department of Schleswig-Holstein (Archäologisches Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein, ALSH) launched a system known as the Schleswig Model to allow and control the private use of metal detectors based on a certification process, licensing and cooperation. With this system, Schleswig-Holstein became one of the first German states to establish a legal system for metal detecting. Subsequently, the system has proven to be practical and efficient, yielding an output of finds, sites and excavations of high scientific value. Not least due to this success, other German states have established similar systems for legal metal detecting.
Simonsen&Rødsrud 2024 The Metal Detectorist Finds from Gjellestad and Surrounding Areas
The Metal Detectorist Finds from Gjellestad and Surrounding Areas. I Viking Special Volume 2 – Viking Gjellestad, redigert av Ketil Loftsgarden, Knut Paasche og Christian Løchsen Rødsrud, s. 79–123. Viking special volume. Norsk arkeologisk selskap, Oslo., 2024
This chapter aims to give an overview of the archaeological finds from metal detecting at Gjellestad and surrounding areas, and to relate these finds to truncated archaeological structures recorded by the project’s extensive ground penetrating radar survey. Can areas with special functions like trade and handicrafts be identified? Furthermore, the study explores what kinds of kind of networks the finds represent and if is it possible to confirm areas with special functions like trade and handicrafts. The artefact material consists of 87 different objects, with a predominance of late Iron Age and later finds. The provenance for the metal finds can be traced to the Baltic and East Scandinavia, the British Isles, Central Asia and the Middle East. Spatially they cluster in three areas; an area with artefacts relating to daily use as well as weighing and handling valuables above settlement traces to the north; an area between today’s farmhouses and the Jell mound (Jellhaug) with ploughed up artefacts from burials; and to the south, near the Viking Age shoreline, is an area with artefacts connected to trade.
Professional Amateurs Metal Detecting and Metal Detectorists in Denmark
From the beginning of metal-detector based archaeology practiced by members of the public, the formal heritage sector in Denmark determined to pursue a liberal model based on cooperation and inclusion rather than confrontation and criminalization. Based on the findings of the '2015 Danish detectorists survey' it is argued that Danish metal-detector archaeology has challenged the classic division of roles in archaeology and heritage management, and that at least a large proportion of Danish detectorists practice their hobby adhering to the highest professional standards, which stand in sharp contrast to the often-cited stereotype of the detectorists as mere 'treasure hunter'.
Metal Detecting in Denmark: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Liberal Model
Since the early 1980s, metal-detector surveying by non-professional volunteers (i.e., amateur archaeologists) has contributed significantly to archaeological research and heritage management in Denmark. Metal detecting has always been legal in Denmark, and since the beginning of metal-detector archaeology, official stakeholders have pursued a liberal model, focusing on cooperation and inclusion rather than confrontation and criminalization. Unlike other surveying methods, metal detecting has contributed to an enormous increase in the number of data and sites from metal-rich periods. Virtually all of the spectacular and groundbreaking discoveries of the past decades were made by amateur archaeologists using metal detectors. To contribute to the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of a liberal policy toward metal-detector archaeology, this article primarily addresses three questions: 1) Why does the liberal model function in Denmark? 2) What are the disadvantages of the liberal model of metal-detector archaeology in Denmark that can be identified 30 years after its inception? 3) What are possible solutions to these problems? It is argued that a user-driven national inventory of metal-detector finds as the basis for research and dissemination is a precondition for the future functioning of the Danish liberal model.
Paper published in: Pardini, G., Parise, N., Marani, F. (eds.): Numismatica e archeologia. Monete, stratigrafie e contesti, Dati a confronto. Workshop internazionale di numismatica. Edizioni Quasar, Roma 2017, 501-510
Highlights from Danish metal detector finds
Interacting Barbarians Contacts, Exchange and Migrations in the First Millennium AD. Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 9, 2019
A brief presentation of seven metal detector finds from Denmark.
2021
In this thesis the relationship between archaeologists and hobbyist metal detectorists, those actively searching for state-owned archaeological objects, and their views of themselves and each other, and their attitudes and practices towards old things in particular is explored through the conceptual framework of an entangled narrative inquiry. The thesis covers the multifaceted relationship between archaeologists and private metal detectorists from the ‘birth’ of metal detecting as a hobby in Norway and up until the completion of this thesis. The topic of why some things seem to matter so much is investigated via complementary sources and data: the digitised newspaper coverage of archaeological heritage management’s and the private use of metal detectors; qualitative interviews with archaeologists and private metal detectorists; the records of objects stored as being found with metal detectors in Norway’s five archaeological artefact databases, and, the databases themselves. Practical approaches such as distribution analyses combined with a thematic analysis are utilised along with four key research questions. These aid in discussing how Norway’s archaeologists and metal detectorists interact, and which motivations drive people to search for and research old things. The results of the qualitative interviews show that the drivers are largely overlapping between the two groups. The physical and material attributes of old things give archaeologists and metal detectorists a sense of a tangible connection with the people of the past. Things ability to endure and transcend through time as testimonies and documentary proof of lives lived entices the imagination and encourages fanciful storytelling. The newspaper coverage and detector-derived archaeological objects illustrate that practices and perceptions to and of private metal detecting, both within the archaeological and detecting community, have changed through time and vary immensely across county borders and museum regions.