12
Archaeology and Metal Detecting
Hobbyists are not the only ones
who try to locate buried
artifacts. Archaeologists
study cultures of
earlier times, but they
dig carefully to avoid
damaging any relics.
For scientific research,
it is important to study
not just the artifacts, but
how they are dispersed
and where they are
located. Metal-detecting
enthusiasts have gotten
a bad reputation among
these scientists because
some will dig up their
finds with no regard for
the overall information
that the site can offer.
Some will even remove
and sell valuable artifacts before they can be studied.
But archaeology and metal-detecting can and should work
together. Hobbyists commonly locate sites where scholars
can recover valuable information. In 2011, a man exploring a
field in Northern England on his lunch break found a lead box
filled with silver coins and jewelry. Scholars determined that
the items were more than 1,000 years old and dated from the
Viking era. The British Museum declared that the discovery
was one of the most important Viking archaeological finds
in history.
