16th November 2009, 05:48 PM
What we have is people complaining about nighthawking, that's what this thread is about, not specifically about the whole big subject of damage to archaeological sites. From my point of view it seems totally stupid to complain about a situation when the current system puts artefacts "on a plate" for nighthawks to find, before the artefacts eventually disintegrate themselves. (yeah I know, that old chestnut). As an experienced and quite successful detectorist, I fully understand the best places to go and more importantly when, to make the best finds in the shortest amount of time. This is on cultivated scheduled sites, or plain cultivated archaeological sites. Being cultivated also means you can return every year for yet another successful day (or night). My interference here is that I do not think this is fully understood and I guess I was wanting to educate the people that moan moan moan! but do nothing. At least if people understood the main targets and why they would perhaps direct their attention toward that which they could possibly do something about. But I do realise there is this "know it all" brick wall in the way, so there is a point at which I'll back off to avoid banging my head against it.