A report upon the impact of illicit detecting (also known as “nighthawking”) is launched today at the Society of Antiquaries by English Heritage. This report, conducted by Oxford Archaeology on behalf of English Heritage, is available from our website and also from the HELM website and produces the following key points:
- Provide clear guidance to the police, Crown Prosecution Service and Magistrates on the impact of Nighthawking, how to combat it, levels of evidence and possible penalties.
- Provide more information for landowners on identifying Nighthawking and what to do when they encounter it.
- Develop better ways to find out what is going on and establish and promote a central database of reported incidents of Nighthawking.
- Publicise the positive effects of responsible metal detecting and the negative effects of Nighthawking.
- Ensure the PAS is fully funded, so links between archaeologists and metal detectorists are further strengthened.
- Integrate metal detecting into the archaeological process, including development control briefs.
- Implement changes recently introduced in Europe which increase the obligation on sellers of antiquities to provide provenances and establish legal title, and urge eBay to introduce more stringent monitoring of antiquities with a UK origin offered for sale on their website.
The Report shows that Nighthawking seems to have declined on two counts compared with an earlier survey in 1995, although there is still a significant problem with Nighthawking down the eastern side of England from Yorkshire through Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
On two measures which were surveyed in the CBA’s 1995 Survey, “Metal Detecting and Archaeology in England”, nighthawking appears to have declined: (a) in 1995 188 scheduled monuments were reported as having been damaged, and in 2008 the number was 70 and (b) in 1995 74% of archaeological units reported that they had been attacked, whereas in 2008 the number is 28%. The Report attributes this, in part, to the work of PAS.
If you are interested in discussing the Scheme’s role in the production of this report, please contact Michael Lewis or Roger Bland in our Central Unit on 0207 323 8611.
