Julian Evan-Hart - Beginners Guide to Metal Detecting

D id you find the subject of history tediously uninteresting when you were at school? Were you bored to tears when being made to learn about our past from chalkboards, dry old textbooks, and more recently Videos and DVDs? If you were, then you certainly werent alone.

Perhaps, on the other hand, those visits to museums ignited some spark of interest in our past but left you feeling somewhat frustrated? You felt an overwhelming desire to touch the artefacts and coins that were once the everyday items of use by our ancestors, but those glass barriers denied you the privilege of making that physical contact with the past. Again, you certainly werent alone.

Until about three decades ago that privilege was reserved for the lucky few such as archaeologists, museum staff, historians, and scholars.

Archaeologists, of course, would normally have been the first to touch any object that came out of the ground after having been lost or deliberately hidden for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. These finds would then have been forwarded to museums, which had the task of cleaning and conserving the artefacts prior to them being studied by experts and scholars. Only then would a select few of these treasures be put on display for the public to admire.

Towards the end of the 1960s, however, new technology appeared that would change that system and grant the privilege of handling old or ancient finds to the mainstream public. The hobby of metal detecting had been born.

Early metal detectors were quite rudimentary. Their basic design gave them the appearance of a simple transistor radio attached to a stick with a small coil on the end.

By the 1970s, however, metal detector technology had improved dramatically. The machines that began appearing on the market were vastly superior to their rather basic predecessors, and this was reflected in the number of amazing discoveries that were being made. The Water Newton Hoard and the Thetford Hoard are just two examples of some of the fabulous treasures that came to light in those early years.

Enthusiasm for the hobby grew and it became an increasingly popular pastime. Visitors to the coast soon became accustomed to the strange characters that could be seen pacing up and down the beach swinging their electronic wands in search of lost valuables.

Early treasure hunters who werent fortunate enough to live near the coast were hardly disadvantaged, however. They were soon to discover that the countryside around them had an even greater potential. Britain had literally millions of acres of virgin farmland that had never been detected on previously. Excitement grew over the staggering number of amazing finds that were being made by the early pioneers of metal detecting. Museum cabinets soon began to fill as more and more treasures came to light.

Many began to see the hobbys potential as increasing numbers of new archaeological sites were discovered. In addition, the discovery of many previously unrecorded types of coins and artefacts improved our knowledge of Britains past. However, there were some people who were rather less than enthusiastic about this new pastime.

Many within the archaeological community regarded metal detectorists as a threat to the nations heritage rather than a huge potential benefit. Campaigns were launched in order to have severe restrictions imposed on the use of metal detectors; some even wanted the hobby banned altogether.

Fortunately, the rights of the general public to go exploring the countryside with metal detectors were upheld. Ancient Treasure Trove laws and Codes of Conduct were emphasised to all users of metal detectors and were accepted as a fair compromise.

Although some hardliners still exist within the archaeological community, the attitudes of many have softened in recent years. The realisation that co-operation could bring far greater benefits than confrontation has, in many cases, resulted in good working relationships in many parts of the country.