Between Rescue and Research

An Evaluation after 30 Years of Liberal Metal Detecting in Archaeological Research and Heritage Practice in Denmark

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7175145
AutoresAndres S Dobat (0000-0002-4452-6907, Aarhus University, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume16
Fascículo4
Páginas704-725
Data de publicação2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEuropean Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-9571 • E-ISSN: 1741-2722
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1179/1461957113y.0000000041
OpenAlexW2091570056
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas33
Referências citadas6

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

Archaeology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction