Could I mention one constituency which hasn't been mentioned yet - the poor
old farmers/occupiers?
They do get a little twitchy about being published even in thoroughly
respectable journals with a circulation of 1000! If we are to mount on
the web information (that will not necessarily be as secure as publishable
material) for all land areas, I think we may be in danger of getting a hell
of a backlash. If farmers get aggravation - even from interested people
very much more benign than `the wrong sort of detectorists' - this is
potentially going to cause them to feel less warmly toward both the
archaeology itself and the curators who have exposed them to this.
I am a firm believer in site owners feeling very good about their sites if a
couple of people a year come to see them and speak enthusiastically about
sites on their land. But this way the impact will be unquantifiable and
irreversible - and we can't put it back in the bottle again.
So I believe some consideration on the impact both directly on the sites and
indirectly through the effects on their owners should inform our thinking on
this.
Frances Griffith
Devon County Archaeologist
Please note that my email address has changed (again - sorry!).
Please note that my email address has changed (again - sorry!).
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