Today I was walking my dog in a city park near my home. I saw a young man
using a new metal detector and digging small holes with a garden trowel. I
asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking for artifacts from
the 19th century homestead formerly located in that location. He said he
had no permit, and that one was not needed in that location. He said he had
been there before and only found a few old coins and some bullets. Then he
told me that he just started a couple of weeks ago after watching "Diggers".

I didn't tell him that I am an archaeologist because I was trying to get as
much information from him as possible (and because he was looking
several hundred yards away from the house foundation clearly visible on the
surface). Just as I was about to say something, I saw a city cop writing
parking tickets. When I told the police man what I saw, he looked at me
like I was crazy. The cop said he didn't know of any ordinance against it,
but that he would look it up after he finished writing tickets (only about
100 more cars to go!). When I got home, I looked it up and found that in
fact, metal detecting on city property without a permit is illegal. I then
called the police to make a formal report.

I share this anecdote to highlight the problems we are all likely to face
in the wake of the Diggers shows and how we need to do more education both
of the public and the law enforcement officers. Even after receiving a
short course on antiquities law the cop I talked to placed enforcement of
that particular city ordinance somewhere below parking tickets.

Still i'm not sure I handled the situation as well as I could have. What
would you have done?

Best,

David Ingleman