Perhaps some comments should come from a country where metal detecting is largely legal and where, whether we like it or not, an important contribution has been made. The position in England and Wales (not in Scotland or Northern Ireland which have different legal systems) is essentially that metal detecting is legal provided it is not carried out on a scheduled archaeological site or anceint monmument and that the detector suer has the permission of the landowner. With the execption of gold and silver, where our creaky Treasure Trove laws apply, the finds belong to the landowner. Problems arise here because a farmer could be a tenant of some or all of the land and the owner difficult to identify - perhaps an insurance company. That said, in an area where a good relationship between museums, archaeologists and detectors recording can be of a reasonable standard. The nature of the archaeological record in England and Wales means that there are many isolated or stray finds, often without context as they are in ploughsoil, and the vital piece of data is the exact location of the find spot. A significant number of sites is discovered each year by metal detectors and there appears to be one class of site which is only discoverable with metal detectors. Some users have become experts in their own right in certain classes of material, and one user is charting the early Saxon iron industry in Essex by adapting his detector to pick up the slag cakes from slag-pit furnaces. There is, of course, a down side. Sites are looted and wrecked, and there is in some areas serious under-reporting, especially of coin hoards, and there have been activities which are downright criminal. A recent report published by English Heritage studies the impact of metal detecting on English archaeology; this is recommended reading. For a personal view, as a specialist in prehistoric metalwork in Britain I have had a great deal of benefit form metal detector activity. In particular, intensive detecting in limited areas is giving us a much better idea of the true survival and distribution of Bronze Age metalwork in the landscape, and on the foreshore. Peter Northover Dept. of Materials, University of Oxford [log in to unmask] P.S. Never let metal detectors over your spoil heap at the end of an excavation - it is just too shaming!