“Nothing beats finding gold,” David Villanueva tells me as we drive towards the “site” – a field in rural Kent, not far from Canterbury — where, armed with metal detectors, we will be hunting for treasure.
Mr Villanueva is confident that the machines will turn up something of interest. The land – situated between medieval villages – has already produced Roman, Tudor and Georgian artefacts, including a silver Elizabeth I coin.
Mr Villanueva, 55, is one of the country’s 8,000 or so dedicated “detectorists”. Once reviled by archaeologists as looters bent on plundering heritage for profit, they have enjoyed a radical change of image in recent years and now work closely with museums and excavators. Many map their finds meticulously and report thousands of artefacts — 57,566 last year — to the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). In January David Lammy, the Culture Minister, called them “the unsung heroes of the UK’s heritage”.
An initial lust for gold inspires most to take up the hobby. But Clive Sinclair, of the National Council for Metal Detecting, says that thousands of detectors end up in cupboards when their owners’ dreams of booty come to nothing despite hours of legwork. Roger Bland, head of the PAS, which allows archaeologists to interpret the distribution and significance of finds, says that artefacts such as Roman coins fetch as little as a pound or two each on eBay.
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