Paul Barford highlights a new television programme entitled 'Nazi War Diggers' where
'Three war diggers are racing against time to save this history from being looted or lost'
By 'looted' one wonders if this means by other detectorists (aka War Diggers?) who want to sell the belongings for money. This seems a bit like one of the diggers Mr Gottlieb who seems to have said
“I feel that by selling things that are Nazi related and for lots of money, I’m preserving a part of history that museums don’t want to bother with”
I can't help but think if he did say this then perhaps he's encouraging the looting that he's now on a crusade to stop, apparently.
Anyway I'm obviously in danger of pre-judging a programme which may be far more like the efforts gone by many to give those killed in the second world war a proper burial as described in this BBC article.
Will the Three Detectorist be like the White Teams or Black Teams as per the aforementioned article...
These teams are known as the "white diggers", but there are also those dubbed
"black diggers" who search for medals, guns, coins or even gold teeth which they
sell online or to specialist dealers. They are not interested in identifying the
soldiers - they just leave the bones in the ground.
Tell me, do you believe they were there out of true altruism, or were they there to get on TV, advertise their business, or whatever? Ask them how much money they made, why they had to keep it secret and where their excavation permits can be seen.
ReplyDeleteIf they were really there to help the bereaved families of the war dead, they'd have done it differently, cleared around the bones, documented them, ascertained whether there were other bodies or body parts around them (that leg for example, does it belong with the skull?). There are several manuals for precisely this kind of operation, for use in conflict sites, mass graves and so on, why were the protocols of these not followed?
Why is there no professional there supervising the exhumation? Why is the burial being excavated by blokes who cannot tell a femur from a humerus? Can the National Geographic not afford a bone specialist? Or does it make better TV with amateurs fooling about with human remains?
Scandal, utter scandal. Burial sites are not playgrounds.
So that's just Paul then using the S word (scandal) both here and throughout the world of detecting (apart from me)? Everyone else wants to "give them a chance?, "reserve judgement" or keep quiet. Why's that? Because they're fellow detectorists?
ReplyDeleteIt really isn't very hard to call a scandal a scandal, whether these people carry the same piece of hobby equipment as you or not. But blogs that either claim to be responsible or are searching for a definition of responsible are never going to cut the mustard if they can't take that first step. How about "appalling"? There's another word that's absent from all the forums and blogs. I despair. "Common ground between detectorists and archaeologists"? Not on this evidence, none at all. Shape up folks for goodness sake!
I think a metal detectorist linking to Paul's blog in a non 'don't listen to him he doesn't know anything etc' way is quite a big first step. ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.metaldetectingforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=238&t=62746 - there are a few of us piping up about it, maybe not enough but it's a start?
Maybe not as much as we should, maybe waiting to see the series is an excuse or maybe I don't know enough at this point to call it a scandal.
I for one wont be watching it... I know that burials are often identified (by chance) when detecting, but actually setting out to seek a war burial out and excavate it in this way is, in my view disgraceful and disrespectful. I only hope that this has been done with some consideration to the families that may have been involved.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I don't want to hit against those white or black diggers but I do agree with you, what they are doing is an act of disgrace and disrespect. However, we do not know what is their point of view. Why they are doing this? Perhaps, they also have reasons. Let's just stay calm.
DeleteHorrendous, nothing more to say.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. trouble is their point of view seems to be changing all the time!
ReplyDelete