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garybrun
Top of the SpoilHeap
Norway
629 Posts |
 Posted - 07/10/2008 : 08:47:47
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What made you take up metal detecting as a hobby and how has it influenced your opinion on the subject of history?
Website for responsible Metal Detecting
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk
Recording Our Heritage For Future Generations.
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garybrun
Top of the SpoilHeap
Norway
629 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 09:21:25
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Ill start the ball rolling.
Some of you may not know.... but 8 years ago I ran over my 4 year old son with a 1.2 ton trailer.
In fact I did it twice... he was trapped under the duel wheels... and I could not get him out.
To save his life I got back in the car and drove over him again.
The boy is fine... he has had plastic surgery and lives a normal life...... but his father has not been so good.
I have not really worked full time for over five years and have been suffering from PTSD (Post traumatic Stress Disorder).
This is exactly what soldiers have in Vietnam or the other wars. Shell Shock. You re-live the horror of the event every day... the images are burnt into your brain..... A psychologist has helped me to deal with these images and the twitches down the right side of my body.... but these are with me for life. Infact Im 60% disabled because of it.
Now were does detecting to come into all this you may ask???
Either you can roll up in a ball in a corner and rot away... mean here in the mind, or you can get up and fight the thing. Detecting has been my way of doing that. To be honest I haven't done that much recently... but I have learnt a lot building the Minelabowners site, mlotv.com and ukdfd.co.uk made a lot of new "virtual friends" who turned into real friends after we met personally.
Detecting is for me.. to be alone, to get away from the screaming kids, screaming wife, barking dogs etc and all the other pressures that are around me at times. you can’t beat the feeling of being out alone in a forest or hillside, lake or fjørd listening to that constant throbbing tone that changes in pitch (if you have an explorer ) and the sheer excitement knowing what your are digging up / not knowing what you are digging up.
The fascination rediscovering articles that have been buried in the ground for hundreds of years.. and you are the one that found it. The thought of how did it get here and who lost it in the first place? What was it used for? So many questions.
Ok so I dig up a lot of crap sometimes. I look a complete idiot to people with headphones on my head and go around swinging this great big white thing.... but I love it.
I also have an Excalibur and go detecting in the fjords and other waters... the thrill of finding gold rings etc.....imagine what it must have been like in the Gold Rush days.....
Metal detecting for me has helped me to get my head straight, to put life's priorities in their correct place. Being a previous work a-holic (event management) being forced to cut down, cut down on expenditure and other things. Yes it has been a life saver for me.. Really.
As time as gone on this hobby has turned into a bit of a business now… not selling finds etc. It’s taken me all over the world by making instructional media and other things and also trying to educate in a non-pointy finger kind of way.
I joined a lot of archaeological forums as I could see a lot of misunderstandings between the detecting community and the archaeological community.
Some of the personalities were absolutely obsessed with malice towards the two different disciplines.
I’m the sort of person who “hates” injustice and once I get my teeth into something I do really go for it.
The UKDFD for me was a project that came about because of the misconceptions by detectorists of archaeologists and recording and also “some” archaeologists lack of respect and understanding what detectorists were about.
There was also this “ we are better than you” cloud that seemed to be spouted out by a few without even taking a look at the work that was being done and “bridges” that were being built so that all could share the knowledge and history of the past.
Now UKDFD has over 14,300 records and is used by people all over the world.
It has no funding and is “snubbed” by many within the archaeological profession because it is a detecorist thing…. But as I stated… when I get my teeth into something I go for it.
I’m very proud of the database and the team we have built up over the last few years (all volunteers) all with the same goal of recording our heritage. If any archaeologists would like to help be part of the Find Advisor team they are more that welcome as I have said on here many times… yet no-one comes forward because maybe it doesn’t look good within career circles??
Well writing isn’t one of my greatest skills…. but creative ideas and media are.
So I’ll continue producing media and educational material on metal detecting and influencing people decisions on why recording our heritage is the “responsible” thing to do and why I also fight for the recognition that 1000’s of people deserve every weekend when they go out and recover and record lost artifacts so the future generations can benefit from that knowledge.
If I can give one word of advice.. that would be.... don't take for granted what you have. It can be so easy taken away from you. Treasure your children and your wife, your husband. Ok they get right up your nose sometimes..... but life is too short. You never know how much time you have to spend with them. don't be afraid to have fun yourself too, don't work your balls off..... money ain't everything.
Website for responsible Metal Detecting
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk
Recording Our Heritage For Future Generations.
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Edited by - garybrun on 07/10/2008 09:24:58 |
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BAJR Host
BAJR
United Kingdom
5939 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2008 : 20:29:07
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Thank you Gary... it is one hell of a story.. and one that shows great courage.
thank you
"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers |
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Silent Bob
Supervisor Level
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
Posted - 31/10/2008 : 11:58:01
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As an archaeologist I can't say that I really detect as a hobby, only really being involved in large surveys or detecting for work (doing it any old where would certainly be frowned upon by other archaeologists).
However, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy detcting a lot, in fact it is often the high point of any job. I really got in to it when I had to observe a large amount of topsoil stripping (mostly not down to archaeological levels) across a known suburb of a small Roman town. I argued for permission to use the office detector (a White's Spectrum) whilst I was out there and pretty much had to teach myself how it worked whilst on site. I spent some time searching the enormous spoil heaps and by the end of the job I could just about use it 'proprely' and had found over 40 Roman coins and assorted later bits and pieces. That was 7 years ago and after finally breaking the office machine I have got my own, which I still use on sites.
I partly did it because I was becoming irritated with the general offhand approach by many archaeoligists to detecting on site, which regularly led to the metal component of the site being largely chucked away (i.e remaining unfound), even if it was mostly unstratified.
On small jobs I have often found the only decent finds from the whole site because I used a detector. Also, as an archaeologist I sometimes have a considerable advantage over the average detectorist in a field. For example, if I am working on a decent large site (sadly a rare occasion) then the soil is stripped down to the top of archaeology. Therefore most metal finds will be of that period, missing out the usual tin cans, ends of shotgun cartridges and bits of nebulous melted aluminium so familiar in fields.
Naturally I also feel the thrill of finding old things and trying to work out what they are. Hopefully a feeling that will always last.
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Silent Bob
Supervisor Level
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2008 : 14:55:47
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| Woah, I really got that one moving. perhaps Mr. Host ought to introduce a tumbleweed smiley. |
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garybrun
Top of the SpoilHeap
Norway
629 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2008 : 18:42:35
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lol... what does a tumbleweed smiley look like??
Website for responsible Metal Detecting
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk
Recording Our Heritage For Future Generations.
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Dirty Dave Lincoln
Top of the SpoilHeap
United Kingdom
625 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2008 : 14:31:29
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| How about a sleepy smiley snoring? |
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BAJR Host
BAJR
United Kingdom
5939 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2008 : 15:17:06
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...........................@
"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers |
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Dirty Dave Lincoln
Top of the SpoilHeap
United Kingdom
625 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 10:28:12
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...........?? |
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Topic |
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What made you take up metal detecting as a hobby?
