TY - JOUR

T1 - Archaeological Responses to 5 Decades of Metal Detecting in Austria

AU - Karl, Raimund

PY - 2016/12/5

Y1 - 2016/12/5

N2 - Since metal detecting started in Austria in 1970, the National Heritage Agency (BDA) has focussed too much on prohibiting metal detecting. The strategy chosen, increasingly restrictive legislation, has turned out to be a failure. Rather than improving the protection of archaeological heritage from ‚unauthorised‘ metal detecting, the ‚hobby‘ has grown steadily. Yet, the changes to the law have made protecting archaeology more difficult and are restricting civil liberties, quite possibly making the law itself illegal. Five decades on, Austrian archaeology isn‘t better off, but considerably worse, and it is mainly our attempts to prevent metal detecting that are to blame.

AB - Since metal detecting started in Austria in 1970, the National Heritage Agency (BDA) has focussed too much on prohibiting metal detecting. The strategy chosen, increasingly restrictive legislation, has turned out to be a failure. Rather than improving the protection of archaeological heritage from ‚unauthorised‘ metal detecting, the ‚hobby‘ has grown steadily. Yet, the changes to the law have made protecting archaeology more difficult and are restricting civil liberties, quite possibly making the law itself illegal. Five decades on, Austrian archaeology isn‘t better off, but considerably worse, and it is mainly our attempts to prevent metal detecting that are to blame.

KW - Austria

KW - Archaeology

KW - heritage law

KW - metal detecting

KW - Denkmalschutzgesetz

U2 - 10.1515/opar-2016-0020

DO - 10.1515/opar-2016-0020

M3 - Article

VL - 2

SP - 278

EP - 289

JO - Open Archaeology

JF - Open Archaeology

SN - 2300-6560

IS - 1

ER -