When someone says "I found a promising looking site. It's a cemetery. Is ok to detect there?"
My answer is " NO, NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER."
I would never advocate attempting it, those many do.
But then I hear:
"I felt it was okay because I didn't not take anything that families left at the tombstones."
or
"The cemetery is from the 18th and 19th century so no one is alive to visit there anymore so I don't feel like I am bothering anything."
or
"It looked abandoned and neglected so it didn't seem like I was doing any harm."
Same goes for battlefields. I watched this terrible video of a guy who was in France detecting a WW2 triage field hospital and what had been a temporary burial site for U.S. and French military just prior to Normandy. He was excited because he was finding military and hospital equipment and personal effects, that were probably lost as uniforms were cut off of soldiers prior to surgery.
He said "Yeah, I feel like I shouldn't be here, but I feel I am honoring their memory by remembering what happened here."
My answer is " NO, NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER."
I would never advocate attempting it, those many do.
But then I hear:
"I felt it was okay because I didn't not take anything that families left at the tombstones."
or
"The cemetery is from the 18th and 19th century so no one is alive to visit there anymore so I don't feel like I am bothering anything."
or
"It looked abandoned and neglected so it didn't seem like I was doing any harm."
Same goes for battlefields. I watched this terrible video of a guy who was in France detecting a WW2 triage field hospital and what had been a temporary burial site for U.S. and French military just prior to Normandy. He was excited because he was finding military and hospital equipment and personal effects, that were probably lost as uniforms were cut off of soldiers prior to surgery.
He said "Yeah, I feel like I shouldn't be here, but I feel I am honoring their memory by remembering what happened here."
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