Treasure hunting

Skilled amateur archaeologists are also able to assist professionals by using their metal detectors to discover previously unknown sites.

In the United Kingdom, many discoveries have been made over the last several years by metal detectorists that revolutionized our understanding of early British history.

[1] In the 12th century text Account of Egypt, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi wrote about the historic value of the Egyptian monuments, and praised the contemporary governments for trying to preserve them.

In some cases, an expedition could turn out to be fraudulent, with the treasure hunter disappearing with large amounts of money extracted from sponsors.

Modern amateur treasure hunters use relatively inexpensive metal detectors to locate finds at terrestrial sites.

[4] Underwater archaeologist, Peter Throckmorton, in a paper he wrote in 1969 as part of a Historical Archaeology Forum on E. Lee Spence's salvage of a Civil War blockade runner, addressing the question of whether treasure hunting and archaeology are in conflict, stated: "The foregoing discussion may seem like an attack on Mr. Spence.

[6] More recently, most serious treasure hunters have started working underwater, where modern technology allows access to wrecks containing valuables, which were previously inaccessible.

Although oftentimes the people with the most knowledge about a particular site are the private citizens staking their fortunes on the venture, a staff archeologist can substantiate a dig.

In many cases, however, private citizens conducting archaeological deemed activities with or without an on site archeologist are still labeled by the academic community as piligers.

In 1906, the Secretaries of the Interior of Agriculture and War made an act for the preservation of American Antiquities (ancient artifacts).

[12] The countries England, Wales, and Northern Ireland claim gold and silver finds that are more than three hundred years old for the crown by way of the Treasure Act of 1996.

In 2014 a comedic, fictional TV series called Detectorists was released by the BBC and directed by Mackenzie Crook.The show is about two treasure hunting metal detectorists, Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), and their desire to contribute to the archaeological record and find treasure.