We wish to express our concern over Article 3 of the Valletta Convention to which the British Government is now a signatory. By requiring all fieldwork to be sanctioned by the state, it would, if implemented, effectively outlaw community archaeology as practised in this country.

The article states:

'… each party undertakes … to apply procedures for the authorisation and supervision of excavation and other archaeological activities in such a way as … to ensure that excavations and other potentially destructive techniques are carried out only by qualified, specially authorised persons … to subject to specific prior authorisation, the use of metal detectors and any other detection equipment or process for archaeological investigation'.

A system of licensing - of both excavators and excavations - by erecting barriers to participation, would destroy the proud British tradition of encouraging the inclusion of citizens in the investigation of their past. The long tradition of independent fieldwork should be defended for the following reasons:

• Diversity. Control would destroy the diversity essential to a healthy academic discipline. Local societies, weekend fieldworkers and summer research projects are the grassroots of British archaeology and the source of new ideas, alternative 'voices' and vigorous debate.
• Much fieldwork for which no funding is available - whether destructive or non-destructive, rescue or research - has traditionally been done by independent volunteers, including many landmark projects. Implementing Article 3 would quickly drain a huge pool of enthusiastic and often highly skilled labour. Many of today's professional and academic archaeologists began as 'amateurs',
• Increased regulation to make some popular activities illegal - like metal-detecting - would simply drive them underground, so that information currently reported and entered in the archaeological record would be lost. Meanwhile, other activities which are vastly more destructive - such as deep ploughing, wetlands drainage, gravel extraction, and road-building - would continue.
• Social inclusion, a sense of community and responsibility for the heritage are all fostered by strong local societies actively involved in historical and archaeological research.

We, the undersigned, are committed to diversity, innovation, community involvement and local responsibility in archaeology. We believe that archaeology should be an open, not a closed discipline. We therefore oppose the application of Article 3 of the Valletta Convention to archaeology in Britain.

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