Digital archaeological knowledge production and communication among metal detectorists: A web focus group discussion

Abstract

As digital tools develop and become more openly available, not only archaeologists but also other groups that have an interest in archaeological heritage and the past are taking more and more digital tools and ideas into use in their research and practices. One such group with particular interests in archaeological heritage is hobbyist metal detectorists. Although the hobby has been around in some countries since as early as the 1960s, it is also clear that digital developments–from state-sanctioned infrastructures such as the emerging national finds recording databases, to detectorist adoption of social media platforms for sharing information–are having a profound effect on hobbyists and their knowledge production practices. In this article, we present and discuss our findings from a web focus group that we carried out with metal detectorists from seven different northern and eastern European countries.