Proposal for Peter Tompa

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In his oral presentation before the CPAC on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 (which he subsequently published) concerning the proposed renewal of the cultural property MOU with Cyprus, Peter Tompa made a clear and unambiguous statement:

4. The CPIA requires less drastic remedies to be tried first before import restrictions are imposed, but Cyprus has no coherent regulatory scheme for metal detectors and even allows British tourists to bring them to the Island;

I happen to think that Peter Tompa is wrong here, have said so and Tompa ignores that. So I have a proposal for Peter Tompa, let's go together to Cyprus, with him with a metal detector in his luggage (I'll borrow one for him if he has not got one) and me with my video camera. Let him just first publish on his website: "I am going to Cyprus for a few days to do some metal detecting for ancient coins". He can go out metal detecting on some fields on the island and I will film him doing some "unregulated metal detecting". And when the police come to "unregulate" his metal detecting, I'll film that too. So that coineys can see that to the last, Peter Tompa was willing to back up the words he writes on their behalf with action.


Do please also dress as a British metal detectorist too, the 'squeaky nylon anorak' style I think would suit you - don't forget the gloves and kneelers. Or your probe and PAStexplorers membership card.

[By the way, builders use metal detectors to locate pipework and cables under plaster hunt, when felling old trees its useful to check the trunks for embedded nails and wire before turning on the chainsaw. Metal detectors are used in a number of applications (and hobbies) which do not involve violating very specific antiquity laws. Mere possession of a metal detector is not a punishable offence in most countries, and in only one I know of is their movement across international borders controlled].