For the species of predatory diggers, Bavaria has so far been a true paradise. Here they could dig up the many treasures lying in the ground almost unmolested, and even if they broke the law, they were allowed to keep 50 percent of what they found. But now this overexploitation, which is gradually destroying the country’s cultural heritage, is to be ended or at least made significantly more difficult. The Bavarian cabinet decided on Tuesday to change the monument protection law and to introduce the so-called treasure shelf, which also applies in all other federal states. This means that in future the use of metal detectors on areas of designated archaeological monuments will be prohibited. “We are thus protecting Bavarian cultural assets and are finally putting a stop to the overexploitation of archaeological monuments,” said Science Minister Markus Blume at the cabinet meeting. The head of the State Chancellery, Florian Herrmann, spoke of the containment of “this knight-of-fortunate robbery”.
New figures show what a huge problem has arisen from the popular “hobby” of going through tubes. According to estimates by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, there are now twice as many detectorists on the fields in Bavaria as there were 15 years ago. But that’s not all: “In Bavaria we are now seeing a real excavation tourism,” says Matthias Pfeil, the general conservator of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. The treasure hunt was massively fueled in relevant forums on the Internet. It is true that not every probe walker is a robber digger who is on the move with illegal intentions. But it must be said that the extent of the loss of archaeological monuments caused by robbery graves is frighteningly large. It is estimated that more than a million relevant finds are extracted from the ground each year outside of official archaeological digs. This is offset by only a tiny fraction of legally reported finds. In 2018, their number was 2500.
In the future, the archaeological treasures should be able to stay in the region where they were found if possible, as Blume said at the cabinet meeting. In order to make this possible, the Free State should be able to transfer its ownership claim to the municipality of the place of discovery by changing the law.
So far, half of the treasure belongs to the finder
Even if he by no means considers all probe-goers to be criminals, general curator Mathias Pfeil welcomes the introduction of a treasure shelf: “This means that clear regulations will now also be introduced in Bavaria in order to protect our archaeological monuments.” The fact that Bavaria of all places is being hit by increasing excavation tourism is due to the lack of a treasure trove. In the Free State, the principle of Hadrian’s division, which is laid down in the Civil Code (§ 984 BGB), still applied. According to this regulation, half of the owner of an archaeological find is the finder and half the owner of the property in which the treasure was hidden. In the other federal states, according to the treasury regime, ownership of archaeological finds is transferred to the state. Property owners are compensated from a certain value.
The fact that there was particularly great resistance to the introduction of a treasury in Bavaria is also due to the fact that here more than half of the reason is in private hands. Many landowners feared too great an encroachment on their property. In reality, landowners were often the ones who suffered. Because robber graves like to leave archaeological centers like the Bullenheimer Berg in Franconia behind like a battlefield. Countless holes show that the landowners are robbed en masse. And on top of that, Bavaria loses its cultural heritage.
Recently, robber graves have come to Bavaria from half of Europe, and they acted ever more brazenly. With the treasury they could now be deprived of the economic incentive. According to the cabinet, there should be a reasonable value adjustment scheme for property owners. The reform is absolutely urgent, because in the coming years a large number of archaeological finds can be expected from major construction projects – such as the construction of power lines. Without legal recourse, the plundering of archaeological monuments can hardly be prevented.
Detectors often use their metal detectors to look for lost items as well. Many small things such as coins, wedding rings and horseshoe nails come to light, some of which have been underground for centuries.
(Photo: Harry Wolfsbauer)
A look at the relevant platforms on the Internet reveals the consequences of robbery in a frightening way. Thousands of antique pieces that were dug up without permission are being sold there. Werner Friedenberger, the former chairman of the Künzinger Museumsverein, once described the misery as “organized crime from the field”. In the ranks of archaeologists, the phrase has often been heard recently: “It’s child’s play to systematically plunder the country, but it’s extremely difficult to do anything about it.”
Robber graves shamelessly exploited the lax rule in Bavaria
This went so far that robbers deliberately transported their finds to Bavaria and then claimed to have found the antique fibulae, weapons, jewelery and coins here. This means that half of the find automatically belonged to them. They tricked, lied, set false tracks. Finds such as the Künzinger Roman Treasure discovered in 1988 can quickly fetch 50,000 euros or more for a person who takes a probe. Sometimes the state was even forced to acquire such illegally excavated finds in the legal gray area. The argument: otherwise they would be lost forever for the state museums.
On top of that, robbery digging causes enormous non-material damage. With the removal of a piece of metal from the ground, the scientific value of the find is destroyed. On the one hand, the place where it was found can no longer be assigned, on the other hand, the context of the find is no longer recognizable.
Written tradition begins relatively late in human history. Most of the time, information about the habitats, social structures and habits of the ancestors can only be obtained from archaeological monuments. “They are very often the only source to reconstruct history,” says Pfeil. Now Bavaria has also set the course so that this is still possible in the future.