Metal detectorists in Sweden – An unexploited resource?

The laws regarding amateur metal detecting varies greatly between Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain. The Swedish restrictive model is implemented to protect the cultural heritage and prohibits the use of metal detectors. In Great Britain it is encouraged to search for objects and reporting it to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). Denmark has a slightly less liberal model then Great Britain. The liberal model in Great Britain was met by the archeological community with great skepticism. The end results after almost 40 years of cooperation with detectorists is a massive amount of archeological data which has been used for various research in different fields. This paper aims to research the possibilities Sweden has to cooperate with amateur detectorists. An online survey which was answered by Swedish amateur detectorists sheds light on their opinions about the restrictive legislation, cooperation and interests in ethically detecting to aid the preservation of the cultural heritage