The rationale is that while you may own the land, you don't own the artifacts, and the state has an interest in ensuring that history is recorded and preserved professionally. In effect, archeology is a licensed occupation, but then so is cutting hair in most US states.
If the story about metal in machinery is true, then really no offense was committed. Using a metal detector to find what you think is a loose horseshoe is fine. The story might also just be a convenient cover, but no-one will really care. In Ireland, authorities tend to be good natured and mostly only out to get egregious offenders. Maybe the metal detector guy has been looking for coins without permission, and it'll be handled at the level of "ah here would you have a bit of cop on".
I do see some value in having the state license people who make a business of convincing strangers to allow them to use sharp cutting implements on their body in ways that, if not properly maintained and used, could lead to injury, to undesired slow-to-reverse harm to appearance, or to transmission of infestations like head lice.
There's plenty of room to disagree on what the specifics of this oversight should involve, but some degree of pre-approval seems very much appropriate.
>The rationale is that while you may own the land, you don't own the artifacts[...]
At first I bristled a little, but given a pause to think it through, it makes great sense!
Fact is, we as a species did not advance quickly enough to record our origins and a lot of our history. Perhaps this kind of thing always happens. Nobody knows and we have a sample size of one at present.
Our history is a shared thing by our very human condition and the nature of history.
Of course we benefit overall with policy like this even if at times a few of us feel wronged.
A lot of people throughout history thought the world would end long before this because an issue. They would have laughed at the idea of preserving things for thousands of years.
Maybe in another thousand years post-apocalyptic scavengers will wonder why we tried to preserve history while simultaneously destroying our future.
In Spain we have a mining law that goes as follows: I have a plot of land, but I need a permission to mine it. But if mining company X suspects my plot can be mined, they can get permission to mine my plot before I do. They can't mine it if I don't let them, but if anyone is going to mine is the company.
IIRC, a few years ago some company called Odyssey that go around trying to unearth gold from antiquity, was reminded by the government that in Spain you can't do that, and every single gram of gold you find is property of the State. https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2021/10/19/616e897de4d4d8e73f...
Unfortunately, our justice is painfully slow and ineficient, and Odissey got 500 millions in gold from a shipwreck due to a legal failure.
If the story about metal in machinery is true, then really no offense was committed. Using a metal detector to find what you think is a loose horseshoe is fine. The story might also just be a convenient cover, but no-one will really care. In Ireland, authorities tend to be good natured and mostly only out to get egregious offenders. Maybe the metal detector guy has been looking for coins without permission, and it'll be handled at the level of "ah here would you have a bit of cop on".