Preserving the Past in the Plough Zone Together: Hobby metal detecting in Innlandet County as a case of good practice within the Norwegian legal framework

This article presents and discusses the practice of Norwegian metal-detecting from the perspective of Innlandet County. The authors perceive hobby metal-detecting in Norway as an essentially good thing even with its downsides, and believe that a collaborative approach is the best way to preserve the past in the plough zone. The case study of the Innlandet practice is based on first-hand experiences of the Innlandet archaeologists. We present how the Innlandet practice has emerged, how archaeologists communicate with detectorists, and how the archaeological context of finds in the plough zone is understood. In our opinion, general in situ protection in the plough zone is the 'worst practice' within the Norwegian legal framework.