I've been called lots of things, but never elegant.
There are serious amatuer acheologists around and when they learn the business and do it right they can make significant contributions to knowledge. This is true in aviation, industrial and other forms of archaeology. Where I have a problem is people just going out and digging stuff up when the metal detector beeps and destroying the site. It is unfortunate that many of these yobs don't know or care what they are doing and few are caught and punished. In the states, at least, unless there are human remains involved there is little one can do to protect sites beyond the posted, no trespassing and though there are parts of Virginia where it is still perfectly okay to shoot anyone on your land without permission, there are lots of places where you can get into big trouble for it and do 30 days in the county jail, but only if you actually killed him. But the won't take your gun away, thank goodness, but you could lose your concealed carry permit.