Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The practice of being out late at night, for work or pleasure.
  • noun UK The action of a nighthawker; the practice of metal-detecting late at night to illegally remove artifacts from restricted sites.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From nighthawk.

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Examples

  • Anecdotal evidence suggests that some tours act in an unprincipled and illegal manner, taking participants detecting on private land without permission and even "nighthawking" (staging nighttime raids) on protected sites.

    Letter from Britain: Hunting for Treasure 2002

  • Norfolk is one of the richest areas in the country for archaeological finds, but has the second highest number of cases of nighthawking after Lincolnshire, according to a survey published by English Heritage.

    2009 February « Scavenging 2009

  • Norfolk is one of the richest areas in the country for archaeological finds, but has the second highest number of cases of nighthawking after Lincolnshire, according to a survey published by English Heritage.

    Looters Are Scum « Scavenging 2009

  • Norfolk is one of the richest areas in the country for archaeological finds, but has the second highest number of cases of nighthawking after Lincolnshire, according to a survey published by English Heritage.

    2009 February 17 « Scavenging 2009

  • But although the threat of nighthawking remains high, experts said the chances of prosecution remain at an all time low and penalties are "woefully insufficient".

    Antiquities Theft in the U.K. Jan 2009

  • Do not tar treasure seeking, nighthawking scum with the same brush as responsible honest knowledgeable people who willingly work with landowners and archaeologists and the PAS to ensure the proper recording of artifacts.

    Blather.net newsfeed 2009

  • As you have demonstrated, most detectorists are impervious to statistics and have spent a decade bleating they are distinct from nighthawking scum while denying or not getting it that the majority of them don't report what they find to PAS (as confirmed by PAS) and therefore have the same moral standing as nighthawks (and incidentally, are responsible for vastly more information loss than nighthawks).

    Blather.net newsfeed 2009

  • MICHAEL LEWIS: nighthawking is kind of a glamorous term, I suppose, given to people who are basically thieves.

    Marketplace 2009

  • Rural counties such as Norfolk (23), Essex (14), Oxfordshire (13), Suffolk (12), Lincolnshire and Kent (both 11) recorded the highest number of sites hit by nighthawking.

    Antiquities Theft in the U.K. Jan 2009

  • But we know what they were doing: nighthawking, illegally metal-detecting for historic artefacts, to be kept for personal collections or sold on the black market for private gain.

    'There's a romanticism about nighthawking, but it's theft': when metal detectorists go rogue Sirin Kale 2020

Comments

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  • Culture24: 'The organisation that oversees the reporting of archaeological finds by members of the public in England and Wales, the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), has moved to allay fears following media reports highlighting the rise of illegal metal detecting or ‘nighthawking’.'

    February 20, 2009