Tuesday, 2 December 2008

Those (Very) Scattered Ephemeral Personal Artefact Collections


Roger Bland has written a nice thank you piece for the „metal detectorists” his newly-revived organization is now in partnership with as per acceptance of Kate Clark’s review of the Portable Antiquities Scheme by the MLA and British government. In it he announces that since September 2007 the Department has been an expert adviser on the export licensing of detector finds, and in 2007 approved 312 licences, of which more that 85 per cent are for export outside the European Union. Maybe the PAS keeps records of where all those portable antiquities are going?
How much of that is going for example to the resource-hungry United States? That would explain why a group like the ACCG is so strong in its support of British "metal detecting" and its legitimization by the PAS.

Eighty five percent, and that’s just the ones where the dealer or detectorist actually apply for the licence, and don’t just drop it in an unmarked padded envelope.

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