Seen on eBay

I mentioned in the post below that I am writing an article on metal detecting in Eastern Europe. It is only supposed to be ten pages so I am cutting stuff out. This bit took a bit of effort to put together and is going, so I thought I would post it here.

"Quite clearly Roman sites are being targeted by the artefact hunters supplying this market. The antiquities section of the US-based eBay was typical. Of the 7121 antiquities assigned to European cultures on 1st April 2010, Some 4700 of the items (66% of the total) were listed as “Roman”, 776 (11 %), were listed as “Greek”, and 1280 (18%) as medieval. This pattern may be compared with that of the ancient coins being offered by US sellers on eBay in a separate section. On the same day there were 9284 Roman coin lots (69% of the total of ancient coins of non-Asian origin), 2802 (15%) ancient Greek ones, and 901 (6%) medieval coin offers and 290 Celtic coins. Many of the Roman category were “bulk lots” of lower grade Roman coins (sometimes mixed with other artefacts) which have every appearance of being the products of the selection of the better finds from the large-scale stripping of metal objects from Roman sites. The figures for the UK's eBay were similar, of 6007 European antiquities offered by sellers based in the UK, there were 2644 (44%) Roman finds, 1175 (20%)Medieval (plus Viking and Anglo-Saxon) finds , but 293 (4%) Greek ones. On the UK Ebay the proportions were not quite similar: 2053 Roman coin lots ( 46%) and 261 Greek ones (5%) and 1930 medieval coins (43%), 219 Celtic".

There are some striking differences between the two markets and some striking differences between either and what we would see if an archaeologist was metal detecting an average Roman villa or settlement site, the proportions would look somewhat different, with many more metal artefacts being collected. Obviously much of this material is falling by the wayside on its way from the archaeological assemblage to the collectors' market. But just look at the US figures. Totally disproportionate. The US market quite clearly is not absorbing a representative range of metal detected finds from Europe. Look for example at the disparity of Medieval and Greek artefacts between the two markets. What mechanisms lie behind this pattern, and where are the other finds going?