Monday 17 September 2012

Focus on Metal Detecting in the UK: Those Awkward Stats

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Let us for the moment accept as true the (as yet unsupported) assertion made today that 650 000 metal detectors have been sold in the UK over an unspecified period. If we assume that the sum total of metal detectorists sold was referring to the whole 40-year history of metal detecting in the UK, that still means that sixteen thousand (16250) of these machines were sold every year. Sixteen thousand new metal detectorists sold each year would suggest many more than sixteen thousand artefact hunters out there, since not every hobbyist will be buying a new machine each year. The PAS used to have a running total of big numbers on its front page, now you have to dig deeper to find them. What is interesting is the total number of finders reporting finds to the PAS since records began in 1998. It is a disturbing fact that according to the 'overall statistics' search of the PAS database, in fifteen years of outreach there have only been
 25582 
finders who have reported finds to PAS offices. That would be the equivalent of less than two thousand (1705) a year. The total number of finds reported and recorded is a disappointing show for the scale of depletion of the record caused by the use over a forty year period of 650 000 detectors in the hands of tens of thousands of metal detectorists over at least two generations. If the FID figure of detector sales is anything like the truth, it would have to be acknowledged that there has been hoiking of collectables from the archaeological record on a massively unreported scale.

Number of recorders per institution

Institution Number of finders
- 253
BERK 1503
BH 491
BM 84
BUC 1219
CAM 349
CAMBRIA 5
CCI 3
COOK 4
CORN 224
CPAT 103
DEN 4
DENO 609
DEV 300
DOR 322
DUR 233
DYFED 4
ESS 1138
FAHG 228
FAIL 4
FAJN 1
FAKL 81
FAOXB 0
FAPJW 199
FASAM 37
FASW 207
GAT 34
GLO 517
HAMP 817
HESH 443
IARCW 0
IHS 79
IOW 350
KENT 1003
LANCUM 605
LEIC 672
LIN 750
LON 478
LVPL 846
NARC 169
NCL 335
NLM 457
NMGW 557
NMS 594
PAS 1363
PUBLIC 770
RESEARCH 107
SF 748
SFHER 1
SOM 322
SOMDOR 170
STAFFS 1
SUR 889
SUSS 828
SWYOR 745
WAW 487
WILT 776
WMAS 16
WMID 732
YORYM 1316

25582

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