The British Battlefield Trust says "there are more than 500 historic battlefields and other fields of conflict in England", so how much metal detected data do we have "recorded" about fields of conflict in comparison to that number? Musket balls do not tend to get recorded by the PAS 1,243 records. The database has just 207 cannon balls. Obviously we should remember that not all the BT's sites are from the era of artillery, and some battlefields are protected (and many more should be) but it still suggests that the recorded results of English hobby metal detecting (artefact hunting) are grossly insufficient to be used as any kind of a data source for all but the most primitive analysis of British battlefields (pace archaeologist Suzie Thomas as quoted in Deutsche Welle).
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Battlefield Data in PAS Records
The British Battlefield Trust says "there are more than 500 historic battlefields and other fields of conflict in England", so how much metal detected data do we have "recorded" about fields of conflict in comparison to that number? Musket balls do not tend to get recorded by the PAS 1,243 records. The database has just 207 cannon balls. Obviously we should remember that not all the BT's sites are from the era of artillery, and some battlefields are protected (and many more should be) but it still suggests that the recorded results of English hobby metal detecting (artefact hunting) are grossly insufficient to be used as any kind of a data source for all but the most primitive analysis of British battlefields (pace archaeologist Suzie Thomas as quoted in Deutsche Welle).
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