Over on a metal detecting forum near you, there is excited talk about possible moves by the PAS to increase the value of the contribution responsible artefact hunters are making to our knowledge of the past (post by geoman, "PAS and recording finds" Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:19 pm):
There are rumours circulating that the PAS FLO's will no longer record finds that are offered which have a GR of less that 6 figs. I presume that this is to do with funding so they are now cherry picking both finds and GR to keep a throughput of more detailed findspots and small finds to feed into the Historic Environment Records.Of course adding these data to the HERs for public use is the whole point of having the PAS as a middleman. The data on the HERs of course can be used to protect vulnerable sites by, for example, HLS agri-environment schemes (for example those whose archaeological evidence is being damaged by aggressive farming regimes). Protecting of the archaeological evidence in these vulnerable sites is, they say, a high priority for all responsible detectorists. Obviously these days when a responsible detectorist can equip themselbves with an accurate GPS to pinpoint findspots for much less dosh than a pinpointer to locate a find in a hole, there shpuld be no good excuse for not knowing exactly where the finds these people are removing from the ground are coming from. Let us join the responsible detectorists in welcoming this policy change by the PAS.
UPDATE 9th Jan 2014:
The first hidden thread of 2014. Yes, that thread seems to have gone the way of all revealing threads on a metal detecting forum near you. The link I gave is now broken, less than 24 hours after I drew attention to this discussion. So, the reader will now be unable to follow my link to see the candid reactions of all those "responsible detectorist" to the news that the PAS will reportedly be requiring more accurate information about where hoiked things were found in future (not before time).One wonders about the logic of this, almost as if all those "responsible detectorists" had something to hide.
Vignette: Archaeological surveying (PAS).
Some of us are already using GPS equipment to provide reference data... A good step in the right direction and one that has been recognised by detector manufacturers by the introduction of integrated GPS systems on their machines.
ReplyDeleteSteve, can you give me a list of machines that have the inbuilt GPS? Let's give them and the responsible detectorists that use them to report accurate findspots of all their finds a plug here.
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't also have backlighting though, they sound rather suspicious to me.
The new Minelab CTX has an in built GPS...(there probably are others) Most detectorists use hand held GPS Devices though. Most machines with LCD screens are backlit though.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul happy new year. I believe currently the only detector with built in gps is the minelab ctx 3030 at a snip under £2000 it is generally out of reach for most detectorists. I do believe however as technology advances more of the larger firms will start incorporating it into their machines. For now many of us use hand held devices such as the ones in the garmin range or failing that the Internet offers great resource for finding coordinates.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for your comment about wondrring if they have back lights which I assume you are aiming at the night hawk thieving scumbags, I cant imagine many of them will want to shell out that much money
I recall Mr Baines storming off in a huff and saying he'd NEVER visit this blog again, welcome back Mr Baines.
ReplyDelete