Wednesday, 7 January 2015

How to excavate and study a coin hoard


We are told by a metal detectorist:
Firstly the Local FLO who was familiar with the area carried out the retrieval of the coin hoard in an exemplary manor [sic], with the assistance of other citizen archaeologists.
Professor David Gill seems to be of a different opinion: "How to excavate and study a coin hoard" (Appears to favour a soil block rather than a bulging supermarket carrier bag). All the more ironic because this piece of citizen archaeology is published by the British Museum, ultimately responsible for what goes on in the PAS. Why the discrepancy in approach to best practice within the same institution? Is it due to the Beau Street project being funded by a developer? Did the Buckinghamshire landowner flatly refuse to foot the bill for the proper professional archaeological intervention necessitated by the historical environmental fallout caused by the little money-making scheme he had engaged in with the Weekend Wanderers? Is this why 'corners were cut'? Why was no agreement signed about this before the FLO- attended artefact hunt began?

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