It should never feel wrong to do something right,
nor should it feel right to do something wrong.
Jay Mullings
Concerns about looting in areas of strife are not unusual nor unfounded and the Civil War raging in parts of Syria and Iraq has rekindled those concerns. Some have argued that the sale of looted antiquities is a primary funding vehicle for terrorist activity. While that point is debatable, and certainly not true in the case of coins and other portable antiquities, the general point is well taken.What I want to know is how anyone can admit that saying where the stuff dealers sell (including WG Sayles who cites very few collecting histories for the loose objects he sells) can actually say - apparently in all seriousness - where it does not come from. That's just bonkers. Sayles continus defensively:
No responsible dealer nor collector would intentionally or knowingly sell nor purchase objects that are likely to have emerged from the strife in Syria and Iraq.There's that weasel word there again, "knowingly". But, hark, do we hear the penny dropping - however insincerely?
The only defense against unwittingly doing that is to determine to the best of one's ability where ancient and medieval objects originating in these countries have been in recent years. Due diligence would include the avoidance of purchasing groups of suspect coins from unverifiable sources. Although provenance is not typically available for average collector coins, the ACCG encourages dealers in ancient and medieval coins originating from these countries to, whenever possible, indicate in item descriptions the basis for a belief that the item being offered is not a product of the current conflict nor related looting. In other words, descriptions could include a good-faith effort to provide the nearest thing possible to provenance for at least the most recent transactions. This might include a citation to a known collection, previous offering in the trade, recent source or venue or any other pertinent information that aids seller and buyer diligence in following applicable laws.Let's hear it for the ACCG.
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to accept what is true.
The smugglers responsible for driving 71 migrants to their deaths in the back of a cramped, unventilated truck in Austria were part of a vast international syndicate that has been a subject of multiple criminal investigations, a leading European law enforcement official said Saturday.[...] Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said in an interview that [...] greater coordination is needed to confront smuggler networks that are themselves more internationally integrated than ever before. “What I’m seeing is the emergence of a new, more enterprising community of criminals,” he said. [...] Wainwright estimated that about a third of the migrant-smuggler cases his agency has helped investigate also involved another area of criminality, including drug smuggling, money laundering and sexual exploitation.and it's only a matter of time, I suspect, before we see antiquities join that list, then things are going to get difficult for no-questions-asking dealers and collectors.
Donations to the PAS seem to have stopped: "Supporting the Portable Antiquities Scheme" £195.00 raised 5 donations (100, 50, 20, 20 and 5 pounds), divide that by 8000 English metal detectorists - that's 2,44p per head so far from the ungrateful oiks. They are probably out at rallies now digging up who-knows-what. An elite (sic) team of Scottish academics is at the forefront of tackling the global trade in priceless artifacts like those looted by Daesh from ancient cities such as Syria's Palmyra. The team of archaeologists, lawyers, criminologists and anthropologists from Glasgow University - the only academic team on the planet devoted to studying the illicit trafficking in antiquities - has warned that while atrocities committed in Palmyra has focused global attention on the loss of precious heritage sites, the scale of the problem is far bigger than what is happening in Syria alone, with temples being looted every single day in some countries.The only problem with that is that NONE of the Glasgow team are specifically working on the issues of looting in Syria and Iraqi, preferring to visit Latin America, Greece, Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal to do their fieldwork, and one of them (Donna Yates) has consistently denied that there is even any evidence that ISIL are doing any trading in "priceless artefacts". Why the Herald Scotland spells it "artifacts" is difficult to explain (cut and paste from something handed to her by a US-educated interviewee?).
Ollie-C from Suffolk (Thu Apr 16, 2015 4:07 pm): I found my best bronze coin 4 months into the hobby but I didn't realise it at the time and stupidly over cleaned it stripping off all of the original patina, I have learnt my lesson! [emoticon, emoticon] Is there anyway [sic] I can restore the look of the original patina without purchasing any funky chemicals etc? I'd like to achieve a black/brown finish ideally, similar to how it came out of the ground. I currently have it in olive oil, but I'm not sure that will work? [sic] Pics of said coin (Celtic unit) are below.Hmm, and it is "in olive oil" for what purpose? Let's see how many respondents start with saying he needs to degrease it and get the organic acids out from the porous structure visible in the photo before doing anything else. Basically nothing on earth can ever "restore the patina" on the ruinously pitted and stripped coin shown in the photo. Nevertheless his metal detecting comrades are optimistic:
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| 'istry? Arrr... |
Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik said a person named Manfred Weinwurm, who purchased the figure from Antalya, sent the historic artefact by cargo. He said the artefact came with a note in German written to the Antalya Museum Directorate, adding, “He says in the note that he came to Antalya in 1963 for one week and purchased the artefact from a small store. He wanted to return it to its homeland. The terra-cotta artefact is from the Bronze Age [3,000-1.200 B.C.] and is now in the place where it belongs, the Antalya Museum.”'Bull figure returns to Turkey' Hurriyet Daily News August 28th 2015
With the now overwhelming evidence that the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is dependent on Grondin’s Interlinear in Coptic . . . and English, I think it is now reasonable to assert simply that the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife was forged using Grondin’s Interlinear. Given this assumption, the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife papyrus fragment must have been forged sometime after November 2002 (when the PDF version of Grondin’s Interlinear containing the typographical/grammatical error also found in line 1 of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife was put online) and before the Summer of 2010 (when it was first brought to the attention of Karen King).Readers will remember that the 'provenance' claimed by the current owner of the controversial papyrus was a document (contract) which stated that "it was purchased, along with five other Coptic papyrus fragments, from a man named Hans-Ulrich Laukamp in November 1999 and that Laukamp had obtained it in 1963 from Potsdam in then-East Germany". Yeah right. The DDR no longer existed when Grondin published his translation.
"Selling my deep seeking, barely used (2.5 hours) Minelab GPX 5000pi in excellent condition. Purchased for a specific job last September from Crawfords but, the land has now been sold and is out of bounds"Yours for just GBP 3,000. Wouldn't you just love to know what that "specific job" was?
Will it be “new PAS, new mission”? We may know soon for three particularly awful detecting rallies are about to be re-run. Will the new PAS management act in the interests of heritage protection this time or remain as uncritical facilitators?
claims in the planning document “no significant archeological evidence was found” by a trained metal detector have sparked a furore among conservationists, with more than 100 people writing letters to Northampton Borough Council from across the UK, to object to the plans.Trained? Whatever next? Some of them might even be capable of lerning to reed and rite one day.
Dear All I am writing further to our inaugural metal detector find auction – the auction, entitled ‘What Lies Beneath, A Treasure Hunting Sale’, to be held at our Auction Centre in front of an audience, will also be open to live bidding via our internet host, www.the-saleroom.com. We are currently looking for entries, and would like to offer you and your fellow detecting enthusiasts the opportunity to be involved by consigning finds. [....] I have been fortunate to be involved with several BBC television programmes, Bargain Hunt, Flog It and Antiques Roadtrip, enabling my company to reach a wide audience, which in turn means we can educate the public on such an intriguing and fruitful subject. [flogging off artefacts presumably - PMB] With such public interest in the recently discovered hauls, I feel now is the time, across the rich fertile soils of Britain, to hold a sale specialising in such items, and I hope such an opportunity of sale may be of interest to you and your fellow members and subscribers. Do please get in touch...readers can find the man's contact details in the original letter. Why not give him a ring?
Isaac I Comnenus, 1st.September 1057 - 25th. December 1059, Byzantine two-thirds silver miliaresion, Constantinople Mint, weight 1.63g, diameter 23.03, obverse:- Christ's bust facing, with nimbus cruciger, wearing pallium and colobium, right hand raised giving benediction, book of Gospels in left hand, legend IC - XC, reverse:- Greek legend in six lines, KE RO[HO] / IC[AAKIW] / [OPOOAOIW] / [AECI IOT]H / [TW] KOMNH / NW, double lined border each side, Sear 1846, there is thought to be only three other specimens of this issue known, these all being in museums and from different dies to the present piece, the coin in the Dumbarton Oakes Collection was sold in 1948 and the only previous sale we can trace was in 1886. Present piece found with a metal detector on 1st. January 2015 in Mid-Suffolk, sold with all paperwork and research by Dr. Vezin, reverse has thin black deposit across legend, also very light scuffs, excessively rare and possibly the only specimen of this Byzantine Emperor in silver available to the private collector, VF/NF ...[more]Interesting findspot, eh? That "all paperwork" probably does not include a PAS report duplicating the database entry - because there seems to be none. Quite who "Dr Vezin" is, the auctioneer does not say. It was probably Dr Roger Vezin, who wrote about other finds for Lockdales, but what significance that may have is unclear. What evidence is provided about the findspot?
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| Here's where these coins circulated (left). Metal detecting without a permit is forbidden in this whole region today |
2Ag + H2S >> Ag2S + H2For this reason silver sulphide (Ag2S) is the most common mineral alteration compound of silver from for example shipwrecks.
Lot 283: Post Medieval Toy Cannon and Gun-Related Items Group Est: 30 - 50 GBP, 18th-19th century AD. A mixed group of detector finds comprising: five lead measures for black powder; three barrels for toy cannons, each with lateral trunnions; a Tudor petronel and a fragment of another; a brass mould half for casting pistol balls and a lead ball of the appropriate size; a musket ram-rod ferrule with pierced lug fixture. 202 grams total, 14-70mm (1/2 - 2 3/4"). Found Canterbury area, Kent, UK, 1980s.
Lot 285 - Bronze Age to Post Medieval Buckle and Other Artefacts Group Est 40 GBP - 60 GBP, 9th century BC-20th century AD. A mixed group of detector finds including: a Bronze Age miniature socketed axehead; single- and double-loop belt-buckles; shoe buckles; continental jetons; two lead pencils; a barrel tap; a Tudor purse frame; a whistle; horse harness mounts and fittings; military and other buttons; a miniature bell; various lapel badges; finger rings; stamped escutcheons; a crucifix pendant; a pencil in its metal case advertising Crawfords biscuits; medieval and later spurs. 1.4 kg total ("). Found Canterbury area, Kent, UK, 1980s.
Lot 91 Medieval Mixed Detector Finds Group Est: 60 - 80 GB, 12th century AD and later. A quantity of mainly bronze items including a weight fragment with heraldic motif, buckles, mounts, a gilded dagger chape, a barrel tap and key, a rondel dagger pommel, annular brooches and other items. 480 grams total, 10-87mm (1/4 - 3 1/2"). From an old Hampshire collection.
Lot 97: Saxon and Viking Detector Finds Group Estimate: 80 GBP - 100 GBP, 6th-10th century AD. A mixed group comprising: a blue glass spherical bead; a wrist-clasp with slot; a triangular hooked tag; four strap ends; a lead trial-piece with interlaced cross and rosettes; a plano-convex lead spindlewhorl; two discoid and one rectangular lead weights; a cruciform brooch fragment; a small-long brooch fragment; a ceramic bead; two flat-section plaques with silver inlay. 194 grams total, 5-40mm (1/4 - 1 1/2"). From an old Hampshire collection.
Lot 90: Roman to Post Medieval Artefact Group Est: 20 - 30 GBP, 1st-19th century AD. A quantity of detector finds including La Tène brooch, a Romano-British bronze toggle, three Roman bow-brooch fragments, a silver ring brooch, an Anglo-Norman dagger chape, lead tokens, a thimble, a trefoil spoon handle, dress pins, a lead print block, a group of silver love tokens, a sword hanger and other items. 414 grams total, 10-90mm
Perhaps you would prefer to cut the discussion short when you are challenged as usual, but it is the function of a paid lobbyist and spokesman to effectively present the case for their industry's differing position on issues like this, especially when the bulk of the media is informing public opinion of a different version. Why give up so easily? Truth surely is what is important here, and not only for the sake of the memory of the dead man.
If, as you say, Al-As'ad was arrested for being known as a former member of the Ba'th party and "his work for the regime" (as a museum director) then there was no reason to hold him for questioning a second time, this time for a month. They'd have taken him straight to the town square and killed him as they did those "numerous other Syrians", straight after Tadmor fell. But they let him go after his first arrest with his son (even though they knew who both were), and his family attests to them being questioned then about antiquities. And then they arrested him a second time and held him a month before executing him. Why?
How many other captured museum personnel have been murdered by ISIL for "their work for the regime"? We have reports of at least one (in the Mike Giglio story which you have still not commented on) not only being let live but asked to work for ISIL - looking for buried antiquities until he escaped to Turkey.
Why is it so difficult for you to admit that ISIL are interested in valuable antiquities? Who is "exploiting" this story and for what?
"remains dubious that looted material is reaching our shores in any quantity, and further wonders whether the ultimate source of any such "fresh" material is just as likely, if not more likely, to be the cash-strapped Assad regime or the Free Syrian Army rather than ISIS".So presumably he sees financing conflict with collectors' money for material freshly looted from the sites and monuments of Syria or Iraq as less of a problem for consciences if the money is going to buy munitions for the Syrian regime or the (US-backed) FSA.
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| Aleppo Syria September 1, 2014: a small boy runs ahead of a group of men carrying his mother, killed in an aerial attack. |
Many of you (sic) have asked how you can help support the PAS over the past 18 years and with your help through Just Giving we can continue re-writing the archaeology and history of England, Wales and your local areas. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity.The British Museum Learning, Volunteers and Audiences Department is not however a charity. Neither does the PAS have an accounting department, so what happens when this money enters the British Museum? The webpage does not say.
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| Pot-shotting dealer Maupin hefting a pot |
Asaad and his eldest son Walid were picked up by Islamic State on May 22, two days after Palmyra was captured. They were taken to Islamic State headquarters in the northern city of Raqqa and questioned, then released two days later.During this time they were questioned about alleged "stores of gold" in the city. According to Pádraig Belton in the Spectator:
Palmyra fell on 21 May. Mr al-Asaad and his son were taken into captivity, says Dr Denis Genequand, a University of Geneva archaeologist who worked closely with Mr al-Asaad, and knows his family. ‘One thing that we know from the son, who is now in Damascus, was when they were together in jail, the militants tried to make them tell them where some of the treasures, especially gold, were stored,’ he says.Al-As'ad was then released. He was reportedly re-arrested at the end of July after several ISIL-collaborators in the town had made accusations of various things and arrested a second time .
On July 20 Islamic State came back. This time the fighters were rounding up archaeologists.Mr Asaad was held and interrogated for more than a month. On Monday 17th August, the jihadists had appeared to relent, telling relations that his release was imminent. The next day, he was taken to a city square and beheaded. His body was then put on public display. The accusation on the placard in the display of his mutilated corpse was of “supporting the Nusayri (Alawi) regime because he is the representative of Syria in Blasphemousness conferences, being the director of the archaeological idols of Palmyra, visiting Iran and attending the concert victory of al- Khomeini’s revolution, communicating with his brother the head of the intelligence branch of Filistin and communicating with a general in the presidential palace”. Two days later they cut off his arms and legs, according to his son Mohammed.
One exception is the coin trade, says Michael Danti, a Boston University professor who co-directs the ASOR Syrian Heritage Initiative, a joint venture between the US State Department and the American Schools of Oriental Research dedicated to documenting incidents of looting.He says coins are a problem. I agree with him. Clean up the ancient coin trade.
To ISIS, the destruction of the Palmyra temple, like the destruction of ancient statues and monuments in Nimrud, Hatra and other regions under its control, is of a part with the destruction of “apostates,” the decimation of communities like the Assyrian and Yazidi religious minorities, or the enslaving of women, or the beheading of Western hostages: It is an ethnic, religious and cultural cleansing of anything the zealots deem alien to the pure Islamic state. [...] But for all its well-publicized atrocities, it is neither all powerful nor immune to military and economic pressures from the West.
Whoever dug up the grave of Lt. James Nichols in the Old Bethel Church Cemetery [was] probably [...] looking for Confederate artifacts to sell [...] It was the second time in two years someone has dug up Confederate soldiers’ graves in Georgia looking for artifacts [...] in a robbery similar to the Crawford County looting, someone dug up five graves in a Burke County graveyard in April 2013 leaving uniforms behind at four soldiers’ burial sites, along with the iron casket of an infant that had been extracted from its shallow grave. Metal objects such as buttons were missing. In that case, Burke County sheriff’s deputies arrested two men shortly after that desecration. Both were sentenced to serve five-year prison sentences.Maybe one of the dealers and collectors who claim that the antiquities collectables market is "not responsible for looting of sites" might like to argue the case here? I thought not.
The landowner kindly waived his right to a reward in this case, allowing the Dock Museum to acquire the hoard at reduced expense.Th landowner's name is Mr Hutchinson Of course the finder's not in it fer the munny is he? Now I think that in the name of transparency, anyone taking public money for allowing the public access to the public's own heritage deserves to have his name made public.
Treasure Registrar @TRegistrar 5 godzin temu
Finder and landowner have waived rewards so@britishmuseum can acquire these Henry II coins https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/541704 …
Not exactly prime collectable quality are they? In fact two pieces of rather junky coins, not even the PAS record says why they are in any way worthy of being added to the national collection alongside all the other Henry II coins there.
From the Furness Finders facebook page (5 October 2012):Furness Finders MDC Roman Brooch found this week in Dalton, Dot, do you want to record it from this picture? disc brooch, pin missing, traces of tinning on the front, looks to be a crude type possibly made locally? 5 October 2012 at 18:59Tinning, eh? Is that from the use of the Regton's pocket spectroscope? And what was the FLO's reaction to that suggestion? Surprisingly (or not, depending on what you think of the PAS):
Dot Boughton Nice! What's the obverse like? I can record it no problem but this image is a bit blurry (sorry) and an image of the obverse would be nice. If you email me obverse and reverse images, not blurry, size and weight of the brooch I can record it from the images no problem! (5 October 2012 at 21:07)and checking that the finder had the landowner's permission to be on that land, when will you do that to avoid putting 'laundered' finds in the database? How many of the objects in the PAS database have been 'recorded' without the FLO even having the thing in her hand? How widespread is this practice and what does that mean for the reliability of the information in the PAS database in general?
