Mega-rally, 1000 (!) participants (they say). If you skip to here, Mr Aquachigger (1.06M subscribers) has a deep target, deep hole dug, finds anomalous soil conditions, target still deeper, obviously some kind of feature, what to do? The Code of best practice for responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales is pretty unequivocal... but Mr Aquachigger decided to hack blindly down into it regardless.
This is the kind of blind digging that damages sites, here we see it in progress, and can see how limited are the opportunities for any kind of archaeological observation of the material being dug through and relationships that are being trashed by this activity every time a target is dug out. This case is particularly telling as it turns out to be a modern feature, one that would be immediately identified for what it was had the layers been explored properly by someone who knew what they were doing and 'reading the soil' in the process. Note at the end when he finds the valve to the irrigation pipe in a cement-lined pit, he decides to interfere and then fails to replace the cover properly, probably a townie.
Posted on You Tube by Aquachigger on 24 Sep 2019
Posted on You Tube by Aquachigger on 24 Sep 2019
Note the bragging about the "find of a lifetime" later on in the video and the way it's handled. Also been dug out in the same way (from what?).
The very last bit was most illuminating. A chap with a Saxon Mount he had found "50 miles up the road". He had brought it to Detectival to have it authenticated by Treasure Hunting magazine and the FLO (thereby greatly enhancing its sale value on EBay. PAS are "enablers" are they not?
ReplyDeleteBut the real point of the incident was to ram home the fact that antiquities are PORTABLE. This was an honest chap no doubt but how many scruffs bring how many ill-gotten items for the FLO to authenticate at Detectival and elsewhere? And if said scruffs happen to drop their object and pick it up, thereby telling the FLO it's findspot was at this rally the criminal laundering of nighthawked or undeclared-to-some farmer is complete.
PS, here's a wild stab: almost all very valuable nighthawked items have been laundered by find spot description and authenticated by PAS. Which nighthawk in his right mind wouldn't do that?
ReplyDeleteAnd how many Treasure finds too? If there is no excavation of the findspot, then they can get away with it... and there is even one case where there was an excavation of the alleged findspot and I suspect the gullible arkies did not spot the evidence of fraud... but Bloomsbury will keep their suspicions to themselves... So we can't talk about that one until they do.
ReplyDelete"gullible arkies did not spot the evidence". What they do spot are the numerous/majority cases where people keep digging instead of covering and telling (The CAT rule. Not very hard to remember, even for a detectorist).
ReplyDeleteThey do grumble when it happens, but that's meaningless, they should be lobbying for the whole Reward to be withheld. But then, that would go against the DUD doctrine ("Don't upset detectorists") which they've kept to for 20 years.