"Talking About the Rocket Science agin, Mom! "

Pitblado and Thomas reckon archaeologists are all so unjust to artefact collectors generally and seem to advocate that all over the world we should follow the lead of the formal recommendations of the Society for American Archaeology. Sadly, because this is America, we find the same problems that Americans have in defining what the Portable Antiquities Scheme of England and Wales (which is held up a s a model for emulation) actually does. According to the text it is some form of a "national database of documented and analysed privately held and legally acquired collections". Really? So that Baz Thugwit collection of Romano-British fibulae documented in it is universally admired for its comprehensiveness? How many "privately held collections" are presented on that database?