Outreach from a Distance

 

The PAS in 2020

The Society of Antiquaries is holding a Zoom Seminar on 15 Oct 2020, 19:00 CEST. It is free to register and details on how to join are on your ticket for the event. They say:

Our guest speaker is Benjamin Westwood, FLO for Co. Durham, Darlington, and Teesside, who will be talking about being an FLO during lockdown followed by a live QandA.

"Objects in Lockdown: Finds of Note from the Portable Antiquities Scheme Northeast 2020

This is your chance to ask Ben any question you may have about the Portable Antiquities Scheme and about being a Finds Liaison Officer.

Hmm. Note the object-centric title. I don't know about the Antiquaries (nomen omen), but archaeology is not about finding loose notable things. Also the finds are not from/made by the PAS. This looks like the speaker's own self-presentation:

"2020 has been a very strange year and brought many changes, yet the work to record our portable heritage continues. Like many others, most of the staff at the Portable Antiquities Scheme have been working from home, trying to adapt our working practices to adapt to often rapidly changing circumstances. The major difference has been the inability to meet with the public in person and trying to ‘virtually’ ensure that finds, and Treasure, are reported and recorded. Nevertheless, there have been many interesting and exciting discoveries, not least in the Northeast!"

It looks like to me that this "virtual" interaction causes all manner of possibilities for false "data" to get into the PAS database. So, it would be interesting for reference to know in detail how PAS working practices have adapted over the past six months of remote working. One question I would have to ask this FLO, any FLO, is the actual aim of what they are doing. Is it really all we need to worry about to "record" odd bits of "our portable heritage"? Surely that is just a part of the tasks the PAS was set up to achieve. How are they doing realising the other original aims of the Scheme, or are they hoping we've conveniently forgotten them? 

Also I wonder how the Soc of Ant would justify a talk by the FLO that of the 16398 records made by the PAS between 1st March and today, only 35 are recorded as being by Baenjamin Westwood, and 759 by his neighbour Matthew Fittock....