A blog commenting on various aspects of the private collecting and trade in archaeological artefacts today and their effect on the archaeological record.
Monday, 14 June 2021
'Detectival 2021': Bringing the Metal Detecting Together, making Money from Trashing the Past
Complex patterns of depletion: data unavailable for any future field survey of this region
Another 'Detectival' commercial artefact grabfest took place near Henley on Thames last weekend. Interestingly, most participants were noting that the number of finds was well down on previous year - funny that, if hundreds of tekkies hoover the same sites and same fields several years running, that there should be "less" finds there each time, and not "more", eh? Anyway, Norfolk Button Boy a man with a permanent scowl it seems and with a love for plastering his name everywhere (flags, finds box etc) has made a film that rather drags out - particularly the selfie scenes, but give a good picture of the whole thing. There was some gold found and he seems happy. There were 27 fields available, 1000's of acres, around 500 detectorists. Each paying lottsa-quid into the pockets of the organiser.
A post on social media shows that although the PAS stayed away from this purely commercial looting, there was at least one dealer present (Dixon, Noonan and Webb: "we had a great time at Detectival! [...] We brought along artefacts and coins from the last sale to exhibit in the show case").
flogging off the PASt
Just to show participants, if they'd had doubts earlier, how much money they can make from the hobby.
Until PAS acknowledged that recording finds at such events was "problematic" and stopped attending, there were occasions when a PAS table was next to a dealer's table. I wonder which table was more embarrassed?
Not that that embarrassing juxtaposition doesn't persist away from rallies - PAS pleads for finds to be brought to them after the rally while the Treasure Hunting mags each have more than a dozen adverts offering to buy stuff.
Who's screwing who they charge the farmer exorbitant sums of monies to check out land for a reservoir or a few bits of pot unearthed including food and lodgings for an odd boundary n pot fragments ! They use the unemployed free of charge to most of the donkey work , so who's skimming who ? In the name of archeology they get voluntary help by those who gagging to get on a dig ... all no cost labour. And vullshit prices to find mostly zip the Detecting Hobby gives up their time free or charge to the farmer they make the Archological system look weak , because,we contribute more than any Acheolog8st dig has in 40 years . You nothing but robbing piss takers in the worst way ... your attitude alone will show you that people will no longer contribute to your knowledge of our history by not declaring ,because not only do you take the piss financially the museum system takes too long to sort out finds lost missing finds upto 7 years gone by items sold to museums without the finderz or landowners being told . The list is huge under staffed n over paid .... your great finds would not be so great but for detectorists unearthing them your contribution is minimal compared to ours the real treasures of the world
Why are you writing like that? And if you can't work out how a Google Account works, "Unknown", why not put your name at the bottom of your comment? Simple to do, makes the context of writing clear.
British archaeologist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. Since the early 1990s (or even longer) a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context and their effect on the archaeological record.
"coiney" - a term I use for private collector of dug up ancient coins, particularly a member of the Moneta-L forum or the ACCG
"heap-of-artefacts-on-a-table-collecting" the term rather speaks for itself, an accumulation of loose artefacts with no attempt to link each item with documented origins. Most often used to refer to metal detectorists (ice-cream tubs-full) and ancient coin collectors (Roman coins sold in aggregated bulk lots)
"tekkie" - metal detectorist/metal detecting (a form of artefact hunting)
CDE - Collection-Driven Exploitation of archaeological sites
CPAC - Cultural Property Advisory Committee [US]
FLO - Finds Liaison Officer (post in the PAS)
HER - Historic Environment Record [UK]
IAPN - International Association of Professional Numismatists
MENA - Middle East and North Africa
PAS - Portable Antiquities Scheme
PNG - Professional Numismatists' Guild
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO 1970 Convention - Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
.jpg)
3 comments:
Until PAS acknowledged that recording finds at such events was "problematic" and stopped attending, there were occasions when a PAS table was next to a dealer's table. I wonder which table was more embarrassed?
Not that that embarrassing juxtaposition doesn't persist away from rallies - PAS pleads for finds to be brought to them after the rally while the Treasure Hunting mags each have more than a dozen adverts offering to buy stuff.
Who's screwing who they charge the farmer exorbitant sums of monies to check out land for a reservoir or a few bits of pot unearthed including food and lodgings for an odd boundary n pot fragments ! They use the unemployed free of charge to most of the donkey work , so who's skimming who ? In the name of archeology they get voluntary help by those who gagging to get on a dig ... all no cost labour. And vullshit prices to find mostly zip the Detecting Hobby gives up their time free or charge to the farmer they make the Archological system look weak , because,we contribute more than any Acheolog8st dig has in 40 years . You nothing but robbing piss takers in the worst way ... your attitude alone will show you that people will no longer contribute to your knowledge of our history by not declaring ,because not only do you take the piss financially the museum system takes too long to sort out finds lost missing finds upto 7 years gone by items sold to museums without the finderz or landowners being told . The list is huge under staffed n over paid .... your great finds would not be so great but for detectorists unearthing them your contribution is minimal compared to ours the real treasures of the world
Why are you writing like that? And if you can't work out how a Google Account works, "Unknown", why not put your name at the bottom of your comment? Simple to do, makes the context of writing clear.
Post a Comment