West Norfolk Hoard Findspot Revealed!

 

The newspapers shouting all about the find of a group of seventh century gold coins kept one little fact from the public whose heritage is being sold off by the idiotic UK treasure process. The public was not honestly informed about the place in their historical landscape the find was made... and they still have not been. Meanwhile one artefactologist in a certain County Council who should know better wanted to show how much he knows about a group of artefacts...  so has just published an academic article showing off his knowledge with some antiquitist bla-bla. In the course of which he drops a little fact about the  findspot that it took me less than three minutes to cross reference with another (older) online article by another artefact-fondler... and bingo. Sitting here at a desk in Warsaw I know more or less exactly where that hoard was found. 

The findspot and its relationship with another landscape feature is intriguing to me as a medievalist... and probably would intrigue and inform other non-artefact-hunters if the public record actually said where it was. What is more, the combination of the information in the two texts together reveals something about the discovery of that hoard (if it is one) that should be in the public domain, and yet is kept out of the public domain, and current discussions about "Treasure"  (and incidentally the antiquities trade in the UK). These are the consequences of the secrecy British archaeologists titillate themselves and boost their own sense of importance with.  

That is really pathetic. If the British archaeological community is going to play the jealous gatekeeper of information then it should do it consequently and well, or if they can't work out how to do it properly, they should not try at all. It seems to me if everybody know where it was, "everybody-except-the-rouge(sic)-metal-detectorists" can keep an eye on the site. Since we are told there's not very many (really?) "rouge metal detectorists" and there's over 900000 inhabitants of Norfolk who can keep an eye on the site, surely it makes sense to tell people what they should be keeping an eye out for.

I am not going to say where it is or even give a cryptic clue (or answer questions in comments). It took me three minutes to find it. Let's say with a bit of clicking even the thickest person "interested in the history" or even metal detectorist from the information give could get it in less than an hour if the know where to go  (maybe longer if they're a slow reader). I do not think it profits anyone to think that criminal metal detectorists "must be" stupid and incapable of working something out where you gaily give them a socking big clue.

It is time for British archaeology to get its act together and decide whether they will keep the British public, who pays for their fun and deserves to know because it is their heritage too, fully informed. Or if they decide to keep them in the dark and only present a partial view of the past, how to actually do that while "doing their archaeology".