A teenager who uncovered a Bronze Age hoard while metal detecting says research and perseverance are key to success. Milly, 13, from Suffolk, discovered dozens of axe heads and other artefacts in a field near Royston, Hertfordshire, on only her third trip. She has shared her top tips for BBC podcast The Localist - Suffolk.Research, you see.
Vignette: not-a-thirteen-year-old
'Research' what's that? A trip to the local archive to trawl through archeological publications or local HER?
ReplyDeleteIt really pisses me off when reporting finds or previously unknown sites to the HER knowing that they could enable detectorists to plunder them.
Sites 'new to science' are unlikely to have protection (some may by landholders policy on detecting), and are unlikely to be protected on the basis of photographic analysis alone (though it is enough to provide outline detail on the HER eg period. )
In a way, it is worse than 'archaeologists remain silent', we are made complicit due to the principle inherent in archaeology to record and disseminate knowledge.
Somehow it is made worse when the PAS and it's database do not provide a similar level of detail without providing bona fides in a request for enhanced access.
A detectorist can use my data to identify 'potentially productive sites' but I can't use theirs when considering the site itself.
Surely a publically funded scheme that claims to be archaeologically relevant should be ethically compatible with archaeological principles.
Fifty archaeologists work IN the Scheme, say nowt. 6000 archaeologists (profiling the profession) don't work in the PAS, most say nowt, and could not care less. A few ragtag archies (some expat) and conservationists are doing all the work for the rest of them.
ReplyDelete