From Mitigation to Wunderkammer Show and Tell

British archaeology promoting itself. Portable Antiquities Scheme Oxfordshire FLO Edward Caswell:

                       Edward Caswell (via Twitter)                     

 

@edward_caswell25 lip
Today I'm celebrating the #FestivalofArchaeology with a small #journey to the @MuseumofOxford! Come down to handle some objects, try out some activities or even see some real finds recording! I'll be here till 3 (with a small intermission for lunch!)

Lunch is so exciting. As much as going to Oxford (!) and records of finds (!). I asked him "how many, on average, (non-metal-detectorist) members of the public  can you count on these days bringing finds in to identify and record?" I  also wondered - because it impacts my own research - on whether declining input from this source is the reason why this information is now missing from PAS records. At the time of writing, Mr Casswell has not deemed that worthy of a response though a perfectly cogent, and civil, question. It is an important point. What is the public-funded and public facing Portable Antiquities Scheme for, what has it become since it was set up to sidestep Article 2iii of the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) 16.I.1992?

In Mr Caswell's photo, we can see a big poster in the background of a metal detectorist and at the bottom an Anglo-Saxon gold-and-garnet disc brooch (why does this not give the message "you too can find archaeological treasures just lying loose the fields for the taking"?). In the front of the desk are a series of flint implements apparently for a basic 'show-and-tell', to the left is a display of replica metal detected seal matrices (why replicas? Well, the actual finds went back to the finders so are unavailable to the public). Around them are some posters explaining seal matrices - nice and easy for the plebs, got pictures and writing on them. Further over to the rest is an ominous-looking basket of pencils... ("draw you own seal matrix" or something equally as dead-headed?). On the right is a box of loose fragments of seventeenth and eighteenth century clay pipes with a popular Shire Book (? or suchlike) guide to clay pipes next to a computer. Is this the promised "even see some real finds recording!"? If so, the PAS is supposed to be only recording stuff earlier than 300 years old.

What does all this achieve? A "festival of archaeology" is being reduced here to a dumbdown "let me show you some old stuff". That is not archaeology. That is not explaining archaeology to the public. It is showing old stuff (eBay does that). Perhaps the PAS thinks that the general public in their country only needs and deserves being "shown old stuff" by the people who take money to do their archaeology. Maybe they feel that is enough. Really? They (the public) don't deserve any more than that in the way of archaeological outreach?

This approach seems utterly unprepared for going beyond the "coo! All those years ago, just think!" and similar public comments. I'd like to be there when the FLO is faced with a more truculent questioner who insistently enquires: "yeah, but how do you know?". A few days ago a FLO published another of their habitual ("#Finds Friday") issue-dodging gatekeeping show-and-tells, which is mostly what PAS employees use social media for in their outreach (I use the term loosely). It's object centred, but cannot even be dignified with the term artefactological:

A belated #FindsFriday animal head from Dorset. Of Late Viking-Age style, it’s part of a group of similar, though not identical, 11th-century mounts recorded from across England by @findsorguk. PAS : DEV-6CD12E

In reply I posted something that raised a "how do we know?" question of my own that the FLO thinks is less important that using somebody else's find for self aggrandization, by showing it off (the finder's name is suppressed).

Paul Barford @PortantIssues 24 lip
W odpowiedzi do @Rob_Webley i @findsorguk
I do not think one could look for a clearer example of archaeologists hiding the Truth About Ancient Visitors, you can see the booster rockets and everything!! No archaeological context to show otherwise, is there? "It is what it looks like/ I sez it is" applies here, doesn't it?

I would have been interested to see how the PAS actually addresses issues like this when raised by a member of their audience. Instead, they ignored it. If I had been a metal detectorist, or an eBay seller, or a little old lady who saw this on Twitter, would they also have ignored them? If so, what is PAS for?

Any FLO here care to tell my readers why this is NOT an emblematic representation of a space rocket with booster engines  without being condescending and backing up their argument with checkable evidence?  Any care to show us how they do their job? Comments open.