Artefact Hoiking Endorsed by English Local History Society

                            Brexit biting      .                       
   

Uh oh... Filipa Gaspar, 'Man who found thousands of historical artefacts fundraises for new metal detector':

A MAN who has found thousands of historical artefacts is raising funds for a new metal detector to carry on with his discoveries. Josh Carr explained that the funds would help him get a more technologically advanced metal detector. "The better technology, the deeper it goes, and the more history I can find for our little town, Millom," said the 28-year-old. The Millom metal detectorist has been metal detecting for over five years and has found several significant artefacts in the area. These include six socketed axe heads, Room broochs, an Iron Age terret ring, as well as the Marcus Aurelius silver denari and numerous other finds, especially coins. He said that recently, he sent the six socketed axe heads to get analysed, cleaned and dated by the British Museum.

That's nice of them, the British Museum to analyse, clean and date "his" axeheads for him, he must e doing good then. Some lady who is "chair of the Millom and District Local History Society" (they've even got theor own "metal detectorists" subgroup - guess who's running that?) says that "by his findings and dedication, Josh has shown that he is a very important part of a joint effort to uncover the past of Old Millom" and "raise the profile" of its history.

"He is totally dedicated to his metal detecting and to uncovering the history of Old Millom. He is a credit to Millom and a wonderful role model (if I were dishing out awards, he would be at the top of the list). "He won his previous metal detectors, and when he told me he wanted to save up for a better model this year, I had no hesitation in setting up the fundraiser. With his skills, knowledge, dedication and a better machine, he is more likely to find more artefacts."

Yep, ripping artefacts up out of the ground is what it is about in Old Millom. They do not seem to have a conservation society.

With regard putting Old Millom on the map, I'll just leave this here - for comparison with camo-waif's claim to have found "thousands" of artefacts (here's 27 14 of them made in a few days in Jan 2023).

I think more of us should try to use these news stories as opportunities to set the record straight, so here's my Facebook comment protesting the tone of statement quoted in the article, let us see if they post it and reply:

Why would a group that cares for local history (and one presumes, the historical environment) endorse this kind of destructive artefact hunting that destroys contexts and associations of the archeological artefact that are removed blindly from the ground like this? Digging a narrow hole blindly down like the one in the photo, he cannot possibly see any archaeological context or associations (or lack of one). This is not any form of archaeology or "history hunting" it is just a hunt for trophy artefacts to pocket. Where is the documentation of this? If this gentleman has indeed found "thousands" of artefacts that add to our knowledge in the way you claim (how?), where is the evidence that he has been responsibly recording them with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, if in their database there are just 27 anonymous records from Millom and "near Millom"? https://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/q/Millom. Just "digging things up" is no more archaeology than shooting pheasants in a field is ornithology.

UPDATE: It was published and the history society lady replied:

Jan BridgetAutor
Paul, we are all entitled to our opinions and I am aware there are plenty of archaeologists who agree with your sentiments. But I also know some who accept and want to work with metal detectorists and acknowledge that their finds have often been the starting point for archaeological investigations, as indeed, is the case here. However, I would make the following points.
1. not everyone can complete the documentation necessary when submitting to PAS.
2. The scheme is not trusted by detectorists in our area as several detectorists have submitted finds and they have been lost, gone astray, nothing has happened. We are trying to build up trust with our local PAS and local detectorists as their new member of staff has been to one of our events and met with local detectorists and we hope to be able to encourage local detectorists to work more closely with them in the future. This is one of the reasons why we set up the Millom Detectorists group - to encourage detectorists to be responsible, although some already are.
3. No-one is interested in conducting archaeology in our area. It is really only through our local detectorists that the profile of the incredible history of this place has and is being raised (despite there being two grade 1 listed buildings here). We are trying to save the Old School next to Holy Trinity Church and Millom Castle and turn it into a Heritage Centre: many of the local detectorists have promised to donate their finds to the Centre. Many of them are taking part in our Community Archaeology Projects.
Edytowano

Hmm. "not everyone can complete the documentation necessary when submitting to PAS" what would that be? Showing on a map where they found each item? Showing they have the landowner's permission to take these objects? What documentation is causing this difficulty up there in Millom?

Now these reported thefts "from our region" that mean "the [Portable Antiquities] Scheme is not trusted by detectorists in our area" because "several detectorists have submitted finds and they have been lost, gone astray" really needs to be sorted out and if there has been a crime committed (see here), end very publicly in a naming and shaming and in a prison sentence. I am with the tekkies here.

But let us be a little wary of accepting this explanation. Millom was between 1974-March 2023 in Copeland Borough/District and the PAS records for this whole region contain 232 records. Apart from an outlier, a beach find from near a known Roman findspot, from 1999, the main series of records date only from 2004. So that's 20 years of reports. 232/20 is 11.6 reports a year... not impressive. The accusations about Preston Museum surfaced about the beginning of Dec 2022. After 10th Dec 2022 there were 21 reports from the region. So reporting has gone UP since those allegations.

But the point was that the news reports clearly say this guy has been finding "thousands" of finds from the Millom area... and I was comparing that with what was actually reported from the millom area. Some guy David Hartley on Facebook says of these thousands of finds I referred to: "Paul Barford he has recorded them they are with the flo".