Cumbrian Treasure find reports drop by over 20 per cent

         Cumbrian MD at it        

Ollie Rawlinson 'Cumbrian treasure find reports drop by over 20 per cent' NWEMail 1 Dec 2024.

Bad show from the detectorists up North, either they are finding less because they've knackered almost all of the accessible sites (destructive blighters), or they are keeping more without reporting it (thieving blighters). Which is it? 

Provisional data from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport shows  1,358 treasure finds were reported in England and Wales in 2023, down slightly from 1,367 the previous year but the second-highest figure since records began in 1996. Last year was also the tenth in a row where treasure discoveries across the two countries exceeded 1,000. In Cumbria, 18 treasure finds were reported in 2023, down from 23 the year before. [...]
Keith Westcott, CEO and founder of the Detectorists Institute and Foundation, said the significant number of treasure finds reported last year highlights the "critical importance" of ensuring artefacts are retrieved in a sustainable way and that their heritage is preserved.

That's bonkers. How on earth can taking from a finite resource be in any way sustainable? How much heritage is preserved when most don't have the knowledge to identify finds in situ (that's besides any loss of context by the use of their standard method of hoiking)? Britain has lost the plot.