Focus on Metal Detecting: Depth Advantage Detectors Nicked in Bradford

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The British police are looking for a gang of thieves who have on their hands 300 stolen Minelab GPX 4500 metal detectors to get rid of. They were somehow stolen from the trailer of a red and white Renault heavy goods vehicle en route from Ireland to Istanbul in Turkey while it was parked overnight in Low Moor, Bradford. Presumably the thieves knew what was in the trailer as whoever took them must have done so using a large vehicle and it is highly likely there will have been more than one person involved. The combined value of the missing machines is said to be £400,000.

The stolen metal detectors are owned by Minelab, of County Cork, and were being transported from Ireland to Turkey by Turkish agents. The HGV had stopped at a Bradford warehouse but had been parked up overnight on the roadside, close to the Guide Post Hotel. It is understood the Turkish driver slept in his cab and discovered the theft the following morning.

Minelab general manager Sheila Kelleher "said that the metal detectors were a very specialist product, used at the higher end of the market to identify gold nuggets". Well, that's not quite true, is it, because Minelab have been busty advertising these machines with their "depth advantage" as relic hunting tools able to get the goodies out from deeper down. Why does Mr Kelleher pretend they are used exclusively for something else? Well, metal detecting on archaeological sites is not exactly legal in Turkey.

Mrs Kelleher said the theft was of tremendous concern.

It certainly is, it means three hundred artefact hunters somewhere will be having the chance to get themselves a site wrecker metal detector at cut price. If you or a metal detectorist near you knows anything about this theft contact the police, on the non-emergency number 101, or Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555 111. Save a site.

Steve Wright, 'Devices used to identify gold nuggets (sic) stolen from truck parked in Common Road, Low Moor', Bradford Telegraph and Argus, Wednesday 18th January 2012

Thread: 'Thieves take £400,000 of Minelabs from a truck', Minelab Owners Forum.

Photo: Apparently the lorry from which they were stolen - parked like that on a busy road? (Telegraph and Argus)

Ireland's Past to Begin Earlier

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This is nothing whatsoever to do with portable antiquities (but I sneakily named this blog "and heritage") but deserves the widest possible publicity and opposition"Proposal to de-list archaeological and historical sites that post-date 1700”.

“Sites currently being scheduled for delisting – such as vernacular buildings, lime kilns, holy wells, bridges, milestones, industrial sites etc. – will not qualify for inclusion in the Record of Protected Structures of each county and will therefore be left without any form of protection”.

Over the other side of the sea sites of the twentieth century are actively sought out for listing and scheduling.

This is not the end of the problems, Ireland's heritage seems to be facing hard times: John Farrelly: A Letter to the Editors: Ireland, Heritage Journal 16/09/2011

England's Treasure Act seen from Across the (Irish) Sea

Gordon Kingston("Staffordshire Hoard: Parting the Piggy Bank", The Heritage Journal) came across a part of the Staffordshire Hoard in the British Museum with a collecting box beside it. He asks how this could happen? he contrasts the English Treasure Act with the law in his own country (the Republic of Ireland) and notes the differences, but then he says of the law of his home country "In fact, the whole thrust of the 1994 Act is towards the preservation of our historical record for those who will come after us". Not so the Treasure Act which promotes the digging up of gold, silver and metal hoards for the entertainment of the masses now. But at what cost?

One British Minister of Culture (in)famously said in a Parliamentary debate that it was illogical of preservationists to raise the alarm about the erosion of the archaeological record by metal detecting because each year more and more Treasure hoards were being found, obviously she said there is no end in sight. I wonder whether Margaret Hodge ran her Departmental budget on the same lines, the more you take out the more there is...

Anyhow, Mr Kingston understands what Hodge and the metal detectorists do not, he draws a parallel with overfishing, and points out that thoughtless people have problems getting their head round the problem while their shops are so full of different kinds of fish.

Interestingly, the Assemblage has an article ("paying for what?") on the same topic.

Spreading the Word: Recent Podcasts on the Illicit Artefacts Trade

SpokenWord.org is a project of The Conversations Network, a (U.S.) 501(c)(3) non-profit. It is a service that helps web users find, manage and share audio and video spoken-word recordings. These are found elsewhere on the Web and submitted to the database by members, it thus serves as a directory and a search engine where one can find audio and video spoken-word recordings regardless of where they are published. A contribution posted there on 17th Feb 2010 was on "Illicit Antiquities: Repatriation and Curating".

The podcast is one in a series produced by the Naked Archaeologists. For those who have not come across them before, the Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts are ...

a media-savvy group of physicians and researchers from Cambridge University who use radio, live lectures, and the Internet to strip science down to its bare essentials, and promote it to the general public. Their award winning BBC weekly radio programme, The Naked Scientists, reaches a potential audience of 6 million listeners across the east of England, and also has an international following on the web.

This is the sort of thing we need much more of. The podcast is an examination "of the darker world of black market archaeology; the programme discussed how illicit antiquities can be tracked down after being lost for decades and how they can be returned to their country of origin". There is also a mention of "Chippendale's law" on the antiquities trade, and a discussion of the Irish view by Richard Warner of the Portable Antiquities Scheme ("things like treasure hunting...." go on in England, not in Ireland, and how the Irish system encourages truthful reporting). One speaker talks of "heritage of place" which is worth deeper consideration. This is interspersed with information on the remains of fast food eaten in the original Globe Theatre in London, DNA studies of the migrations into North America, and the typology of post-Medieval gravestones in British churchyards. Well worth a listen (lasts 32 minutes).

Naked Archaeology presenter Diana O'Carroll was chosen to represented the project when it received a European award for the best podcasts (interview here).

Cambridge's 'Naked Archaeology' should not be confused with film producer Simcha Jakobovici who also labels himself 'The Naked Archaeologist', most known for his announcement of the so-called "Lost Tomb of Jesus" (which presented the controversial and ultimately untenable theory that the so-called Talpiot tomb was the burial place of Jesus' family).

Vignette: Naked Archaeology logo; naked broadcasting photo from their website.