UK Gold hoard found whilst weeding the garden

Jordan Farrell, "RICH FIND. Couple find £230k of English treasure while weeding their garden" the Sun 25 Sep 2025 

A Hampshire couple made a remarkable discovery in clumps of clay soil while weeding their back garden in 2020, a hoard of seventy gold Tudor coins. The earliest of these coins dates from the reign of King Henry VI in the 1420s, while many others originate from the 1530s, during the rule of Henry VIII. The discovery was made in Milford-on-Sea, not far from the historic Christchurch Priory, and experts speculate that the hoard may have been buried for safekeeping by a wealthy church cleric at the time of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. The discovery is an interesting reminder how finding of archaeological traces of the past goes on, regardless of circumstances. It is notable that these finders found it weeding their own garden in 2020 when the first Covid lockdown was in force banning metal detecting on external properties.

The couple, who have chosen to remain anonymous to avoid attracting treasure hunters to their quiet suburban street, reported their find to the authorities in 2020. Although the coins were initially declared treasure, they were later disclaimed and returned to the couple after no museums or institutions were able to afford to acquire them during the Covid pandemic. Now, the hoard is set to be auctioned in Zurich, Switzerland, this November, where it is expected to fetch around £230,000.

 

Bloke Caught Out in Dishonest Reporting of Finds, including Veterans' Rally Haul

          Jason Massey's Detecting for Veterans         

I think this happens a lot in the UK, just the arkies really do not bother in checking what the tekkie says about where a find came from - just accepting it in good faith. So the data hygiene of their records (like the PAS database) is very suspect. After a number of other cases, we have this example of lack of due diligence.  A 54-year-old British metal detectorist has pleaded guilty to four fraud charges relating to artefacts submitted to the county Finds Officer. Price pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud at Lincoln Crown Court on Thursday (Grantham man admits fraud at Lincoln Crown Court over “historical” artefacts he submitted to Lincolnshire County Council - including now (in)famous Leasingham horse brooch Lincs Online Reporter, 11 September 2025). 

According to the BBC ('Metal detectorist admits fraud over historic finds', BBC 11 September 2025)

A man has admitted four charges of fraud after he claimed to have found historic artefacts while metal detecting. Jason Price, 54, of Purcell Close, Grantham, was summoned to court following a police investigation into items that were submitted to the Finds Officer at Lincolnshire County Council between September 2019 and August 2023. 
The items included a brooch, Roman coins and figurines, which Price claimed to have found while metal detecting in the Roxholm and Long Bennington areas.

The distances involved are between 12 and 17 km.  According to the BBC: 'the BBC (11 September 2025), 

The Finds Officer found something suspicious about the sudden rash of “artifacts,” and so contacted local authorities. Following an investigation, it was determined that the artifacts were not actually found by Price. It’s unclear how he came into possession of the artifacts. Price, a native of Purcell Close, in Grantham, was then summoned to Lincoln Crown Court on Sept. 11. There, he was charged with four counts of fraud; Price pleaded guilty to each.

A sentence and “trial of facts” has been set for Nov. 7, 2024.

Interestingly, the contested items included the high-profile “Leasingham Horse” brooch claimed to have been found on a "Detecting for Veterans" rally - but now apparently not (see ''Detecting for Veterans' Leasingham Rally Find Acquired by Museum' PACHI May 13 2023). The PAS database record for this find (which readers may recall I suggest was 'seeded' somehow [see here too] was pretty extensive (all that work for nothing, eh Lisa? Should have verified the provenance FIRST - what a waste of public money)

Unavailable record: LIN-09AF6A
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: ROMAN
Institution responsible: LIN
Workflow stage: Quarantine Find in quarantine
Relevant FLOs
Lisa Brundle
Created: 5 years ago
Last updated: About one year ago
This record is currently unavailable to view for your access levels. Please contact the relevant FLO to gain access.

So this have been going on undetected (pun not intended) since 2019, and only now are British archaeologists reconsidering those records. Time, maybe to review those "data" gathering procedures. 

New York court issues arrest warrant for collector of looted Anatolian statue

Caveat emptor, buy with caution and responsibility ('New York court issues arrest warrant for collector of looted Anatolian statue', Türkiye News Hürriyet Daily News September 13 2025):

A 74-year-old American collector is facing legal trouble in New York after prosecutors accused him of knowingly purchasing an ancient statue looted from Türkiye. According to a report by The New York Times, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for Aaron Mendelsohn, who in 2007 bought a 2,000-year-old Roman emperor statue originally stolen from the ancient city of Bubon in the western province of Burdur. Investigators say the statue, one of about ten illegally excavated from Bubon in the 1960s, travelled first to the United Kingdom before reaching the United States. Despite being aware of its illicit origins, Mendelsohn acquired the piece from a gallery and continued to display it. Court filings revealed that he even sought advice from a former museum curator on how to avoid legal consequences, who reportedly suggested showing the piece only to private guests. The case gained momentum following the establishment of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in 2017. Working in close cooperation with Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, prosecutors gathered electronic correspondence and documentation that linked Mendelsohn directly to the illegal acquisition. The evidence, authorities said, made clear that the collector had full knowledge of the statue’s stolen provenance.

"Small Number of People in Hugely Respectful Community of Artefact Hunters"

Well, it's called "nighthawking innit?" Dr Jonathan Berry, Senior Inspector of Ancient Monuments and archaeology, is interviewed in a feature on heritage crime in Wales in BBC News online:  Will Fyfe ' Night-time treasure thieves threatening a nation's heritage' BBC News 17 August 2025

As darkness falls in one corner of Wales, police officers begin their hunt for treasure thieves - a crime that would sound like fantasy if it wasn't for the evidence. In Gwent Police's patch, the hills are littered with ancient forts and Roman remains - and have become a regular target for those hoping to unearth rare artefacts for the black market. Often, investigators are left with nothing but a hole in the ground - with little idea of what has been stolen or its value - though some looted treasures have been worth millions. Nighthawking, as it is nicknamed, is now seen as a genuine threat to the nation's heritage.

PC Dan Counsell had never heard of the term nighthawking before he took a call in September 2019. He was told locals of an ancient village near Chepstow had awoken to find more than 50 holes mysteriously dug among the gravestones of their churchyard. Residents were horrified and newspaper headlines spoke of "grave robbers." PC Counsell understood the upset - many of his own family members, including grandparents, were buried there. In truth the robbers weren't interested in the dead, but the artefacts that may be buried beyond them, deep into the Earth. Before it became a Christian church about 700 years ago, there were Romans here. [...] After PC Counsell's first case in the graveyard, he began looking out for the phenomenon. Within two years his team had uncovered 23 suspected incidents in the force's patch - a 600 sq mile (1,550 sq km) corner of south-east Wales peppered with imposing castles, ancient hill forts and Roman ruins. Reports of people in fields at night and mysterious holes being discovered has all led PC Counsell's team to uncover cases of nighthawking. He said one of the most worrying things was that most targeted Scheduled Monuments

Not worried about the rest then... If knowledge thieves go out in daytime and pocket stuff without telling anyone, that's "OK....." yeah? That's what cultural resource management looks like these days in Brexited Britain. 

I can't help but think that if Wales has an area of 20,779 km² (8,023 sq mi), PC Counsell's patch is 1/13 of the whole. He alone has spotted 23 suspected incidents (that's ones where thieving idiots were seen, or neglected to fill their holes properly) so, extrapolating from that this might be the equivalent of a minimum 23 x 13 = 299 cases. That's a minimum of 150 a year. But the text says:

Cadw, the authority charged with protecting Wales' 4,000-plus protected ancient sites, said it saw 10 to 20 nighthawking incidents each year, but that the nature of it meant was very likely underreported.

Indeed. By how much? Once upon a time in the UK they did a half-hearted "nighthawking report" (2008). I produced arguments at the time that this was severely underestimating the problem - which the report facilely tried to make out had been "solved" by having the PAS. If there have been a minimum of 150 nighthawking episode that could have been found in each of those 17 years since the report was treated as the definitive answer... that means at least 2550 sites have been "nighthawked" under the noses of the self-satisfied arkies and their pals in PAS 

But the scale of the site-looting problem is pretty massive in Wales. If there are however just 60700 finds reported from all of Wales in the period from 1st Jan 2008 to today (an average of 3570 per year - this is a higher figure than was being shown by the PAS database at the time of the 2019 estimate - I'm not clear why). That does not tally well with the figures from even six years ago that everybody ignored then:

   The Scale of the Artefact Hunting Recording Crisis in Wales, PACHI Thursday, 10 January 2019.

The estimate there is that "the total should be therefore somewhere around 40,660 objects". It seems that, however many of the evidence-trashing blighters there are (because the size of the UK metal detecting community has gone up since the 2019 estimate), VERY FEW OF THEM ARE RESPONSIBLY REPORTING/RECORDING THEIR FINDS. The rest are just taking, who knows whether with or without the landowner's knowledge and permission? Basically the only thing we know is they were not caught.

So Plonky Plod the policeman has not the FAINTEST justification for saying the usual British crap-fluff:

Archaeologists and police point out this is a small number of people in an otherwise hugely respectful community of metal detectorists.

Except for the ones that aren't eh? Why do we need this misleading bollocks from British archaeologists? How much actual thinking and research lies behind such hopelessly glib and unnuanced statements misleading the public? [that is a rhetorical question].

 

US Antiquities Dealer Sentenced for Smuggling Hundreds of Egyptian Antiquities

Ashraf Omar Eldarir, 52, a Brooklyn resident and naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Egypt, has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for smuggling hundreds of ancient Egyptian artefacts into the United States. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Rachel P. Kovner in Brooklyn federal court following Eldarir’s guilty plea in February 2025 to four counts of smuggling.

 According to court filings, Eldarir trafficked artefacts on at least four occasions between April 2019 and January 2020, using falsified provenance documents to sell the items through U.S.-based auction houses.  Eldarir fabricated provenance records to disguise the illicit origins of the looted antiquities. The case came to light on January 22, 2020, when Eldarir arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport from Egypt. He falsely declared that the goods he was carrying were worth only $300. A search of his three checked suitcases revealed 590 artifacts wrapped in bubble wrap and foam, many still covered in loose sand and dirt. Among the objects were gold amulets from a funerary set and wooden tomb model figures with linen garments dating to around 1900 BCE. Officers also discovered a kit containing materials used to forge documentation for the items. 

 Subsequent investigation led to the recovery of additional smuggled artefacts, bringing the total seized to more than 600. All have since been forfeited, and U.S. officials stated that they intend to repatriate them to Egypt. The usual performative statements are included in media reports of the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys William P. Campos and Nomi Berenson led the prosecution, with support from Paralegal Specialist Amara Padilla. Forfeiture proceedings are being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Mantell. Eldarir will serve his prison sentence and forfeit all seized antiquities, which are expected to be returned to Egypt.

US CPAC Trudges on its 1980s Path to Nowhere

 In the US  the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces that the Cultural Property Advisory Committee intends to meet September 15-17, 2025, to review a new request for a cultural property agreement from Cameroon; to review the proposed extensions of the cultural property agreements with Colombia and Türkiye; and to review the proposed extension of the emergency import restrictions unilaterally imposed by the United States on archaeological and ethnological material from Afghanistan.

I don't know why they bother going through the rite of pretending to care any longer. Trump has withdrawn the US frtom UNESCO, whose treaty this pathetic ritual pretends to be honouring.

Facebook Pages of Interest

Facebook: Ancient Artifacts Information and Identification
Public group
19,700 members.

Administrators and moderators:

Darren Gold (Administrator)
Works at: Florida International University

Tim Haines (Administrator)
Expert in the Group
London

Kerry Drew (Moderator)
UC Berkeley

Damon David Knell (Moderator)
Expert in the Group
University of Toronto

The old Ancient Artifacts Discussion List
AncientArtifacts@groups.io 1,711 Members, started 31 Dec 2002.

Then there is the "The Other Artifacts":List : 

Some of you may have noticed that there is an area of ancient artifact collection which focuses on rock-like items which may or may not be of manmade origin.  The decision whether these items are natural formations or worked artifacts is highly subjective.  Our group does not specialize in these and we tend toward the more commonly recognized artifacts of civilizations which are, without a doubt, manmade constructs. 

If you find yourself wanting to post some rocklike items that you suspect may be of manmade origin you may want to try a group that specializes in such items:  

Page by Damion White  The Other ArtifactsGroup 

Private· 26 996 members (!) Created 2 Dec 2019.

This page is for sharing the obscure artifacts that are found all over North America and Europe as well that do not fit the criteria of typical artifacts. Have you been told that a stone you found is natural that is clearly worked into shapes of human heads, animals, or other effigys (sic) [?]. Use any phrase like "levarite" , "no sign of human alteration", or "natural" here, and your ass is out, period. Enjoy some real works of art here. You may post common stuff like arrowheads but we all have seen plenty of those. This page is for the good stuff 

Roxy Brukley and 3 other members (Damion White, Jackie Lynn White, Brandon McDonald) are administrators, Angela Ewing Brown is the moderator.