Gosh, Golly, Roman - no, Iron Age - site (Focus on UK Metal Detecting)

Breathless Broadcasting Cycophants: "Ipplepen Iron Age settlement 'one of most significant' finds", BBC 17 August 2013.

"An Iron Age settlement unearthed in Devon has been described as one of the most important finds of its kind".

"Archaeologists, who have recently started examining the site, said it is the first of its kind in the county".

"Sam Moorhead from the British Museum said he believed the Ipplepen site was "one of the most significant Roman discoveries in the country for many decades"...".

"Danielle Wootton, the Devon finds liaison officer for the PAS said when the find was announced the find at a community meeting about three years ago, "the hall was absolutely packed with local people and there was an electric atmosphere"...".

"The British Museum said the Ipplepen site was one of the most significant Roman discoveries in England for decades".

Part of the settlement excavation site will be open to the public on Sunday. Maybe they will  learn the actual reason why this site is supposedly so exciting. The BBC were not, it seems, told. It would be disappointing to learn that the only reason for all this hype of the excavation funded by the British Museum, Exeter University, the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and Devon County Council was:

It was prompted by the chance discovery of Roman coins in fields at Ipplepen, near Newton Abbot about four years ago [...] The site was discovered by local metal detector enthusiasts Jim Wills and Dennis Hewings, who contacted archaeologist Danielle Wootton, the Devon finds liaison officer for the PAS [...]  Ms Wootton said the important discovery should be credited to Mr Wills and Mr Hewings who had painstakingly recorded "every scrap of metal" they found. "Jim and Dennis have been absolutely first class in recording what they've found and it's a result of them being responsible with their metal detecting that we've discovered this site," she said. 

This looks like another Devon "local man's find confounds experts" story like the Whiddon Down hoard story as reported by the Daily Mail. Metal-detected Ipplepen is just down the road from looted church Torbryan.