Wednesday 11 February 2015

Rocket-Science, Obviously


"The system of recording Britain’s treasure is under threat" suggests Maev Kennedy ('UK treasures endangered by museum cuts', Guardian, Tuesday 10 February 2015):
Cuts already being implemented are reducing the number of outside events, including finds days and metal-detecting rallies. This could affect the reporting of both small and major finds – such as the Anglo-Saxon hoard discovered a few days before Christmas by detectorist Paul Coleman.
Well, neither the PAS nor the BM's Treasure Team organize commercial metal detecting rallies, and the law (still) states that the finder reports Treasure to the Coroner (who do not work for the BM). Ms Kennedy has swallowed the official line though on the hoard-scooped-into-a-carrier-bag fiasco:
A local finds officer had gone to the metal-detecting rally on farmland in Lenborough, Buckinghamshire, and was there to help lift the thousands of coins and recover every scrap of context information. [...] [about] the coins glinting in the mud at the bottom of a 2ft-deep hole in a field.
I do not know if that is what the PAS are saying, but it certainly could not be further from the truth.


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