Trade in "Khazar" Artefacts through Poland

                         Photo: Allegro lokalnie                              

We need to take a close look at the Polish antiquities market and its relationship to the proposed new liberal legislation on metal detecting. Here's a 7th c. nomad type sabre "from an old collection" on sale in Szczecin.  With the proposed changes in the law, a detectorist with such a find does not even have to show they had a search permit or any other kind of documentation how they came by it. But what new Polish law will allow is for the seller to use their phone to "announce" its finding "just now" from totally made-up provenance in the middle of nowhere and even get a finder's reward for doing so.

This sword is said by its seller to be Khazar, the type would fit, though it would also fit a number of other early Medieval steppe groups. The point is that the realm of all of these finished in the middle Dnipr region, and while in a later period swords a bit like these might be found in Poland (and assigned to the "Magyars" by those who like ethnic labels), this particular object was most likely not from a Polish burial ground or metalwork hoard. It has almost certainly been imported from the east. 

                     Photo: Allegro lokalnie                       

Here is another example of this type of 'laundering through passage' by moving an object among metal detecting finds in Poland. This is another nomad type sabre, this one even more desperately in need of conservation. It is not exactly very professionally presented. The seller claims he bought it from someone at an auction (apparently has some kind of paperwork, but you'll only see that after you've bought it, not up-front). Again, the proposed new Polish law supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will allow items like this to be "found" anywhere.

Of course the PAS in England and Wales affords the same possibility - but cases are either undetected by FLOs (watch this space) or hushed up if suspected or discovered - but rarely publicly discussed.

Time perhaps to grasp this particular nettle.