Fraud has been alleged in the UK in a "community archaeology" project, the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP). Its "former treasurer was charged with fraud and false accounting by Norfolk Police, amid suggestions in the media that over £100k may have gone missing from the project over a number of years". This group has been working with metal detectorists between 1998 and 2018. This comes after a recent case when the treasurer of another UK archaeology group was charged with a similar offence in May 2019 ("
Detectorist Reportedly Defrauds Archaeological Organization of £11k"and the scandal involving the group "Detecting for Veterans" in 2021. How many more are we not hearing about? And whatever has happened to amateur archaeology in Britain these days that from being an honest and gentile pastime, it has become associated with such criminal activity ?
Tuesday 16 July 2024
UK Archaeology Group Staff Member Under Investigation for Fraud
An Ancient Land.
US "Historian making videos on ancient civilizations":
Luke Caverns @lukecaverns · Jul 15"an ancient land" - as if there was nothing in his native Texas before the white landgrab. In his local museum, are the Native American cultures housed in the Natural History museum alongside the butterflies and stuffed birds like one I saw in Florida? To me, that's a telling attitude.
Good to be back in an ancient land. The Zapotec world is incredible.
Monday 15 July 2024
Istanbul Church Reopens as Mosque With Medieval Mosaics and Frescoes Intact
When the 11th-century Chora Church was ordered to be reconverted into a mosque in 2020, many feared for the fate of its richly decorated interior, which features some of the world’s finest Late Byzantine-era mosaics and frescoes. After a tense four-year wait while the building was closed for restoration, it reopened on May 6 as the Kariye Mosque with its treasured works of Christian art [ ] again open to public view.Except for a handful of pieces in the small central nave that has been set aside for the men’s prayer hall, off-limits to non-Muslims and women.
Friday 12 July 2024
From "Encyclopedic" Trophy Museum to Trophy "Encyclopedic Museum"
Reportedly, Hartwig Fischer, former British Museum director, after resigning amid a theft scandal, has been appointed as the founding director of a new museum of world cultures in Riyadh, set to open in 2026.
Sunday 30 June 2024
Metal detectorist to sell ‘Nobby’ the fertility figure he found in a field
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| . |
he found in a field" Standard `13 Jun 2024):
Retired lorry driver Bob Jemmett found the bronze figure, which measures 37mm by 10mm, in a ploughed field in Little Chishill, Cambridgeshire. The 75-year-old, of Manningtree, Essex, was at an organised rally when he made the discovery in September 2018. [...] Mr Jemmett said: “The weather was appalling with the rain lashing down, but I persevered and received a lovely signal from my Minelab 3030 detector. “Digging down four inches, I uncovered a small, bronze, nude, male figure, which featured a prominent erection similar to the Cerne Abbas Giant, that is carved into a hill in Dorset. “The figure was identified as a Celtic fertility figure and published on the Portable Antiquities website and subsequently used as a logo by the rally organisers in their promotions. “As a result, detectorists from all over Europe at rallies would ask me if they could see Nobby who I always keep in my pocket as a constant companion”.Sold at Noonans for £3,000. So the landowner will be getting half then? Of course "not in it for the money, eh".
The State of Britain
As Britain heads for a general election, the UK's top business newspaper comes out for Labour because... "Brexit, the defining project of this Tory era, has proven an act of grave economic self-harm". As was clear from their forums, the islands' metal detectorists were overwhelmingly in favour of leaving Europe, and they rejected what they labelled "project fear" (warnings of the consequences from specialists) with an " 'oo needs experts, eh? Wot d'they know?". In the same way as the fate of the country was determined by self-centred opiniated fluff-brains like that, the same country assigns looking after part of the archaeological heritage to the same crowd. Baz Thugwit can hardly string three sentences together coherently, let alone do any kind of documentation of the context from which he blindly hoiked and pocketed this or that 'partifact'. So much for public engagement.
Monday 24 June 2024
Some Opinions on Hancock's Writings and Their Relationship to Various Shades of Supremacism
List of WorksIt really looks like his focus on this issue is a deflection tactic - attempting to draw attention away from other issues with his "theories".
[Book Review]: David V. Barrett, 'Psst... wanna buy a secondhand conspiracy? Talisman: sacred cities, secret faith, by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval' Independent Thursday 19 August 2004 ["It's a mish-mash of badly-connected, half-argued theories. Only in the last chapter, and the misleadingly-titled Appendix, does the authors' purpose become clear. They suddenly start promulgating a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists. This is a deeply troubling end to a mess of a book. With luck, most readers won't get that far".]
Alexander Zaitchik, 'Close encounters of the Racist Kind' SPLCwatch January 02, 2018
Rick Hellman, 'Professor can comment on Netflix's ‘Ancient Apocalypse,’ pseudo-archaeology', University of Kansas News 25 Oct 2022Jennifer SANDLIN, 'Archaeologists reveal the white supremacist nonsense behind Netflix's "Ancient Apocalypse" Boing Boing, Sun Nov 27, 2022.
Robin McKie Science Editor, 'Lost city of Atlantis rises again to fuel a dangerous myth' Guardian Sun 27 Nov 2022.
Hugo Hodge, ' Netflix's Ancient Apocalypse series uses 'racist ideologies' to rewrite Indo-Pacific history, experts say' Australian Broadcastig Company, Pacific Beat, Posted Tue 6 Dec 2022.
Flint Dibble, 'The Dangers of Ancient Apocalypse’s Pseudoscience' Sapiens 6 Dec 2022
J R Leach, ' Ancient Apocalypse and Graham Hancock's 'Dangerous Ideas' Why has the popular Netflix documentary ignited the ire of the media?', Greenjack's Journal Dec. 11, 2022.
Eshaan Sarup, 'Bad science: Local experts call ‘Ancient Apocalypse’ one big lie', C-VILLE Weekly (Charlottesville), Dec. 21, 2022.
Sarah E. Bond, 'Why Archaeologists Are Fuming Over Netflix’s Ancient Apocalypse Series', Hyperallergic January 4, 2023.
Ruth Steinhardt, ' The Real Ancient Apocalypse', GW-Today January 23, 2023
Aaron Rabinowitz, 'Netflix’s Ancient Apocalypse with Graham Hancock: from alien conspiracies to antisemitism' The Sceptic, 15th February 2023
Catherine Upex, ‘Ancient Apocalypse’ Angers Archaeologists, Fueling an Alarming Mistrust of Academia', Nowadays (Edinburgh) 28 February 2023
Erin Blakemore, ' Why the myth of Atlantis just won’t die [The lack of evidence for its existence hasn’t stopped people from hunting for it—or insisting that archaeologists are involved in a cover-up]' National Geographic, April 19, 2023 [Dibble]. Carl Feagans, 'Archaeologist Helps Pseudoarchaeologist find His Lane' Archaeology Review April 30, 2024.
Chris Lazzarino ‘Ancient Apocalypse’ and the consequence of conspiracy', Kansas Alumni magazine Issue 2, 2023.
Summed-up on Quora:
William Hartwell (Writer, Science Fiction and Fantasy) 1yHe’s not hated - he’s laughed at. The man is a farce. His claims are sheer fantasy, his “research” indulges in confirmation bias supporting preconceived conclusions by ignoring context, cherry picking or misinterpreting evidence, and withholding critical countervailing data. Not a single one of his claims has undergone peer review, and he has never published a single paper in a peer reviewed journal..
In other words, the man is NOT a scientist. He has admitted that his writing was inspired by his drug use.
On top of everything else, his writings are full of antisemitic conspiracy theories and white supremacist “white savior” stories.
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Friday 21 June 2024
Having a Clear Out of Metal Detected Artefacts While Bloomsbury Sleepwalks On
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| Heaped artefacts from yet another of the UK's 40000 tekkies, one who couldn't be bothered to label their finds and record findespots. |
Metal Detecting Finds Job Lot. Having A Clear Out. Norfolk UK. Over 1.2kg
£32.00
stallionaja06
(1757)
100% positive Feedback
2.2K items sold Located in: Norwich, United Kingdom.
Joined Jan 2006
Item description from the seller"Silver", he says? Has it been looked at by the PAS? Did he declare it?
This job lot of metal detecting finds is a great addition to any collector's collection. The items were found in Norfolk, UK and include a variety of decorative collectables. The style of the finds is British and they are perfect for anyone who loves to collect unique pieces.
The job lot falls under the category of Collectables and specifically under the subcategory of Decorative Collectables. The items are perfect for anyone who loves to collect other decorative collectables and add them to their collection.
There are a few bits of silver in there too. Plenty of leather mounts and other unusual bits.
Not a single onde of these artefacts is labelled in any way to enable them to be linked with any documentation of findspot. "Responsible metal detecting" this is not. No mention of any PAS reports either. This is exactly the sort of thing an effective PAS would be contacting eBay over to get them to withdraw (and warning potential buyers of). But they are asleep in Bloomsbury.
The reason the seller calls these dugup artefacts "decorative collectables" is because for some years now, eBay has stopped selling dugup antiquities, and cancelled that category on their portal, so people selling antiquities get away of mumbling that they are selling "decorative" collectables - you know, like faux-Victorian mantelpiece clocks, framed reproduction antique maps, and china doggies. Is that a lie or not? You decde how "decorative" the artefacts in the photo are.
Among the eSeller's other items we find a "Job Lot Of Coins. All Metal Detecting Finds. Approximately 1.646kg With Tub". £19.99 2 bids · Time left 8h 34m.
The coins are in uncollectable state, bad is the word. None of the ones we see, none, will clean to a collectable state. Although these are mostly milled British, there are one or two older coins in there. Attention is drawn to the damage already done to some of the items shown by some kind of harsh chemical stripping, destroying parts of the surface of some ("as I have no means of cleaning them"- too bad he came to teh conclusion he did not know what he was doing until after he'd trashed them). There is also what looks like eBay-bought stuff here, a Canadian (?) coin, and a cast Chinese cash coin (photo too blurry to make out).
Pigs in a poke for sale "All coins are in bad condition so if you have the means to clean them feel free to bid. Explore the history of Britain with this exciting job lot of coins, all discovered through metal detecting. This collection, weighing approximately 1.646kg contains a variety of coins from different periods. Each coin is a unique piece of historical artefact that offers a glimpse into the past. The coins are from the United Kingdom, with some dating back centuries. This lot is perfect for collectors or anyone interested in history. Whether you are looking to add to your collection or simply want to own a piece of history, this job lot of coins is an excellent choice. These coins are sold as scrap really as I have no means of cleaning them".
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Looking at what else this seller currently has on sale and what has been sold easrlier suggests that this is not (necessarily) a metal detectorist, but might be a house-clearance shifter ( "categories: Collectables Pottery, Ceramics and Glass, Home, Furniture and DIY, Clothes, Shoes and Accessories, coins, Toys & Games") but then, "Having A Clear Out" in just this one lot suggests that he is getting rid of excess finds of his own.
Wednesday 19 June 2024
More Monumental Disrespect and Damage
Following yesterday's stunt at Stonehenge, we learn of some disrespectful citizens who assume the right to go around defacing individual monuments for victims of the Holocaust to make some point. Stolpersteins in Weimar yesterday.
Just STOP This: Just Stop Oil Attack Stonehenge With Orange Paint
Two clueless retards, named as Rajan Naidu, 73, and Niamh Lynch, 21, from "Just Stop Oil" have sprayed orange paint from canisters with propellant gas (!) onto the prehistoric Stonehenge stones on Wednesday.
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Posted on You Tube by
TalkTV 19.06.2024
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Several of the stones were seen covered in orange paint before one protester had his canister snateched away and sat dejectedly on the grass and the other was detained by a member of the public but kept on trying to spray until his canister was taken away (who was that woman?).
The group said it had used orange cornflour paint to spray onto the stones, which it claimed would “soon wash away with the rain”. So? It will equally wash into the stone, taking starch and dyestuffs into their surface pores. Not to mention the fact that on the surface of the stiones are old (portentially ancient) lichen colonies that this and the bacteria it will attract may harm. We have legislation protecting scheduled and Guardianship sites like this (which also has World Heritage List status)* - this time it should be used. These people sdshould be done for trespass and causing malicious damage. Will it, will Britain show it is willing to protect its heritage now? I'd also like to see some authorities in teh conservation movement iussue a statement on this. * I believe in Bonkers Britain, it may actually have a status of a religious building - damage to which has addittional legal sanctions.
Monday 17 June 2024
Enemy of Archaeology
"No true Archaeologist, or enthusiast of ancient history would be content on living the rest of their lives without knowing what’s waiting to be discovered at Gobekli Tepe. ~90-95% has NOT been excavated. Anyone not championing for full-excavation is an enemy of archaeology.">I'm not "chanpioning" anything until they've written up what they've already done, fully. And what Jimmy Corsetti thinks of that is up to him. I doubt he really understands what is involved, as do most of his slack-jawed mouth-breathing supporters drinking in every word.
Revealing "A***holes" Farewell from Detectorist Troll
"De. William Shephard" is not a real name, his claims to have arranged an exhibition of detecting finds [to which he challenged (!) me to add some finds from archaeological work in Poland] in Preston Museum turned out to be untrue - the Museum is closed and the office says they have never met this guy. He claims to be a retired, 83-year old microbiologist, but has no publication record. A time-waster.
Anyway he has just announced that he is getting a life and is going to take his leave from trolling this blog. Having issued a challenge for me to take part in a public debate with himself AND minor-TV-celebrity-tekkie Graeme Rushton, once I agreed and we started discussing it in detail, he's decided that discretion is the best part of valour and is scarpering off. However in taking his leave, he sent four off-topic comments to the Stahlbridge rally posts that we can reconstruct as a single text as follows. It reveals quite a lot about the tekkie mentality:
There is noting original here, the troll is just following the usual tekkie mantras that have been the ONLY basis of their interaction for three decades now:
As is this blog's policy on comment and criticism, I will allow the person mentioned here the opportunity of ONE substantive reply to the above comments. After that I will not be acceptng any more time-wasting pseudonymous "comments" to this blog from "Dr Willian Shephard", whoever he was. Let him start his own blog. Well, Paul, I have had my bellyful of you and your bigoted, unverifiable, jealous, and unwarranted assertions regarding the amateur historians, who, armed with nothing more than a legally operated machine, plus enthusiasm for a love of history, have uncovered more history, and, every week, continue to do so, than either you or your university educated "ubermensch" have ever done. Sorry, my friend, you are going to your grave a miserable man, whilst I, in my dotage, have lovely memories of artifacts (sic) unearthed, joy shared, and museums benefitting. Nice knowing you pal, NOT!!!Well, I guess he'll now be spending more time with his proud family after that little outburst. Note the immature anal fixation, what's that about?
All very nice Paul, but what have you found that has made a significant difference to our understanding of the past? F**k all would be the only answer. Now, if we consider those amateurs equipped with perfectly legal electronic devices, looking around fields you and your moronic University educated bigots would not even give a second glance to, what do we find??? Museums full of unearthed treasures giving pleasure to millions, I have had enough of you, as I suspect many of your "fellow" archaeologists also have. You have lost the battle pal, quit fighting...
It is time I said goodbye, I did not spend the biggest part of my youth searching for the truth using methodological naturalism (sic), only to be told by one whose trowel has yet to taste the sweet joy of unearthing history that all I did was in vain. A rather large piece of mistletoe is hanging from the rear of my jacket...
Barford, with whom I have electronically jousted for eons, is a prick, a moron, a disgrace to all things archaeological, he is a pimple on the arse of progress, and, if he wishes to redeem himself needs to apply the ointment of tolerance upon his sore and aching bottom.
There is noting original here, the troll is just following the usual tekkie mantras that have been the ONLY basis of their interaction for three decades now:
- Jealousy - archaeologists are 'jealous' of detectorists "finding nice things" (despite archaeOLOGY not being just "digging up old things", its something totally different from that.
- "Uncovered more history":one- digging up things from the past is not uncovering history, any more than finding a chunk of andesite in my back garden is in any way elucidating the history of the Earth.-"University educated "ubermensch":
two- that "more" comes from a perennial mistunderstanding of the Portable Antiquities Scheme Database. The PAS is not very good at explaining it in detail to these people or the public - not that they seem overly bothered by that.one- is rich coming from a guy not only claiming to have a doctorate, but actively not wasting any opportunity to stress that he "has a doctorate" claiming it as a distinguishing feature of his own identity!- What've you found that's made a significant difference to our understanding of the past? Well, it is not about "finding things" per se, but when it comes to what we do with the information acquired, in answer to the question, a damn sight greater number of publications than the demanding troll. The contribution to our understanding of the past made by the written word is up to its readers, the academic community and a whole load of other factors independent of the author.
two - as in pseudoarchaeology, the "free-thinker" claims their lack of any qualifications in the field as a badge of honour, they interpret this as freeing them from the learnt dogmas of instituitionalised learning (see "moronic University educated bigots"). They totally miss recognising that it also means they are underinformed about the underlying methodology and the discipline of presentation of their ideas so that they can face the rigours of academic discourse examining their validity, which is why they not only cannot do that, but misunderstand what is happening when they are challenged in this framework.
- "looking around fields you [...] would not even give a second glance to"This too is a thirty-year old PAS "justification" (to politicians who they were trying to convince to give them more funds), the organization never really explained more deeply to anyone.
You see, when UK archaeology for the past half century has been primarily developer funded, and concentrated on sites that are under threat, this mantra postulates digging up just any old place, whether or not there is an active and real threat. In doing so, it ties up resources that would be better expended elsewhere in archaeology, it goes against the dogma of PARIS (preseveration of archaeologicsal resources in situ), something the majority of detectorists have never heard of - most of all from the dozy old Portable Antiquities Scheme.
- " Museums full of unearthed treasures giving pleasure to millions", is this actually true? With Cardiff's National Museum on the brink of closure would a tekkie finding another hoard of silver pennies and a second finding a hoard with a palstave, ingot and spearhead turn things around? Would the crowds keep coming to see them? Would the COST of paying the Treaure ransom, the costs of conservation, cataloguing and display (not to mention insurance in the light of the recent Ely and Preston Museum thefts) leave anything for investing in the museum? Let us have a long hard look at what the British emphasis on ("lottsa luvverly) Treasure is doing to our archaeology and the way the public consume it.
- [Raising issues about Collection-Driven-Exploitation of the archaeological record] is a pimple on the a*** of progress", Actually in most disciplines, as well in public policy, progress comes from discussion, debate, confronting different ideas in various and changing contexts.
The UK of 2024 is no longer that of 1996 when the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme were set up. Failing to discuss what is right and wrong with the current stuation is the way to avoid stagnation, and indeed, lead to progress. If one of the casualties of that is the "metal detectorist" and his hobby, then they too have to move with the times, what they are currently doing is unsustainable, there is no question about that.
Friday 14 June 2024
"Cosmic Summit" - "Jaw-dropping Earth and Human History Insights".
June 15th/16th 2024 in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.
We are extending an invitation to hundreds of global attendees to explore additional jaw-dropping Earth and human history insights. More attendees, more speakers, and more captivating information await, all shared with like-minded individuals in a relaxed and affordable setting.
Once again the Cosmic Summit will deep dive the latest discoveries on the well-published Younger Dryas Impact Event, More Recent Cosmic Impacts, A Suspected Lost Civilization, Clovis People, The Black Mat, Megafaunal Extinctions, Gobekli Tepe, Forgotten Ancient Technologies, Controversial Archaeology, Atlantis, Megalithic Monument Building, The Knights Templar, Sacred Geometry, Egyptian Mysteries, UFO’s, Old & Cold Fusion, Catastrophic Geology, Carolina Bays…and more.
Grocers' Apostrophes and Bigfoot too? Sounds intriguing, who's doing the experimental archaeology workshops, so that deskbound participants and armchair enthusiasts can replace speculation about "mysterious ancient technologies" with hands-on experience?
Thursday 13 June 2024
Losing Contact with Reality
Dr. Holly Walters (@Manigarm) highlights this on social media, commenting: "
It's not harmless. It's not "just an innocent thing" to be fooled by AI. You NEED to be able to discern and differentiate reality. You NEED to know how the world works on a basic level. Because fooling you with baby animals and flowers is just the start of something much worse".The same goes for the pseudo-archaeologists campfollowers
Tuesday 11 June 2024
Cosplayer Content Creator Poses Jungle Ruins Exploration on Tourist Site
Writing from Texas, Mr Luke Caverns [@lukecaverns] accuses me of "toxic achaeology" for being concerned with context in what I write, as an archaeologist, in the public domain. This guy, after doing some "cultural anthropogy" course, has apparently made a career for himself making archaeology-related "content" - including publishing similarly judgemental material about others too. So it is interesting to look at his own activities in their context. My attention was caught by a recent self-published You Tube film where he is cosplaying as an intrepid jungle explorer ("I've got my snake boots on"): Exploring an Abandoned Ancient Temple in the Jungle ( 915 Likes, 8,885 Views18h ago)
In this video, Eli and I come across an abandoned ancient palace/temple in the jungles outside of the Maya site "Kohunlich". This is one of my favorite videos we shot on this expedition.Shockingly, at the very beginning, he is filmed huffing and puffing,
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| ufff, a stiff climb |
But, dear reader, you too can "come across abandoned ruins deep in the jungle" and when you've done pretending to be an intrepid cosplay explorer, can go and get a cool drink in the hotel/restaurant complex just a stone's throw away from this popular tourist attraction.
Or you can 'visit it' on Google Street View, it is well-covered. It's nice to know that apart from the restaurant there are toilets by the coach park.
Indeed, if you go there on Google Earth (18°25'9.22"N 88°47'27.40"W), you'll see that this snake-infested jungle depicted in the film is a relatively narrow strip in a thinned forest complex between grassland and fields. In size it is about a quarter of my own Bielany Forest on the edge of Warsaw (where, Mr Caverns, there are poisonous snakes too, though the wild boar are also a serious treat at certain times of the year).
This film raises a number of issues about the use of ancient sites for commercial activities, and there surely should be rules about clambering around on the ancient walls, risking their erosion and damage.
This film raises a number of issues about the use of ancient sites for commercial activities, and there surely should be rules about clambering around on the ancient walls, risking their erosion and damage.
The "Antithesis of Archaeology" According to Archaeo-Conspiracy Theorist
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| Look at the stratigraphy |
You will NOT BELIEVE this Gobekli Tepe update. It’s genuinely shocking and disturbing.
This is probably my most important video yet. The details are explosive 💥
He's upset that not more of the Gobeli Tepe site was excavated, and some of it has even been backfilled. Then there is a walkway and access to the site is a source of concern. Who's going to tell him? What I note here is the total lack of mention in his rant about proper publication. This is a site with some complex stratigraphy, and most of the photos we see are with the fill taken out. I'd like to find out how the various phases of the infilling (several layers visible in the photos of upstandiung baulks) relate to several phases of drystone wall construction with inserted megalithic T-stones. I'd like to see how that was documented and how it is interpreted before somebody takes spade to another part of this site.
Jimmy Corsetti sees only the pictures on the stones of "handbags". and where hands rest on tummies. Then, putting on his best "me, me, entitled" look he fulminates:
"I honestly cannot believe the current state of modern archaeology today, it appears to have been corrupted or at best totally mismanaged at such a level that is now preventing us from actually learning information about our ancient past. I mean to have an archaeological dig and not dig it up is the antithesis of actual Archaeology, is it not? So at this time I am calling on all archaeolologists, anthropologists, historians, skeptics and enthusiasts of ancient history alike to speak out about this incredible injustice what we now have in front of us is a unique opportunity to come together in one common goal which is to champion for further excavation at Gobekli Tepe. FREE GOBEKLI TEPE!
Friday 31 May 2024
Stalbridge, Hoard or Grave? Questions About a Pay-to-dig Commercial Rally in England [Updated]
Artefact hunter John Belgrave, 60, a retired pensions consultant from Purley, Surrey, made a newsworthy find at a pay-to-dig rally in the village of Stalbridge, near Sherborne, Dorset, in 2020. He uncovered a Bronze Age sword, an axe head and bronze bangle reportedly lying in a deposit together (Steven Morris, Detectorist unearths Bronze Age hoard after getting lost on treasure hunt Guardian Thu 30 May 2024). He said he discovered he'd been separated from the group and headed to higher ground to try to spot them "when he made what he has called the find of a lifetime".
His device activated as he walked along and when he dug down he uncovered a rapier sword dating back to the Middle Bronze Age.Just in passing, metal detectors do not have a mind of their own. They do not "activate" themselves. Either Mr Belgrave had it turned on, or he had it turned off. But let us remember that he says he did not know where he was, whether he was still in the area where the landowner had given permission to search, or not. The rest of the rally participants were nowhere in sight. Anyway, when the machine beeped, he dug down "eight inches". This raises the question of whether the find was made as widely-scattered pieces in ploughsoil, or in a relatively discrete zone eight inches down in pasture?
The 61cm (2ft) rapier had been deliberately broken into three pieces and placed in the ground alongside the remains of a wealthy landowner. Unusually, the hilt, though cast in bronze, was shaped to mimic a wooden handle. Only two similar rapiers have been found in Britain before and they were incomplete. As well as the rapier, a palstave axe head and a decorative arm bangle were found, presumably buried as an offering. Dorset Museum and Art Gallery raised £17,000 to buy the objects, with the proceeds shared between Belgrave and the landowner. Belgrave [...] paid £20 to go on the rally on private farmland but became separated from the group. Belgrave said: “There was a group of between 40-50 detectorists there ...
So this unnamed landowner got 800-1000 quid to let these people on his land and walk off with whatever they found that was not reportable as Treasure, and then another 8000 quid on top of that. And what archaeological information was lost? The PAS record of this find [SUR-68C46E] was made in February 2020, and if we look, according to the database, it is the ONLY FIND reported from Stalbridge in 2020. There are no other finds from this commercial search on record. Who was the organiser? Where is this "responsible metal detecting"? 40-50 detectorists, the only one who it seems reported something is the guy who had to, by law, because the hoard fell under the Treasure legislation. The PAS database reveals that all the rest just walked off with the loot. One in fifty.
The story of how Belgrave became separated from the group and made the discovery is puzzling:
Belgrave said: “There was a group of between 40-50 detectorists there and they had searched the land before [but had not found the hoard previously? PMB] [...] “I tagged along and didn’t know anyone there. Somehow I got left behind and lost and so I walked to high ground in a field and that is when I got a strong signal for this find of a lifetime.
There are a number of problems with this trite story of "how I found this hoard on a rally", like the satellite photos showing the whole area around Stalbridge as pretty boringly flat, with no commanding hills - so where was this "high ground"? There were no witnesses to the tekkie's "hoard dance" then? And any photos of the items in situ? And those "remains of a wealthy landowner"? [Update: I checked this with the local FLO, who has not replied, but one from a neighbouring county - who actually dealt with the find confirms that the journalist probably misunderstood or invented that bit of the story; neither have replied to my question whether there will be a paper publication of this hoard and its implications beyond a potentially ephemeral digital record in the PAS database].
Questions About a Pay-to-dig Commercial Rally in England
Belgrave [...] paid £20 to go on the rally on private farmland but became separated from the group. Belgrave said: “There was a group of between 40-50 detectorists there ...
So this unnamed landowner got 800-1000 quid to let these people on his land and walk off with whatever they found that was not reportable as Treasure. What archaeological information was lost? This is just one of many commercial pay-to-dig rallies that are held up and dpown the country to serve Britain's 40k acquisitive artefact hunters. How sustainable is this activity?
Thursday 30 May 2024
Valuing the PASt in England
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| "Bigger than yer average torcBigger than yer average torc" |
The charity Crimestoppers is offering a £5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of thieves who stole two Bronze Age treasures from a museum. A 3,000-year-old gold torc and a bracelet were taken during a break-in at Ely Museum in Cambridgeshire on 7 May.>It is interesting to compare that to how much the museum paid to have it temporarily on display in a showcase they could not secure: . It was valued at £220,000, split 50:50 between the finder and landowner, but with the total loss of any archaeological context [quite obviously, this is not a "ploughsoil find"] Ely Museum buys Bronze Age torc found in field 25 September 2017
The museum has been able to pay for the torc after receiving a grant of £138,600 from National Heritage Memorial Fund, plus grants from the Arts Council, Art Fund, Headley Trust, Museums Association and donations from members of the public. [...] Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the memorial fund, said without its funding "the torc could have ended up in private hands and been lost from public view".Or not. What actually would "tell the story of Bronze Age civilisation in and around the fens more than 3,000 years ago" better than a loose "ooo-ah!" trophy item with some unfounded dumbdown speculation about "why it is so big" would be full knowledge of the archaeological context that thing (and who knows what else?) had been lying in for those three thousand years. Tell me I am wrong, and why.
"Thankfully, this extraordinarily rare, precious and beautiful piece of history will now be on permanent display at Ely Museum, helping to tell the story of Bronze Age civilisation in and around the fens more than 3,000 years ago," she said.
Tuesday 28 May 2024
Debate is in the Air: Let's Get it Out in the Open.
Octogenerian metal detectorist, retired microbiologist Dr William Shephard claims to have a pro-detecting archaeologist ("lovely finds from his dig last Sunday") who is his "bulwark", and has thrown down a challenge in the name of British artefact hunters
28 May 2024 at 12:50:
Well, Paul, I, and Mr. Rushton would be prepared to meet with you at any location you prefer, to discuss the merits, or otherwise of metal detecting, do you agree to such a meet?Blogger Paul Barford saidBlogger Paul Barford said...
Two against one eh?Let us do it, but do it properly.Vignette: film combat.pl
You have still not explained who this "Mr Rushton" is. But, assuming he's a pro-detecting archaeologist, yes, I'll take you on.
Let us do a Hancock-Dibble -style debate, same format, film it and post it up for public information.
But to even it up, so it is not the two of you against my views alone, I ropose asking Flint Dibble - who has already informed me (pers.comm.) that he'd be up to doing a debate with artefact hunters. He has the broad knowledge and experience that would inform such a debate (He's also a Marie-Sklowdowska Curie Research Fellow, in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University which makes it appropriate). So yes, please contact Dr Dibble and see if he's interested in talking to you. Maybe he could provide a venue there in Cardiff and there'd be an audience of students at least.
As a moderator, I would like to suggest Mike Heyworth, who has also some broad experience with public archaeology and metal detecting issues/PAS liaison. He would be an ideal moderator I think, if he'll agree. Try him.
I'd also like to do it the way Joe Rogan did, starting off with a presentation, and incorporating short video presentations with a couple of talking heads, I have two people in mind who have something to say on this issue.
As for timing, I probably am not free until mid-September.
US returns to Italy ANOTHER $80 million-worth of stolen artifacts
There has been a new 'repatriation' (Barbie Latza Nadeau, US returns $80 million-worth of stolen artifacts to Italy CNN May 28, 2024). The return to Italy was possible thanks to the investigations conducted by the Carabinieri and various Public Prosecutor's Offices together with the New York District Attorney's Office and Homeland Security Investigations. The repatriation ceremony was held in the offices of the Central Institute for Restoration’s in central Rome, where some 600 seized and returned works of art were put on display
THat's just one DA's office in one US city ("Bogdanos said the $80 million of items does not include a further 100 items his team has just seized in the US')."Ranging from life-sized bronze statues to tiny Roman coins, from oil paintings to mosaic flooring, the pieces span the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD and amount to just one year’s stolen and trafficked art confiscated by Manhattan prosecutor Col. Matthew Bogdanos’ team and returned to Italy.
The trafficked works[...] were sequestered in New York and New Jersey last year. The returned works, together with 60 items repatriated last year, are worth more than $80 million (or roughly €73.6 million) — but are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to artwork still hidden away in private warehouses and on display in museums in the United States [...]
Most of the recent items returned to Italy were dug out of clandestine excavations or stolen from churches, museums and private individuals [...] Among the items on display on Tuesday was a cuirass and two bronze heads dating back to the 4th-3rd century BC that were confiscated from a gallery owner in New York. [name?]
There was also an Umbrian bronze statue depicting a warrior stolen from an Italian museum in 1962 that was found in a well-known American museum. [name?] And a mosaic floor depicting the myth of Orpheus enchanting wild animals with the sound of the lyre from the mid-3rd to mid-4th century AD was recovered after being stolen from a clandestine excavation in Sicily in the early 1990s. It was confiscated from the private collection of a well-known New York collector [name?]".
See also: Tom Kington, "The ‘extraordinary’ haul of looted Roman artefacts and its links to British traders
" The Times May 28, 2024.
Saturday 25 May 2024
Detectorists Hate Catholics? [UPDATED]
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| Teotokos differently |
I care not regarding your deities, their connection to "culture" is non-existent. Culture is the shared belief leading to the eventual well-being of people, how does slavery, infanticide, filicide, genocide, misogyny, racialism, ethnic cleansing, rape, and many more evils supported by Christianity contribute to "Culture?"I guess that in British schools, they no longer do Sparta, Spartacus, ancient Carthage, Romulus and Remus, the massacre of the Midianites, ancient Greek (or any other) patriachy, the classical world's division of "us" and "barbaricum" (debate on the invention of racism in Classical Antiquity), expulaion of Jews from Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, expulaion of Jews from Israel by the Romans in the 130sAD, The Armenian genocide (1916-17) and the Greek genocide (1914-22) by the Ottomans, Boudica's two daughters, Ganymede, the Sabine women, and many more phenomena that quite clearly are not being taught in UK's metal-detecting schools. A shame that Brits like this should be mouthing off their utter ignorance and prejudices creating the impression of a post-Brexit Britain that is now dragging along behind the rest of Europe when it comes to understanding the world.
Update 28.05.2024
In the comments: "as children, we had to salute a plaster statue of the ''Virgin''...". that rather explains it. Like when you read Erich von Daniken's early books, you see that his "God was an astronaut" theories were hitting back at a religious childhood the Saint-Michel International Catholic School in Fribourg, Switzerland (see his 1974 infamous Playboy interview)
Not Just Metal Detectorists, is it?
Bill Farley, ArchaeologyTube @ArchaeologyGame · May 19
You know, before starting to do this online public archaeology stuff, I never would have guessed that people could be this obnoxious about topics they know nothing about.
Another click-bait searching pseudo-archaeologist's social media account (https://x.com/DeDunkingPast) has the banner below addressed to Bill Farley an archaeologist who engaged with him, explaining "I make videos that are often focused on scientists letting their biases ruin their perspectives... So I don't see this as bad, to me, it's job security
". In other words, he expects to make his money out of posting anti-science videos, and sees people trying to put the record straight and do outreach to his readers as a threat to his profits: 
But for good ol' chip-on-yer-shoulder personal abuse, you still can't beat the metal detectorists:
William Shephard has left a new comment on your post '"Are we being LIED TO about ancient history?":While attacking somebody because of their religious beliefs may be part of the Kinderstube 'oop North' in the UK, it would help if the crass jerk had not got it completely wrong "big time". I am not a Catholic. My mother-in-law is.Are you not ashamed of yourself Paul? Hated by the metal detectorists who uncover history where you would never, ever think of looking, reviled even by members of your chosen profession, my dear fellow I know you are a devout Roman Catholic, a brainwashed victim of intense pressure but, pause a while, there is still hope, reject one of your beliefs, [the religious bullshit]and that may open the door to a realisation that you may be wrong, big time.
I would question the term "uncover history" when artefact looting is concerned. It is no more "finding history" than finding a smashed snail-shell dropped on the concrete path where a blackbird has finished its lunch is "finding ecology". The PAS needs to do more work with Britains tekkie buffoons. It has not made much headway so far in its (now) third decade.
Wednesday 22 May 2024
Let us See [UPDATED]
EBay dealer made me an offer (reduced from US $900.00 to $800.00). My reply:
No thanks, I "watched" this coin as an example of what seems to me to be a moderately dangerous fake. The coin looks to be cast rather than struck. If you paid a lot of money for it, in my opinion there is a high chance that you were cheated - before you sell it as an authentic artefact, you need to get an experienced specialist to look at it - maybe a metal analysis too. You also need to say what its collection history is and whether any export licences exist for it to reach Thailand legally. Good luck.The use of a broken caliper as a scale (diam c. 16mm) really looks unprofessional. The legend is ANTONIN AVG PONT TRP III[]. rev" CONCORDIA AUG. I am not in my library at the moment, so cannot search for this coimn, but I have feeling I'd not find it. First of all, correct me if I am wrong, but that PONT looks a bit odd if this is Antoninus Pius as Augustus. I suspect this is a nonsense inscription (?). Above all an aureus of that emperor would be around 19mm in diameter and weigh 7.2/7.3g. This one is 16mm and weight is (they say) 3.9gm. Is this coin in fact modelled on a denarius (which are about that diameter)? So let us see how the seller reacts.
UPDATE 25.05.2024
Seller Uddiyana Art (308) 100% positive (" PrivateRegistered as private seller, so consumer rights stemming from EU consumer protection law do not apply") Ignored my message. Seller's other items.Some of their "Gandhara-stuff-without-mention-of-export-licences" is quite nicely done (and - ahem -evenly patinated), others less-so. Most of their stuff is overpriced.
"Ancient" Vase Fantasies Again: UPDATE Matt Beall
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| . |
Some people never learn, you can tell 'em and its like water off a duck's back. So Matt Beall, having set his pal Luke Caverns on me for discussing his fantasies about his "perfectly-round-might-be-lost-technology"..."ancient Egyptian stone vase" has just published another - er, another "perfectly-round-might-be-lost-technology"..."ancient Egyptian stone vase". And just to stave off any criticisms, and show why he is so confident that this is a real ancient vase... he shows the piece of paper. At the top it has the dealer's name. My ears prick up. It is a known name. There is a thread on this business on a collectors' forum I presume Mr Beall will have come across researching his artefact. I've written about them twice: "Emptor, Caveat and Do Your Homework"
Saturday 23 April 2022, and
"A Lady and her Scarab" Thursday 14 April 2022.
But let's look at the claimed collection history: there are three families named - but I have not found any other reference to their collections. Then it's a "French family" and "inherited" within that unnamed family, and then the new owner IS named.
Where it was before "1962" is not given. Mr Beall's belief that this piece of paper authenticates this object relies on the belief that in 1962 there were no lathes in stonemasons' yards that could turn a stone object. Yeah, right. Get a vase from a proper archaeological contet Mr Beall, not off the market. What there is not to understand?
But let's look at the claimed collection history: there are three families named - but I have not found any other reference to their collections. Then it's a "French family" and "inherited" within that unnamed family, and then the new owner IS named.
Where it was before "1962" is not given. Mr Beall's belief that this piece of paper authenticates this object relies on the belief that in 1962 there were no lathes in stonemasons' yards that could turn a stone object. Yeah, right. Get a vase from a proper archaeological contet Mr Beall, not off the market. What there is not to understand?
UPDATE 25.05.2024
Antiquities buyer Matt Beall who yesterday was claiming he was posting stuff on social media about the vases he bought in order to "share" and learn what people think seems not to be interested in learning what happens when archaeologists get shown a dodgy artefact with inadequate documentation. So now hwe's blocked me. To what extent is any of this "alt.archaeology" stuff a real intellectual curiosity and desire to learn (and cvontribute) and how much is it attention-seeking (look-at-me-what-I've-got/what-controversial-thing-I-said) clickbait? I suspect a lot of the latter.
Friday 17 May 2024
Night of Museums 2024
Night of Museums 2024 in Warsaw
This year it is the 20th anniversary edition of the Night of Museums. In Warsaw, 312 institutions are registered to take part in this year's campaign and have prepared 336 events, most of them especially for this night. Nearly 50 institutions will take part in the Night of Museums for the first time.
Many museums in Ukraine have been destroyed or closed because of the War. In Saratov, Volga region, Russia, a "Museum of the Special Military Operation", welcomes children and adults for a "Night in a Museum" with "real life experience". There is another in Nizhny Novgorod, also on the Volga, in the former premises of the House of Books. Russian museum managers are a breed apart.
"Are we being LIED TO about ancient history?"
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| Screen grab from You Tube video - fair use for purposes of criticism |
This looks like clickbait to me. Caverns writes:
"With the rise of research from the likes of Graham Hancock, Randall Carlson, Robert Schoch and the late John Anthony West, we're beginning to see the emerging sentiment that the scientific/archaeological community is a dogmatic, hierarchical "Good Boys Club" that attempts to silence its skeptics and opposition".He probably means old boys. The argument he's making here is very unclear, it's all over the place, on the one hand it's a fawning puff-piece for Graham Hancock, while pretending to be adding nuance to that man's ideas (note though that he calls Hancock's pole-shifting "Fingerprints of the Gods" a "novel" - why?).
Caverns totally ignores the background history of the "Atlantis" genre of pseudoarchaeology (De Camp 1971), ideas originating from the 1870s in the likes of Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908) after his investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán and James Churchward (1851–1936) in a series of books of the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with his 'Lost Land of Mu'. Then its history enters a phase where in European historiography it is mixed up (Kurlander 2017) in the völkisch-esoteric politics and ideology of pre-War Germany , Alfred Rosenberg's 'Myth of the Twentieth Century', etc. and so on. Hancock is by no means the innovator he and his devotees make out. But when the unsavory roots and intellectual associations of these ideas are pointed out, they get all huffy.
Caverns even brings portable antiquities and collectors into the equation... Looking into the camera from his attic room, in all seriousness he comes out with this:
"I won't get into specific names, sites or situations but a more explicit example of moral corruption in Archeology are the organizations over the heads of young hard-working archaeologists. There are places in the world where the government itself carries out secret archaeological digs to sell artifacts on the black market. Now are these artifacts evidence pertaining to an ancient Lost Civilization that need to be hidden from the general public? Or is it more likely that many faceless nameless billionaires would be willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to own several thousand-year-old artifacts that can't be found anywhere else in the world? It's most likely the latter."This guy cites no evidence for this accusation of foreign heritage professionals, but the photo he shows in the video to bolster his claim of this conspiracy-theorist "secret government" organization is.... of the storeroom under the New York shop of Mehrdad Sadigh the fake seller that was all over the international press three years ago. What a clown. Caverns is trying to pull the wool over his audience's eyes in the search for lucrative internet clicks with tabloid style "shock-horror-sensational" content with no backup.
As I say, he cites no sources, but it is possible that this is a half-remembered rehashing of Jonathan Tokely-Parry's justifications, or some stuff thrown around by the antiquities dealers' lobbyists. What the young wannabe scholar fails to mention is the roles of dealers and US dealers (like Sadigh) in particular, in damaging and corrupting the archaeological record so that people like his collector friend with the vases I discussed can "own a piece of the past".
References:
De Camp, Lyon Sprague (1971) [1954]. Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature. Dover Publications.
Kurlander, Eric 2017.'"One Foot in Atlantis, One in Tibet". The Roots and Legacies of Nazi Theories on Atlantis, 1890-1945' in Leidschrift 32, no. 1 (January 2017): 81–101.
De Camp, Lyon Sprague (1971) [1954]. Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature. Dover Publications.
Kurlander, Eric 2017.'"One Foot in Atlantis, One in Tibet". The Roots and Legacies of Nazi Theories on Atlantis, 1890-1945' in Leidschrift 32, no. 1 (January 2017): 81–101.
Thursday 16 May 2024
Are Archaeologists Talking About Looting? Nope.
Oosterman, Naomi, and Cara Grace Tremain. 2024. “Are Archaeologists Talking About Looting? Reviewing Archaeological and Anthropological Conference Proceedings from 1899–2019Are Archaeologists Talking About Looting?Reviewing Archaeological and Anthropological Conference Proceedings from 1899–2019.” International Journal of Cultural Property 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739124000080
The impetus for this study was a review of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) 86th Annual Meeting program in 2021. Finding that no single poster or presentation referenced looting or antiquities trafficking despite these issues being ethical considerations that all SAA members are expected to recognize, we sought to investigate whether this was an irregularity – perhaps due to the virtual format of the meeting – or whether it was more common than not. For a broader understanding of if, how, and where these topics are discussed by archaeologists outside of the SAA, we expanded the investigation and studied the archives of 14 other archaeological and anthropological conferences. The results of the study show that despite there being an overall increase in mentioning looting and antiquities trafficking at conferences, it remains a niche and infrequently discussed topic.
pp 12-13
"Figure 1 shows an increase in the discussion of our keywords from the mid-1980s, but starts to gain more momentum and consistency beginning from 1999 (approx.), taking off in 2003. There were no observations between 1899 and 1934 in our data. The first mention in our data was observed in 1935 at the AIA. Observations remained sporadic until 1985. Since 2003, there have been at least ten presentations dedicated to art and heritage crimes with the largest volume of presentations in one conference taking place in 2015 at the EEA".
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