Feb-2 2012: Portable Antiquities Wishes Looted Finds Database....

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Portable Antiquities wishes the web resource Lootbusters:
"Good luck! Hope the Polish axis of one eyed mantra leaves you alone".

Dorothy King, creator of the page, replies: "Paul & I are on the same side in that similar aims".

One would have thought that since the Portable Antiquities Scheme was set up to do archaeological outreach about people finding stuff and what should be done with it, that organization and I were also on the same "side" with "similar aims". It would seem not.

The PAS quite obviously would prefer to be "left alone" to get on with being "partners" to those that exploit the archaeological record for collectables for personal entertainment and profit without anyone looking over their shoulder. It is, however, precisely in that part of its current activities for which I think it should be held accountable to us all.

But then, am I not expecting too much? How can one possibly account for that? So they content themselves with ignoring discussions like that begun last year by Professor David Gill and insulting one-eyed Barford among themselves, and hope not too many other people start ask awkward, but pertinent, questions. Well, I hope they do, before it is too late to stop the enormous damage being caused by these Bloomsbury policies.

Feb-1 2012) Who Will "Outreach" to Landowners with “No reporting – No permission”?

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The new Stop Taking Our Past (STOP) campaign being promoted by British conservation group Heritage Action (see here) couldn’t be more beneficial as it simply asks farmers to ensure all finds made by artefact hunting metal detectorists get reported. The campaign takes a stand which can only be beneficial for archaeology, archaeologists, landowners and the public. They write:

Unlike the original STOP campaign it’s not going away so hopefully every landowner in Britain will hear about it. We’d really appreciate some help though. So as we said before, if you’re a history lover, archaeologist or ethical detectorist please spread the message – “No reporting – No permission”. Why wouldn’t you?

It would be good to see now the appearance of a webpage detailing the damage done to the archaeological record and the public's knowledge about the past caused by artefact hunters and detectorists taking and not reporting what they've taken away. Obviously Heritage Action are more than capable of producing such a piece of public outreach about portable antiquities. But there IS, isn't there, an organization in England which over the years has been getting a lot of dosh for doing precisely that and has been accumulating quite a bit of experience in talking to the public as well as the media on (one presumes) precisely that. How about it PAS ladies and gentlemen? Will you fall in behind Heritage Action and help them promote the message that artefact seekers reporting finds to the PAS (to yourselves!) is the only responsible way forward? Or will you give it a miss and leave it up to them to do?

Jan 2012 - 1) Balance of 2011

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Looking at the figures for PAS "success" reveals a disquieting problem. Statistical analysis of the database for Saturday 1st January 2011 until Sunday 1st January 2012 Total records from artefact hunting: 50,032 (66067 objects).

The Heritage Action Artefact Erosion counter indicated that at a minimum (because I now feel the number of active "detectorists" used in the algorithm is several thousand short) 265,350. I think there is every reason to accept that this is indeed a reasonably reliable indicator of the scale of the depletion of the archaeological record due to artefact hunting, indeed I feel for a number of reasons it is an even more conservative estimate than it was when the counter was set off ticking back in 2005.

That would mean that four in five instances of recordable objects discovered in England and Wales with a metal detector in 2011 were dug up, and disposed of one way or another with no public record being made to mitigate the erosion. If in the UK, the hospital system was able to treat only one in five cancer patients, the welfare authorities were able to save only one in five children in serious danger from abuse, only one in five young married couples could find a home of their own, one in five school leavers find a job, the conservation services and planning system save one in five grade one listed buildings from demolition, nobody in their right mind would be saying that British policies are a "success".

After coming up to fourteen years of liaison and partnership, the Portable Antiquities Scheme is still a pathetic temporary "better than nothing" knee-jerk, ad hoc reaction to a problem which it can increasingly clearly be seen needs resolving another way. How long can this go on?

Sept 2011 - 1) "Support" for Commercial Artefact Hunting Rallies

Why when a BBC journalist interviews a member of the PAS staff (in this case Kevin Leahy) does he or she come away with the impression which is then passed to the British public that the expert "supports" commercial artefact stripping of this type (Commercial Artefact Hunting "Festival" in East Yorkshire)? Could not the PAS, as part of its "archaeological outreach", prepare a brief journalists' pack to hand out when interviewed pointing out how damaging artefact hunting, and commercial rallies in particular, are and pointing out that PAS presence is the lesser of two evils, because experience has shown that if the PAS does not attend, very few of the items removed are later brought to the FLOs for recording.

Aug 2011 - 5) Grave Robbing by Archaeologists

Metal Detectorist Steve Taylor imagines he lives in a "Christian country" and asks "How much do we need..." and accuses archaeologists of "grave robbing":

Should archaeologists be able to plunder and desecrate ancient grave sites[?] In a Christian society is it right in the name of science that graves are being looted by archaeologists, just to see how these people lived and died. It a bit like the Japanese whaling fleets killing whales to study, but in reality it is just an excuse to carry on eating them. Have we not now got enough evidence to say these people died of X, and leave the rest in peace[?]

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach inform members of the public why and when in modern archaeology graves are excavated, and what laws and codes of ethics apply? There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify these issues? Thanks.

Aug 2011 - 4) How much do we need in Museums?

Metal Detectorist Steve Taylor asks why, now we have metal detectorists taking most of the remains of the past from Britain's landscape into the "care" of their personal collections, we need museums at all: "How much do we need..." [in museums]:

How many more artefacts do museums around the world need before they are full to the brim. Most of these collections are kept in vaults or basements where they will never see the light of day, so to say they belong to everyone is a bit like going to ask the Queen to borrow the Crown jewels for the evening. The Ashmolian (sic) museum has many fine Bronze Age axe heads on show in glass display cases, but if you care to open the rows of draws beneath the display cases, you will see several hundred more examples. What is the point of holding these items if they are not in the main display cabinets, as the majority of people will never view them. Public money should be used to show what we already have , not to aimlessly buy what we already have many examples of. Those academics and Professors will always argue we need this information but in reality it is just to keep them employed, as many would find it hard working on a Tesco‘s till.

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach about portable antiquities they also inform members of the public about the significance and purpose of museum collections of archaeological artefacts, why there are "so many" items curated in them. Should museums collect antiquities at all, or should they all go to metal detectorists and those who collect them? There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify these issues? Thanks.

August 2011- 3) Are Archaeologists Demolishers of Ancient British History?

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Metal detectorist Alan Hassell expresses a few commonly-held opinions about archaeologists in this You-Tube presentation. I'd like to see the PAS actually answer this ('Archaeology Demolishers of Ancient British History'):