Friday 28 February 2014

Focus on UK Metal Detecting: Just what was Targeted?


A "small hill", not in Kent
By the finder's own account:
"...The day turned out great with sunshine the whole day. The usually finds were coming up, for instance bits of lead and some buttons and a bad Roman. I then moved onto a large mound / small hill that was flattened at the top and after about 10 minutes got a weak signal that turned out to be the first of some amazing finds...".
Mound?  Local knowledge in the social media about the findspot of this Anglo-Saxon grave group suggests:
"...  apparently its at the base of an upstanding scheduled Barrow..."
Well, not quite. According to DEFRA's 'Magic' website, neither the barrow which an online HER-based resource places on the same site as this discovery, nor the site are actually scheduled, but looking at what the site was already known to contain and how vulnerable it is, one wonders just why not. Britain is not exactly known for the care it takes of its important archaeological heritage unless it's made of gold or silver. Some debate is required here, will we see it? PAS? Anyone?

The Facebook thread to which I refer (and will discuss later) has some interesting comments from some British archaeologists who at long last have recovered their voice and seem to have had enough of the wanton erosion and disturbance of the archaeological heritage for personal entertainment and profit. They seem to resent Britain's wholly inadequate response. In other European countries, digging a hole into an archaeological site will earn you jail time, in Bonkers Britain you get a pat on the head and "you done right lad, thank you" from the establishment.

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