Private Collections & Metal Detectors; the dangers of amatureism

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

Hello fellow computer users, welcome to will, no doubt be a thrilling short essay, written by part time troll/lurker and general twc misanthrope, Hookah Smoking Caterpiller.

It will focus on the world of amature archaeologists metal detectorists, and private collectors, and the implications of their actions on our knowledge of the past. (this will be primarly from a UK viewpoint, although some of the discussion about private collections will be on a more world view scale. This bias is due to my own personal experice which exculsively UK based)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Anyone who has spend any time in the wider archaeological world will know the unremitent hate felt by many archaeologists for those who use metal detectors as a hobby; while many are responsible history enthusiasts (However often they cause more damage than good) there is a small minority who hunt for specific objects (usually coins of certain eras), for their own personal collections. While the removal of the odd coin here or there may seem largely irrelevent, numatists (coin specialists) can reveal a great deal about society from these simple, small single artefacts, which can lead to ground breaking insights into past societies and civilizations. This will be the subject of discussion in this short article.

Firstly, I will look at the phenomena of metal detectorists, and the damage they often (unwittingly) cause to the archaeological environment. To many, metal detectorists are simply eccentric enthusiasts, taking their love of history to a new (and slightly weird) level. However, every successful find by a metal detectorist, and the subsquent scrabbling in the dirt, removes that item from is historical context; the coin could well just have been dropped by a passing person, or the now absent coin could be the one datable object from that archaeological site, furthermore, by removing a single item from its context, it could remove all evidence of that period from a multi period site.

For example, on a recent dig I was on in East Anglia, we were excavating a Iron Age Trackway, and, during previous seasons' work on the site a few roman coins had been found in higer levels (i.e. closer to the surface), while these, at the time seemed irrelevent to what we were aiming to excavate, they were properly processed and recorded (an issue I shall return to), and yet during this seasons' excavation, a brushwood Trackway, which ran accross our later Iron Age Trackway was discoverd. However, buy recording its hight and then comparing this with the hight above sea level of the Roman coins recorded during previous excavations, it was discoverd that this brushwood Trackway, was of late celtic origin, and had fallen into dissuse during the Conquest of Britain, if, as had happend to other sites in the area, (e.g. the recently found massive Anglo-Saxon Horde) metal detectorists had plunderd the site, this vital piece of information about the early activities on the site, would have been lost, and the context in which the Brushwood Trackway was placed would have been lost.

Furthermore, rarely do metal detectorists report their finds, or when they do, they only give vague or even missleading locations (except in Scotland, where failure to do so is a criminal offence), before the artefacts go into either private collections or are auctions and then fall into private collections, this results in there archaeological value being all but destroyed, with so much archaeological information coming from the greater context of the object/site much of their value to the historian/archaeologist the object is wasted, destroying a utterly un-renewable resource.

Secondly, Private collections, while many may think it is good to have 'there own peice of history' private collectors are often little more than treasure hunters, guilty of looting and damaging that which they claim to love so much - the human understanding of the past. Many private collectors jelously guard their hoarde, keeping it hidden from both the general public, and interested researchers and academics. Since some private collections date back to the 18th/19th Centuries (the golden age of looting), some of these artefects have yet to be incorperated & anaylised so that they can be placed the overall body of human historical knowledge. To emphasise the importance of certain artefacts, even without the near-essential-context, we shall look a case study; the Greco-Bactran Kingdom, of the late 2nd/early 1st Century BC.

In this essay the wider history (and intriging) of this state is largely irrelevent; however, one point is paramount, the lack of a textual resource, and minimal at best archaeological evidence. This leaves the best resource for information about Bactra, that oft collected, and highly valued object: Coins. In the two 'textbook' histories of this civilization (W.W. Tarn's Bactra and the Indo Greeks, although somewhat outdated, and Frank Holts' Thundering Zeus) the main body of data comes from numistic evidence, and much of the arguments proposed in the book, rely heavily on numistic interpretations and anyalsis of the coins discoverd from this civilization, the remaining data is much more sparse consisting of: one excavated city (Ai-Khanoum, some belive to be Alexandria-on-the-Oxus), a few fragmentry, cusury comments in Greek and Roman Histories. Primarly from some 80 coins, an entire civilization can be reconstructed; its dynastic changes, power-struggles, symbology, faith, wealth, and more can be determined. How many more coins from this and other civilizations languish withing the dusty cabinets of the private collector? There secrets yet to be revealed and interpreted by the trained specialist.

To conclude as our collective past is a un-renewable resource, one that is highly prized and discussed, and its interpretation and relation to the present so essential to modern issues, to squander it in the hands of the amature, no matter how good his/her intentions may be, is to waste one an invaulble resource. While this may seem elitist, it is in the interest of all; those for whom studying history is a profession, and for those who it is simply a hobby, a passion, or a love.

Tl;dr, artefacts should be for specialists and not squanderd in the hands of the untrained and uninformed.

I hope you enjoyed reading, comment/rage/blame it on the muslims, all and any discussion is welcome.

Blame spelling & Grammer on either: Dyslexia, The Freemasons or 'youth culture'

[Yorkshireman]

Good post. Are you training in Archeaology ? (I'd love to have had a big enough brain to do something like that.)

I agree with your statement entirely.

My knowledge of archeaology extends to being a big fan of Time Team, I've never missed an episode. I was amazed during one of the episodes when they showed all the coins and artifacts that were available to buy over the internet. I think it is basically theft of our historical legacy. I suppose the problem is that its impossible to prevent, every inch of land in the UK and Ireland must have something interesting buried beneath it, short of making sales of rare articles illegal, I'm not sure how it can be stopped.

For most people its history, to a small percentage its a lucrative trade.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

Good post. Are you training in Archeaology ? (I'd love to have had a big enough brain to do something like that.)

Yes, doing Undergraduate Archaeology & Ancient History, I indend to do postgrad as well, often you don't need a degree to work in the field, as the whole 'heritige' industry (as it is annoyingly refered to) tends to be underfunded their is always a place for ethusiastic volunteers to do the basics (i.e. shoveling huge amounts of earth, while the archaeologists stand around and discuss things ). my first two digs were as an unpaid volunteer.

I agree with your statement entirely.

My knowledge of archeaology extends to being a big fan of Time Team, I've never missed an episode. I was amazed during one of the episodes when they showed all the coins and artifacts that were available to buy over the internet. I think it is basically theft of our historical legacy. I suppose the problem is that its impossible to prevent, every inch of land in the UK and Ireland must have something interesting buried beneath it, short of making sales of rare articles illegal, I'm not sure how it can be stopped.

For most people its history, to a small percentage its a lucrative trade.

I agree completely, but unfortuanatly there is just no the resources nor the interest in protecting the past to get such legislation past.

Currently in the UK, most archaeology is done under the guidance of PPG16 (Policy Guidance Note 16), which states that any development done, has to consult an archaeologist to ensure that there are no features below the development, and if there is, then the development company has to pay for the excavations. This has lead to most archaeology being done by comerical archaeological units for profit, which means, the fastest, cheapest excavation possible. Because of this, UK archaeologists (aside from academics, specialists, and members of University Archaeology Units) are some of the poorest in the world, average wages being little over 13,000 per year.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

*sigh* and so another decent, intelligent thread falls below the waves of nationalistic chest beating and moronic comparisions.

[Stalins Ghost]

Excellent post!

I've been trying to tell this to lay people for a long time now (I did a few modules of Archaeology in my first year of uni) though they'll rarely listen. It's all well and good having stuff found that may well otherwise have not been, but an items historical value rapidly decreases with amateurs handling it. The recent Saxon horde found in the UK was actually found in my town, and is a good example of this at work. Though the finder seems to be aware of the issues, most lay people are not, and the barrage of rather underinformed opinions of where the find should go takes away from the simple fact they should go to the people with the expertise to make the most of the data they can provide us with.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

I've been trying to tell this to lay people for a long time now (I did a few modules of Archaeology in my first year of uni) though they'll rarely listen. It's all well and good having stuff found that may well otherwise have not been, but an items historical value rapidly decreases with amateurs handling it. The recent Saxon horde found in the UK was actually found in my town, and is a good example of this at work. Though the finder seems to be aware of the issues, most lay people are not, and the barrage of rather underinformed opinions of where the find should go takes away from the simple fact they should go to the people with the expertise to make the most of the data they can provide us with.

The recent Saxon hoarde was excavated by my uni's archaeological unit, but this is a rarity amongst such finds. As you well discribed, the historical value of any artefact decreases the longer it is out of the ground and in the hands of the uniformed. Despite advances made in the field of archaeology too many finds, like the aformentioned Anglo-Saxon horde, fall into the hands of amatures only interested in its monetary value; these people are more akin to the Antiquarians that robed the Middle East & Medeterranian so readily in the 19th/early 20th centuries than modern Archaeologists.