£300,000 to buy 2 stunning pieces of prehistoric goldwork from 4 people.
So far, c.200 lovely people have given their hard earned cash to rescue these important finds - here's to them!
https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/the-ellastone-fastener/
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-save-leicestershires-bronze-age-torc#
"If the total of £150,000 is not raised, the British Museum has an option to buy the torc, or the finder and owner of the site are able to put it up for sale to the highest bidder."
Grim.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-save-leicestershires-bronze-age-torc#
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c747n8kd4y7o?app-referrer=deep-link
I wonder which of these 25 ingots @findsorguk.bsky.social (all were returned to finder...) ended up being melted down?
There's very few truly undiagnostic finds - most are awaiting a person or technique to decode their secrets...
#Treasure #Detecting #Archaeology 🏺
Text from: https://spectator.com/article/why-a-set-of-gold-coins-have-divided-british-archeologists/
I disagree with Mike in a lot of this - in the fact that we're divided (really we aren't), the absence of recognition that the museum probably couldn't afford it, his conclusions, and the archaeological 'worth' of many detected finds, but it was good to see the raw £ finally getting some coverage, even if it is the awful Spectator!
Also confirmation that disclaimed hoards *are* being melted down... 😫
#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure 🏺
https://spectator.com/article/why-a-set-of-gold-coins-have-divided-british-archeologists/
In 2024 a detectorist found some gold coins in Suffolk. The discovery was declared legally treasure. If a museum wanted the coins, the finder would have been rewarded with a sum equivalent to their market value, but none did, so he’s selling them, at an auction estimate of £20,000 to £26,000. Here’s the problem. It
This is what happens when 'treasure' can't be bought by a museum - the hoard has been broken up into individual auction lots & will disappear into many different hands, some almost certainly overseas.
When do we start saying enough is enough??
https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/calendar/898/catalogue/?specialcollectionpart_id=1721
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr033kk7zxo?app-referrer=search
It was such a pleasure to talk to Geraldine from the Museums Journal about the various issues associated with 'treasure', detecting and dwindling museum resources...
'more than 45,000 members of the public had contributed to the cause'
... and all to pay the detectorist and landowner for a lucky find!!!
I rather liked this... not the usual type of story we get about things from fields - it's gentle and thoughtful.
Top marks for getting it in Farmer's Weekly too...
It ain't all 'treasure'...
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/ancient-objects-uncovered-beneath-britains-farming-fields
450,000 artefacts from the HS2 excavations *alone*.
So the next time detectorists tell you they find everything archaeologically important - they don't. 😝
#Archaeology 🏺 #Detecting #Treasure
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93v21q5xdvo?app-referrer=search
The v4.0 firmware release for the Deus II is out. I'm waiting until I get the stereo headphones. Maybe 4.1 will be out by then.
Dr Tess Machling
Ricky