Martin RundkvistI have a debate piece out about metal detectorists as citizen scientists in Sweden's foremost pop-sci magazine.
https://fof.se/artikel/sverige-behover-fler-medborgarforskare-med-metallsokare/
Paper Moon@mrundkvist Thank you for speaking in favour of metal detectorists. You don't often hear this view from an archaeologist. In England there's a scheme where finding anything significant by hobbyists is allowed but supported by Finds Liaison Officers. A lot of archaeologists are only interested in a context, not in any particular finds. They believe artifacts are better off left in the ground. I disagree but I am a detectorist, I am interested in each little story of a find.
@TazPoltorak
Everything except gold *breaks down steadily* in a ploughed field.
Everything except gold *breaks down steadily* in a ploughed field.
Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק@mrundkvist @TazPoltorak What about silver? Just thinking of the Mildenhall Treasure.
@aarbrk @TazPoltorak
Pure silver does OK, but a lot of the coins are debased with copper and corrode badly.
Pure silver does OK, but a lot of the coins are debased with copper and corrode badly.
@mrundkvist @TazPoltorak I see, thanks for clarifying!
@aarbrk @TazPoltorak
You can actually chart from year to year how well an ancient ruler is doing by the amount of copper in his silver coinage.
King John of Sweden (regn. 1568-92) issued spectacularly bad coins. My metalwork conserver reports that there are two types of horrendous corrosion on John's smaller denominations, one that is only seen on silver and one that is only seen on copper!
@mrundkvist @aarbrk cool, thanks for the insight! We can see a similarity for Henry VIII who was a dodgy bastard with the coinage he minted trying to finance his wars.
@mrundkvist @aarbrk Imagine you are a king and you do this, and then see your own face corroding on the coins!