Discovery - Digging

[Val Beechey]

I thought one or two might find this article interesting.  I haven't seen this series advertised so I assume it's 'Only in America'

http://www.world-archaeology.com/issues/issue-53/easy-money/

[peanut]

thanks for the link Val.
The controversy seems to be the same old tosh trundled out by some Archaeologists that metal detectorists are only in it for the money and that their digging 6"-8" in the plough soil is in someway spoiling contextural information of Historical artifacts. .........

What utter tosh.

When are Archaeologist's likely to be interested or sufficiently well funded to to dig every bit of field and pasture in the Country and what 'contextural information' are they likely to be able to glean from soil that has been ploughed for milennia ? grrr   

Its about time this whole issue was  properly debated and put to bed and then perhaps commensense will prevail and detectorists can claim their rightful place in the discovery of the major part of our buried history and work in unity with Archaeologists , after all , properly used ,the detector is perhaps one of the key tools that we have available in our quest to discover  and  interpret the past

[Val Beechey]

This is the situation with Welsh Archies. I reported a site I had discovered last year and heard nothing more about. I mentioned it as an addition to something else I had noticed on a local beach. I don't agree with one of the measurements, the earth-work may have gone but the crop mark hasn't. It is app.130x130m. BIG. This was the answer I recieved. I rest my case.

This includes Lidar data for this area (a method of basically scanning the ground surface from the air) which provides detail on topographic information.
This quite clearly shows that the feature you have spotted survives as a low bank surrounding an enclosure some 130m x 110m.
I can see no geological reason for the feature, so it must be archaeological.
We have records of Bronze Age and Iron Age finds/sites in fairly close vicinity, and the high ridge to the north was evidently a focus of prehistoric activity.
Its form would suggest that a Bronze Age or Iron Age date would be likely.
 
It is unlikely that we would be able to secure funding to be able to do any on-site investigation of the enclosure - but I would imagine that we will add it to our records in the near future to highlight it as a site of significance

[Chef Geoff]

The problem is that the vast majority of detectorists DONT record their finds and until the day comes when they do the powers that be will have a case to argue. The anti-detectorist lobby has ammunition which we unfortunately keep giving them to fire at us.

The Digger program does put a high emphases on the value side of things, as that's what the general public want. If you made a series about a couple of anoraks wandering around a field for hours saying "oooh look at this lovely piece of bronze, It may be part of an old bigger bit of totally useless metal" It would be cut pretty quick

[nobby]

id watch it chef ....

[Chef Geoff]

id watch it chef ....

we'd be in it  

[cardiffian]

A few years ago  Time Team excavated a site in Somerset which turned out to be one of the biggest and most important Roman villas in the country. The farmer had been convinced for years that he had a big site on his land. He contacted Time Team on a number of occasions and they didn't want to know. Even after he bought a detector and was unearthing many roman artefacts they still wouldn't show any interest.

After a time he gave up, and the field was rented out to a tenant. The farmer still convinced, and feeling some responsibility, asked the tenant not to plough too deep. His plea fell on deaf ears, and after ploughing one year a multitude of tesserae was brought to the surface. You've guessed it Time Team suddenly became interested. When the site was excavated they found that the machinery had ripped right through a fantastic mosaic floor. I think a sub-soiler may have been the cause.The damage was irrepairable. Sadly they got this one wrong