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Metal Detectoring

I've started using the macro lens on my phone for close-up photos so very aware of my nails.
Got my Roman finger ring (AD 44-200) back from the FLO (found in March) and tried it on my pinky.

Ring_713a.jpg
 
Robbrent said:
To think of how much history would have lain undiscovered had not been for the humble metal detector
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It's a pity there isn't the context there could be. I know, I'm a grouch! :rollingw:

TT and PAS have made a big difference to the level of reporting. Does anyone know what happens in NI?

https://treasuretrovescotland.co.uk/about/treasure-trove-unit/ (Scotland)
https://finds.org.uk/ (England and Wales)

There are a few glamour cases where the detectorist route has given astonishing results - The Galloway Horde for example. I'm good friends with the archaeologist they sensibly called in. He had to lift it against the falling night and transport it very very carefully without proper stabilisation. He did a first rate job. Would it still have been in situ the next morning for a full team to do the whole archaeology thing? Answers on a postcard please...

The detectorists were brilliant and did everything right. As did the recovering archaeologist. And we still lost who knows what.

I get the fun aspect of the hobby, I get the excitment and the possibility of hitting paydirt. I get being in the fresh air and celebrating quality time in the outdoors. But it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the beast.

It is what it is and we are where we are. The schemes and better publicity for prosecutions are a good thing. Finding a way forward for /all/ stakeholders is the important thing.

Sorry
 
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Frideswide said:
It's a pity there isn't the context there could be. I know, I'm a grouch! :rollingw:

TT and PAS have made a big difference to the level of reporting. Does anyone know what happens in NI?

https://treasuretrovescotland.co.uk/about/treasure-trove-unit/ (Scotland)
https://finds.org.uk/ (England and Wales)

There are a few glamour cases where the detectorist route has given astonishing results - The Galloway Horde for example. I'm good friends with the archaeologist they sensibly called in. He had to lift it against the falling night and transport it very very carefully without proper stabilisation. He did a first rate job. Would it still have been in situ the next morning for a full team to do the whole archaeology thing? Answers on a postcard please...

The detectorists were brilliant and did everything right. As did the recovering archaeologist. And we still lost who knows what.

I get the fun aspect of the hobby, I get the excitment and the possibility of hitting paydirt. I get being in the fresh air and celebrating quality time in the outdoors. But it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the beast.

It is what it is and we are where we are. The schemes and better publicity for prosecutions are a good thing. Finding a way forward for /all/ stakeholders is the important thing.

Sorry
Click to expand...

But I guess the argument could be that we would never have found certain treasures?
 
Robbrent said:
But I guess the argument could be that we would never have found certain treasures?
Click to expand...

Unless they were about to be destroyed by quarrying, ploughing etc then the argument is that they were safe, waiting for the event which would bring them to light.

I included the Galloway Horde as an outlier deliberately - most of what the TT and PAS schemes get are less intrinsically valuable to archaeology. Much/most of the value is in the context. The layers of soil in which they were held. The wider picture. An emphasis on the item as the prize is the Indiana Jones school of archaeology - and so, alas, not accurate at all.

TT and PAS (what IS the NI situation???) make the best of the situation we find ourselves in. I am very grateful to the people who use the schemes having enjoyed being involved in an entirely legal hobby.

People who do it illegally and those who don't use the schemes, perhaps because they can't be arsed or want all the "value" to themselves, have my total contempt.

Yes, I am well aware that neither the good guys nor the thieves sought or need my approval or otherwise. I do think it's important that things are seen as they are, however, not dressed up in candyfloss and rainbows. It is what it is.

A roman hob nail or three can be added to a geographical distribution map of roman hobnails. What we have lost is the cobbler's premises, the examples with the nails arranged in patterns, the organic components of the finds which were the burial, the associated pottery...
 
Fifth/Sixth century coins found.

ANorwegian metal detectorist thought he had come across some chocolate money buried in the soil – but it turned out to be nine pendants, three rings and 10 gold pearls in what has been described as the country’s gold find of the century.

The rare discovery was made on the southern island of Rennesoey, near the city of Stavanger, by Erlend Bore.

The 51-year-old bought his first metal detector earlier this year as a hobby after his doctor ordered him to get out instead of sitting on the sofa.

Ole Madsen, director at the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger, said that to find “so much gold at the same time is extremely unusual”.

“This is the gold find of the century in Norway,” he said.

In August, Mr Bore began walking around the mountainous island with his metal detector.

A statement issued by the university said he first found some scrap, but later uncovered something that was “completely unreal” – the treasure weighing a little more than 100 grams (3.5oz).

Under Norwegian law, objects from before 1537, and coins older than 1650, are considered state property and must be handed in.

Associate professor Hakon Reiersen, from the museum, said the gold pendants – flat, thin, single-sided gold medals called bracteates – date from around AD500, the so-called Migration Period in Norway, which runs between 400 and about 550, when there were widespread migrations in Europe.

The pendants and gold pearls were part of “a very showy necklace” that was made by skilled jewellers and worn by society’s most powerful, said Professor Reiersen.

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/worl...norway-s-gold-find-of-the-century/ar-AA1gofTE
 
ramonmercado said:
The pendants and gold pearls were part of “a very showy necklace” that was made by skilled jewellers and worn by society’s most powerful,
Click to expand...

is there a picture? I can't see one but that may be my settings.
 
Bracteates are weird. They seem to be a kind of sham money that was worn as necklaces and on clothes. The early ones were often made from Roman gold paid to the barbarians as peace offerings. I can understand why the detectorist thought it was chocolate money.
 
Youngest and Partner go metal-detectoring. They've recently started having disturbances in their home.
Poltergeist-type stuff.

I've suggested something has followed them home to reclaim a treasured item from their Finds box.
 
escargot said:
Youngest and Partner go metal-detectoring. They've recently started having disturbances in their home.
Poltergeist-type stuff.

I've suggested something has followed them home to reclaim a treasured item from their Finds box.
Click to expand...
Might be worth asking them and checking out the places where they have been detecting too!
 
Sid said:
Might be worth asking them and checking out the places where they have been detecting too!
Click to expand...
Yup, they'll need to retrace their steps, so to speak.

They've both heard banging around from different parts of the house, for example -

(Mr Snailette) and I both just heard a load of noise in the house and thought it was the other.

From the living room where I was it sounded like (Mr Snailette) was up and walking about pissed off and the microwave was slammed.

(Mr Snailette) said from upstairs it sounded like I'd fallen and he came down to check I was alright.

Nothing amiss in the house apart from the floor was a bit wet in the kitchen.

So there we go! :)

How adorable. :loveu:
 
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Nothing ancient but good work nevertheless.

A metal detectorist has reunited a woman with a collection of heirlooms in Guernsey.

In August, Tessa Le Gallez lost her chain, which held a collection of her late family's rings, whilst she was swimming at Les Amarreurs. She called metal detectorist Matthew Kneebone in the hope that he could reunite her with the jewellery.

On Friday, two weeks later after they had been lost, Mr Kneebone went to the same area she had been swimming and managed to find them all.

Lost jewellery reunited with owner
IMAGE SOURCE, DONNA PATCH Image caption, The rings were found by Matthew Kneebone on Friday

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ed62nyprgo
 
Frideswide said:
It's a pity there isn't the context there could be. I know, I'm a grouch! :rollingw:

TT and PAS have made a big difference to the level of reporting. Does anyone know what happens in NI?

https://treasuretrovescotland.co.uk/about/treasure-trove-unit/ (Scotland)
https://finds.org.uk/ (England and Wales)

There are a few glamour cases where the detectorist route has given astonishing results - The Galloway Horde for example. I'm good friends with the archaeologist they sensibly called in. He had to lift it against the falling night and transport it very very carefully without proper stabilisation. He did a first rate job. Would it still have been in situ the next morning for a full team to do the whole archaeology thing? Answers on a postcard please...

The detectorists were brilliant and did everything right. As did the recovering archaeologist. And we still lost who knows what.

I get the fun aspect of the hobby, I get the excitment and the possibility of hitting paydirt. I get being in the fresh air and celebrating quality time in the outdoors. But it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the beast.

It is what it is and we are where we are. The schemes and better publicity for prosecutions are a good thing. Finding a way forward for /all/ stakeholders is the important thing.

Sorry
Click to expand...
The Treasure Act 1996 applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland still has the common law treasure trove. The Code of Practice for the Treasure Act 1996 has just been updated.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/treasure-act-1996-code-of-practice-3rd-revision
 
Thank you! I'm in Scotland so I don't keep up with what happens elsewhere so much - it's good to know though :)
 
escargot said:
Youngest and Partner go metal-detectoring. They've recently started having disturbances in their home.
Poltergeist-type stuff.

I've suggested something has followed them home to reclaim a treasured item from their Finds box.
Click to expand...
By coincidence I have returned today from a detecting weekend rally in South Gloucester, where I purchased a signed copy of Finders Screamers by Doug Down (didn't occur to me then to ask if that was his real name). Anyway, "16 Chilling Tales of Paranormal Horror... And Metal Detecting". As Doug said, if you're digging up bits that belonged to dead people then you're bound to collect the odd tale. Will let you know if any pertinent reports of disturbances are mentioned.
 
A guy that I worked with used to work for Southport council, he would detect the grass were all the trippers used to lounge about on hot days, made more than is wage and a few back handers for finding the odd lost ring
 
Spent a couple of days this week carrying out a geophys survey on the site of our new project. At the same time one of our members did a bit of detecting on the site and came up with this little beauty!
He/she (given the name Harrod) is now going to be our dig mascot :)
 

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eziofan said:
He/she (given the name Harrod) is now going to be our dig mascot :)
Click to expand...
Please take my advice - not asked for, just my opinion, I'm not an archaeologist or anything - and put 'Harrod' in a draw-string pouch with a few iron nails and re-bury it below the plough-line. Don't look into its eyes, resist the urge to sacrifice small woodland animals to it, don't bring it into the house.
 
A horde of a hoard.

A cache of more than 9,000 Roman coins nicknamed "the muddy hoard" by experts has gone on display at a museum.

It was found by a metal detectorist near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and declared treasure in 2021. They were discovered in two pottery containers, nested inside each other "a bit like Russian dolls".

Claire Hardy, director of the Norris Museum, St Ives, said "it is by far the most significant acquisition" every made by the museum.

Copper alloy coin of Laelian, from Huntingdon Roman coin hoard
IMAGE SOURCE ,BRITISH MUSEUM Image caption, The hoard includes this copper alloy coin of Laelian, part of a brief, breakaway empire in western Europe

All the coins were made of base metal and were probably hidden at a time of turmoil in the wake of the 3rd Century breakaway empire.

Ms Hardy said they range "across the reign of 14 Emperors and 1 Empress and include a previously unrecorded coin - a denarius of Emperor Tetricus I".

The county's finds liaison officer Helen Fowler spent two days excavating the hoard in 2018, with the British Museum's Dr Andrew Brown.
It had originally been hidden in two pottery containers, "one nested directly inside the other, a bit like Russian dolls", she said.
Roman coin hoard, Huntingdon, found 2018
IMAGE SOURCE, BRITISH MUSEUM Image caption, British Museum experts said most of the coins were imitations, made at a time when official coinage was in short supply

Ms Hardy said: "Given the quantity, composition and quality of some of the coins, it could be counted as being one of the ten most significant Roman coin hoards yet found in the UK."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66827194
 
They are in amazing condition!
 
Cavalry swords found in Cotswolds

Two rare Roman cavalry swords have been discovered by a metal detectorist.

Found by Glenn Manning during a metal detectorist rally in March, the swords, which also had remnants of their wooden scabbards, were found in the north of the Cotswolds. They have since been taken to the Corinium Museum in Cirencester to be preserved.

Museum Director Emma Stuart said: "It's an incredibly important find and one that should excite everybody."

"These two swords are testimony to presence of Roman military in the north of the Cotswold District," she added.

The two swords with Cllr Paul Hodgkinson and Museum Director Emma Stuart
IMAGE SOURCE, COTSWOLD DISTRICT COUNCIL Image caption, The swords are being preserved at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester

Professor Simon James from Leicester University said the weapons, which are believed to be middle imperial Roman swords and were found alongside a broken copper alloy bowl, are commonly referred to as "spatha" and were likely to be in use by the 160s, through the later Second Century and far into the Third Century AD.

The length also suggests they are cavalry weapons or weapons intended to be used on horseback.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-66852580
 
Found a spangle today (sewn onto clothing to make it more ... spangly) in Northants, although the glitter has long gone. Also found a new favourite word and a new modelling finger as I'm too tired to clean my nails.

Spangle_526b.jpg
 
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