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Metal Detectoring

maximus otter said:
67. The circumstances in which finds may be disclaimed include:

● where no museum wants to acquire a find;
● where a museum decides it no longer wants to acquire a find;
● where the finder and the landowner decide they don’t want to claim a reward;
● where only part of a hoard is acquired by a museum, although all effort should be made to keep hoards together.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...75705/Treasure_Act_1996__Code_of_Practice.pdf

maximus otter
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ppffft .. there's some sort of back handers going on here: "What's that? .. you've found a large and valuable hoard of silver Roman coins with provenance you say?. No thanks. We don't want them.". R$ight.
 
Swifty said:
"What's that? .. you've found a large and valuable hoard of silver Roman coins with provenance you say?. No thanks. We don't want them."
Click to expand...

Archaeologically/historically, without context they are just stuff really. If the relevant institutions already have examples of the coins then what's the point of blowing their budget on this? Some finds have more context, rarity, companion finds, happening in a different interpretative paradigm. Case by case basis.
 

Metal detectorist finds 100-year-old car tax disc​

Chris Langston discovered the disc in its metal container while he was searching near Oswestry.

The disc, which was issued in the town, expired in December 1924, and would have been issued up to a year earlier.
Mr Langston said his research since he made the discovery suggested it belonged to a Model T Ford

"I could see a letter F in the vehicle description box. I've checked, and the only F vehicles in 1923 were Model T Fords.

"I could just about make out the horsepower which was 20.”

Discs of the era were charged at £1 per horsepower according to an RAC calculation, so the disc was likely to have cost about £20 at the time.
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It's the torc of the town.

'Beautifully made' Bronze Age gold torc fragment found at Erpingham​



Bronze Age gold torc fragment

,
The find was made in a field near Erpingham, Norfolk, in September

A tiny, twisted fragment of a gold torc made thousands of years ago has been uncovered by a metal detectorist.

The "beautifully made" Bronze Age piece was made from a twisted gold rod just 0.09in (2.4mm) thick and had been bent into an 0.43in (11mm) loop.

The piece was found in a field near Erpingham, Norfolk, in September and dates to between 1400-1100BC.

It could have been intended for reuse, or as "a neat little offering to the gods", said historian Helen Geake.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-67654181
 
ramonmercado said:
It's the torc of the town.

Frideswide said:
What have I told you about this sort of thing????????? :rasp:

:hahazebs:
 
An intriguing if not enigmatic find.

Mystery Anglo-Saxon object found at Langham baffles experts​


Mystery Anglo-Saxon object

Image caption, The object uses a design popular in the Anglo-Saxon period and has a "backward-looking animal" - possibly a horse


A gilded silver Anglo-Saxon object "made by someone with a real eye for loveliness" has the experts baffled.

The beautifully made, slightly crumpled 19.4mm (0.7in) diameter artefact was found by a metal detectorist near Langham, Norfolk.

Historian Helen Geake said while similar objects had been found before, no-one knew what they were used for.

"It's so tiny and yet it was created just as carefully as something like a Bible or piece of jewellery," she said.

The object has a flat, circular top and short, straight sides forming a shallow, hollow cylinder. Dating to the late 8th or early 9th Century, it was also "completely unlike" any of the other similar mystery objects discovered by detectorists, said Dr Geake, Norfolk's finds liaison officer.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-67750556
 
I've had a look at several pics of this item.
It could be the cap on the end of a cane or stick, or it could be a cap for a cork on a really special bottle of wine.

As far as I can tell, it's made from 3 pieces:

(1) The side skirt. This looks like bronze that has been formulated so that it's almost brass. It looks like chasing and repousse has been used to make the relief design.
(2) The top piece. This looks like the same type of bronze/brass as the skirt. It's been chiselled into with (presumably) steel tools. Chiselling, rather than chasing/repousse. This has been soldered to the skirt with either tin solder or silver solder.
(3) The animal design looks like it's iron that has been inlaid into the brass.

This is a piece of work that uses several advanced techniques.
 
Interesting find.

A rare trading token issued by a 17th Century businesswoman has been found by a metal detectorist.

Rebecca Murril took over her husband's bakery business in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, following his early death.

Coin expert Adrian Marsden said: "With two very young children, she did not shrink from going into trade in what was very much a man's world."

The trading token was found at Filby, near Great Yarmouth, and has been donated to Norwich Castle Museum.

Rebecca Murril trading token found at Filby, Norfolk

n,
The Bakers' Arms and her name was on one side, with Great Yarmouth and her initials on the other

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-67924183
 
Find throws new light on Chełmno group.

Archaeologists in Poland have discovered a collection of more than 550 pieces of Bronze Age jewelry that were once part of an ancient burial ritual.

Known as Papowo Biskupie, the dried-out lake bed site was occupied from roughly 1200 to 450 B.C. by the Chełmno group, a community from the larger Lusatian culture that lived in northern Europe during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, according to a study published Wednesday (Jan. 24) in the journal Antiquity.

The Lusatians are best known for their ritual depositions of metal hoards in bodies of water. However, the Chełmno group was not known for engaging in this practice.

But the new jewelry finding, made by metal detectorists in 2023, upends that perception.

"The scale of metal consumption at the site is extraordinary," study co-author Łukasz Kowalski, a postdoctoral researcher of archaeology at the AGH University of Science and Technology of Krakow, told Live Science in an email. "Until now, we thought that metal was a weak partner in the social and ritual strategies of the Chełmno group, in contrast with the metal-hoarding madness [practiced by the other Lusatians]."

However, the discovery of this cache of metal jewelry — which includes a variety of arm and neck ornaments, as well as a multistrand necklace with oval and tubular beads surrounding a swallowtail-like pendant — has led researchers to change their viewpoint, according to a statement.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...rt-of-ancient-water-burial-ritual-study-finds
 
A generous detectorist.

Two Iron Age silver coins dating to the years before the Roman invasion have been donated to a museum.

They are part of a hoard of 25 coins discovered so far by a metal detectorist and given to the Norwich Castle Museum over several years.
Curator Tim Pestell said the donations were "amazing" and "with very, very limited funds" the museum "utterly relies on finders" to donate material.

The coins were found in a field at Stanfield, near North Elmham, Norfolk.

Dr Pestell said: "It's all about putting local finds back into the local community where they can be seen and that's why this particular donation is so well received."
Silver Iron Age coin

The condition of one of the two recent finds has deteriorated after 2,000 years in the ground

The detectorist unearthed the first 18 coins of the hoard between November 2014 and May 2015.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-68059570
 
Watch the skies!

Police have been using drones in a bid to catch illegal treasure-hunters at a nationally significant Roman site.

Gosbecks Archaeological Park, in Colchester, was targeted by illegal metal detectorists in April 2023.

Essex Police said several holes were dug at the ancient scheduled monument by someone using a device to uncover and steal archaeological finds.

Its officers have since used drones to watch the site, which includes Roman and Iron Age remains.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-68130005
 
Not a drawer handle!

A metal detectorist said he was "gobsmacked" after unearthing a rare Bronze Age artefact.

Jonathan Needham, a retired tree surgeon from Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, found the 3,000-year-old gold dress or cloak fastener at Ellastone, in Staffordshire. The discovery, detailed in a new report by the British Museum, is believed to be only one of seven found in England. The item is likely to be acquired by a museum.

Bronze age

The item "illustrates cultural links between Ireland and Britain during the Bronze Age" according to the British Museum

Mr Needham said he did not know what he had found at first and thought it was a faded aluminium drawer handle. He then posted a picture of it online.

"Straight away people said it was 3,000-year-old gold and at that point we were able to celebrate," he said. "We were punching the roof at what we had found."

Mr Needham handed the item to Derby Museum the next day - as required by the Treasure Act 1996.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-68141029
 
Looking at all these makes me want to go out again soon to try to find something of interest. First time I used a metal detector ( last year) a few months ago. Last day of our little trip, tried on a beach..... Along came a woman with her dog. Chatted, she had a break from throwing a ball. Me , throw ball a few times for excited dog. Drops ball near my foot so I kick it for the dog.......Big mistake as I kicked the wire completely out of the detector:(......I was SO upset .Too embarrassed to tell the woman what I had done . Have a new one, so now to try again... and pay no attention to friendly canines.:D
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Only by marriage, sadly. But it's lovely to see what one of them looked like. I wonder who she was? Seem to remember the marriage was sometime 18thC but judging by the clothing there, it would be after that, no doubt.

And it's got to be the third daughter of a fifth son or something that married into my dad's family because my lot were just yeoman farmers, not even hedge knights like the Vavasours, but just farmers in the 18thc.

Bubwith is one of the few places where we have 19thC gravestones from our family in the churchyard, though - amazing when you think of the thousands of ancestors we all have, and how few actually have (surviving) gravestones. I have ancestors in every churchyard round here - my dad's family mainly from the West Riding, Dales and Westmorland but he had just this one branch here, a parish or two away from my mum's (also farmers) but almost not a single gravestone between them! So few can look at the faces of their ancestors, it's quite a privilege for them that can.
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Hi GITM. Looks like I may have identified the lady in the portrait! I think she is Mary Vavasour, who married a gent called Ralph Assheton (who I have also found a painting of!) in the late 1600's. I managed to find a will from one of her decendents which mentions leaving two portraits to Mary and Ralph's grandaughter. I love a bit of winter research!
 
eziofan said:
Hi GITM. Looks like I may have identified the lady in the portrait! I think she is Mary Vavasour, who married a gent called Ralph Assheton (who I have also found a painting of!) in the late 1600's. I managed to find a will from one of her decendents which mentions leaving two portraits to Mary and Ralph's grandaughter. I love a bit of winter research!
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Assheton isn't ringing bells - I wonder if he was not a local? Or maybe just not a surname I can recall - I spent a lot of time in the Bubwith parish records, a few years back. Although, predictably, I think that's the one where the Borthwick had lost the original of the precise volume I really wanted to see in person...

ETA: Looked him up. Definitely not local!
 
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A different sort of toilet.

The silver spoon was used to scoop out cosmetics and medications.

A silver toilet spoon and a silver-gilt ring.

A silver toilet spoon and a silver-gilt ring were two artifacts deemed "treasures" by experts. (Image credit: Museum Wales)

A Roman-era silver "toilet spoon" discovered by a metal detectorist in the U.K. has been declared a "treasure" by experts.

Valentinas Avdejevas made the peculiar finding in 2020 while exploring Vale of Glamorgan, a county in Wales. He surrendered the metal artifact to the Portable Antiquities Scheme for Wales, a local authority that works directly with metal detectorists who have unearthed artifacts. The utensil is currently in the possession of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, according to a statement.

The narrow silver spoon (also known as a Roman ligula) contains a shallow, circular bowl attached to a thin, bent handle and would have been used to scoop out cosmetics and perfume from long-necked bottles.

Because the utensil was made of silver rather than of a less-expensive copper alloy, researchers think it was used to extract tinctures during medical procedures, since silver has antimicrobial properties. Similar toilet spoons have been found around the world, including an ivory one depicting a falcon from ancient Egypt, and offer insight into the day-to-day lives of people from ancient and Roman times. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/roman-era-silver-toilet-spoon-discovered-in-wales
 
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