19th November 2008, 10:42 PM
A few points:
1) If you don't know one of the (very few) fundamental statutory elements of English archaeological regulation, you don't deserve to expect anyone to respect you as a professional.
2) Can we stop calling it Treasure Trove (in England at least). Not a term or a legal concept used since, well, since the law changed in 1996. Scotland's Treasure Trove has always been different and still applies (as hosty put it).
3) Treasure is treasure whether it goes through the PAS or not. The PAS is NOT part of the primary legislation, which is why there are repeatedly fears that it will be abandoned. As I understood it, the PAS was intended to be an approachable and informed system to provide detectorists and other non-professional archaeologists with a way of finding out what that lump of copper was (not that most of the detectorists I've ever met needed any help in that...), as well as a way to process treasure. The PAS Officer is usually more of a conduit to finding/liaising with the relevant specialists when something nice turns up, or dealing with the more common finds themselves.
4) ANY project design should have a clause relating to treasure in it, just as it should have a clause relating to what to do with the finds. This covers the ownership issues etc. See comments of professionalism above.
5) you have no personal rights to the treasure as finder, nor in most cases does the unit/employer. It's the landowner's property (in England) unless signed over to the museum/another nominee in advance. As has always been the case, even in the 'good old days...' The urban myth about having to wait for the unit director to turn up to excvate any gold was just that. In Scotland, you'll find you're written out by law, so tough.
6)The reason there's so little treasure, or for that matter intact artefactual material of any type, from archaeological sites is that by and large we're looking at discard contexts. The obvious exception is cemeteries, but even then treasure is pretty unusual (as now, most people couldn't afford to bury most of their families possessions...). The majority of treasure is chance loss or deliberate hoards, hence the wording of the original treasure trove act about whether it had been buried in the hope of recovery. By definition, most of these happened as far away as possible from habitation.
7) That and most archaeologists don't go through the PAS but direct through the receiving museums.
Rant over. Please can we make sure we know the law- there's little enough of it around to protect our heritage.
1) If you don't know one of the (very few) fundamental statutory elements of English archaeological regulation, you don't deserve to expect anyone to respect you as a professional.
2) Can we stop calling it Treasure Trove (in England at least). Not a term or a legal concept used since, well, since the law changed in 1996. Scotland's Treasure Trove has always been different and still applies (as hosty put it).
3) Treasure is treasure whether it goes through the PAS or not. The PAS is NOT part of the primary legislation, which is why there are repeatedly fears that it will be abandoned. As I understood it, the PAS was intended to be an approachable and informed system to provide detectorists and other non-professional archaeologists with a way of finding out what that lump of copper was (not that most of the detectorists I've ever met needed any help in that...), as well as a way to process treasure. The PAS Officer is usually more of a conduit to finding/liaising with the relevant specialists when something nice turns up, or dealing with the more common finds themselves.
4) ANY project design should have a clause relating to treasure in it, just as it should have a clause relating to what to do with the finds. This covers the ownership issues etc. See comments of professionalism above.
5) you have no personal rights to the treasure as finder, nor in most cases does the unit/employer. It's the landowner's property (in England) unless signed over to the museum/another nominee in advance. As has always been the case, even in the 'good old days...' The urban myth about having to wait for the unit director to turn up to excvate any gold was just that. In Scotland, you'll find you're written out by law, so tough.
6)The reason there's so little treasure, or for that matter intact artefactual material of any type, from archaeological sites is that by and large we're looking at discard contexts. The obvious exception is cemeteries, but even then treasure is pretty unusual (as now, most people couldn't afford to bury most of their families possessions...). The majority of treasure is chance loss or deliberate hoards, hence the wording of the original treasure trove act about whether it had been buried in the hope of recovery. By definition, most of these happened as far away as possible from habitation.
7) That and most archaeologists don't go through the PAS but direct through the receiving museums.
Rant over. Please can we make sure we know the law- there's little enough of it around to protect our heritage.