TAKE BITS OUT THAT YOU NEED!
Those of you that attended the 2005 Corfe Castle Rally last September will remember that Peter Woodward, Curator at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester, headed up an archaeological dig at the site of the 2004 Roman patera find. In addition to the excavations, his team also conducted geophysical surveys of approximately 50% of the field in which the patera was found. He has the results of those surveys together with the results of excavation across some of the structures identified on this site. He will be making a presentation on these discoveries, together with a display of some of the finds, with his colleagues at the National Trust Centre at Corfe Castle, on the weekend of the Corfe Rally in September. The presentation will start at 4.30pm on Saturday 2nd September and is scheduled to last an hour â donât be late! All Platinum members who took part in the dig last fall, those who helped with the excavations as well as those who detected the field and donated their finds last year, have an exclusive invitation to attend this exciting presentation.
However, there's a bit more to this. As a result of your finds and Peterâs investigations, this site has been identified as one of ***National Importance*** (the reasons for this will be made clear in Peterâs presentation). In order for Peter and his team to have an accurate (and more comprehensive) overview of this site, he has a request:
He would like all the MLO Platinum members who have recovered artefacts and coins on that particular site (across the whole of the patera field and the one to the east on the other side of the railway line) to donate them back to the landowner, Jonathan Ramm, and the Dorset County Museum for further study and conservation. All donated finds would be owned by Jonathan; DCM would study, conserve and display them.
This would allow Peter to study all the finds together as one single assemblage (more pieces of the puzzle, if you will), and give him a much clearer picture of the site. Peter is also planning an official dig, if funds can be found, on this site in 2007, and having the finds donated for comprehensive study will help him determine where the next trenches should be dug. These can then join those finds and discoveries of 2005 - that Peter has arranged to have on display at the National Trust Education Room for the day of the presentation. This arrangement, in agreement with the farmer Jonathan Ramm, would also apply to any finds detected and found across the two fields of the site this year, at the 2006 Rally. So, in effect, the detecting on these two fields this year will be done in the context of the larger archaeological project that began last fall. The newer Platinum members, as well as those who couldn't join us last fall, really missed out on an exciting project. It was great to be involved as we were, with Peter and Nancy (Nancy Grace w/the Nat'l Trust). I'm really looking forward to the rally as well as the larger dig next year.
Also, you may remember that Minelab generously donated funds for the restoration of the patera (see the before and after stills of it within the video production that Gary and I produced; here's the Windows Medialink). I've also asked Peter to let me know what costs and issues would be involved in having a plaque displayed with these collected finds at the museum, showing that the Minelabowners group recovered and donated all the finds related to this very important site. Gary and I will cover any costs associated with that.
I don't know that any of this has ever been done before. A couple of finds of importance are declared (the patera and the Durotriges stater hoard, for those who didn't know), a large group of detectorists then donates their finds for the advancement of understanding of a particular site of historic and national importance, and then the site develops into a major archaeological project that has exciting national ramifications. Needless to say, these new developments within this story will also be filmed and added to the existing production on the patera dig. Also, with the official archaeology commencing sometime next year, I can easily see a 2nd video production coming out of this. Gary and I will be working closely with Peter and the National Trust to make sure that any further discoveries, as well as the larger story as it unfolds, is well documented. I also think we'd have a good shot at getting an articles in TH and/or Searcher for this, as well as some local or national media attention. We'll certainly try. This is a tremendous bit of positive publicity for detecting and the relationship between detectorists and archaeologists, and we need to take full advantage of it.
This is what itâs all about, people: cooperation and uncovering the past and identifying major sites of interest and importance. I again stress the point that this doesnât happen every day. And itâs hard to believe how exciting that this situation has turned out to be. If any of you wish to discuss further, please let me know.
Regarding donation of your finds from this site, can I please get replies quickly from the Platinum membership who were involved last fall? We're running out of time until the rally, and there are several logistical concerns that have to be addressed if all this is going to take place. Comments are welcome on the board, but please email me directly with your yes or no answers, or anything else you want to discuss. You can reach me at
pat.watson@minelabowners.com.
Exciting times are ahead!
Just goes to show anything is possible!
Evil to him who thinks evil.
