nigelswift
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 06:06
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Well spotted M8!
(to slip into the detecting vernacular).
Something else on the CV of Kev the Konservationist -
enthusiastic in his support for the Rally at Thornborough where many hundreds of unselfish heroes detected the landscape for 3 days to within a few tens of yards of the central henge, removing evidence of occupation patterns and strengthening Tarmac's future case for quarrying it.
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Dimjim
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 06:43
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ocifant wrote: I can answer that.
"anchient stones, historic places" - Neolithic, i.e Stone Age. Duh. No metal to detect?
"those million sites" - Possibly Iron Age or later - potential treasure.
We seem to have mislaid the Bronze Age?
Unless 'prehistory' has been re-written since I last looked :-)
dj x
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ocifant
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 07:01
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Broadly speaking:
Stones - Stone Age.
Barrows - Bronze/Iron Age.
Hillforts - Iron Age.
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Paul Barford
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 07:08
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nigelswift wrote: the Rally at Thornborough I think we are falling into the trap set by those who would have us call artefact hunting and collecting by the more anorakish term "metal detecting".
Artefact collectors will take any attractive 'portable antiquity' they gan get their hands on, no matter what its made of. Flint scatters exposed on downland, moors and breckland are collected away - perhaps members of this Forum know of examples from their field visits. Not all British antiquities on eBay (still less those looted from sites in other countries) are of metal.
One of the highlights of the Thornborough Henges rally was a greenstone axe picked up by a metal detectorist hunting for collectables within a few hundred metres from the northern henge (exact findspot was I think never established). This was imediately trumpeted loudly as a success for "conservation and recording" by the PAS and archaeologists whose presence there lent this disgraceful event an aura of 'respectability'. "Another find rescued from ploughing" we were told - despite the object itself bearing no traces of plough damage whatsoever. The jubilation of the pro-collecting lobby turned to dismay when a sharp-eyed conservationist from HA located the object on sale on eBay days after the rally. It turned out it had been sold by its ("only interested in the past") finder to a dealer who had set up at the rally to buy and sell finds. The face of artefact collecting was saved by a mysterious anonymous purchaser (from Australia it was said) who purchased the axe direct from the dealer before the auction was scheduled to finish and presented it to the Yorkshire Museum. The FLO responsible for this rally has since left the job.
"Metal detecting" is a misnomer born of and conducive to woolly thinking. Let us all call a spade a spade and admit that we are talking about artefact hunting and collecting - after all, if these artefact hunters want us to think that there is nothing harmful in what they do, why are they so ashamed of admitting that this is indeed what they all do?
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nigelswift
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 07:36
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That axe is deeply significant on more levels than one.
Half a dozen have been found in the Thornborough landscape but all the others were found deposited in a small boggy area to the north that was presumably a ritual deposition site and which it seems has been saved from quarrying as a consequence.
This one was the only one found elsewhere, but where? The location, obviously, is crucial to both knowledge of the record and the fight to conserve what EH term "a world-heritage standard landscape" but the heroes have failed to let anyone know so it will never be known.
Hey, Kevmar, compare and contrast your mates' concern for anshunt axes with the attitude of conservationists, whose concern is more than self centred -
http://www.heritageaction.org/?page=campaigns_thornborough_walk2004
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Rhiannon
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This thread
Jun 04, 2007, 07:47
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..much as I have got interest in the subject, and I think it's important to discuss it where people can see it, I'm tiring a bit of it and I can't see anyone even agreeing to disagree, let alone change their minds. As it's mine, I'm having it locked. Sorry. Sorry Nigel.
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kevmar
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Re: Afore ye go....
Jun 04, 2007, 07:51
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nigelswift wrote: "
I do know you say they should be protected but I'm struggling with this Kevmar the Konservationist concept.
How come detectorists "wouldn't dream" of touching the first lot but spend half their waking hours combing the records and studying Google Earth to find the second lot?
Do try to answer Kevmar. If you seriously want to convince anyone here that your hobby isn't horribly erosive questions like this have to be addressed.
Firstly ,and sincerely meant
in all the years Iv'e crossed swords with you Nigel
that is the nicest thing you've said,
konservationist ,even misspelled I'll go along with that.
You fail to realise or won't accept there is a massive difference
in responsible hobbyists,and others who arn't i.e
some who use a detector as a tool for illegal means,
we know that,and abhor this and will 'run out of town'
anyone found to be doing this,and bringing the hobby into
disrepute,
the big difference in what you or I seem to agree on
is that I for one detect on ploughed land ,
land where it's annually power harrowed,
things are scattered and smashed,and what bits do come up
in one piece,would certainly not survive the next years cultivation,
what's wrong with that?
but even this you won't condone.
Can only be good surely, rescuing like this.
If you try to pick what I say to bits
looking hard to see the negatives then so be it
as there arn't many these days that will entertain you,
regards,
Kevmar.
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