Rhiannon
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Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 21, 2002, 09:40
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From today's Guardian site - the fuckers.
Thieves pillage Iron Age fort
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday October 21, 2002
The Guardian
Nighthawks, archaeological thieves operating with metal detectors, have ransacked the slopes of one of Northumberland's most important Iron Age hilltop forts, Yeavering Bell.
Working overnight, and on the far side of the hill from the nearest houses, they left the fort pitted with holes, 34 in all. Scraps of metal suggest they may have found and looted ancient bronze.
The attack, on a site which has never been excavated, is one of the most determined in recent years, and has shocked archaeologists in an area which has so far been relatively free of the scourge.
Lord Redesdale, head of the parliamentary committee on archaeology, who is also a landowner in the county, described the attack on the fort as tragic. "This is a national problem, and an area in which the government has been re ally feeble in coming forward with legislation."
Although digging with a metal detector without the permission of the landowner is an offence, unless the nighthawks are caught in the act the law is virtually powerless. There is still no specific offence in law of trading in illicit archaeological artefacts. Archaeologists have been demanding reform, and some would ban the sale of archaeological artefacts without a provable provenance.
Roger Bland, of the British Museum, coordinator of the portable antiquities scheme which encourages legal metal detector users to report finds, said the legislation - which the government has agreed to in principle, but has not found time for - is urgently needed.
"This wouldn't impact on the looters directly but it should make it harder for them to sell their ill-gotten gains, because it would introduce a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment."
Archaeologists from the Northumberland national park authority were anguished to discover tiny scraps of decorated bronze in some of the holes which may have been fragments of ornate vessels of ritual significance which would have thrown light on the history of the construction, use and eventual abandonment of the hill forts.
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FourWinds
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Re: Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 21, 2002, 10:04
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That is terrible.
I can say no more ....
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Pete G
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Re: Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 21, 2002, 11:15
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this is typical.
It happens far too often but is not often reported.
I found a hoard of bronze axes on E-bay being offered for £9.
the blurb said it had been dug up by archaeologists at Avebury in 1985 which is obviously rubbish.
I know of sites in Devon that are slowley being plundered by the landowner, which is legal.
PeteG
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LORD ARMSTRONG
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Re: Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 07, 2003, 21:30
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what on earth are you on about u pompous little twat....yeah....history is there for all of us.....but it belongs to non of us.
if someone wants to make a few quid....so be it....get off your high horse and realise that these people have got familys.....its nothing that men havent been doing for hundreds of years......stealing from one to giv to his family......at least they arent committing violent crimes.
the same peole who put the stuff there in the first place, were probably as big so called theives as todays chancers.
lord armstrong
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Hob
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Re: Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 07, 2003, 21:42
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You're a proper Armstrong aren't you? Stick a pan on your head, sit on a pit pony and gan nick sum fucka's sheep?
For fucks sake man! A couple of thousand years of Darwinian selection and this is what we get for border rievers?
What about the achaeologists who rely on this shit? Are they not entitled to a living?
Where do you think the stuff's going?
A couple of quid from some rich yank via ebay is quickly spent. A couple of thousand years worth of OUR (not your) gakking history cannot be replaced.
Lord fucking armstrong. Aye, right.
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Hob
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Re: Yeavering Bell looted
Oct 07, 2003, 21:44
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It makes me sad and angry. I am too fucked off for words.
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Moth
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Steady!
Oct 07, 2003, 21:46
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Hob - the story's a year old.
Think it's the Troll bell....
love
Moth
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Hob
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Re: Steady!
Oct 07, 2003, 21:49
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Cheers Moth. I wasn't paying attention there.
I'm calm now. By, it gets me goat though.
:-)
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Steve Gray
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Re: Steady!
Oct 07, 2003, 21:50
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Kinda "For whom the bell trolls", eh?
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Hob
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Re: Steady!
Oct 07, 2003, 21:53
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Wha-wha-wha-wha-whaaaaa!
neh, that just doesn't sound right. But you know the noise I'm making.
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