Today the Independent newspaper rerports on a highly important Viking Hoard found by a father and son metal detectorist team, in Yorkshire. This 10th century hoard re-asserts the importance and strong influence of the Vikings all over the UK. See:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/buried-in-a-hurry-ndash-but-it-took-a-millennium-to-find-1778394.html
I suspect there is a lot more Viking material to be unearthed in the UK...
Thank you for bringing this discovery to the attention of your readers. The article in The Times has important further information:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6812365.ece
"The pair have won the praise of conservationists for swiftly realising the value of their find and leaving it virtually untouched for experts to carefully unwrap. They declared their treasure to their local finds liaison officer in Leeds."
It is also interesting to note that this treasure was found in a field that was not associated with any known archaeological site or previous discovery.
I wonder if the outspoken critic(s) of metal detecting will acknowledge that this father and son team of metal detectorists have done a great public service. Or do they think that this treasure should have remained unnoticed in a farmer's field until it was plowed under during planting season?
They critics of metal detectin advocate for England to abandon its laws that promote the reporting of finds and compensation to the finders and land owners. Don't they understand that if those laws weren't in place treasures such as this would very likely be sold quietly to the village jeweler who would melt them down? I wonder if they have talked with archaeologist who work in Turkey or Egypt about what happens to precious metal antiquities when there is no system for compensation and no local collectors to whom they can be sold? I have had several archaeologists who worked in Turkey and Egypt during the 1960s and 1970s tell me that farmers often sold their finds of silver and gold coins to the local village jewelers who melted them down.
I could not agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteI can also quote similar experiences that did not involve precious metal even -
I remember discussing Roman and Greek mosaics with a Turkish dealer - he was telling me that in Turkey such mosaics abound as Asia Minor had once been the main nucleus of both these Empires.
A lot of such mosaics are found in rural Turkey and in his opinion are often viewed with cultural hostility by uneducated farmers - the product of past Christian cultures. This Turkish dealer knew of several cases where the villagers just ploughed through them intentionally destroying them....what a waste and sacrelege - why could they not be sold instead so that we could all benefit, including the Turkish farmer on whose land they were found?
Ancient art should not become the "power empire" of state archaeology, come what may....