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Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000

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Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 Contents • Foreword 3 1 Key Points 4 2 Background 6 3 Outreach at a local level: the work of the liaison officers 10 4 Outreach at a national level: the work of the outreach officer and co-ordinator 24 5 The Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales 27 6 The Portable Antiquities program and the website: www.finds.org.uk 29 7 Portable Antiquities as a source for understanding the historic environment: the Scheme and Sites and Monuments Records 32 8 Portable Antiquities and the study of culture through material 36 9 Figures for finds and finders in 1999-2000 38 10 Conclusions and the future 50 Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 Foreword I am very pleased to Heritage Lottery Fund, established themselves alongside be able to introduce the original six finds liaison officers who started in autumn the third annual 1997. The present report covers the first full year of all report on the Portable eleven pilot schemes and the post of outreach officer. Antiquities Scheme. Although the schemes cover a wide diversity of regions, I am delighted that they undoubtedly show that there is a need for the services last November the of the finds liaison officers throughout the whole of Scheme received the England and Wales. Spear and Jackson From 1 April this year, the management of the Scheme will Silver Trowel award pass to a consortium of national bodies led by Resource: the for the best initiative Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. Other in archaeology in the members include English Heritage, the British Museum, country, as well as the National Museums & Galleries of Wales, the Royal the Virgin Holidays Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of award for the Wales, the Association of Local Government Archaeological best-presented Officers, the Council for British Archaeology, the Society of archaeological project, at the British Archaeological Museum Archaeologists and the National Council for Metal Awards ceremony in Edinburgh. These awards demonstrate Detecting. recognition of the potential of the Portable Antiquities Last year Resource made a lottery bid for three-year Scheme to arrest a great loss of information by actively funding for a national network of finds liaison officers recording archaeological finds made by members of across England and Wales. This bid represents a unique the public. The awards are also, I believe, a fitting partnership between 67 national and local museums and recognition of the commitment and hard work of the archaeological bodies working together to realise the staff in the Scheme. project’s vision. Last September the Trustees of the I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Heritage Lottery Fund deferred consideration of this bid the 1,800 finders who have volunteered their finds for pending further assessment of the work that had been recording under the Scheme during the last year. Without carried out so far. Accordingly, a consultant, Dr Gill Chitty their contribution, the Scheme would not exist. Although of Hawkshead Archaeology and Conservation, carried out the majority of finds recorded have been made by metal an assessment of the impact of the pilot schemes on key detector users, it is important to stress that the finds stakeholders. Her assessment of the work done so far has liaison officers are anxious to record objects found by all been encouraging and it is the intention of the Consortium members of the public, however they are discovered. to return to the Heritage Lottery Fund with a revised bid All the activities of the Scheme are focused on raising later this year. public awareness of the importance of recording finds for In the meantime I am delighted that the Heritage Lottery the benefit of our archaeological heritage, helping to Fund have agreed to continue funding six posts for a develop new audiences in the process. further year in 2001-02 and that my Department has been The information about finds is being made available on able to fund another eight posts for the same period. the Scheme’s website (www.finds.org.uk) and is also being passed on to Sites and Monuments Records, the key record holders of information about the historic environment, and this Report gives detailed information on progress in that direction. RT HON ALAN HOWARTH CBE MP The year covered by this Report has been a period of March 2001 consolidation as the second wave of finds liaison officers, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State – Minister for the Arts. who started in spring 1999 with the support of the 3 Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 1. Key Points The achievements of the third year of the Scheme (1999-2000) can be summarised as follows: • Extent of the Scheme: the number of liaison officers has remained at eleven full-time and one Figure 2 half-time post, which means that the Scheme The seventh-century AD is not well represented by many sites or individual currently covers about half of England and the finds. This gold and cloisonné garnet mount, probably from a sword whole of Wales. In addition the central unit scabbard, was recovered in 1995 in south-west Norfolk by Kevin Wright, consists of a co-ordinator and an outreach officer but only recently reported. No further material of similar date has been based at the British Museum. During the reporting found in the surrounding area and it is almost certainly a stray loss. period, six posts supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund came to an end, but funding for all the posts • Outreach: Through outreach all involved in the was continued by the Department for Culture, Scheme have significantly raised public awareness Media and Sport. of the importance of recording finds for our archaeological heritage, and reached new audiences • Recognition of success: the Scheme’s successes for museums and the heritage sector: were recognised by the British Archaeological • 198 talks have been given about the Awards where it received both the Spear and Scheme (124 to metal detecting clubs and Jackson Silver Trowel for the Best Initiative in 74 to other bodies); Archaeology and the Virgin Holidays Award for • 196 finds identification days and exhibitions Best Presented Archaeological project. have been staged; • 98 pieces in the media have been published or broadcast. • Objects recorded: a further 31,783 archaeological objects have been logged which would otherwise have gone unrecorded, adding significantly to our understanding of the material culture and archaeology of England and Wales. Some of these finds are illustrated in this report. • Website: The Portable Antiquities website Figure 1 (www.finds.org.uk) has continued to expand with At the biennial British Archaeological Awards 2000 held at Edinburgh the number of ‘page requests’ increasing to around Castle, the Portable Antiquities Scheme won the Spear and Jackson 47,000 a month, representing an increase of 40 per Silver Trowel. The top prize at the awards, the Silver Trowel is presented cent on the previous year. The website currently for the best initiative in archaeology. The Scheme also picked up the allows access to 9,000 objects recorded under the Virgin Holidays Award for best presented archaeological project. Scheme and about 600 images. This number will Above from left to right: Sally Worrell (Hampshire liaison officer), be increased to around 18,000 with about 2,300 Roger Bland (co-ordinator), HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan, images during 2001. The search screen for viewing Richard Hobbs (outreach officer). the data has also been significantly improved. 4 Portable Antiquities Annual Report 1999-2000 Figure 3 Copper -alloy mount from a Roman vessel, pr obably from the base of the handle of a jug. The bust depicts a female wearing the nebris (or ceremonial fawnskin) over the left shoulder with long curling hair and the suggestion of some form of head-dress. This object is likely to have Bacchic associations and is most likely to represent a maenad; a female worshipper of Bacchus. Found by Paul Green in Hampshire. Line drawing by Alan Cracknell. • Publications: Three major publications about the • Findspot information: The liaison officers are Scheme appeared in the last year: meeting with increased success in obtaining precise • the second Annual Report was launched in findspot information from finders, with 60 per cent March 2000; of finds now being recorded to the nearest 100 • the second issue of the Finding our Past square metres or better. newsletter was published by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries • Finders: The liaison officers have recorded objects (formerly the Museums & Galleries found by over 1,788 finders, and maintain regular Commission) in Summer 2000, with funding contact with 108 metal detecting clubs, an increase from the Heritage Lottery Fund. of 13 from the previous year. • the second issue of Portable Antiquities: Wales, was published in April 2000, also with funding • Non metal-detected finds: The numbers of from the Heritage Lottery Fund. objects being recorded from members of the public other than detector users has increased from • Sites and Monuments Records: A large amount thirteen per cent to 21 per cent of the total. of data being gathered by the Liaison Officers has Worked stone and pottery account for 32 per cent been passed on to Sites and Monuments Records, of all objects recorded, and major increase on last the key record holders for information about the year’s figure of twelve per cent. historic environment. Two major developments have also occurred to greatly enhance the transfer • Assessment exercise: an assessment of the impact process: a conversion table to allow data to be of the pilot Scheme on key stakeholders has been converted to the exeGesIS SMR software has been conducted by Dr Gill Chitty of Hawkshead completed, and a working group to oversee the Archaeology and Conservation.
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