These papers look at who owns, or believes they own, our shared national heritage – be that the artefacts themselves or the research that stems from them.
In these blogs, I look at some of the issues which affect artefact, research in the 21st century: from the lack of context created by detectorist excavations of ‘Treasure’ (my use of this word is specific to the terms of the 1996 Treasure Act and amendments) and other metal finds; through to the private ownership of these finds, and to the restrictions placed on publication by image reproduction copyright rules enforced by a small number of museums.
I’ve also looked at detecting, the Treasure process, the export of detected finds, the costs of all the above and the effect on the portable heritage of the UK.
The blogs were written in order and build upon each other, so I would suggest starting at the top and working down.
The first blog looks at the relationship between detected finds and research, and how loss of context can cause huge problems for archaeological researchers:
The second explores access to, and ownership of, finds:
The third examines private ownership and image rights issues in further detail:
In this blog, I looked at recent thefts of gold in the UK and suggest that we need to change the language we use to talk about precious metal finds:
Solid-gold rant incoming…
Next, a piece about detecting and archaeology and the stress that the current system is under:
A piece about how much ‘Treasure’ is costing all of us:
A guest blog, which adds more detail to the narrative of detecting in England & Wales:
“Who Pays for the Hobby?”: Metal Detecting in England and Wales
A piece about export licences, detecting tourism, and pulling together figures:
Going… going… gone overseas?
The Big Book of Torcs 