Archive for January 16th, 2008

Jan 16 2008

Britain’s Portable Antiquities Scheme - Do Some Research & Show Off

Published by admin under Links, Waste of Time

Yesterday I found the article about a Czech man who died and left behind a ton of great artifacts with no documentation and I really understood the importance of keeping records of what I’ve found and where I’ve found it.

Today I stumbled onto this website for all you U.K. metal detectorists - Portable Antiquities Scheme. I figured anything with the word “finds” in the web address can’t be too bad and their “search” feature is excellent - the “visual search” is pretty much the most amazing thing ever and their images are mind blowing! I figured anyone could use this to help identify finds or even just kill some time - lord knows I just did!

Hampshire CoinThe coin featured left was silver, hammered shilling found in Hampshire. It was made during the rein of Elizabeth I (Post medieval: 1558-1603) and features her bust on the obverse side, and the royal shield as seen here. I can’t imagine what it must be like to hold something that old and with that much history.

Here’s some quotes from their website:

  • “The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary scheme to record archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Every year many thousands of objects are discovered, many of these by metal-detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. Such discoveries offer an important source for understanding our past.”
  • “The database holds records for 314,083 objects within 206,468 records. There are now 158,228 images that can be used freely. Since the 1st January 2008, they have recorded 2,293 objects within 1721 records. In 2007, they recorded 77,542 objects within 49,404 records.”

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