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The widespread availability of metal detectors in the 1970’s was the beginning of a lot of problems for portable antiquities, as we have covered here on a regular basis for the past 10 years or more.
However, the problems arising from the collection of portable antiquities are not new, as an article from Old Cornwall[1] magazine from over 80 years ago relates.
Despite specifically referring to flint finds, some sections of this are worth highlighting as still relevant today to fieldworkers and metal detectorists alike:
- “The loss to Cornwall has been incalculable”
- “…a detailed record of the exact place…” … “It is not enough to give the name of the farm, or even of the particular field, it must be sufficiently accurate to enable the exact spot to be fixed.”
- “It is not desirable that the finder should indulge in any ‘digging’ for flints. His work may prove to be more damaging than helpful.”
- “…objects should not be discarded too freely”
- “It cannot be too strongly emphasised that flints are of no intrinsic value; what is of value is the record of where flints have been found.”
References:
1: Old Cornwall Magazine Winter 1938 Vol III #4, p166 ‘On Flints’
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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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