Treasure island
The discovery of the amazing Staffordshire Hoard may shine a light on Britain’s past – but it also spotlights a nationwide treasure-reporting scheme that is the envy of the world, says Jane Ball
What would you do with £2.50? Buy coffee in a posh cafe? Put a half gallon of petrol in your car? In 1995 (when petrol was around £2.40 a gallon) Terry Herbert from Staffordshire spent £2.50 at a boot fair on a second-hand metal detector. Fourteen years later, he found one of this country’s most breathtaking hoards of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver treasure. On top of the thrill of finding it, Terry and the owner of the land on which it was found will share the £3.28 million reward.
The idea of buried treasure stirs childlike excitement in all of us. Museum curators have been astonished by the enthusiasm sparked by the beautiful Staffordshire Hoard, with late openings and queues round the block in the few places where it has been shown since its discovery last year. But the find was not the only one: 2009 was something of a bumper year for exciting discoveries and in the last decade or so about 400,000 ancient objects found by treasure hunters have been recorded.
This bonanza owes much to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), which started as a pilot in 1996 because it was believed that many interesting finds were being lost to the world. This voluntary scheme puts amateur finders in touch with expert reporting officers. Artefacts are shown to “Finds Liaison Officers” or local museums, with the promise of recognition, a proper, satisfying, identification and – if they are treasure – a possible cash payout. As a result, the last few years have seen huge increases in finds being reported and the scheme is admired all over the world.
In the past, interesting finds were often just put in a cupboard or perhaps shown to the local museum for identification. Now, you can show your discovery to an archaeologist who will research it, tell you what you’ve found, log it and give it – and you – significance.
You will also find out whether what you have found is treasure according to the Treasure Act, which states that “all finders of gold and silver objects, and groups of coins from the same spot, which are over 300 years old, have a legal obligation to report such items”. The Act rewards such finds financially, subject to certain criteria, but the Portable Antiquities Scheme builds on this by giving non-treasure, too, its place in history, and a huge amount of personal satisfaction to the growing army of “metal detectives”.
The success of the scheme has meant that information on the location of finds rose from 56 per cent in 1998 to 90 per cent in 2007 (the last published figures), enabling archaeologists to record and link finds accurately and research potential new sites. PAS has also strengthened relations between metal detectorists and archaeologists, formerly rather strained. Its Finds Liaison Officers go out to meet finders, hold finds days in museums, visit detecting clubs and help with identification and recording.
While there is a dark side to metal detecting – “nighthawking”, where people illegally search for and steal items from the ground, damaging archaeological sites – the majority of enthusiasts take their hobby seriously and their contribution to the PAS cannot be overestimated. According to the scheme's database, 84 per cent of recorded discoveries emerged first as a bleep in a pair of earphones.
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