Re: Bronze Age Axe Head find at Wolstonbury | Forum

Wolstonbury 3

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Bronze Age Axe Head find at Wolstonbury

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danielspaniel Nov 23, 2012 11:28:35

Replying to Rhiannon

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I hope it does end up somewhere it can be viewed and enjoyed by everyone. I must find out where the 'Wolstonbury Trust Collection' actually is...

I've got a bit of a confession to make about metal detectors/ Wolstonbury though, but before I tell it I must make clear that I would not condone finding, digging up and stealing any archaeology and have educated my kids about this as well!

My 6 year old son, Tom, got a toy metal detector for his birthday (not from me, I hasten to add!)
As I mentioned before, lots of bits of shrapnel, bullet casings etc can be found lying on the ground (not under it) at the WW2 firing ranges near Wolstonbury.
As you can imagine, Tom absolutely loves this (why are little boys so war-like?) and we often end up wandering round the range area searching for bullet casings with me trying to persuade Tom to carry on up to the enclosure on the top of the hill!
Needless to say, he was keen to get his detector out and find some shrapnel with it, although to be honest it is a toy and it would struggle to find a bike. I had serious reservations about even being seen with a metal detector, but consoled myself with the fact they have livestock grazing in the area now, and the farmer is more than happy for sharp bits of metal to be removed from the pasture. As we were walking towards the area one of those heavy rainstorms that you can see coming across the hills as a mist bore down on us and the squall literally chased us back to the car, giving our inadequate clothing a good soaking in the process -
serves us right, I suppose! I was secretly glad we didn't get chance to get his new toy out.

I guess even WW2 shrapnel is the archaeology of the future, and will maybe one day be considered as mysterious and enigmatic as a BA axe head. Perhaps all such artifacts ought to be recorded and/ or left in situ? What do you reckon?

Best Wishes,

Dan

Rhiannon Nov 23, 2012 12:03:53

Replying to danielspaniel

Well I'm not sure that metal detecting is a bad thing per se. After all, so many of the amazing objects you see in the british museum and the like have no doubt been found that way. Waving a metal detector around a field where you've asked permission to be there doing it, and hearing a beeping, and scraping down through the soil to see something from the past - that'd be pretty cool. And if you then call someone professional in to excavate it carefully, and altruistically share the information gleaned with your fellow members of society, and maybe even resist the urge to charge the local museum squillions of quid to buy it off you - I mean that sounds fine doesn't it. What doesn't sound fine is sneaking around places you're not supposed to be (middle of night optional), digging a huge hole to get out your treasure, not reporting you've found anything, putting it in a box in your shed for 40 years until you die whereupon your children chuck it in the bin. That's the problem people have with metal detecting I would think. In fact it's not a problem with metal detectING it's more a problem with a subset of metal detectorISTS who consider their private excitement more important than anything else. Some of them aren't very nice at all as I read recently on the Heritage action blog. So don't take my comment that I don't think your kid should have fun. I'm sure that in the event that he comes across the next staffordshire gold hoard, you'll advise him to report it after he's finished dancing about the field.

moss Nov 23, 2012 18:21:38

Replying to danielspaniel

"I guess even WW2 shrapnel is the archaeology of the future, and will maybe one day be considered as mysterious and enigmatic as a BA axe head. Perhaps all such artifacts ought to be recorded and/ or left in situ? What do you reckon?.."

As someone who used to go field walking years ago, up and down ploughed icy fields getting colder by the minute I would say pick it up and give it to the relevant body. I went as part of an archaeology group, you would normally be in a field where 'finds' would be found because the data was already on record. Clean. draw and photograph, relate the find to its wider environment, the plough would eventually destroy such finds anyway. And as for picking over the 'waste soil' thrown over by trenching etc, the metal detector is a friend. Trouble with the M/D is that it is used for profit by some but as Rhiannon says look what we have in our museums, and how much more knowledge comes from such things, the rogues are in every corner of society - get rid of them....

Sanctuary Nov 23, 2012 18:58:15

Replying to danielspaniel

danielspaniel wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I hope it does end up somewhere it can be viewed and enjoyed by everyone. I must find out where the 'Wolstonbury Trust Collection' actually is...

Best Wishes,

Dan

Personally Dan I can't think of a more exciting gift for a young boy then his first MD. Coupled with that is the opportunity to educate him into the responsibility that goes with it alongside the excitement of finding 'treasures' which to a child can be just a bottle top or piece of wire...and all out in the fresh air! I know MD's get a bad press here and we all know why, but as has been said already, look how much we would have missed out on without them. Have fun Tom.