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Just heard from Caroline the FLO that the Museum have DISCLAIMED the silver annular brooch
Soon she will receive the disclaimer letter and then the brooch will be returned to me
Annular Brooch
November 30th, 2005 by veniconeLecture at Bristol
November 24th, 2005 by daniel pettJust returned from lecturing at Bristol University for their 3rd year undergrad course and their MPhil class. I tried out a new lecture on this one, highlighting a lot of the new work that we have implemented over the new year on our web servers, and expanding on future plans.
I’m not sure how interested the students actually are, but the web resources that we are producing are rapidly becoming high quality information pages. I’m seriously working on web visibility at the moment, with a programme of search engine optimisation and various other initatives; this is beginning to take shape, with a huge upsurge in our web site viewing stats for last month.
This month’s stats are looking a bit poor due to a corrupt log on our backup server.
There’s loads more to do, but I’ll keep plugging away on this. Once I have finished the Content Management System that I have built for the finds website, I can devolve web content creation to the rest of the team. Then the next thread of attack is the Jodi Mattes web accessibility awards. I think we’ve done a lot this year to make the website more accessible. However, the things to do are still at the top of my list.
Geo-Url:what's near the Scheme on the web
November 21st, 2005 by daniel pettI’ve just added the Scheme’s website to the GeoUrl database. This provides a spatial method of determining what websites are in close proximity to our head office. Probably pretty pointless, but it is geeky map like technology, and we like that at the Scheme. Maps rock.
Here’s what is near to us – Geourl database entry for Lat: 51:31:08N (51.519) Lon: 0:07:35W (-0.1265)
So, this year, I’m finally getting the Scheme’s websites to embrace more new technology and it is starting to take effect. Our webstats have gone up by 150% for the last month for the main site and we’re slowly climbing for our database. Pastexplorers is proving to be popular, but I think that will take a year or so to develop into something good. Time will tell as Bob Marley once sang.
If you want to check out our webstats then feel free -
Now all we need to do is get linked to some bigger sites. Coming soon, maybe the BM frontpage.
I’m also working on a new project for the Royal Numismatic Society, revamping their old website using open source technology (with one tiny bit of proprietary software – zoomify) and CSS to provide them with a content managed, accessible website. Check it out for yourself and see what you think… At some point soon, I’ll need to rethink the strategy for the PAS’s website and IT for the next two years of funding. Any ideas what you would like to see?
Here we go again!
November 12th, 2005 by veniconeSlightly different process for this new Treasure find
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Caroline has told me that as the brooch is a straight forward object, she’ll write the report and send it onto the British Museum. This means the Treasure Registrar can get the complete file to the Essex coroner and it gets to an inquest much quicker. The British Museum curators are often overstretched, so Caroline helps where she can by writing these reports.
A British Museum curator will vet Carolines report and make any changes/additions if needed.
This differs to the Gold fragment I found earlier – which is highly unusual, and therefore it requires that more extensive network of experts available to the British Museum.
Will be interesting to see whether there will be any significant time difference between the two items working their way through the Treasure Act process – will keep you posted!
Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Annual reports launched
November 10th, 2005 by daniel pettreport05_06/launchday
Yesterday, at the Museum of London, the Department for Media, Culture and Sport and MLA launched the Annual Reports for the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure report. This event was attended by over 100 people and had the Minister for Culture, David Lammy, as guest speaker. The Minister had the chance to see various items recorded by the Scheme in the course of its work; these included:
- An Electrum torc from Norfolk
- Roman furniture fitting
- The coin of Domitian II
- An Early-Medieval skillet (like a saucepan)
- Some post medieval cheese or apple scoops
- A range of Anglo-Saxon gravegoods
- An Iron age scabbard mount
- A Roman seal box lid from Derbyshire
The Minister announced that:
“What occurs to me is the diverse background of the people that are doing the finding,” he said. “I get a sense of the real thrill that people get when they come upon something that’s valuable either economically or because it makes such an impact in terms of its historical significance.”
If you would like a copy of this year’s annual reports, then contact us at the Central Unit at info@finds.org.uk
We’ll send you which ever you need. Photos of the event, the objects included in the report, and many others can be seen in our gallery.
Here we go again!
November 4th, 2005 by veniconeLast weekend Terry and I decided to try some new fields on the farm. We had previously been concentrating on one area of the farm where a number of Roman coins and artefacts had been coming up but we hadnt been able to get to the area we wanted to because of the number of game birds hiding in and around the hedgerows surrounding the field. The area we chose was a large field on the other side of the farm and neither of us had detected there before.
It was soooooooo quiet on this field…… One of those fields where you keep checking the settings on your machine as you are sure there is something wrong. Of course, it didnt help matters that Terry was trying out a new machine and having trouble making sense of anything it was telling him. At one stage he had his trusty machine in one hand and his new one in the other double checking every signal he eventually found.
We started by detecting on the high ground of the field – the signals were sparse but they were there. My first find of the day was actually lying on the surface of the stubble field and was a first for me – a James I silver halfpenny (or James VI depending on whether you are Scottish or not 
)
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It was a good half an hour before my next few signals towards the bottom lower area of the field and these were lumps of lead.
I was in need of a coffee fix so changed direction and headed up the slope towards where my car was parked when I got a cracking signal. Just under the surface was a small ring shaped object – covered in gooey mud. As I picked the mud off the object I noticed that it had a pin attached and small bosses around it – it was an annular ring brooch! I called Terry over to show him the find – he said “Your best find to date! – looks like silver”
After taking a GPS reading of the find spot and searching the immediate area it was back to the car for my much needed coffee fix where we both had a good look at each others finds.
On getting home I had a quick look round the net and soon discovered a number of similar examples including one in the 2002 Annual treasure report (page 77) Treasure number 2002 T173. Its described here as a Medieval silver annular brooch dating to the 13th century. The description reads:
Medieval silver annular brooch, complete, with 4 brambled bosses and a brambled collar on the pin. Slight groove in end of pin where it rests on the frame.
This is my brooch:
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The brooch is being handed into Caroline my FLO early next week after I have had the chance to let the farmer see it and within the timescale for reporting Treasure finds.
Roll on Sunday and another days detecting – hope Terry has got to grips with his new machine by then 
The content contained within the Blog's pages do not represent an official position from any of the organisations associated with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They are solely those of the post's author.
