Scheme milestones

May 31st, 2006 by daniel pett

There’s been a few milestones reached in the last few weeks at the Scheme. Some of these are pretty trivial, some of them are a bit more far reaching. I’ve just calculated all the figures for the forthcoming Annual Report (produced for the first time by the British Museum, so expect a style change….) and these have produced some good figures. For example; finds have gone up by 44% since the previous reporting period, there’s been a substantial increase in precision of find recording (spatial, textual and artistic) and a significant increase in recorders and those that have come into contact with the Scheme. We’ve also served over 17 million pages, produced 89 million hits and also had a million visits over the last 2 years. I think that’s quite an achievement for a website that has a niche market audience. I’m not going to give the exact figures here, as that will fuel debate prior to publication. You’ll just have to wait and read the facts!

On a more trivial level, we’ve now recorded our 200,000 archaeological object since the Scheme’s inception in 1997; the database now has over 99,000 images which can all be used free of charge for publication. The resource is increasing and its worth is now becoming known. So if anyone actually reads this, fancy using the database to generate data for your research. Go on, you know you want to!

We’ve also launched the joint “Code of Practice for Metal Detecting in England & Wales”. This has proved controversial in some quarters, but it has been quite an achievement to get so many different organisations to sign up to it. Some say it is too harsh, some not harsh enough. It’s only a voluntary code anyway….

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RSS Museum Newsfeeds – Heritage sector

May 30th, 2006 by daniel pett

More and more Heritage sector bodies are now starting to make use of RSS technology, and hopefully they are reaping the benefits. The Scheme has been offering RSS feeds drawn directly from the database backend for well over a year now. This was developed using a script drawn from a script by Rogers Cadenhead for making MySQL data available as RSS. If you want to know more about this colourful character and his connection with the Pope, check out the Wikipedia entry.

It was therefore quite nice to see the 24 Hour Museum website plugging our content via their web pages -
RSS Museum Newsfeeds For All – 24 Hour Museum – official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage

RSS feed example - 24 hour museum

They also make their news available via RSS, but have not cottoned on to autodiscovery via link rel in the headers. Are they missing a trick. If you want to add auto discovery to your website – try this

in the HEAD section of your HTML.

Simple, voila.

I’m currently helping with the redevelopment of the British Museum’s website, and one of the things that we will be looking at is integrating and disseminating data from the Museum. This could be in the form of entries in the collections database, news and events and the list goes on. The benefits are plain to see; our webstats have soared since we went for RSS and we have implemented a more advanced RSS feed system on our database where you can subscribe to searches that you created. For more info, click on the RSS feed button at the top of the page. Maybe more people will start using it over time as tolerance levels rise towards idiosyncratic writing styles of some of our Finds Liaison Officers…. Prove me right?
I’ll have to look into making atom feeds when I get five minutes…. Oh well, next year?

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Finds roadshow

May 22nd, 2006 by daniel pett

The Portable Antiquities Scheme started it’s tenancy at the British Museum (formally) with a finds roadshow in the Great Court. The day had many activities organised for children and adults and managed to catch the attention of thousands of visitors who came through the doors.
Vikings prepare to fight

The day provided families with the following activities to participate in:

  1. Story telling
  2. Finds handling
  3. Roman re-enactment
  4. Gallery talks
  5. Viking battle re-enactment
  6. Finds recording
  7. Conservation displays including use of an XRF machine
  8. Displays by West Kent metal detector club
  9. Displays by the Mudlarks

Images of the day have been included in the gallery, and show some of the happy attendees participating gleefully. Over 40 objects of archaeological note were recorded, with one item of Treasure. These will shortly be transferred to our database and add to our archaeological corpus.

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Treasure Valuation Committee

May 19th, 2006 by venicone

Today was the day my wee runic find was due to go before the Treasure Valuation Committee and I emailed the Treasure Department at the British Museum to make sure.

Fi from the Treasure Department has kindly replied as follows:

Dear Corinne,

Yes, your find did come up in the TVC today; the DCMS will be in touch
formally, but I can let you know that the committee discussed the find,
and decided to get a second provisional valuation before making a
recommendation. They do this sometimes, when they want to be really sure
before making a final decision.

The DCMS will no doubt aim to have this in time for the next TVC, but it
does depend on the provisional valuer’s schedule – they will be in touch
to inform you of this over the next few days I’m sure, and when they
have it, will communicate the second valuation to you in the same way as
before, prior to the relevant meeting.

Sorry not to have more concrete news!

Regards, Fi

Thanks Fi!

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Colonel Bogdanos lectures APPAG

May 17th, 2006 by daniel pett

Colonel Bodganos gave an energetic and informative talk about the situation facing the National Museum in Iraq in the weeks following the invasion. He also outlined his role tracing the antiquities that were stolen and outlined what should be done in the future.

APPAG members who missed this treat might like to buy a copy of his book ‘Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine’s Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World’s Greatest Stolen Treasures’. Royalties from the book go to the National Museum, Iraq.

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Have you dug up something important in your back garden ?

May 17th, 2006 by daniel pett

On 20 May the British Museum is offering visitors the chance to bring along their own finds for identification. It could be a pottery sherd found whilst digging in the back garden, a flint found on the beach or a coin uncovered whilst walking the dog. Whatever it is, we’d love to see it and record it.

Your find will be examined and analysed by experts from the British Museum and Portable Antiquities Scheme to see what it is made of and its estimated age. There will also be a chance to see displays of other archaeological finds discovered by members of the public and to learn more about the conservation, identification and recording of finds. Previous roadshow events have uncovered important objects such as a beautiful 7th century pendant from West Shropshire. This find was very significant as this type of high status Anglo-Saxon metalwork is rare, and in Shropshire is almost without precedent. It is only through the logging of such finds that a more complete picture of the archaeological record can be established.

The roadshow will also include special events for children with an opportunity to meet favourite historical characters who will talk about the times in which they lived. A Viking Battle will take place on the forecourt of the Museum and object handling and story telling sessions will allow visitors to get a deeper insight into British archaeology and history.

NEW FIND – ‘The Stilton Cheese Press’
As an example of what can be uncovered underground, an almost complete ceramic cheese press dating to the later Roman period has recently been found in the parish of Stilton in Cambridgeshire. The vessel possesses two ridges and two rows of small circular drainage holes. To use the cheese press, curds would be poured into the mould and whey forced to drain away by the application of pressure (probably in the form of a weight). The cheese would be removed and stored in a cool place before being salted and compressed again. The press is a good example of the importance of recording all finds, it may not be made of gold or silver but it gives us a glimpse of a very human past, one populated by ordinary men and women going about their daily lives.

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KCL & BM PhD details

May 8th, 2006 by daniel pett

Department of Classics, King’s College London and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, British Museum.

A collaborative Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded doctoral award to carry out an evaluation of the impact of metal-detected data gathered by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) (www.finds.org.uk) on understanding historic environments and past societies, with special reference to Roman Britain. The award offers tuition fees up to the AHRC maximum and a maintenance grant for three years (rate for 2006-07: £14,000) plus bursary of £1,000 p.a. from the British Museum. The award is available from 1st October 2006.

The post-holder will be a postgraduate student of the Department of Classics, King’s College London and will also spend part of their time on placement with the Portable Antiquities office at the British Museum.

Project description
The doctoral project will:

(1) evaluate as a research resource a significant new source of archaeological data, namely metal-detected finds recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme;

(2) assess the impact of metal-detected data on our understanding of the distribution, density and character of settlements, with particular reference to Roman Britain.

This project aims to develop and apply principles analogous to those for characterising other types of archaeological data in order to assess and enhance the value of metal-detected data for research purposes. The post holder will review previous research in the use of metal-detected data for characterising past societies. The post holder will assess the national distribution of metal-detected data in the PAS database and in close consultation with PAS staff will then select sample regions for detailed study. S/he will analyse the distribution of metal-detected finds and compare this to other evidence for Roman British activity in the sample landscapes, using data on the Historic Environment Records as a starting point. The post holder will assess the impact of metal-detected data on the interpretation of societies in those landscapes.

The AHRC collaborative doctoral award scheme is intended to allow students to gain first hand experience of working outside the academic environment, in order to develop their employment related skills and training. In the case of this award the post holder will spend part of their time on placement with the PAS. As well as working on their doctoral project, during this placement they will be expected (1) to produce a report into the research value and significance of metal-detected data, drawing from the experience and results of their research, as a resource to guide the future training of PAS staff and (2) to help guide students and other researchers with an academic interest in the Scheme’s data to their potential uses.

Canidate eligibility and qualifications
The post-holder will need to meet the eligibility criteria of the AHRC for a full doctoral award, both as regards residency (he/she will need to have a relevant connection with the UK, usually through residence. EU Nationals will need to have been in the UK in full time education for the 3 years prior to the start of the course) and also as regards academic criteria (he/she should normally have, or be studying for, a Master’s degree or similar qualification. If he/she has already gained or completed the requirements of a doctoral degree in any subject however funded, they are not eligible to apply. For full details see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/apply/postgrad/postgrad_details_d/eligibility.asp
For further details on AHRC maintenance grants see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/ahrb/website/images/4_97065.pdf

The candidate will have a degree at master’s level in archaeology or a related discipline, and ideally experience of one or more of the following areas (a) material culture of the Roman period in Britain (b) tools of spatial analysis in archaeology (GIS). The post holder will need to be self-motivated, highly organised and used to working to deadlines. They will also need to be computer-literate and experienced in using databases.

Further information and application
For more information on this studentship please contact Dr John Pearce, department of Classics, King’s College London (020 78482252, john.pearce@kcl.ac.uk). Further information on the Portable Antiquities Scheme and its role in this award please contact Dr Roger Bland (rbland@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk) or Sally Worrell (s.worrell@ucl.ac.uk).

To apply candidates should complete and return the King’s College London postgraduate application form together with a research proposal of not more than 500 words. Application forms may be obtained by contacting humanities@kcl.ac.uk or from the KCL School of Humanities website (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/hums/grad/humap.html) or from the following address:

The Graduate Programme
School of Humanities
Main Building, Room 3B
King’s College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS

Closing date: 12 May 2006. It is expected that interviews for this award will take place in early June.

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