Slide 1

The Portable Antiquities Scheme

& Treasure Act:

the current situation

Roger Bland

British Museum

Dig it. Museums and ArchaeologyMuseums Association, British Museum

Slide 2 Crosby Garrett Roman helmet

This Roman helmet was found at a Crosby Garrett in Cumbria. This was found by a metal detector user who reported it to one of our FLOs who was able to establish exactly where it was found. Unfortunately he and the farmer had already decided to sell it at Christie’s.

Slide 3

Who subsequently had it restored and it sold for £2 million at auction – 7 times the estimate. The local museum in Carlisle led a brilliant campaign to try and buy it and succeeded in raising £1.8m within 4 weeks, an amazing achievement, but sadly not enough. The helmet was bought by a private buyer in the UK – we do not know who. The problem was that this helmet was outside the scope of the Treasure Act and its sale led many to criticise the Treasure Act.

Slide 4

However, because it was reported to the Finds Liaison Officer, we did at least have a findspot for it and last spring it was possible to carry out a geophysical survey – click - and subsequently a small excavation around the findspot. This at least proved that the object had come from Crosby Garrett – some people commenting on the web had doubted that – and that it had a context, as it came from a so-called `native’ settlement. The immediate context of the helmet remains difficult to pin down: it seems to have been buried below a rough stone floor, though whether that belonged to a building, a road, or possibly a cairn is unclear. Click Two coins from this trench are dated to the 330s, which suggests that it had been kept for some time before being placed in the ground, as the helmet probably dates to the 2nd century AD. For two years the helmet disappeared from public view but in 2012 it appeared at an exhibition at the Royal Academy and it has recently been on show at Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, where 20,000 people have seen it in the last 3 months. From tomorrow it will be at the British Museum for three months.

Slide 5 Treasure Act 1996

• Only applies to objects found since Sept. 1997

• Definition of Treasure:– All objects, other than coins, at least 300 years old with at least

10% of gold or silver

– All coins from the same find, provided they are at least 300 years old (if they have less than 10% of gold or silver there must be at least 10)

– All objects found in association

– Extended in 2003 to include prehistoric base-metal deposits.

• Finds to be reported to coroner within 14 days of finder realising find may be Treasure

• Maximum penalty for not reporting Treasure: 3 months imprisonment or £5,000 fine (or both).

The Staffordshire hoard is probably the most famous individual discovery since the law on Treasure changed 19 years ago. After a long campaign – initiated by a local archaeological society, the Surrey Archaeological Society, and with the support of the BM, the Parliament passed the Treasure Act in 1996. These are the main points: Only applies to objects found since Sept. 1997 Definition of Treasure:

All objects, other than coins, at least 300 years old with at least 10% of gold or silver All coins from the same find, provided they are at least 300 years old (if they have less than 10% of gold or silver there must be at least 10) All objects found in association Extended in 2003 to include prehistoric base-metal deposits.

Finds to be reported to coroner within 14 days of finder realising find may be Treasure Maximum penalty for not reporting Treasure: 3 months imprisonment or £5,000 fine (or both).

Slide 6 Rewards and valuation

• Reward set at full market value, divided between finder and landowner

• Determined by independent Treasure Valuation Committee– Panel of valuers

– Interested parties can commission own valuations

– Abatement if evidence of wrongdoing

– Archaeologists not eligible for rewards

• Once valuation agreed museums have 4 months to raise money

I should stress here the importance of the system of valuing finds that museums wish to acquire. Treasure finds are valued by a committee of respected independent experts. Giving finders the confidence that if they do the right thing and report their finds they will be fairly reward is a key to the success of the Treasure Act. The reward is set at the full market value, which is divided between finder and landowner. The level of reward is determined by the independent Treasure Valuation Committee. The Committee is advised by a panel of valuers. Interested parties can commission their own valuations and the Committee can reduce the reward if there is evidence of wrongdoing. Archaeologists not eligible for rewards. Once valuation agreed museums have 4 months to raise money.

Slide 7

This is the impact of the new law. Here we see the number of finds reported first under the old law of Treasure Trove – about 25 a year - and since 1997 under the new Treasure Act. In the first four years of the Act about 200-250 finds a year were reported as Treasure, but since the PAS was extended nationally in 2003 the number of cases reported has increased greatly and is still increasing: last year it stood at 994 and that number has been about the same for the last three years, suggesting that we have now reached a peak. The staff of PAS offer an essential role in the operation of the Act and 97% of all Treasure cases are reported through them.

Slide 8 Amendments to Treasure Act

• Coroners and Justice Act 2009:

• Establishment of Coroner for Treasure

• Extension of obligation to report Treasure to

anyone who knowingly comes into possession of

it

• Government to designate officers to whom

Treasure finds should be reported

• Revision of Treasure Act Code of Practice and

review of definition of Treasure: possible

extension to objects of national importance

So, in order to address some of those concerns the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 contained some amendments to the Treasure Act. It provided for the establishment of Coroner for Treasure; extended the obligation to report Treasure to anyone who knowingly comes into possession of it and gave the Government the power to designate officers to whom Treasure finds should be reported (FLOs) – at the moment finders are technically required to report finds to coroners. However, the current Government that came in 2010 decided not to implement those changes, though it remains an aim to see that they are.

Slide 9 Review of Treasure Act

• First review in 2002 led to revision of Code of

Practice and extension of definition of Treasure

to prehistoric base-metal hoards

• Next review due in 2007, still awaiting

consultation paper

• Options for extension of definition:

– Objects of `national importance’ (adopting

Waverley criteria)

– Roman base-metal hoards

– Single finds of Roman and early medieval

gold coins

However, there will be a second Review of the Treasure Act Code of Practice this year. This will raise the possibility of extending the definition of Treasure (this already happened in 2002 when the first review brought prehistoric base-metal hoards within the scope of Treasure). A suggestion on the table at the moment – and we do not know whether the Government will agree to it – is to extend it to all objects of national importance – perhaps using the Waverley criteria used for export of works of art – whatever they are made of, so non metal objects could also potentially be Treasure.

Slide 10 Portable Antiquities Scheme

• Started as 6 schemes in 1997; since 2003 a national network

• 38 Finds Liaison Officers, 5 Finds Advisers, 4 other posts

• Administered by British Museum

In support of the Treasure Act, is the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which is a network of locally-based archaeologists, `Finds Liaison Officers’, who encourage members of the public, especially metal detector users, to report all finds of archaeological importance – which we define as all objects more than 300 years old. This started with six pilot schemes in 1997 and in 2003 it was extended across the whole of England and Wales and this map shows where the posts are based. There are 39 Finds Liaison Officers, 5 finds advisers, who provide specialist advice on finds – two of these posts are for numismatists – and four other staff. It is now administered by the British Museum, with funding from the Government.

Slide 11

This shows the number of objects recorded on the PAS database since 1998 and it is now at about 80,000 pa. We believe that this at the limit of what our current staff can record and they are having to find ways of limiting the finds they are offered for recording.

Slide 12 http://finds.org.uk

This is the home page of the online database which now has records of 925,000 finds from across England and Wales.

Slide 13

This is a record.

Slide 14 Research using PAS data

• Listed on http://finds.org.uk/research

• 416 Research projects

• 183 dissertations (61 undergraduate, 121

master’s)

• 93 PhDs

• 17 research-council funded projects

(AHRC, Leverhulme, ERC etc.)

• 88 personal research projects

I would now like to talk about some of the research that is coming out of the Scheme.

Slide 15 21 December 2014:

The Lenborough hoard

Of course not many finds have such fascinating personal stories attached to them and I end with showing the latest major find to come through the Treasure Act. Four days before Christmas the Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Bucks was invited to record the finds made by detectorists at a metal detecting rally at Lenborough, just south of Buckingham. Within half an hour of arriving and setting up her recording table, news came that something interesting had been found! As the light went at the end of the day a hoard of more than 5,000 silver coins, wrapped in a damaged lead parcel, had been excavated. The coins had been piled onto a thin rectangle of lead sheet with cut edges. The longer edges had then been lifted and folded over on themselves and the ends pinched together to make an elliptical parcel. Through the damage on the upper surface a tightly packed, jumble of coins could be seen. They did not appear to have been laid in any order and there was no trace of, or room for them to have been in leather pouches. This was a rescue job and Ros, as our sole FLO at event with about a hundred

metal detector users, did a heroic job in the circumstances and ensured that all the coins were recovered. Click The coins are in excellent condition and have been cleaned by in the British Museum and a report prepared for the Coroner by Gareth Williams, Curator of Early Medieval Coins at the British Museum. They are all silver pennies of Ethelred the Unready and Cnut, and it is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins to have been discovered since the Cuerdale hoard of 1839 – most of which was dispersed before it could be recorded.

Slide 16

PAS has had a roller coaster ride since it was founded in 1997. In 2002 the 11 pilot schemes were was within three weeks of being wound down before news of the lottery grant came through which enabled a national scheme to be established. In 2008 our then parent body, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council responded to a cut in its funding by seeking close it down, with the result that we had to launch a public campaign to support it – here is some of the reporting …

Slide 17 PAS saved! (2008)

And that achieved a successful result. In 2011 the Scheme was transferred to the BM which I hoped would provide stability, although we had to transfer responsibility for funding the Scheme in Wales to the Welsh Assembly Government and I am delighted that they have picked it up. Unfortunately, we have not been immune from the cuts that the Museum has had in its Government grant and have just suffered a 6% cut. It was only possible to confirm all the contracts for the 42 posts with the partner organisations which employ them last week and we expect the BM’s Government grant to continue to decline. This will create real challenge to ensure the continuation of the Scheme as a national programme in the future – although the demand for it continues to grow. Thank you very much.