Heritage Bodies Sponsor Study into Illegal Removal of Archaeology

Oxford Archaeology is to undertake a new project to collate intelligence and monitor activity around the illegal removal of antiquities, otherwise known as nighthawking, from archaeological sites.

The Nighthawks Study will collect data on the extent of damage to our archaeological heritage caused by nighthawking, and a web portal allowing people to fill in an online questionnaire will be launched in April/May 2007.

Backed by English Heritage, Cadw, Historic Scotland, National Museums of Wales and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the project will cover the whole of the UK and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.

It will also seek to foster a climate of opinion within all partners in the heritage sector and the government that the illegal search, removal and sale of antiquities is unacceptable.

Damage to archaeological sites caused by illegal searching and excavating and the sale of archaeological items on internet auction sites is still causing concern amongst heritage bodies, but there is a lack of robust data that details and quantifies the extent of the damage. Convictions are also rare.

“What we are going to do is try to get some reasonably reliable data about the scale of the problem and raise the profile of it with the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, so that when potential prosecutions present themselves they are pursued,” explained Pete Wilson, English Heritage’s Head of Research Policy (Roman Archaeology) and a leading figure in the subject area of portable antiquities.

Dr Wilson points to a recent case in Kent that saw a metal detectorist’s house raided and several items found with mud still on them. The detectorist even had the find locations of the pieces logged on his computer, but the case never made it to prosecution.

There have even been reports of a team in a white van armed with equipment that would rival English Heritage’s own geophysical teams, whilst at Warborough Roman site in Surrey a team of nighthawkers turned up with a lorry and a mechanical digger and started taking up great parts of the earth for sifting and sorting at another location.

“There is a feeling that the level of organisation is such that there is an element who are, as much as you can do with these type of antiquities, finding things to order,” said Dr Wilson.

Most metal detectorists belong to bona fide clubs that responsibly log their finds and work closely with the Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs) of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), which helps finders log their finds and map locations.

Every year thousands of objects are discovered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - mostly by metal detector users. PAS, which is managed by the British Museum on behalf of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, offers the only proactive method for systematically logging and recording them for the public benefit.

The Finds Liaison Officers work with local organisations and museums to help members of the public to record their archaeological finds and navigate their way through the Treasure Act. The data is then made available through the scheme’s website at www.finds.org.uk

By law, certain objects, such as old gold and silver coins, can only be sold if they are reported under the 1996 Treasure Act.

Metal detecting clubs, key archaeological organisations, and landowners’ organisations came together on May 2 2006 to launch a Code of Practice on Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales. The code built on earlier efforts to provide guidance for all users of metal detectors.

But despite the good work of the PAS and Metal Detector Clubs there are still a minority of irresponsible individuals who use their hobby illicitly for personal gain.

“Metal Detecting, if done properly and responsibly, has an important part to play in understanding our past, however - there is still a minority of metal detectorists who do so outside of the law,” said Michael Lewis, Deputy Director of the PAS.

“What we hope the nighthawking project does is raise the issue onto the political agenda. The basis of the problem is that it is so difficult to quantify this activity, which is the whole point of the study.”

Data on nighthawking activities will be collected through a questionnaire filled out online or on paper. Key organisations will be asked to contribute information to the project and interviews will be conducted. The project will also collect data on the illicit sale of goods of archaeological material online and elsewhere.

For their part, the popular online auction site eBay.co.uk launched an online guide in October 2006, created with the assistance of the British Museum and PAS, to buying and selling antiquities safely on the auction with advice about reporting obligations.

PAS say they have noticed a marked decline in the amount of archaeological antiquities on the site and sellers of such items have also begun noting when something has been logged by a Finds Liaison Officer or been through the Treasure process. But the perception persists amongst heritage bodies that illicit sales continue; and the monitoring of the illicit sale of antiquities being traded on eBay and elsewhere is still relatively piecemeal and under-resourced.

“We’re in the very early stages of this,” added Dr Wilson. “Oxford Archaeology are leading the research and will be talking to archaeologists, FLOs and metal detectorists but we don’t know at this stage how the project is going to look at the problem of data validation. There are obvious sensitivities when compiling data on what is essentially criminal activity.”

(By Richard Moss, 24 Hour Museum - 16 March 2007)