Protecting Portable Antiquities in the UK: A Financial Threat

The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) operating in the UK is seen as a model for recording portable finds. As Neil Faulkner in Current Archaeology noted,

Metal-detectorists, for long treated as pariahs, have been brought into the fold, contributing their expertise and discoveries to national heritage by recording find-spots and bringing artefacts to local FLOs [Finds Liaison Officers] for identification and databasing. Not just detectorists: of 6,216 individuals offering finds for recording in 2006, more than a third were not detectorists but other members of the public.

However PAS funding has been frozen. Lord Renfrew, writing in a comment piece ("Lost or found?") for the Guardian (December 17, 2007), laid out the case for the continuation of the scheme,

At the moment its 50 dedicated staff do not know whether they will still have a job after next March. If ever there was a frontline service such as this spending review was supposed to protect, this is it. It is ironic that this threat to its future should come just when the scheme is beginning to produce dividends in terms of research and has built up the trust of over 6,000 finders. All this could so easily be lost without adequate funding.

Metal-detectorists also feel outraged. One commented on Renfrew's piece,

I could not agree more with Lord Renfrew. As a dedicated metal detectorist and amateur archaeologist, I have recorded all my finds with the PAS since I took up the hobby. The dedication and professionalism of the organisation's staff has been an inspiration.

If you would like to express your opinion follow the link here where you can vote in a straw poll, and, if you are a UK citizen, add your name to a Downing Street petition.