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Charting the effects of plough damage using metal-detected assemblages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

D. Haldenby  and
Julian D. Richards
D. Haldenby
Affiliation:
Volunteer, Hull & East Riding Museum, 36 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NQ, UK
Julian D. Richards
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of York, King's Manor, York, YO1 7EP, UK (Email: julian.richards@york.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Many thousands of metal objects are retrieved from arable fields every year, by casual discovery or by treasure-seekers with metal-detectors. What is the status of this material? Here a senior archaeologist and a metal-detectorist get together to demonstrate scientifically the hostile context of the ploughsoil and the accelerating damage it is inflicting on the ancient material it contains. Their work raises some important questions about the ‘archive under the plough’: is it safer to leave the objects there, or to take advantage of a widespread hobby to locate and retrieve them?

Keywords

metal-detectingploughzoneAnglo-Saxon artefacts
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 1151 - 1162
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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