The Joy of Collecting vs. archaeo-grinches

As the holiday season approaches, it is time to reflect upon  reasons why collecting ancient coins and other ancient artifacts is so attractive to those who pursue that as their avocation, and to those who pursue supplying collectors as their career.

It is also time to reflect upon the beneficial effects of that collecting avocation upon families, friends and acquaintances. Collectors are, by their very nature, very positive people and compulsive sharers. They desire to infuse others with their own passion for experiencing the past through the artifacts it has left behind, which make it possible to visualize the daily lives of people who used these artifacts and whose activities resulted in their being preserved until present times.

The collecting passion has been an important part of mankind's cultural heritage since antiquity, when Caesar Augustus awarded choice ancient Greek coins as party favors at his state banquets. Roman notables of the first and second centuries avidly pursued collecting Greek statues and ceramic art, and supported a thriving art replication industry which created fine reproductions of these objects to adorn their townhouses, villas and gardens.

Now we must fast-forward to the troubled present, when rabidly vocal archaeo-grinches insist that collecting unprovenanced antiquities is inherently evil and immoral, and that metal detecting is even more repugnant, and that the only acceptable course of action (according to their rigid ideology) is to leave everything antique buried in the ground there undisturbed, until an accredited archaeologist is available to excavate such deposits according to the accepted rituals of that generally unscientific (and very loosely organized and managed) discipline.

Unfortunately, statistics indicate that availability of such consecrated excavators is so limited that more than 90% of available artifacts would inevitably be destroyed by corrosion and related natural causes before they could be preserved

The ancient Roman political system was pragmatic, in this observer's view never more so than when Vespasianus Augustus became responsible for management of its affairs. Here was a man of action who was always in every respect conscious of the limits of his personal capacity to influence and control events, and the importance of preserving traditions and respect for Roman institutions. One would be hard pressed to name a better and more conscientious emperor, excepting Augustus Caesar, Trajan and possibly Diocletian.

That said, this observer is convinced that Vespasian would have summarily and rapidly dealt with the pretentious, foolishly moralistic and obnoxious archaeo-grinches of our present degenerate times, by converting them into lion rations during spectacles presented within the Flavian Amphitheater.


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Jingle Bells

The holiday season is approaching and it has been appropriate to get to work listing more coins on the Classical Coins website, for the delectation of ancient coin collectors and those planning to give gifts to collectors.

The results thus far may be viewed here:

http://www.classicalcoins.com/new.html

It has been a refreshing and very pleasant change to focus on Classical Coins again, instead of being bothered by Barfy's bilious blather.

Best wishes to all readers for a happy holiday season.

Metal Detectorists Discovering Treasures

Metal Detectorists 10, Archaeologists 0?

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2013/11/metal-detectorists-10-archaeologists-0.html
by Peter Tompa

That's how some are pitching the latest statistics of treasure reported by the public and archaeologists in England and Wales.  But this sets up a false competition between the two groups when their efforts should instead be viewed as complementary.

Even worse, one voice in the archaeological blogosphere has taken all this to an extreme.  Indeed, he goes so far as to demand that what should be considered good news instead requires the resignation of the responsible Government Minister.

Rather than celebrating the knowledge that has come from these finds, he instead claims these artifacts are better better left in the ground for future archaeologists to discover.  But that is pure fantasy.  Archaeologists will always be few in number.  Their digs will always concentrate on significant sites, not the farmer's fields where most treasure is found.  And while we are waiting, it's much more likely that the artifacts themselves will be lost through deterioration and development.

Luckily, most real archaeologists in the United Kingdom have made peace with metal detectorists. They recognize that the Treasure Act, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and the knowledge of and preservation of artifacts they bring benefits all.   So let's all celebrate the latest finds in England and Wales and salute the heritage heroes of the archaeological and metal detecting communities that have made it all possible.



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COMMENTARY
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The  "voice in the archaeological blogosphere" referred to by Tompa is of course the infamous Paul Barford, whose notorious PACHI blog this observer no longer reads.  It has become over-infested with "Barfy's blog bites" whose actual purpose is pursuit of propaganda points, not intelligently discussing issues and events of interest and substance.

Tompa observes:

"Rather than celebrating the knowledge that has come from these finds, he instead claims these artifacts are better better left in the ground for future archaeologists to discover.  But that is pure fantasy.  Archaeologists will always be few in number.  Their digs will always concentrate on significant sites, not the farmer's fields where most treasure is found.  And while we are waiting, it's much more likely that the artifacts themselves will be lost through deterioration and development." This observer could hardly agree more with that assessment.

Mr. Barford is by no means the only archaeologist who holds such irrational, ideologically purist views. Another such is Michael Mueller-Karpe, notorious for his anticollecting extremism, who has achieved the negative distinction of being severely rebuked as "detached from reality and unfit for any governmental position" by the judge in an important German trial involving cultural property theft charges, which ultimately resulted in the acquittal of the defendant.

Fortunately the UK public and the great majority of the UK archaeological community know a good thing when they see it. The PAS program and the Treasure Act have, together with the efforts of responsible British metal-detectorists, led to many important and valuable archaeological discoveries.

There will always be extremists who will howl about "artifacts being ripped from the ground" thereby "destroying their context" and "imperiling the archaeological record." It is becoming increasingly clear that these howls have little to do with reality or common sense, and that those voicing them are very far from being representative of the archaeological mainstream.


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