Boxes of gold

The announcement that a major hoard of Anglo-Saxon metalwork was discovered in July this year in the county of Staffordshire has generated great excitement. The hoard consists of around 1500 items including 5kg of gold. It was initially said to be 7th century, though a report on the inscribed pieces suggests an 8th-9th century date.  The significance of this find is likely to be immense – already, misleading statements about the hoard being ‘bigger than Sutton Hoo‘ are circulating.

But questions are already being raised over the circumstances of the hoard’s discovery. Once reported to authorities, the hoard had been excavated for five days and the finds were in boxes, despite this amount of precious metal automatically qualifying as being compulsory to report under the Treasure Act.

Efforts are now being made to salvage some contextual information for the find, which might illuminate the circumstances of the deposit, who the treasures belonged to, the story behind the artefacts. With treasure hunting using metal detecting encouraged by the British state, this scramble for information is a bizarre but sadly familiar situation.

As with around 80 per cent of finds reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the ‘Staffordshire hoard’ was made using a metal detector on farmland, by Terry Herbert, a long time detectorist. With reports of major discoveries now commonplace in the British media, public awareness of metal detecting has been raised. It is important, though, that such discoveries are not blindly celebrated. They should be critically assessed. If it transpires that metal detecting and private entitlement to finds is not the public interest – financially, intellectually, ethically – then current laws, codes and attitudes need to be reviewed.

Nighthawking report out

When I mention to friends my interest in the ethics of metal detecting , I’m usualy faced with a slightly amused, quizzical look. It’s seen as an eccentric, marginal hobby. Hardly something to get worked up about. Not like the ransacking of the Baghdad Museum, or Elgin’s removal of the marbles.  

‘Nighthawking’ is an even less familiar term than ‘metal detecting’. Though with release of the English Heritage-commissioned report it will probably gain more coverage. But what does it mean? I’m not interested in what’s legal and what’s not. That’s fairly clear. What I want to know is how do we decide what is responsible? Or rather, how does the report?

I’ll get back about that one…

A hint for the good collectors of the sea

They’re at it again. American treasure hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration last week announced (belatedly) the discovery in the English Channel of an 18th-century shipwreck, identified as HMS Victory. It’s another spectacular boon for the company, bound to haul in yet more treasure, tie-ins and profit. The company’s boss, Greg Stemm, said “the money is not as important as the cultural and historical significance of the discovery.” Sure. Yet coin collectors are already salivating over the prospect of 4 tons of gold. Oh, and its also a grave site of more than a thousand people. With a compliant British government, Odyssey can expect none of the lawsuits or bad press caused by those pesky Spaniards.

In a PR blitz that secured airplay worldwide, the company stressed how, far from a snatch and sell operation, it was performing a public service (eg comments on Channel 4 News report). Operating in a deep water no-mans-land, the company is a benevolent cultural saviour, a salvager of shipwrecks that would otherwise be destroyed by erosion and fishing nets. The time-tested argument of the good collector. In contrast to the prudish archaeologist, who would wish that the past lay buried, unknown or accessible only to the initiated elite, the good collector not only brings the past to light, but saves the past from destruction. The good collector’s magnanimity knows no bounds.

Well here’s a suggestion. Since Britain’s archaeological resource is officially up for grabs to whoever looks for it (as long as they’re not an archaeologist), perhaps Odyssey should establish an onshore operation. Using its massive budget to invest in cutting edge technology that can detect metal over many acres and far beneath the ploughsoil, it could set to work across the countryside, scanning every inch of the nation, revealing to us the wonders of the past, delighting in the hoards of context-less antiquities, and then selling them to us for a profit.

Pyramids in Vogue

Semir Osmanagić is perhaps the modern day Schliemann in the archaeological world. A Bosnian ex-pat who moved to America where he made his fortune, he subsequently turned actively to archaeology, where he made his claim to fame by proclaiming the hills surrounding the Bosnian town of Visoko to be pyramids constructed by an advanced civilization several thousand years ago. In an effort to promote a revisionist history of the world – one populated by several advanced civilisations that were subjected to cataclysmic destructions at the end of the last Ice Age in the event of sea-level rise, he has enlisted the media to spread his convictions, he undertaken lecture tours to put foward his views and expound upon the latest results, and employed team of archaeologists and other specialists to legitimate his claims. The parallels with Schliemann are perhaps superficial and only on the surface, but nevertheless uncanny.

Such figures always invite controversy, be it praise or censure, and indeed there is plenty to go around on both sides. Certainly, the writer of this article is unequivocally cynical. I’m one of the suspicious ones. Misrepresentation of the archaeological record can be blatant or go undetected, with considerable consequences, be it on the level of publication or collection of data. This is something Schliemann is particularly well-known for, as has been demonstrated in research of the past 25 years. Even so called great archaeologists, like Arthur Evans, were not above some falsification. Evans deliberately falsified photographs in his Palace of Minos volumes of Middle Minoan strata to make them appear more congenial towards his theories relating to the apogee of Minoan culture during this period.

Is Osmanagić merely a dilettante, eager to acquire intellectual respectability, or is he onto something? Such ad hominem arguments are circular and contibute little towards reaching any kind of understanding. Osmanagić’s activities present an opportunity in examining the nature of archaeological discourse, the genesis and consumption of knowledge through various media, and the role of archaeologists in society. For instance, in the context of the former Yugoslav republics, nationalism has frequently played a role in seeking to create a co-extension between abstract ideals and the material world in order to justify the undertaking of actions. Archaeology and history have often played significant roles in such endeavours, not merely in the Balkans. Osmanagić is not above repeatedly discussing the exceptional nature of Bosnia in the light of his theories, doubtless bolstering claims for his homeland’s significance in the context of human history and enhancing its cultural capital. Such seems to be the enthusiasm regarding the Bosnian pyramids that the Italians are finding their own too.

Schliemann did not in reality find Homer’s Troy. Instead he discovered a period of mercantile and cultural fecundity in the Aegean and Mediterranean. What Osmanagić has discovered remains to be seen. Perhaps the tale of Schliemann should urge us to exercise caution in evaluating Osmanagić’s claims, for the machinations involved in the production of archaeological knowledge are many in their variety, subtlety, and aims.

 

Diamond miners find shipwreck

Geologists prospecting for diamonds off the coast of Namibia have stumbled on a 16th-century shipwreck. The ship’s cargo included copper ingots, elephant tusks and a hoard of Spanish and Portuguese coins. Cannon parts and astrolabes, navigational devices used to measure the angle between the sun and the horizon to establish latitude, were also found.

Dieter Noli, who provides archaeological advice to diamond cartel De Beers, says the ship’s history is likely to be documented.

Noli said the large amount of copper could mean the ship had been sent by a government looking for material to build cannons. Trade in ivory was usually controlled by royal families, another indication the ship was on official business. On the other hand, why did the captain have so many coins? Shouldn’t they have been traded for the ivory and copper? “Either he did a very, very good deal. Or he was a pirate,” Noli said.

The discovery is intriguing in itself, and also because it shows how big business – especially mining and engineering companies – come into contact with archaeology, and how they deal with it. In this case the miner was Namdeb, a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government.

The company had cleared and drained a stretch of seabed, building an earthen wall to keep the water out so geologists could work. Noli said one of the geologists saw a few ingots, but had no idea what they were. Then the team found what looked like cannon barrels. The geologists stopped the brutal earth-moving work of searching for diamonds and sent photos to Noli …

From what’s written it appears that Namdeb acted responsibly by allowing the wreck to be investigated. This might be down to the Namibian government’s involvement in the project. Mining News reports:

The discovery was made inside the Namdeb Mining Area 1, which is only accessible with permits issued by the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Government’s Protective Resources Unit. This protective zone ensured that the wreck was secure, allowing it to be thoroughly researched.

Whether there was a systematic, documented rescue excavation is not clear.

What can be said is that De Beers, whose product depends solely on its public perception, have done a good PR job and have received extensive media coverage. Heritage destruction is often accompanied by spin, in the form of media releases, superficial assessments and buying off academics with petty grants. That is not necessarily happening here, but it does happen.

There’s a term in the environment movement – greenwash - that describes how companies project or spin their ethical credentials, or make superficial gestures, whilst not taking any real steps to be more green. I’m not saying that this is such a case, but let’s beware also of heritagewash.

 

The Grand Opening of The Assemblage

 ”Your royal highness, lords, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be here at the gala opening of the most eagerly anticipated cultural event this century.

I have long had a taste for the exotic, and it simply thrills me to see these pieces where they belong – in the civilised environment of a world class exhibition space. It seems only yesterday that one could travel carefree through Rhodesia, Tanganyika or the Congo, bagging ethnographics and bartering cult figures, but in these dark post-colonial times, one must be satisfied with what one can get. Which my dealer informs me is yet another dashed load of Mesopotamian seals, and a crate of Gandharan stuff from Afghanistan! Oh well, one must only hope the Persian material will be finer. We shall see.

It is simply fantastic to have these marvelous new pieces on display. I do thank enormously the generous lenders, particularly The Collection of a Gentleman and A Very Important Collection, who have given us the opportunity to view these quite sumptuous little artefacts. I am sure we shall all be rewarded.

I must also thank our sponsors, Larceny International, who have taken a keen interest in the arts as part of their corporate responsibility ethos. Larceny have not only led the way in exploitation of dwindling resources, they have actively sought to crush local resistance to their projects, and over the years have built themselves a fine reputation and a superb portfolio of very important antiquities, which no one is allowed to see.

 So without further ado, I propose a toast to Queen, country, and culture, and hereby declare The Assemblage open.”