Dave and Tim

Given that we’ve just had National Archaeology Week (soon to become the Festival of British Archaeology), and the web is full of pictures of children getting involved in archaeology, I thought you might be interested in what the PAS do. You already know about much of our outreach work with schools and after-school groups (see our annual reports for specific examples), and our PASt EXPLORERS website, but I thought you might be interested to hear about what detectorists themselves are up to.

So, here’s a nice little story, relating to two of Northamptonshire’s star finders. Tim Binns and Dave Derby are a couple of prolific detectorists, and have been regular recorders with both me and my predecessor,Tom. Dave has been detecting for 30 years, while Tim has been at it for five years, but both are extremely dedicated to responsible detecting, always recording with good findspot data (often with a GPS, at up to 12 figures), and always with an eye to the archaeological importance of any find or site. They really do present an excellent example of the kind of practice that the PAS tries to promote.

As I’ve said, Dave and Tim always record their finds with the local FLO (yours truly), and I provide them with a printout of the database report and photograph. They have both had some lovely, and archaeologically important finds, but of course, not everything is equally impressive to look at, and for us, the value of many finds is in knowing about where they came from. Anyway. just a few weeks ago, I learned something about what happens to many of the less impressive finds, after I return them to Dave and Tim. In many instances, they donate their finds to local schools, and use the finds reports to explain what the objects are. I thought this not only an extremely generous gesture, but also one that has really positive implications for archaeology and education.

Do you remember your history lessons at school? 1066, 1415, 1588, 1605, 1666 etc etc etc… Just imagine how much more fun they would have been if you could have touched real objects from the past – simple things like Roman and medieval coins, brooches, and military badges would make all the difference. And imagine if you could have ago at being an archaeologist (or a FLO!), drawing, measuring and weighing these objects, and trying to identify them based on what they looked like.

Through their generosity, that’s exactly what Dave and Tim have helped to put in place. Just think- have you got piles of worn Roman grot, or broken pieces of brooch in your scrap box that you never look at? Why not try following Tim and Dave’s lead, and take them along to a local school or youth group. Of course, we would like to record anything first, so that there’s a permanent record for researchers and the general public, and that record could then be used to help children learn. Go on, have a think about it.

Well done Tim and Dave! It’s great to see Northants detectorists leading the way!