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Detectorists Jailed over Viking Stash

My late father in law was a detectorist , had a few lucrative finds , always declared them. I was surprised at the harsh sentencing (he would have applauded it tbf)
 
10 years does sound on the harsh side, maybe he's got some previous. I don't think 'money left in a hedge' is the best analogy anyway, this is more like secretly digging up mummies from undiscovered Egyptian tombs and arguing that hey, they were just there in the ground anyway.

But they was thick innit.
 
Didn't they just get extra time for non-cooperation?

Even Noye got 14 years for conspiracy to handle.
 
Probably should have handed (most of) it in but the sentence is a joke, like some sort of medieval shit when the king would have sent his soldiers down to burn a whole village cos someone found a gold coin in the mud. Unbelievable. You can kill someone with dangerous driving in a vehicle and get 18 months.

There's nothing the state/monarchy hate more than the idea of the proles getting one over on them. Deported for jumping in the river during the boat race. Death for nicking a swan from the Thames etc.
 
Would they still have got a reward given they were digging without permission? I know legit treasure hunters tend to get an agreement where the landowner gets a cut in return for letting them have a look, absent an agreement might it not have all gone to the landowner? Suppose they could have haggled.
 
Landowner is an aristocrat.farmer lilely leased the land - all would have to go to tribunal to determine its status irrespective of who dug it up.
 
The sentence is absurdly excessive BUT I don't think posters here understand why what they've done is so bad - and it is.

Archaeology is a weird paradoxical thing because inevitably you are destroying the context of whatever you dig up - you can't really do the job twice. In the past people were only really interested in treasure and shiny shit (and solid stone / sculptures/ pottery at a push) because you could see & feel it. Modern archaeology can now use carbon dating, DNA, new sorts of imaging, blah blah blah to find out much more interesting stuff than just 'nice pieces to put in museums and look at'. But lots of the most interesting evidence is organic and decays/is ruined easily- one touch of a hand, never mind a spade, and you've fucked it FOREVER. Future generations won't have the chance to test that material with amazing science because you've already contaminated or ruined it.

Even the most 100% well-funded academic or professional egghead dig is always weighing up that ethical dilemma - is it worth it or should you just not dig at all? Most of what we don't know enough about, about how people lived in the past, is about materials like food/seeds/bones/wood/straw/textiles/reeds - never mind human hair and teeth and turds - and no detectorist is going to know how to remove that stuff securely, store it properly, or do any of the follow up science. THAT is the 'lost knowledge'. The greedily-hoarded cash is kind of the least of it.

Plus that the finds are going to end up in the private collections of rich hobbyists rather than being viewed by - or even available to - the public. As supposed history fans these two should (and I would bet DID) know this, as well as knowing the pretty generous terms for turning it all in, which is another layer to their selfishness.

TL-DR: 10 yrs is a travesty but they have committed a crime against humanity - seriously.
 
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Surely this sentence is also meant as a deterrent to others, as well as punishment? If it was only a few years everyone would be out looking for lost Viking hoards.

People all over the globe are looking for buried treasures. Some spend their lifetime doing so & find fuck all. A sentence like this ain’t a deterrent, it’s state sanctioned horse shit.
 
Surely this sentence is also meant as a deterrent to others, as well as punishment? If it was only a few years everyone would be out looking for lost Viking hoards.

Pretty much this. Detecting is big business these days after all and very popular.

The harshness of this sentence is also saying more about the leniency of certain others than anything...
 
I don't give a shit about the landowner losing out, tbh, what annoys me is an archaeological site being wrecked, knowledge being lost, and stuff that belongs to the public being sold to rich collectors, all because 50% of £3 million wasn't good enough for these bellends.
Really don't know much about treasure hunting or archeology but how is it publicly owned if the proper process is sold at auction to highest bidder(s) and proceeds divided up between finders and landowner?
 
Really don't know much about treasure hunting or archeology but how is it publicly owned if the proper process is sold at auction to highest bidder(s) and proceeds divided up between finders and landowner?
It's not. Publicly accessible would have been a better phrase. Most of the stuff in museums is not owned by "the public" but what is being argued is that the knowledge that could be gleaned from archeological finds benefits everyone and therefore the public. If these tossers had managed to nick it and hive it off for a few grand, that knowledge would have been lost forever.
 
Really don't know much about treasure hunting or archeology but how is it publicly owned if the proper process is sold at auction to highest bidder(s) and proceeds divided up between finders and landowner?

The bidders at initial auction are UK museums (the process is overseen by the British Museum in some fashion). If none of them are interested - say it's just some more Roman coins or whatever - then they can be sold commercially, and the proceeds split in the same way.

The principle is that historic treasure finds should first be considered for the nation. Proper archaeological digs are treated separately.
 
Ah ok, that makes sense

It's ages since I looked at this in any detail, but the Treasure Act that governs this is surprisingly equitable. It basically acknowledges that the treasure hunters are very unlikely to also be the land owners, and also fairly unlikely to have gained permission to do the treasure hunting. But it's a potential windfall for both parties so, eh, free money? Apart from CGT, of course.
 
I would be amazed if those sentences are not successfully appealed.Two years possibly but ten-off the scale.I do see what Trabuquera is saying about all the Anglo-Saxon turds and hair samples that are lost to science for ever as a result of this kind of greed-driven activity. However, if for no other reason than the vast amounts of time that these legions of detectorists expend,I think its a fair bet that they have led archaeologists to vast stores of Anglo-Saxon and other ancient shite that they would not otherwise have gone in search of themselves-safer under the ground innit.
 
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