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Crowdsourcing archaeological data: Portable antiquities scheme

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Thursday September 21, 2017, 16h00-17h15 British Summer Time

Session 2: Crowdsourcing archaeological data: Portable antiquities scheme

Convenor: John Pearce (King's College London)

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/honu24cV7fs

Slides: http://docdro.id/amVcEyq

Outline

In this class we shall discuss the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) as a case study in the engagement of a wider public with archaeological heritage, enabled by digital means. The PAS is a department of the British Museum, set up under the terms of the 1996 Treasure Act (England and Wales). Now one of the largest global public archaeology projects, it documents within a publically accessible online database archaeological discoveries made by ‘public finders’, i.e. individuals who find ancient objects outside the context of archaeological fieldwork. In particular these comprise hobbyist collectors (metal-detectorists). These finders are also encouraged in various ways to become knowledge producers, both in the improved documentation of the context of the objects they discover and in being enabled themselves to document their own finds. The PAS also applies the provisions of the Treasure Act in relation to those categories of finds (especially objects in precious metals) which their finders are legally required to report. In the class we will consider the history and operation of the PAS, the research value of a large database of archaeological objects from British history (>1.5 million records), the character of its public engagement and its legal and ethical repercussions.

Seminar reading

Read the papers by Bland (2008, 2013) and Gill (2010) and consider the following questions:

a) Why is the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) an important initiative in the sphere of cultural heritage and its public dissemination?

b) What are its key achievements?

c) What are its weaknesses?

d) What is the significance of its digital components for the successes and weaknesses of the PAS?

Please also make sure you browse the PAS website (www.finds.org.uk) in advance of the class. An exercise is suggested below

Bland, R. 2008. ‘The development and future of the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme’, in S Thomas and P Stone (eds.), Metal Detecting and Archaeology, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 63-85 https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/RogerBland

Bland, R. 2013 'Response: the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme', Internet Archaeology 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.33.8 [this is in part a response to other papers in the same volume which again may be of interest if you wish to take this further. Especially the papers by Campbell, Wilson and Harrison]

Gill, D. 2010. ‘The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act: Protecting the Archaeology of England and Wales?’ Papers of the Institute of Archaeology 20, 1-11 http://www.pia-journal.co.uk/3/volume/20/issue/0/ [you may also find the other short papers in this volume of interest]

Other resources

General

  • Bevan, A., Pett, D. Bonacchi, C., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Lombrana Gonzalez, D., Sparks, R., Wexler, J. and Wilkin, N. 2014. ‘Citizen Archaeologists. Online Collaborative Research about the Human Past’, Human Computation 1:2:185-199 DOI: 10.15346/hc.v1i2.9
  • Bland, R. 2008. ‘The development and future of the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme’, in S Thomas and P Stone (eds.), Metal Detecting and Archaeology, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 63-85 [https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/RogerBland]]
  • Bland, R. 2005. ‘A pragmatic approach to the problem of portable antiquities: the experience of England and Wales’, Antiquity 79, 440-47 [https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/RogerBland]
  • Chippindale, C., and Gill, D. W. J. 2000. ‘Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting’, American Journal of Archaeology 104: 463-511, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/507226].
  • Cooper, A. and Green, C. 2016. ‘Embracing the complexities of archaeological ‘big data’: the case of the English Landscape and Identities project’, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23.1, 271-304.
  • Dunn, S. And Hedges, M. 2013. ‘Crowd-sourcing as a Component of Humanities Research Infrastructures’, International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 7.1, 147-169 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2013.0086
  • Papers of the Institute of Archaeology 20 (2010) contained a series of papers on PAS in their Forum section: http://pia-journal.co.uk/issue/view/pia.331
  • Robbins, K. 2013. ‘Balancing the scales: exploring the variable effects of collection bias on data collected by the Portable Antiquities Scheme’, Landscapes 14.1, 54-72.
  • Saville, A. 2006. `Portable Antiquities’ in J Hunter and I Ralston (eds.), Archaeological Resource Management in the UK, 2nd ed., Sutton, 69-84 [extensive bibliography]

Reports, reviews and related documents

Case Studies

  • Brindle, T. 2013. ‘Making the most of PAS data: macro- and micro-level studies of Romano-British settlement’, Landscapes 14.1, 73–91 https://www.academia.edu/4055322/Making_the_Most_of_PAS_Data_macro-and_micro-level_studies_of_Romano-British_Settlement
  • Brindle, T. 2014. The Portable Antiquities Scheme and Roman Britain, BM Res. Pub. 196, London: BM Press
  • Murgia, A. Roberts, B. and Wiseman, R. 2014. ‘What have metal detectorists done for us? A case study of Bronze Age gold in England and Wales’, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 44, 353-67. https://www.academia.edu/7567870/What_have_metal_detectorists_done_for_us_A_case_study_of_Bronze_Age_gold_in_England_and_Wales
  • Pearce, J. & Worrell, S. 2015. ‘Detecting Roman Britain: the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the study of provincial material culture’ Anales de Arqueología Cordobesa 25-26, 19-48.
  • Pitts, M. et al. 2010. The Crosby Garrett Roman helmet, British Archaeology 116, 20–27 [http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba116/feat1.shtml]
  • Worrell, S. and Pearce, J. 2016. ‘Roman Britain in 2015. II. Finds Reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme’. Britannia 47, 361-88 [also on KEATS, see previous volumes for further reports] Walton, P. 2012. Rethinking Roman Britain: Coinage and Archaeology, Moneta Monograph 137, Wetteren: Moneta

Essay title

Do the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme protect or erode the UK’s national archaeological heritage?

Exercise

  1. To develop your familiarity with this material, please make sure you browse the PAS website (www.finds.org.uk) in advance of the class.
  2. As an exploration of the data, its potential and its constraints, I suggest you undertake a trial ‘advanced search’, using records of brooches of Roman date from Greater London.
  3. Follow the link to the ‘Database’ from the homepage (https://finds.org.uk/database/search). From the database page, select ‘Advanced search’. Using the dropdown menus, enter ‘brooch’ under Object type, ‘Roman’ for Broad Period and ‘Greater London’ for Spatial Data / County.
  4. What kinds of insights might be possible from data of this type? What constraints operate on the data available to you, and why? Why are limited geographical data available to unregistered users?
  5. Register as a research user, If you wish to explore PAS data further and take advantage of the significantly enhanced ability to download and manipulate datasets which will be available to you - see the terms and conditions here for the information you will normally need to supply: https://finds.org.uk/users/account/register.
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