Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 40 posts

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#21

Post by arethuza »

SamColes wrote: post #18
celticninja wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar memories. I remember as kids we used to play in an old castle by the beach, its just open and anyone can go and wander around it. I travel around the UK with my kids and these days everything wants to charge an entry fee, even other castles in similar states of decay/disrepair. Easily my favourite castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llansteffan_Castle

There are free to access castle ruins and buildings of a similar age and much older all over the UK, they're hardly in short supply. Maybe you didn't intend it but this comes across as overly pessimistic. It's hardly as if every bit of history in the country has had a fence put round it to charge an entry fee. Not trying to say what you're describing doesn't exist, but the only place I can think of that I've been to…

Indeed there are so many ruined castles, hillforts, vitrified forts and brochs about that even most locals are fairly oblivious to there existence.

Only a tiny percentage charge and are treated as proper tourist attractions.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#23

Post by chrisseaton »

arethuza wrote: post #20
gambiting wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might not be called tenure, but "professor for life" absolutely is a thing at British universities.

"Despite this recent erosion of tenure in the UK, it is still practiced in most universities. Permanent contracts use the word "tenure" for lecturers who are "reappointed to the retiring age". This is equivalent to a US tenure decision" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecturer Certainly the impression I got when I worked as a contract researcher for 6 years - if you weren't on an explicitly temporary contract (which I…

Nobody talks about tenure though - there's no great divide between tenure track and non-tenure track. There's no massive achievement when you 'make tenure'. People don't talk about the number of people with tenure, or whether someone has tenure or not.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#24

Post by gsnedders »

doitLP wrote: post #14

It seems like the UK government’s Treasure Act really incentivizes the right kind behavior in these situations. He found it, contacted the right people and once it gets evaluated he and the landowner are going to get a big payday. Better than making off with valuable artifacts and destroying the site. > The Treasure Act allows for a reward up to the market value of the treasure to be shared among the finder and the t…

The Treasure Act 1996 only has territorial extent over E+W+NI, notably excluding Scotland, where treasure is still dealt with under (Scots) Common Law.

Notably, any reward is granted purely to the finder, though there is no default right to search land one does not own (and if discovered without permission of the landowner, there have been cases where the entire reward has been awarded to the landowner); de-facto, following the English and Northern Irish law, landowners normally grant access such that any reward is split equally.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#25

Post by mnw21cam »

celticninja wrote: post #15
zhte415 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He certainly didn't give up. He seems tenacious. And that seems the right thing to have been done. > "I knew the importance of them straight away," said Mr Smith who has been prospecting for around 30 years. > "It was just instinct. I'd read all about chariot burials and just wished it could have been me, so finding this has been a privilege." The area has a long Celtic history. For readers unfamiliar perhaps with th…

I have similar memories. I remember as kids we used to play in an old castle by the beach, its just open and anyone can go and wander around it. I travel around the UK with my kids and these days everything wants to charge an entry fee, even other castles in similar states of decay/disrepair. Easily my favourite castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llansteffan_Castle

Coincidence - that's one of my favourite castles too.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#26

Post by arethuza »

chrisseaton wrote: post #23
arethuza wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Despite this recent erosion of tenure in the UK, it is still practiced in most universities. Permanent contracts use the word "tenure" for lecturers who are "reappointed to the retiring age". This is equivalent to a US tenure decision" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecturer Certainly the impression I got when I worked as a contract researcher for 6 years - if you weren't on an explicitly temporary contract (which I…

Nobody talks about tenure though - there's no great divide between tenure track and non-tenure track. There's no massive achievement when you 'make tenure'. People don't talk about the number of people with tenure, or whether someone has tenure or not.

I think that's because everyone pretty much has it - so no reason to talk about it.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#27

Post by philipodonnell »

pulisse wrote: post #9
vectorEQ wrote: post #7

very cool find. archeologists also destroy a lot of evidence, and if they find anything that doesn't fit rpevious findings often either ignore it or are highly skeptical, which is why i assume he hd some trouble to convince this was an actual find, and had to ... dig a little deeper :D

> if they find anything that doesn't fit rpevious findings often either ignore it or are highly skeptical\ If they find something that doesn't fit previous findings, they publish on it and get tenure.

You have a very optimistic outlook on the response of the academic community to findings which refute long-help beliefs.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#28

Post by fredley »

yitchelle wrote: post #16
doitLP wrote: post #14

It seems like the UK government’s Treasure Act really incentivizes the right kind behavior in these situations. He found it, contacted the right people and once it gets evaluated he and the landowner are going to get a big payday. Better than making off with valuable artifacts and destroying the site. > The Treasure Act allows for a reward up to the market value of the treasure to be shared among the finder and the t…

How is the market value determined, especially for items that have never been sold on the market before?

Typically at some kind of auction.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#29

Post by bambataa »

arethuza wrote: post #20
gambiting wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might not be called tenure, but "professor for life" absolutely is a thing at British universities.

"Despite this recent erosion of tenure in the UK, it is still practiced in most universities. Permanent contracts use the word "tenure" for lecturers who are "reappointed to the retiring age". This is equivalent to a US tenure decision" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecturer Certainly the impression I got when I worked as a contract researcher for 6 years - if you weren't on an explicitly temporary contract (which I…

Isn’t that the same protection that you get with any permanent contract in the UK? You can still be laid-off etc but the assumption is it will continue indefinitely.

Maybe I’m mistaken but I thought American tenure was a different level of protection intended to protect freedom of inquiry.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#30

Post by sandworm101 »

doitLP wrote: post #14

It seems like the UK government’s Treasure Act really incentivizes the right kind behavior in these situations. He found it, contacted the right people and once it gets evaluated he and the landowner are going to get a big payday. Better than making off with valuable artifacts and destroying the site. > The Treasure Act allows for a reward up to the market value of the treasure to be shared among the finder and the t…

>> market value of the treasure

Key words. If is isn't "treasure" it isn't subject to the act. Material belonging to British military units isn't treasure and remains property of the crown forever (basically all ship-related stuff). Anything else that once belonged to the crown still does. So if some lord buried a stash of silver and never dug it up, you may need to dig into family histories to determine if that lord's property had ever reverted to the crown. Treasure hunting isn't ever simple and you never really know if you can keep the stuff until long after the initial discovery.

Note too that the act speaks of "two or more" coins. One coin is treated differently than a find of two. This goes back to an older distinction between buried treasure and lost property. A single coin may fall out of a pocket and be lost. Two coins together are presumed deliberately buried or otherwise hidden.

Post reply on HN