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Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

bbc.com

31–40 of 40 posts

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#31
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

> 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

Llansteffan Castle is free to enter and wander around in the way you did as a kid, despite being privately owned

What's not allowed are things like wedding photography and drone flying, at least without paying (and having various insurance).

Basically it's free unless you're making money from it.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#32

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.

Generally in the UK, once you've been in a job for a few years, they need a pretty good reason to get rid of you, so it's less of a big difference from a normal permanent employment contract.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#33
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I'm a former academic, so my "optimistic outlook" is informed by direct observation of novel findings being career making. What is your pessimism based on?

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#34
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…

Has there ever been a case where treasure belonging to a lord whose assets were seized 500+ years ago was deemed property of the crown?

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#35
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

Has there ever been a case where treasure belonging to a lord whose assets were seized 500+ years ago was deemed property of the crown?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove#England_and_Wal...

"The Crown had a prerogative right to treasure trove, and if the circumstances under which an object was found raised a prima facie presumption that it had been hidden, it belonged to the Crown unless someone else could show a better title to it.[25] The Crown could grant its right to treasure trove to any person in the form of a franchise."

So you didn't dig through the records to see if they have been seized. It belonged to the crown unless you could find reason why it should not. If there was no clear owner, it was presumed to be owned by the crown.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#36
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Rarity, significance, state of conservation... I'm not surprised a market value can be assessed by people working in the field.

There is a market for these things. Perhaps the treasury acts as escrow service, with an ever so slight bias!?

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#37
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 do they determine market value without a market?

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#39
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…

Indeed. These sorts of finds rarely make the news in countries where metal detecting is explicitly and/or effectively against the law -- not because they're not occurring, but because they happen outside of the law and the artifacts are sold on the black market.

Re: Pembrokeshire treasure hunter unearths Celtic chariot

#40
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there ever been a case where treasure belonging to a lord whose assets were seized 500+ years ago was deemed property of the crown?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove#England_and_Wal... "The Crown had a prerogative right to treasure trove, and if the circumstances under which an object was found raised a prima facie presumption that it had been hidden, it belonged to the Crown unless someone else could show a better title to it.[25] The Crown could grant its right to treasure trove to any person in the form of a franchise." So you didn'…

That was back in the 19th century and earlier though.

From around WW1 it became default practice to pay the full value if a museum took it, or return the items to the finder if not. The 96 act added nuance and the split with the land owner. Mainly, I think, thanks to detectorists finding stuff on land that was someone else's.

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