I wonder how much he will get for finding them, as he didn't just dig them up himself. He called someone and let archeologists dig it up once he realized it wasn't just a random find.
I love history, but I have to be honest, I am not sure that if that had been me I would have been able to wait. And if they ended up taking them from me, I'd be pissed.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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There should be a system in place to reward people for letting archaeologists at their finds first, preserving what findings can be had from the place of recovery. Not a disincentive that tempts them to dig it all up themselves.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I helped to excavate a (relatively small) Roman horde once. It was incredibly exciting and the guy who found it was over the moon. But it's actually kind of scary and a little bit emotional when you're seeing something like that coming out of the ground which no-one has touched since the person who hid it and never came back. It feels like a big responsibility.
If you want your find to be something important and meaningful, and not just a heap of old metal, you have to do it right (and like a lot of historians, I sometimes have serious issues with a few archaeologists and their over-active imaginations) - but it's true.
Of course, if you're only after the money then you probably don't care. But a lot of Roman coins are (literally) two-a-penny, it's only in context that they become relevant.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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