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Session 11: Crowdsourcing Heritage and Conservation

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Gabriel Bodard edited this page Sep 13, 2017 · 6 revisions

Date: Thursday, December 8, 2016, 16h00 (UK time)

Session coordinator: John Pearce (King's College London)

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/cnviAr2UhXU

Outline

In this class we shall discuss the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) as a case study in the engagement of the public with archaeological heritage. The PAS is a department of the British Museum, set up under the terms of the 1996 Treasure Act (England and Wales). In a publically accessible online database it documents 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 It also applies the provisions of the Treasure Act in relation to the categories of finds (especially objects in precious metals) which must be reported by law by their finders. 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, the character of its public engagement and its legal and ethical repercussions.

For the seminar:

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

  1. Why is the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) an important initiative in the sphere of cultural heritage and its public dissemination?
  2. What are its key achievements?
  3. What are its weaknesses?
  4. What is the significance of its digital components for the successes and weaknesses of the PAS?

Required reading

  • 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, Pp. 63-85. Available: https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/RogerBland
  • 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, Pp. 1-11. Available: http://www.pia-journal.co.uk/3/volume/20/issue/0/ (you may also find the other short papers in this volume of interest)

Further readings

  • 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]
  • Brindle, T. 2013. ‘Making the most of PAS data: macro- and micro-level studies of Romano-British settlement’, Landscapes 14(1), 73–91 [aso Robbins in same volume]

Essay title

Do the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme protect or erode the UK’s national archaeological heritage? You may wish to think about the role of the database in research, and in particular the value and risks of complete transparency (e.g. in geo-location).

Practical exercise

  1. Register an account on the PAS website, which will allow you to export search results as CSV or similar. If you wish to explore PAS data further, including the redacted fields such as coordinates, you may also want to register as a research user.
  2. To develop your familiarity with this material, please browse the PAS website in advance of the class, explore the data, its potential and its constraints. I suggest you undertake a trial ‘advanced search’, e.g. 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. Using the techniques and tools you have learned in the rest of this module, please experiment with visualizing, geolocating, linking and otherwise transforming the data from your exported searches. Bring at least two examples of this data to the seminar to discuss with your colleagues.
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