Thumbs down...

[EOS]

.....for iron age artifacts!

Today,after work,I stopped at a new field I just got permission on. Very promising,infact its just a few yards from a medieval church.
The landowner wanted me to clean his pasture field from cans and other sharp metal objects since he lost a few cows from metal chipping or sharp fragments that caused the animal lot of pain and a slow death.

Well, I started up my Xterra 705,and had a new set of Energizers plugged in for some fresh energy

I walked about 50 yards when I had a soft small little signal that wispered...dig me..
So I did.But of course it have to be some iron age material with gold inlay.I dont want to find such old artifacts,that means my field are banned when reporting,which I always do. Im such an honest man.
Im safe finding objects down to 1600th,but iron age stop me from further search. Stupid law! I understand if it is a hoard or a spill,but a singel find shouldnt put an end to it. Our museums say they just dont have the money to conservate finds,to expensive,so its better to let them be where they are..

I have been detecting in Denmark,and there the cooperation between amatuers and archaeologists operates together very well indeed.

So thumbs down for a beautiful little iron age find....

/Mike

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

About the only thing I can say is,,,, that sucks......

You have some weird MDing laws in your country. I know very little about them and understand them even less.

Congrat's on the VERY OLD find.

 

[Old Longhair]

Awww.... Bummer Mike! That's a great little find.

You're right. It's a stupid law, but you are to be commended for your honesty.

I have a few questions though. What say in the matter does the land owner have? His pasture is still contaminated with the nasty objects laming his livestock. Does the government compensate him for his loss of pasture, or time and damage to his animals?

 

[7centsworth]

That is a nice find.

 

[EOS]

Well land owner have nothing to say if the county administrative board decide to say no to further search. There is a hundred yard rule,so if I not go close to the find spot its ok to go for more detecting.
No they do not compensate him in any way.
I have reported the find but it is a slow process, until they can reach a conclusion what to do.
Its heavy bureaucracy for sure...

/ Mike

 

[Kellyco/Brad]

Love the shots, what lens is that?

 

[EOS]

Camera used that day was Canon EOS 5D MKII and lens EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
/Mike

 

[Kellyco/Brad]

Well shoot, you are serious. Full Frame cameras are very nice. I want one. We actually use the the 5d Mark III here at Kellyco. Much better than my Nikon D80, although I would not own a Canon.

 

[Sasquatch]

At least you got some good photos to add to the collection EOS... small consolation, fut fantastic find!
Old Longhair recommended I contact you regarding soil coditions in Norway and he said you have some experience there. I plan to take a trip to the Setesdal Valley this summer. Do you know anything of the ground mineralization in that region? Any recommendations on coils? Will be searching a couple of old family properties there. One near the bottom of the valley and one in the higher ground.

 

[EOS]

Thanks Sasquatch!

I was just recently in Norway just a couple of weeks ago. Not for detecting,but for skiing and hiking. Fantastic landscape. Norway is absolutely one of my favorite countries when it comes to nature scenerys.
We had a great hytte (cottage) not far away from where you going. Many good places to detect.

In november last year we was detecting a viking area in Norway together with a museum. That ground wasnt to bad mineralized. I guess there is local varieties of course. But with a 5x10" and 10,5"mf would cover the most ground I think.
When I use my X-terra nowadays I almost every time choose the eliptical coil. Iron age material is sometimes very small,and thin. Even coins,medeival and viking coins are often cut in quarters or half. That can be tiny bits and a 10.5" might not be the best choice.
There for I use the eliptical. But I also use my E-Trac and for a couple of weeks ago a XP Deus. All this detectors are good in there own way.

Setesdal will be an excellent place to detect. Also very aesthetical.Dont forget to bring your fishing rod. There is lots of trout in the lakes and stream
Hope you take lots of good pictures to show.

/Mike

 

[Sasquatch]

Thanks for the reply EOS! Incredibly, we've connected with long lost family there, so I hope to be making many trips there (if they can stand us belligerent Americans). I've attempted to update my profile showing the coils I currently have in my little arsenal, but in case I didn't do it correctly, they consist of 6" 3khz DD, 9" 7.5 khz CC and 6" 18.75 khz DD. Not a single elliptical in the bunch. I could possibly be talked into another one though. Some folks were thinking one of those massive 15" coilteks might be the ticket for covering ground in the pasture, but sounds to me like I might miss more than I'd like to. You are thinking I should shell out a couple of hundred more dollars for the 10X5 HF coil and take that? Or should I be content with what I have?

Thanks for posting the pictures! My wife will be taking her camera as photography is her hobby. I'm hoping to catch a fish as well! Here is a family stoyl (cabin) that we're gonna hike into and stay the night. This photo was taken in 1898.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

EOS Mike: so you've got a law there, that "draws the line" at iron age objects. Or objects as old as 1600, yet "not older". Eh ? Ok then, that would be similar, in a way, to some laws here in the USA which some rangers (at some type federal or state land) have said that we can hunt for modern stuff. But if we found an object (50 yrs. or older), that we are to turn it in, or report it, or leave it there, etc......

And I have to tell ya: In my nearly 40 yrs. of this, I have NEVER had anyone follow me around with a calculator, doing the math on the ages of the coins that I found. Have you ? So seriously now, do you guys re-insert such objects back into the ground ? Or does anyone there really run off to tell archies, so that you now have a wide radius of distance you must keep now from said-spot ?

 

[EOS]

To Tom in CA!

Yes we have a law here in Sweden. First you need a permission not only from the land owner,but also a permission from the county administrativ board.
Usually its time limited to 3 months in my county. But in other countys up to two year.
The law say you have to report finds before 1850. So if you find a copper coin from 1849 you are obligated to report it. And of course I do. I report everything that is older then 1850,to the archies,and the royal coin cabinette.

But I do that after the permission end. A final report of the finds Ive made during that period.
Well,that doesnt include really old artifacts,like iron age finds. There you are supposed to stop search and digging. But the always tell you to bag the find. As I did with this iron age artifact. I made a trip to the museum and delivered it personally.

The detecting law in the other Scandinavinan countrys are much more generous,and Denmark have a very friendly detecting climate.
/Mike

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Then in that case, to compare it to the similar "50 yr. rule" here (which is at only select some fed and some state), I suppose that to be in technical keeping, that if md'rs here ever actually DID start bringing in their old stuff (so as to be in technical keeping), that it would probably only infuriate bureaucrats. I mean, then it would only be a matter of time before someone got the brilliant idea: "Gee, do we really want all these yahoos out there digging up our parks/campground/beaches? ", etc.....

So it's sort of one of those "darned if you do" and "darned if you don't" situations: While on the one hand I could pat myself on the back, and be clean-as-a-whistle if an archie armed-with-a-pocket-calculator stopped me to do the math on the age of finds I make ..... Yet on the OTHER HAND, I can only imagine the angst of them having to stop, log in , process, store, etc.... every last wheat penny I dutifully bring in to them.

Thus just curious: Seeing as how you're in a country with much more history & age than us, how much boxes of stuff, trips per week/month, etc... are you bringing down to these guys ? Do all the other hunters there do this too ?

 

[EOS]

Haha..well we really dont bring down boxes of stuff to the museums.
Most of the searchers are still not looking for old stuff. I would say that 90% of our Detectorists here in Sweden prefer the beach,where you find the bling-blings and modern coins.
Im not one of them!
I like a rolled smooth field,thats my favorite search ground. Its not like you find iron age artifacts in every field ,or Viking treasures...
Yes we have an old history,but I can tell you that I have been many hours during 2014 and only had a handfull of bits to turn in. And yes find process is slow,really slow...

I report everything yes..but it doesnt mean they want it handed in. Its enough with a finds map,coordinates and images,then they store it digitally. Except for the real old stuff.

We had a meeting in Denmark last year. That day we actually delivered a big box filled with Viking artifacts to the local museum. I remember it was 180 zip-bags of finds from 50 Detectorists. Thats a good day,and the archies gave us searchers a big applause.

Not exactly what they do in Sweden unfortunately. Yet!

/Mike

 

[EOS]

This is another find I reported,found close to the first find. That field is also closed. Its a fibula from AD 400,was sticking up from the ground..

/Mike

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... We had a meeting in Denmark last year. That day we actually delivered a big box filled with Viking artifacts to the local museum. I remember it was 180 zip-bags of finds from 50 Detectorists. Thats a good day,and the archies gave us searchers a big applause....

Really ? Then you must have a different caliber of archies than we have here. The typical archie here, if he/they were handed ziplock baggies of artifacts from armchair hobbyists ..... would turn red and bristle with comtempt. Because that simply means (in their terminology) that you'd "ripped it from context". And I suppose that most of them would calm down if you or I assured them ... "it came from private land". But there are actually some that would prefer that this "protection of history" EVEN EXTENDS to private land. Some scary stories circulate of md'rs and bottle diggers here getting read the riot act for digging, EVEN ON PRIVATE LAND.

So there's no way at all that any archie groups here will break out in applause, when/if a group of md'rs waltzed in showing them the latest digs

 

[EOS]

Well, we only search on ploughed soil where the finds are in a secondary context. Thats a totally different thing.
And yes,the archies give us much credit for turning in so much historical material,believe it or not. Thats Denmark!

The situation in Sweden is just as you describe - most of the times. But not from all archies. Some of them see us as resource.
And I do hope they will learn from our neighbour countries.
/Mike

 

[EOS]

Thanks for the reply EOS! Incredibly, we've connected with long lost family there, so I hope to be making many trips there (if they can stand us belligerent Americans). I've attempted to update my profile showing the coils I currently have in my little arsenal, but in case I didn't do it correctly, they consist of 6" 3khz DD, 9" 7.5 khz CC and 6" 18.75 khz DD. Not a single elliptical in the bunch. I could possibly be talked into another one though. Some folks were thinking one of those massive 15" coilteks might be the ticket for covering ground in the pasture, but sounds to me like I might miss more than I'd like to. You are thinking I should shell out a couple of hundred more dollars for the 10X5 HF coil and take that? Or should I be content with what I have?

Thanks for posting the pictures! My wife will be taking her camera as photography is her hobby. I'm hoping to catch a fish as well! Here is a family stoyl (cabin) that we're gonna hike into and stay the night. This photo was taken in 1898.

Thats a nice picture!

I think you will be fine with the set-up you have. After all - it is a detector and it finds metal The 15" WOT is good,but it really dont have the best separation due to its size.
Naa...go with the coils you have. They are fine.
Yeah dont forget the camera,and be certain you dont search on protected ground. There is an app you can download where it shows all the known acient monuments in Norway. Might be an idea. Hope it comes in english,or you might have to study Norwegian language

Cheers/Mike

http://iphoneapps.m5f.net/apk/no.ra.android.html

 

[Sasquatch]

Thanks Mike! I'll check it out!