A young amateur treasure hunter has recently unearthed this amazingly well preserved Roman cavalry helmet in Cumbria. Apparently it’s only the third of its kind ever found in the UK. Better (for him, at least), is the fact that it’s not covered by the UK’s Treasure Act, meaning it can be sold at auction to the highest bidder.
Is it just me, or have there been a series of impressive Roman finds by amateurs in the UK this year?
I heard about this on the radio this morning. Thanks for reminding me - and what an incredible piece!
Hope it doesn’t leave the country.
An old schoolfriend of mine found a hoard of gold coins on the banks of the Thames in London a few years ago. But he’s an archaeologist so it’s perhaps not surprising.
But yeah those metal detector geeks are having a field day at the moment. But this particular guy had been looking for seven years without finding anything of note… I’d imagine it’s not a great career choice.
Will they get all the estimated $300k, or is there a landowner to split with?
Wow.
I wonder how long before you can get a copy from Musuem Replicas?
I had a metal detector about thirty years ago.
I searched a lot of beaches looking for coins and rings and stuff.
I found a lot of rusty fishhooks- normally embedded in my fingers when I dug them up.
I guess I would have been surprised to find a Roman helmet at Bowen.
Had you managed, we would all know your real name.
I’m gonna live forever. You’ll all remember my name.
Fame.
Why is this not covered by the UK Treasure Act?
Great find.
All I ever find are rocks.
(Never mind, I read the article. Gold and Silver, the gov’t wants. Not bronze.)
No bronze is OK it’s the fact that this was a single object and not a collection. The article mentions a “hoard” of bronze axe heads that did fall under the Treasure Act.
So, in other words it would be financially prudent ‘discover’ all my bronze roman helmets at seperate locations and times rather than all in in one pile, if I am ever over there? I’ll keep that in mind. 
I don’t like the idea that it can be sold at aution. It should be put in a museum. He should not be allowed to profit from it. We do not need a bunch of greedy amateur treasure hunters ruining aracheological sites and artifacts trying to get rich.
Why not force him to sell to a museum so he can still profit?
Because that would still encourage other idiots to go treasure hunting. Maybe a token fee, and his name on the exhibit as the credited finder, but you don’t want people crawling all over archaeological site with metal detectors looking to get rich.
Edit: NM
I’d venture to guess that your best place to run a metal detector is on top of any small/tiny hill. The beach is, really, probably the worst place for any major finds.
The only way you, I and our children will ever see many of these amazing finds is through the interest and determination of the amateur archaeologist. The potential places to search are so vast and some terrain so unremarkable that were it all left to the authorities it would likely take hundreds of years to cover the same ground. So it’s a bit of a tradeoff, we sacrifice some site integrity in exchange for making it available quicker. How many of the big finds in recent decades were made by amateurs? An appreciable amount I suspect and I’m grateful for the chance to view it and be awed by its beauty.
Obviously what’s needed is a system that encourages responsible collecting, prompt notification, appropriate financial reward and that in the end encourages the item(s) to remain in the country, available for further study and exposure to the masses.
Set aside areas most likely to have artifacts, those near towns of antiquity and on the usual prominent topographic landforms as closed except to governmental investigation but leave the vast remainder for those fascinated by the challenge and willing to perform the mundane, grueling work. We’ll all be the richer for it.
ETA: That helmet is absolutely stunning. I’d think some philanthropists would be willing to shell out some coin themselves to the museums, helping them make the aquisition.
Amateur archeologists should be rewarded for doing the right thing with significant finds, proportional to the find’s value. Even Indiana “It belongs in a museum!” Jones sold the stuff he found to Brody.
Very old things buried in the ground will always be valuable, both in terms of monetary value and historic/scientific value. Making it illegal to profit from finding buried things isn’t going to do any good; in fact, it will only make it more likely that finds never see the light of day.
Its amazing that in a densly populated country like the UK, Roman-Era artifacts are still being found. The workmanship on this helmet is mazing-some skilled craftsman spent tens possibly hundreds of hours making it.
Okay, but other than staggeringly valuable headgear, what have the Romans ever done for us?
the problem is there is so much acreage in Europe where there is the potential to find stuff that there is not a chance in the world that 95% of it will ever see any sort of archeological activity.
One can hope that if someone digs up something of significance that they will hold off on rummaging around and at least call a university department of archeology, a museum, or someone who has a tenuous connection to archeology to come out and have a look … but think of the loss if we cant at least see something that gets dug up and preserved. It could have sat under the turf and gently corroded to atoms if he hadn’t been scouting about there with his scanner.