"Guy with Metal Detector Finds Roman Grave" Topic

A man in England went exploring with a metal detector and made the discovery of a lifetime: an exquisitely preserved Roman-era grave filled with artifacts, including bronze jugs, mosaic glassware, coins and hobnails from a pair of shoes, all dating to about A.D. 200.

The grave likely belonged to a wealthy individual, said Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, the archaeology and outreach officer for the North Hertfordshire District Council. Once Fitzpatrick-Matthews and his colleagues located the grave, they also found evidence of a nearby building, likely a shrine or temple, attached to a villa.

The man with the metal detector, Phil Kirk, found the grave in a field in Kelshall, a small village located between London and Cambridge. He had once found a Roman coin in the same field, and had a hunch that there were more Roman artifacts nearby, Fitzpatrick-Matthews said…

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Grave robbers, in a few hundred years they will digging up your grave.

My grave won't have anything of interest to grave robbers in it – unless they're into gaming, I plan of being buried with all of my painted figures. It took so long to complete them it seems like a shame to leave them behind ;)

More seriously, I can understand some uneasiness about disturbing graves and removing relics. Respectfulness for the dead is very important. But, as a history enthusiast, this sort of find can reveal all sorts of things about life in that period, and I want that information recovered! There might not even be any practical use to knowing, but I want to.

Hi Pattus, your grave will, no doubt, make a helluva blip on the metal detector! :-) simon

Have someone spread your ashes, no grave robbers need apply.

Very cool.

I hope he will give it to a museum so we all can benefit from studying it.

Simon, I'm aiming to have enough painted that I'll be in the middle of a good-sized barrow mound when the little brutes are packed in around me ;)

Failing that, maybe a 'viking burial' cremation and my ashes will be mixed into a 600 lb ingot of lead and pewter after all the figs melt…

Rebelyell2006, I entirely agree. Or if not a donation, then maybe sale to a museum or an agreement to let scholars access the private collection for study purposes. I have no idea what the laws are in the UK about ownership of archaeological finds, but I expect there are some.

I also get quite uneasy about the excavations of tombs and burials sites. The problem in most cases is that after all the hoopty-hoop is over, the remains usually get shoved into some pasteboard box or tupperware bin, and left on a shelf at some lab. There ought to be more respect for the dead, and their remains returned to their grave and reburied.

I'm nobody. Just another fellow who was born, blinked, and then saw it was all over. But I've made certain that my remains will be left undisturbed. I'll have them cremated, then the ashes sealed into an urn, and buried at sea. As a former Navy man, it seems like the right thing to do.

YMMV, but that's how I see things.

After 2000 years or so, I don't think I will be caring what happens to my remains!

The laws on metal detecting finds in Britain are fairly simple. You have to get the permission of the landowner first. If you find anything major or valuable the County Archaeologist must be notified and they will determine if a proper dig is needed. The proceeds of any finds are split 50/50 between the finder and the landowner.

metal detectorists are making many valuable finds, and also most respect the archeological contexts and happily work with the authorities. True there are some loose cannons, but on the whole they are a plus. Labelling grave robbers is ridiculous.

Old Peculiar says:

metal detectorists are making many valuable finds, and also most respect the archeological contexts and happily work with the authorities. True there are some loose cannons, but on the whole they are a plus. Labelling grave robbers is ridiculous.

In my book, an archeologist is just a legalized grave robber. There is little difference, in the main, between the looters of ancient graves who despoil them for profit, and the archeologist who profits through the same work by being paid for his efforts by some university or museum.

In fact, the latter is often worse, because a grave robber loots a grave for material objects to sell, whereas a museum or university almost always takes the human remains as well for study and, as often as not, display. It is the rarest or rare things when a museum or university or other such organization returns the remains to the earth from which it was looted. As I said above, most of the time the remains are simply placed into a pasteboard box or some plastic bin to await the next ghoul who wishes to examine them.

Academics may find some small comfort in claiming a moral superiority (education!) for their actions above those of the grave robber or tomb looter, but overall, there is no real difference between them, beyond a cheap facade of respectability amongst one's peers and a gullible and gawking public.

Opening of a grave, any grave, is showing disrespect for the dead, and those who laid him to rest. The only possible exception(s) is for gathering evidence persuant to a criminal investigation, or for attempting to identify unknown war casualties (or other such casualties) when it seems possible to turn them over to their relatives for a proper burial.

Metal detector folks who profit by the sale of items found in graves are also no different than a base grave robber. The same with the landowner whose hands are also sullied by accepting his share of the loot.

You can dress it up all you like with fancy names and permits and whatever, but it's all disturbing the dead.

Kindred, I believe the recent destruction of the entire history of the Assyrians, Babylonians and Parthians by ISIS would put the lie to the idea that the best thing for a civilization is to left to rot in the ground of its uncivilized decedents.

whereas a museum or university almost always takes the human remains as well for study and, as often as not, display.

That is an old practice that has less favor every year. In fact, federal law requires the return of any Native American remains when requested (and the Tribes and Nations always want them returned). New Zealand and Australia have similar laws, and the return of human remains across international borders is picking up. The remains that are not returned are typically kept in storage until accessed by researchers. Outside of shrines, medical museums and old-fashioned/woefully out of date museums, any human remains on display would be casts or replicas. The era of the Cabinet of Curiosity is over.

In the UK too there are legal restrictions surrounding the excavation of human remains, which is sometimes unavoidable, especially in advance of development: it's virtually impossible to construct a new road in East Anglia for example without disturbing human burials, with the only question being how many (which is why big construction firms hire archaeological consultants and sometimes keep them in house). Human remains (ritually-deposited and otherwise) can (and do) also turn up on almost any excavation project, not just in known cemeteries. It is quite possible therefore to 'open a grave' entirely by accident (I've done it myself) and without any intention to disturb it.

Excavated human remains do by law have to be reinterred in an appropriate burial place.