Britain's Portable Antiquities Scheme Endangered
Dave
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is threatened with a realterms budget
cut that might close its central unit and terminate the national database.
Five jobs out of 50 are set to go, possibly leaving the scheme's 39 Finds
Liaison Officers (FLOs) to be grouped and managed regionally. Many FLOs
think this would destroy the scheme.
The central office at the British Museum maintains a national database which
has recorded more than 300,000 finds in the scheme's ten-year life. It is
the largest online database of its kind in the world, and is regarded by
many other countries as a model. To take one example, the PAS has increased
the count of Wiltshire's known Roman sites by 15% in just three years. The
enlarged database means better protection for buried heritage, as
archaeologists in county planning departments can propose modifying
development plans or have 'preservation by record' built into planning
consents.
No less important is PAS's huge public impact. Metal-detectorists, for long
treated as pariahs, have been brought into the fold, contributing their
expertise and discoveries to national heritage by recording find-spots and
bringing artefacts to local FLOs for identification and databasing. Not just
detectorists: of 6,216 individuals offering finds for recording in 2006,
more than a third were not detectorists but other members of the public. In
the same year, a quarter of a million people used the PAS database, and
there were almost 82 million user-hits in all, while around 45,000 people
attended outreach events involving PAS staff.
So the PAS has come to play a central role in academic, rescue and public
archaeology in modern Britain. It is one of our greatest successes of the
last decade. So why is it under attack?
Funding comes from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport via the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The MLA's funding is being
reduced by more than 25%, and in consequence PAS funding has been frozen at
the Ł1.3 million level, an effective cut allowing for inflation (it needs
Ł1.49 million to maintain current activity). 'The MLA,' says Chief Executive
Roy Clare, 'is currently evaluating its own operations and the entire span
of its programmes to ensure that every area is delivered effectively and in
a way that gains the best value for public money.' Translated - for the
benefit of those who do not know governmentapparatchik Newspeak - this means
'we are deciding how to make cuts in public services'.
The central office of the PAS has been labelled 'inefficient' and in need of
a more 'corporate' approach. Minimising 'the downstream effects'
(translation: cuts) will involve 'some operational linkages with activities
in regional museums' (get rid of the central office), and this will 'have
the potential to strengthen the PAS overall' (break up the national scheme).
Convenient cover is provided by the EU-inspired 'Renaissance in the Regions'
programme, allowing Clare to parade as an enemy of centralised power. In
reality, the PAS is already one of official archaeology's most bottomup
schemes, and there is no slack in this ultra-streamlined and vital heritage
service.
A strong campaign has been launched to save the PAS. The Guardian has
carried an article by its own archaeology correspondent Maev Kennedy and a
comment piece by Cambridge professor Colin Renfrew.
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COMMENTARY
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It's an unusual and worthy cause that can bring together an icon of
anticollecting ideology such as Lord Renfrew, and an icon of preserving
collectors' rights such as Peter Tompa, President of the ACCG. That is
exactly what has happened in this case, as both are united in believing that
the PAS is highly beneficial and should not be tampered with.
Opposition to the PAS is a matter of British internal politics and
factionalism within the British archaeological community. It would be a
terrible blow to prospects for eventually finding sensible and practical
solutions for preserving artifacts and buried heritage, if this flagship
national program should be sacrificed for transient, parochial political
reasons. The PAS has grown to become not merely a British institution, but a
cultural preservation landmark that shines through the dismal darkness like
a beacon of hope, pointing the way toward a better future for the world.
Recognizing that worldwide impact, Britain's leading archaeological magazine
Current Archaeology has established a poll to record reader opinion on
whether the Portable Antiquities Scheme should remain a nationally
co-ordinated scheme, as its supporters advocate, or whether it should be
changed to a decentralised, regionally based scheme as its opponents and
detractors advocate.
I urge every reader of this group to join Lord Renfrew, Peter Tompa, myself
and thousands of other concerned collectors and preservationists in
recording your opinion that the PAS should not be tampered with. Please
visit www.archaeology.co.uk and vote to keep PAS as a national scheme.
Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L
mi...@diggingdeeper.co.uk
> Recognizing that worldwide impact, Britain's leading archaeological magazine
> Current Archaeology has established a poll to record reader opinion on
> whether the Portable Antiquities Scheme should remain a nationally
> co-ordinated scheme, as its supporters advocate, or whether it should be
> changed to a decentralised, regionally based scheme as its opponents and
> detractors advocate.
>
The campaign to preserve the Portable Antiquities Scheme in the face
of threats from the MLA, began after British Archaeology magazine
published off-the-cuff comments from MLA chief executive Roy Clare,
including his claims that its central unit was "inefficient" and
needed to be more "corporate". Unlike some other magazines, British
Archaeology and the CBA have always strongly suported the PAS (see
current issue for the full news story, and www.britarch.ac.uk/news/pas.html),
and BA will print further revelations in the new issue out on February
8. This is a campaign we need to win.