European Public Finds Recording Network

In September 2018, the DIME portal was officially launched to facilitate the user driven recording of metal detector finds produced by members of the public. The concrete and operational aim of DIME is to provide a portal for the registering and hence safeguarding of the increasing number of metal detector finds and to make them accessible for the general public and for research. The more overarching vision behind the DIME project is to realise the potential of recreational metal detecting as a medium to implement an inclusive and democratic approach to heritage management in Denmark and to advance the incorporation of principles of citizen science and crowdsourcing in museum practice. This article intends to present the background of the DIME portal’s development, its basic functionalities and their technological underpinning as well as the overarching vision behind DIME.

As it grows in size, the PAS database (PASD) is increasingly being used by those researching the archaeology of England and Wales, and its data are known to be incorporated into hundreds of projects including undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, PhD theses, conference papers, and large scale research projects. Contained within this body of research are a wide variety of projects focusing on specific objects, archaeological periods, or locations. However, only a few explore the collection and sampling bias inherent in the PASD, despite the fact that such background is an essential part of any analysis of this dataset. This guide therefore aims to: (1) discuss the factors that shape amateur-collected data and (2) identify a range of techniques for illustrating the effect of these factors on the spatial distribution of the finds. This guide is intended to be an overview for those using the PAS data in their research.

In his paper 'Quantitative analysis of open-source data on metal detecting for cultural property', Samuel Hardy suggested that permissive policy is ineffective in minimizing the damage done to cultural heritage by non-professional metal detecting. This response paper contests the basic assumptions upon which this analysis is based. While Hardy's comparative, quantitative approach is laudable, it is founded in a biased and simplistic outlook on the metal detecting phenomenon. As the papers in this Topical Issue demonstrate1, non-professional metal detecting (and other forms of prospecting) for archaeological artefacts is a contentious issue throughout the world, not least in Europe. Legal and policy approaches towards this activity differ greatly across jurisdictions, ranging from highly restrictive to permissive or even supportive. Professional attitudes towards metal detecting have been similarly divided and have been mostly internal to the different European countries and legislations since the Valletta Convention of 1992. Opinions are often polarised and based on ethical standpoints and even emotive arguments rather than a thorough understanding of the background, practices and impacts of non-professional metal detecting.2 1 See Open Archaeology 2016, vol. 2, issue 1. 2 We use the terms 'non-professional', 'hobby', 'leisure' and 'amateur' detecting/detectorists as interchangeable terms throughout this paper, to distinguish the practice from both the use of metal detectors by professional archaeologists in the field, and by illicit detector users driven primarily by financial motivations.

This report summaries the work of the PAS in 2016. It was launched by the Arts Minister John Glen MP on Monday 4 December at the British Museum. The report was edited by Michael Lewis based on contributions by the PAS network of FLOs and FAs and other staff.

This is a report on the work of the PAS in 2015

In this paper, we present an ongoing project called Finnish Archaeological Finds Recording Linked Open Database (Suomen arke-ologisten löytöjen linkitetty avoin tietokanta-SuALT), including the reasons why this citizen science project is underway. SuALT will be a digital web service catering for discoveries of archaeological material made by the public; especially, but not exclusively, metal-detectorists. SuALT engages the citizens by providing them access to contextualized data about other related finds by linking data from different data sources in Finland and beyond. SuALT is a collaborative consortium project. The project team members work in three sub-projects, each led by a different organization and thus represents a broad interdisciplinary group, that combines specialisms from archaeology, semantic computing, cultural heritage studies, and archaeological heritage management. Subpro-ject 1, which is based at the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki, focuses on user needs research and on the public Cultural Heritage interactions. Subproject 2, based in both Aalto University and in Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki, is specializing on the technology and implementation of the SuALT prototype. Subproject 3 works with ensuring the sustainability of SuALT at the Finnish Heritage Agency, the organization that will manage the database after the end of this project in 2021.