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Portable Antiquities Scheme
• 19,100 contributors of data
• 712,000 objects recorded• 448,000 geo-referenced
find spots• All available under CC
NC-BY-SA• Driving archaeological
knowledge of rural areas• Funded by DCMS
• Employs 60 people• Deal with public
discovery of archaeology
• Started in 1997• Costs £1.4mill per
annum• IT budget c.£5000• Cut by 15% over 4 years
Recording: one chance
Our staff generally have one chance to record Dissemination online is swift, cheap, easy There is no other archaeological database of this size It is underused for research at present The data it contains can tell a thousand stories of our shared heritage
We have 60 non-specialised numismatists?
Do you? Why not? Is it a dying subject?
Objects by year
449,359 objects online @ 23:20 26/2/10 – 400K in 7 years!Prediction of 1 million by 2013
English & Welsh Treasure cases compared with Scottish Treasure Trove
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20080
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
ScotlandEngland and Wales
finds.org.uk
• Re-launched March 2010• Then had 17,000 contributors• & 1,457 user accounts• & 554,000 objects recorded • Cost just £48 to build • Uses 3rd party data• Ordnance survey• Yahoo! • Social media• Theyworkforyou
• Fully open source software• The empowered public can record their own data
Prize winning
• Site won best of web – Research/ Online collection at Museums and the Web 2011 (Philadelphia)• Roger Bland won Prix Allier de Hauteroche for work on single gold coin finds• Sam Moorhead won archaeologist of the year in 2011• Project won best archaeological project at British Archaeological awards 2001• Staffordshire hoard won best discovery in 2010• Frome hoard won best rescue excavation 2011
The Portable Antiquities Scheme: an awesome example of crowdsourced heritage, open geodata, and savvy mashups - Tyler Bell (ex Yahoo!)
Another example of digital classics/antiquities getting it right – Sean Gillies NYU
There is nothing else like the PAS anywhere in the world. The scheme has produced some impressive and unexpected benefits...and created a massive and unprecedented community archaeology project. – Derek Fincham
I regard the Portable Antiquities Scheme as a flagship for archaeology. It's got enormous support from enthusiasts, it's very highly regarded. As far as I'm concerned, in the great scheme of things, it's chicken feed in terms of its financing, and in terms of bang for buck, it's immensely successful. – Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture
Period from Quantity
Iron Age 42,307
Roman 171,289
Early Medieval 2,410
Medieval 28,643
Post Medieval 20,971
Modern 206
Byzantine 97
Greek & Roman provincial 171
Total 226,094
Quantity?
Jigsaw of British numismatics
Early Medieval Coin Corpus – still independent
Portable Antiquities Scheme
Hoards from Treasure Act Celtic Coin Index
Iron Age and Roman Coins of Wales project
Since 15th June
Period from Quantity
Byzantine 2
Early Medieval 4
Iron Age 5
Medieval 108
Modern 2
Roman 346
Total 467
Achieving excellence?
Holistic vs. insular?
Archaeological vs. traditional numismatics?
Hadrian’s Wall
Prolific recording in Kent
ACADEMIC USE
PAS Iron Age data over CCI data
Frome (Somerset) Hoard
Finder compensation £1/2 million!
Is the resource finite?
Can we support the Treasure payouts?
Is the Scheme loved by all?
Ask Rick
American coins in the UK
Frustrating case of the Crosby Garrett Helmet
Typical discoveries
Unusual Serb dinars!
Gold Angel of Henry VII
Visigothic tremissis
Rare sestertius of Julia Domna
&tc…..
Typical numismatic record
High resolution zoom
Multi-period coin guides
Objects referencing place:The Staffordshire Moorlands trulla
This is a list of four forts located at the western end of Hadrian's Wall; Bowness (MAIS), Drumburgh (COGGABATA), Stanwix (UXELODUNUM) and Castlesteads (CAMMOGLANNA). it incorporates the name of an individual, AELIUS DRACO and a further place-name, RIGOREVALI.
http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/49791
Applied numismatics
Bland & Loriot – single gold Roman coins
Data collection bias?
Off Limit areas
and
PAS finds
Sources: MAGIC, English Heritage, National Trust, Forestry Commission,
PAS website (11th November 2009)
SSSI (Purple)SAMs (Blue)
National Trust (Pink)Forestry Commission (Orange)
Staff based here
Here be mountains
Integration of old OS Maps
Layer provided by National Library of Scotland
Water Newton (Cambs) rally
Roman town of Durobrivae
Precise find spots from one event
Re-use of OS and EH point data
Both of these datasets came as CSV, now converted from grid refs to Lat/Lng and WOEID (and also elevation for centre point) if anyone wants them.
Daily Telegraph: 25th September 2009
Wikipedia feeding
Analysis of impact
Search phrase Pages viewed Length of visit
Enthroned Durham coin spia 519 3 hours 26 mins
Types of Roman denarii coins 350 53 mins 49 seconds
All bronze Roman coins 342 31 mins 37 seconds
Multiple formats<objects xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.heritage-standards.org/midas/schema/1.0 http://www.heritage-standards.org/midas/schema/1.0/midas_object.xsd"><object><recordmetadata><created><createdon>2011-01-21 15:11:18</createdon><createdby><appellation><name>Frank Basford</name><identifier namespace="PAS">fbasford</identifier></appellation></createdby></created><lastupdated><lastupdatedon>2011-01-21 17:44:00</lastupdatedon><lastupdatedby><appellation><name>Frank Basford</name><identifier namespace="PAS">fbasford</identifier></appellation></lastupdatedby></lastupdated></recordmetadata>
{"recordID":"425728","finds":[{"created2":"2011 01 21","description":"<p>A fragment of a post-Medieval cast copper-alloy 'crotal bell' (c. 1500-c. 1650). The fragment is part of the lower hemisphere and the straight edge is one side of the sound slit. The outer face has a 'fish scale' design that encloses a maker's mark: S G. It has a shiny mid-green patina on the outer face and a dull matt green patina on the inner face. The breaks are crisp. 54.9 x 37.7 x 2.1mm. Weight: 29.03g.<\/p>", ……..
Reuse licensed!
Social Media – pass on numismatics to non specialist audience
Engagement & dialogue
