Report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme 2020

Abstract

The work of the British Museum’s and National Museum Wales’ Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has been highlighted in this journal since 2005 and an introduction to the organization and its work can be found in previous reports. In 2020 10,838 objects dating to the post-medieval and modern periods were recorded by the PAS in 8,384 records. This represents 22% of all objects recorded and 26% of all records created. Following the convention of earlier reports, the major functional categories (by numbers of objects recorded) were currency (coins and tokens) (40%), dress accessories (22%), trade equipment (8%), arms and armour (5%), entertainment and leisure (5%), household fittings (4%), vessels (4%), animal equipment (3%), and tools and utensils (2%). The number of recorded objects and records are fairly significantly lower than in recent years because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority of finds recorded with the PAS are made through metal-detecting (89% of all finds in 2020), an activity which was restricted and virtually banned during the several periods of national lockdown in England and Wales. Moreover, from March 2020 most Finds Liaison Officers (FLO) and their volunteers, who create the lions’ share of PAS database records, were working from home and had little or no opportunity to meet finders in person. In the circumstances it is remarkable that so many objects were recorded. In the year 2000, post-medieval objects and coins comprised 25.25% of all Treasure finds (see Treasure Annual Report 2000), while in 2020 preliminary statistics show they comprised 36.77% of all Treasure finds. In addition to the global COVID-19 crisis, another major theme in 2020 was the growing awareness of entrenched and sometimes unconscious bias against ethnic minorities in Western democracies. This was brought to a head by the shocking murder of George Floyd in the United States and the subsequent protests and demonstrations organised by groups like Black Lives Matter. It caused many institutions, including the PAS, to reflect on issues of diversity and awareness, in terms of the makeup of its staff and the audience it engages with, and also in the language and content of its online records. The PAS now has a Diversity Working Group which seeks to address these issues. The following are a small selection of post-medieval finds discovered in 2020 and recorded with the PAS.