‘A great increase in reported, provenanced, archaeological finds’: A History of Recording in Norfolk Before the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Abstract

Finds recording has a long history in Norfolk. It received a boost in 1973 from the foundation of a full-time archaeological unit, which worked closely with the county Museums Service. Despite difficulties from certain quarters, the goodwill of many metal-detector users was gained, and as a result a very large, geographically based pool of data was amassed. From all of this there arose many significant discoveries, field projects, and subsequent publications. The Portable Antiquities Scheme joined in the process during 1997, but a full commitment to upload all new records to the Scheme’s database did not begin until 2012. An attempt is made to outline the development of finds recording in the county, and point the way to the future.

Keywords:

• Norfolk
• archaeology
• Historic Environment Record
• Portable Antiquities Scheme
• metal detector

Notes on contributor

Andrew Rogerson gained a degree in History and Archaeology at Liverpool in 1970 and after three years became a founding member of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit. He has worked in the county ever since. At first an excavator he moved into a curatorial role in 1991, when PPG16 brought about a bifurcation in Norfolk’s archaeological services. Involvement with the recording of metal detector finds began in 1980 and twenty years later he took charge of the Identification and Recording Service. Despite being immersed in artefacts over such a protracted period his main interest remains in the historic landscape, especially the post-Roman. This interest was manifest in his PhD thesis which studied the landscape history of one Norfolk parish through field survey and documentary sources. In his imminent retirement there is every hope that an improved version will be brought to publication.