A Day in the Life of a Finds Liaison Officer

Page 1 of 7

• 1. Reporting chance finds
• 2. New discoveries
• 3. Centuries of finds
• 4. Identifying finds
• 5. Detecting the facts
• 6. Heading for the clubs
• 7. Find out more
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Reporting chance finds

One of the most exciting things about archaeology is its unpredictability - new questions and new discoveries mean that the subject is never static. Thousands of important archaeological objects are found every year by members of the public; most are found by metal detector users, others by people gardening or out walking. The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) was introduced to encourage finders to report their chance finds, so that information about them can be recorded and made available to everyone with an interest in the past, and the scheme therefore relies completely on the goodwill of finders.

'...all have an interest in material culture, dealing with huge quantities of artefacts from the Palaeolithic period onwards'

I studied archaeology at Durham University and undergraduate courses in Roman coins, pottery and glass gave me the experience and enthusiasm for working with archaeological finds. A Masters degree also at Durham, investigated a Roman site in Lincolnshire through field-walking, geophysical survey and a controlled metal detector survey. This yielded hundreds of metal objects and pot sherds of various periods and was a good preparation for my work as a FLO (Finds Liaison Officer).

Finds Liaison Officers might have different archaeological backgrounds, but all have an interest in material culture, dealing with huge quantities of artefacts from the Palaeolithic period onwards. There are currently twelve FLOs and we have regular meetings and training days on artefacts of different periods. We remain in regular contact via email especially to exchange ideas on the identification of unusual objects.

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Published: 2002-04-12