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Trimontium 'nighthawker' warning after raids on English heritage sites
LOCAL historians are this week calling on members of the Borders public to stay alert to the threat posed to local archaeological sites by illegal metal detector users.
The warning follows a spate of incidents in several English counties by so-called 'nighthawkers' – people who use metal-detecting equipment to locate buried antiquities without the permission of landowners or where the practice is banned, which they then sell on websites such as eBay.
England's heritage executives have now called on the police and Crown Prosecution Service to crack down on the activities of nighthawkers.
English Heritage claims that of 88 of its protected ancient sites, a third have been raided, with looters concentrating their activities at high-profile Roman settlements.
Looters have also targeted a further 152 agricultural plots of land, damaging crops and fields, as well as official archaeological digs authorised by the culture secretary.
Police say some of the thieves have formed loose networks to trade information, often in online forums, about new and vulnerable sites.
English Heritage believes that the 240 raids reported by police between 1995 and 2008 probably represented only a fraction of the amount of nighthawking going on in Britain.
And with one of Scotland's most famous Roman sites – Trimontium – situated at Newstead in the Borders, local historians and archaeologists are warning people not to be complacent.
Donald Gordon, secretary of the Trimontium Trust, says Trimontium has been described as 'the best site in Scotland for metalwork' because so much has been found there.
"The Roman army was a great consumer of it – men, horses, vehicles etc.," Mr Gordon told TheSouthern this week.
"If there were any signs of this (nighthawking) happening here we would be very concerned. We would be relying on members of the public to report anything odd happening in the fields to the police, who would be liaising with Historic Scotland.
"Our weekly walk in the season (plus the schools' route marches) is one aspect of the site's security.
"We would not want to be complacent, and while there have been no recent suspicions that anything like this is happening, vigilance is always the watchword."
The best-known expert on Romans in the Borders is Walter Elliot, of Selkirk. He says Trimontium is well-protected because of its proximity to Newstead.
"Just about the whole of the village is on 'RomanWatch' at Newstead," he told TheSouthern. "So many local people walk their dogs or go out for a stroll around the Trimontium area that anything suspicious would be very quickly spotted and reported."
However, while he says vigilance against such illegal practices as nighthawking is to be welcomed, Mr Elliot pointed out that so far it has not posed a major threat in the Borders.
"You have to remember that Trimontium and the Borders was the frontier for the Romans. It wasn't a rich place.
"Most of the other Roman sites in the Borders were temporary small encampments and while you might find interesting odd bits of pottery or a few coins, there will be nothing of real commercial value."
Mr Elliot explained that, like Trimontium, most of the Roman sites in the Borders will now be listed as scheduled monuments which means people are prohibited from going on them to search for objects.
"We have only had one incident, about 15 years ago, when someone with a metal detector was spotted on the Trimontium site by a water bailiff.
"But most local folk who use metal detectors are not from the 'how much is it worth' brigade, but rather are people fascinated by history and the thrill of finding something that might have last been held by a Roman legionnaire."
Mr Elliot stressed that even to use a metal detector on an ordinary field without any scheduled historical sites still needs the permission of the landowner and anything found that might have value, must be offered up as Treasure Trove to the Government in the first instance.
"Treasure Trove is when an item is valued by officials and a sum of money offered to the finder. The item is then offered to museums," added Mr Elliot.
"And it should be remembered that people who use metal detectors in a responsible manner have added a lot of information to our knowledge of the Borders."
Lists of scheduled historical sites in the Borders are available from the regional archaeologist at Scottish Borders Council or the National Museum of Scotland.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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