Dr Tess Machling
#Archaeologist, #Archaeology, #researcher, #chocolate #artefact maker, #mum ~ I look at #torcs & #prehistoric #gold from a #craft perspective. My website - https://bigbookoftorcs.com
Pro-trans, anti-tory... in fact, anti all hate stuff!
I love #cats tooooo.....
If you'd like to buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/tess317409
As part of the Festival of #Archaeology, on 25th July at the Potteries Museum in Stoke, I'm going to be talking about The Staffordshire Torc Odyssey & some of the wonderful Iron Age gold that has been found in the county.
Talk is free to attend, just turn up on the day.
I've been torc taming at Tamworth Castle. Full write up to come soon of the last of the Staffordshire Torc Odyssey torcs: Glascote.
In the meantime, catch up with everything here:
I rather liked this... not the usual type of story we get about things from fields - it's gentle and thoughtful.
Top marks for getting it in Farmer's Weekly too...
It ain't all 'treasure'...
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/ancient-objects-uncovered-beneath-britains-farming-fields
Wooohooo!!!
260 of you, in fivers, tenners and more have raised £10,000!! Well done everyone! 👏
I'm sure there will be stretch funding, but this is brilliant news, it really is.
Some great news - thank you to everyone who contributed their hard earned cash!
(Just a reminder that had the finder/ landowner donated the dress fastener, it would have cost £0 instead of £150,000...)
The Torygraph contacted me last week, but I told them their paper didn't align with my world view...
They wrote it anyway and I have to say, it's pretty good. Much that I hate the Telegraph, it's also in exactly the right newspaper...
#Detecting #Treasure #Archaeology 🏺
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/25/museums-paying-millions-to-detectorists-for-treasure/
The latest blog in the Staffordshire Torc Odyssey: Glascote up close!
#Archaeology #Torcs #StaffsTorcOdyssey 🏺
https://bigbookoftorcs.com/2026/04/15/the-staffordshire-torc-odyssey-15-glascote-up-close/
...annnnnnnnnd again.
"it was hoped the artefact...could be acquired by Lincoln Museum"
Note the word 'hoped'. But if Museum can't raise the funds to buy it, it could be sold at auction, sent overseas or melted down.
100% legally
#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj1w12ddp2o?app-referrer=search
It may do absolutely no flipping good at all but you can email Keir Starmer and ask him to remove permission for the US to use UK bases here:
This is a really important find - unique in fact. It has slight similarities to a torc from Moulsford (now in Reading Museum).
I've been looking at photos of this torc for a bit and I am pretty certain this wasn't ever a single strand torc - I think it was made as a triple strand with a piece now missing in one of the strands (hence the hammered ends on the broken neck ring).
One of those things that needs researching - but if it can't be bought by Leicestershire Museum Service it'll be given back to the finder and landowner, likely to be sold, possibly exported. Legally they could even melt it down...
I hate doing this, but we really REALLY need to rescue this one.
"If enough is not raised, the future of the torc is uncertain...and could even end up in the hands of a private collector in the UK or abroad. If this were to happen the object could effectively disappear from sight."
Donation link here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-save-leicestershires-bronze-age-torc
"If the total of £150,000 is not raised, the British Museum has an option to buy the torc, or the finder and owner of the site are able to put it up for sale to the highest bidder."
Grim.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-save-leicestershires-bronze-age-torc#
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c747n8kd4y7o?app-referrer=deep-link
This is what happens when 'treasure' can't be bought by a museum - the hoard has been broken up into individual auction lots & will disappear into many different hands, some almost certainly overseas.
When do we start saying enough is enough??
https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/calendar/898/catalogue/?specialcollectionpart_id=1721
#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr033kk7zxo?app-referrer=search
It was such a pleasure to talk to Geraldine from the Museums Journal about the various issues associated with 'treasure', detecting and dwindling museum resources...
'more than 45,000 members of the public had contributed to the cause'
... and all to pay the detectorist and landowner for a lucky find!!!
One Show tonight, 13 mins. All about treasure hunting.
...& what did the arch present have to say?
"Some objects you have to report by law, mostly gold & silver objects, but other objects [in] UK law you don't have to record"
I give up... 😔
The PAS report for 2024 is out. 79,616 finds were reported (up 7% from 2023's 74,506) 1540 Treasure finds (up 12% from 2023's 1358) So... numbers are still rising at alarming rates.
https://finds.org.uk/documents/annualreports/2024.pdf
Only 4238 finders are reporting to PAS (up from 2023's 3877... but considering the huge boom in the numbers of those detecting, this is still only 1-10% of the number of detectorists in UK). AKA we're still in a mess and it's only getting worse...
Interestingly, there is *NO INFO* in the 2024 PAS report (unlike the 2023 report) regarding numbers of finds being exported!! Why is that?? Hmmmm...
TLDR All numbers are still increasing and the picture I've been highlighting over the last few months isn't getting any better...
Another fabulous gold artefact that needs our help!
This gorgeous Bronze Age 'dress fastener' needs our help so that it can be bought by Potteries Museum in Stoke.
If we can't, it will be handed back to finder/landowner & likely sold at auction... 😭
Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/charity/pmagfriends
https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/the-ellastone-fastener/
Thank you! ❤️



