September 11th 2024
The first in our 2024/5 season of talks was by Edward Caswell, who presented with great enthusiasm his work with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).
Edward started as the Finds Liaison Officer for Oxfordshire in 2020 following volunteering with the PAS in Durham during his undergraduate studies and working as a Finds Liaison Assistant for Devon and Somerset.
Edward loves studying and writing reports for artefacts of all time periods. He is particularly passionate about analysing the patterns we can see in big datasets such as the PAS database.
Edward’s wide ranging presentation demonstrated how the PAS database can be instrumental in developing our understanding of the nature, scale and effects of the large social transformations occurring in Britain over time. This is achieved by integrating burial, settlement information, artefacts and landscape evidence – creating narratives previously hidden from view to researchers.
About the Portable Antiquities Scheme
The Portable Antiquities Scheme is run by the British Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales to encourage the recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Every year many thousands of archaeological objects are discovered, many of these by metal detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work.
The Database
The Portable Antiquities Database can be found here. The database is easy to search, and your search results can be filtered to find just the data you want. Tips on searching the database.
This link is especially interesting for Wychwoods-related queries
