11th July 2005, 08:53 PM
Regarding York: I took it as a good sign that the biggest "stolen antiquity" shop moved to smaller premises last year. A lot of the stuff they sell is definitely of UK origin, but from all over.
I once got thrown out of said shop for questioning the provenance of a lovely assemblage of struck flint with catalogue numbers inked on. Do museums ever sell their finds?
As for York digging, it's a bit rubbish these days unless you like digging pile positions. (less than 5% and they don't get dug at all!)Much like London in fact, without the big area excavations that used to happen occasionally there. On the other hand the hinterland is very very good. My favourite place to dig these days is Beverley. Lovely deep med strat, a lot of which is waterlogged, and without the crazy archaeological mitigations of York.
I once got thrown out of said shop for questioning the provenance of a lovely assemblage of struck flint with catalogue numbers inked on. Do museums ever sell their finds?
As for York digging, it's a bit rubbish these days unless you like digging pile positions. (less than 5% and they don't get dug at all!)Much like London in fact, without the big area excavations that used to happen occasionally there. On the other hand the hinterland is very very good. My favourite place to dig these days is Beverley. Lovely deep med strat, a lot of which is waterlogged, and without the crazy archaeological mitigations of York.
