England's archaeological history gathers dust as museums fill up

[Imperial Dave]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64707488

and going to 'get worse' as time goes on....

[Mark G]

Perhaps we should start offering loads of our new finds back to the places we nicked stuff from in earlier times

[Imperial Dave]

true

here's another thought. Lets make an estimate of the space needed to house all the unpainted miniatures we hold collectively 

[Erpingham]

Perhaps a bit misleading this.  "Archaeology is rubbish" as the saying goes.  A lot of the stored material is not going to be display worthy.  Yes, there is good stuff we are not seeing but we have a huge amount of physical evidence that backs up the archaeological reports (e.g. artefacts on which the dating was based) that needs to be kept in an organised and sustainable way, in an environment that prevents deterioration.  Not rocket science but an ongoing expense.

[Imperial Dave]

yes. My best friend texted me today to tell me he had been banned from fondling an early saxon sword after conservation. Put in the basement for however long etc

[Mark G]

Notions of what is rubbish or not change, so we can't make that call now.

Not least because of what we're learning from what we find in literal ancient rubbish dumps.

[Imperial Dave]

True.

[Jim Webster]

yes. My best friend texted me today to tell me he had been banned from fondling an early saxon sword after conservation. Put in the basement for however long etc

Your friend or the sword?

[Denis Grey]

Notions of what is rubbish or not change, so we can't make that call now.

Not least because of what we're learning from what we find in literal ancient rubbish dumps.

I have some shards of 1st century Samian ware which my father discovered when digging out the foundations of a (Tudor) Elizabethan building in Rochester in the late 1960s.  They were, literally, just bits and pieces and the conclusion of the British museum expert who looked at them was that the Elizabethan building had been sited on top of a Roman rubbish tip.

[Imperial Dave]

yes. My best friend texted me today to tell me he had been banned from fondling an early saxon sword after conservation. Put in the basement for however long etc

Your friend or the sword?

Well he was told to stop fondling it and get one with sorting the pottery finds. So I guess it was either him or the sword