From the field to the record

From the field to the record is one feature of Field Archaeology, in development and to be piloted through 2026 and 2027. Finds and digs that metal detectorists record in FieldFinders are to reach researchers in the atlas without the finder’s name, with exact findspots never made public.

Last updated 25 October 2026

Field Archaeology is a research atlas for England, in which LiDAR, historic Ordnance Survey maps and heritage records sit on one map with every source cited. This page explains one feature planned for it: what the feature is to do, and why the records it carries matter for research.

What it does

Metal detectorists find most of the archaeological objects that members of the public report, and they find them in the field, far from a desk. From the field to the record is being built to keep what they record there, the find and the ground around it, and to carry it to the people who study it, without the finder’s name.

1. Recorded at source. In FieldFinders, the app for metal detectorists and landowners that Gitwix Limited also makes, a detectorist records each dig as it happens, alone, with a club or at a rally. The app keeps the path walked, its distance and how long it took, and each find as it comes out of the ground, with the time, a photograph, the findspot, the depth and the object type in the terms the Portable Antiquities Scheme uses.
2. Ready for PAS. Each find is laid out for the Scheme’s own finder submission form, so that the finder can check it and submit it from their own account on the Scheme’s database.
3. Treasure by the law’s route. A find that may be Treasure does not go through a finder submission. The app gives the legal guidance and points the finder to their Finds Liaison Officer. It never decides whether a find is Treasure.
4. Into the research record. Recorded digs and finds join Field Archaeology de-identified. They are never made public, exact findspots go only to organisations we have verified, and no finder is named. Researchers, universities, archaeological units and Historic Environment Records see them on the same map as the LiDAR, the historic maps and the heritage records.
5. Back to the finder. What researchers learn from the records goes back to the people who made them.

At no step does the app report a find on its own: every report to the Scheme or to a Finds Liaison Officer is made by the finder.

Why it matters for research

Most recorded finds come from detecting

Metal detectorists found 94 per cent of the finds the Portable Antiquities Scheme recorded in 2024, according to the British Museum, which manages the Scheme in England. That record is already research material: the Scheme’s annual report for 2023 counted 993 research projects to date that had used its data.

A find is only as useful as its context

The Scheme’s own guidance on findspots says that a find without a precise grid reference loses the context needed to interpret it, and that most archaeological research needs at least an eight-figure grid reference, which places a find within a 10 m square. A find recorded in FieldFinders is placed where and when it is dug, with its depth and a photograph, and it stays inside the walk it came from: the path, the time spent and the other finds made on the way.

Where people searched, and found nothing

Finds data has a known bias: it shows where people searched as well as where things lie. Philpott (2018) notes that the Scheme’s record is shaped by access to land, by search patterns and by which finds are reported. Historic England’s guidance on portable antiquities asks field projects to record the proportion of the area they sampled, and makes the point sharply for detecting on battlefields:

It is not enough to GPS record each find location as part of a ‘random wander’. There needs to be a well-documented consistent survey coverage, because the variation in numbers of finds and even complete gaps in the record must reflect the total numbers of finds in the ground, not how much time was spent in any area.

A walk in FieldFinders keeps the ground it covered and the time it took, so the record holds where a detectorist searched, including the ground where nothing came up, beside what they found. That is search coverage, and we found no published equivalent for detecting by the public.

It is not survey, and Field Archaeology will not present it as survey. A walk is opportunistic search with its effort measured: the detectorist chose the ground, and Historic England’s guidance warns that recovery rates can vary dramatically with the detectorist and the machine. A blank stretch of a walk shows that someone searched there and recorded nothing, not that nothing is there; Philpott gives the caveat that ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’. What the walk adds is a measure of effort, so that a cluster or a gap can be read against how much ground was searched.

Read against the landscape

In the atlas, the finds and the searched ground are to sit beside the Environment Agency’s one metre LiDAR, the Ordnance Survey maps from 1885 to 1961 and the national heritage records. A scatter of finds can then be read against the earthworks under it, the field boundaries the old maps show and the sites already recorded nearby, with each source cited as it is everywhere else in Field Archaeology.

Ready for PAS, and Treasure

In 2026 the Portable Antiquities Scheme opened a new database with finder submissions: a registered finder can report a find online from their own dashboard, one form per object, for the many finds that Finds Liaison Officers cannot prioritise. To submit, the form needs:

• the object type, and how certain the finder is of it;
• the broad period;
• the date of discovery;
• photographs;
• the findspot, as at least an eight-figure grid reference, a what3words address or a latitude and longitude to seven decimal places.

Measurements, weight and the finder’s notes, such as the depth, how the findspot was taken and how the land is used, can be added. Ready for PAS is to lay out each find recorded in FieldFinders in the order of that form, for the finder to check and submit. A finder submission is not a full record: the Scheme keeps submissions in a separate data set, and Finds Liaison Officers review them at their own discretion, with no commitment to look at every one.

A find that may be Treasure takes a different route. The Scheme’s guide says that a finder submission must not be used for it, and that the finder should contact their Finds Liaison Officer straight away. Under the Treasure Act 1996 a finder has 14 days to report potential Treasure to the coroner; in England the Code of Practice says that reporting it to the local Finds Liaison Officer, with all the details they need, meets that duty, and that a finder who asks someone else to report for them remains responsible for it. FieldFinders is to give the guidance and the way to reach the Finds Liaison Officer, and never to declare a find Treasure.

FieldFinders and Field Archaeology are independent of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Ready for PAS is designed around the tool the Scheme offers every registered finder; nothing about it has been agreed with the Scheme or the British Museum, and naming them does not mean that either endorses it.

Who sees what

The feature is being built to these rules:

• Never public. Recorded digs and finds are not shown to the public in Field Archaeology.
• Exact findspots only to verified organisations. A precise findspot goes only to an organisation we have checked, and never with the finder’s name.
• No finder names. Records reach Field Archaeology without the name of the person who made them.
• Booked land left out. Digs on land booked through FieldFinders are left out, because FieldFinders’ search agreement keeps the precise location of the land private unless the landowner agrees.
• Said plainly before the first recording. Recording in FieldFinders stays free. For a free member, adding their recorded digs and finds to the research record is the condition of free recording, and the app is to say so plainly before they record for the first time. A paying member chooses for themselves.

Two things are still being settled: how the landowner’s agreement is recorded, since every findspot lies on someone’s land, and the access rules for verified organisations, including what they agree to and how finely a location may be published. Before any record leaves FieldFinders, we will publish a privacy notice for Field Archaeology and complete a data protection impact assessment.

Where it stands

The testing is planned, not agreed. With Finds Liaison Officers, it would ask whether finds prepared this way arrive complete and take less of their time to record; they have no duty to review finder submissions, and any part they take is their own choice. With university researchers, it would ask whether finds and search coverage change how long it takes to assemble the evidence for a landscape, and what researchers conclude from it. We will publish the method, the consent model and the results openly. There are no results yet. The research programme sets out what each test is to measure.

Questions and answers

Sources

1. British Museum (2026) 2024 was a record-breaking year for archaeological finds and Treasure in Britain [press release]. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/press/press-releases/2024-was-record-breaking-year-archaeological-finds-and-treasure-britain (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
2. Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2023) Treasure Act 1996: Code of Practice (3rd Revision). Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 11 of the Treasure Act 1996. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c909cb19f5622360f3c14a/Treasure_Act_1996__Code_of_Practice.pdf (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
3. Historic England (2018) Our Portable Past. Swindon: Historic England. Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/ourportablepast/heag177-our-portable-past/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
4. Information Commissioner's Office (no date) Register of fee payers, registration reference ZC211025: Gitwix Limited. Available at: https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZC211025 (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
5. Philpott, R.A. (2018) ‘An assessment of the utility of supervised metal detecting in development-led archaeological work in Cheshire’, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, new series 88, pp. 87 to 113. Available at: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-2910-1/dissemination/pdf/JCAS_ns_088/JCAS_ns_088_087-114.pdf (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
6. Portable Antiquities Scheme (2024) The Portable Antiquities Scheme Annual Report 2023. Available at: https://www.ncmd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/PAS-Annual-Report-2023.pdf (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
7. Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) FAQs about the new database. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/faqs-about-the-new-database (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
8. Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) Finder submissions guide. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/guides/detecting-guidance/finder-submissions-guide (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
9. Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) How to get and record findspots. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/guides/detecting-guidance/how-to-get-and-record-findspots (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
10. Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) Terms of service for higher-level access accounts. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/terms-of-service-for-higher-level-access-accounts (Accessed: 25 October 2026).