Cooperation behind the line...

The cooperation with domestic archaeology has been going on for years, but I have always been interested in how similar cooperation takes place abroad. And what are actually the relationships between searcher and archaeologist, beyond our borders.

Unfortunately, you won't find any guidance here on how to arrange a collaboration with Austrian archaeology, but unless you live there permanently or have some local connections, it's probably not going to be easy at all.

I got to the event itself like a blind man to a violin: D. As we also repair detectors Minelab for one of the Austrian dealers, we keep in touch from time to time and send each other what nice things have been found and once came up with some pretty nice photos of Celtic coins. So I asked for details and word got around and Robert promised to ask the organising archaeologists if he could push us through.

After a few messages everything worked out and I put together a small Czech expedition with Vasek. On D-day I had to wake up at 4 o'clock to be on time and still manage to pick up Vashk. But it was worth it.

Upon arrival, we first met everyone and then had a few briefings where the local archaeologist marked the fields that are agreed with the local farmers and at the end everyone was given a bundle of flags with their number and bags.

About 15 minutes after arriving at the first field, Vasek hammered in the 1st flag, holding a Celtic horse obol. It's not in the best condition and years of ploughing have taken their toll on it, but we are happy that the 1st Celtic coin found is reported by the Czech expedition and we won't leave with shame :D.

Even the "non-metallic" finds are falling, besides pottery and part of a glass bracelet.

The first field was quite small, so we got through it pretty quickly, but as it was nearing noon, there was a break for lunch. The Austrian museum also thinks of its searchers in terms of food and the locals provide food delivery to the field. This is the first time that the museum has paid for my meal and delivery to the site (There is room for improvement there I would say). We accompanied the meal with our beer, which I brought back for the Austrian colleagues to taste.

The meal was followed by a move to a second field which was noticeably more nutritious. After a while, the hitch fell to me and finally so did the obol.

But my joy did not last long, within moments Vasek reported the first golden 1/24 staters.

He put each find in a bag and marked it with a flag with a number. Each one had its own number so it was clear who found it.

The archaeologist then picked it up after us and wrote out a card for each find with basic information incl. GPS.

Towards the end I got a smaller silver piece, but unfortunately, despite the thick crust, I couldn't really tell what it was and since it also ended up at the archaeologist's, I probably won't find out :D.

Finally

I definitely have to praise the organization of the Austrian Museum, the impeccable service and overall everyone was very nice even though it was our first time there and hardly anyone knew us. At the same time it was quite an interesting experience regarding how it is done behind the line and even the finds were :D. There were 5 obols and one gold for Vasek :D