I grew up in northern Lancashire/Yorkshire (land of the Brigantes) which had a long Association with the Roman occupation. The only potentially significant artifact I came across was a much corroded and worn copper disk during a school outing to Hadrian’s Wall as a young boy. It could have been an as dropped by a Roman soldier - it could also have been a ha’penny dropped by an Edwardian visitor - no way of telling. I wish usable metal detectors would have been available back then! I used to visit http://ribchesterromanmuseum.org/ - just a few miles from my home - quite frequently and on occasion would scour the ground in that vicinity in the hope of finding artifacts, but never did find any.
Very nice find!! Did you detect the hole again after removing the pottery vessel? With it deliberately buried upside down, it reminds me of other detecting stories and archaeological reports stating that the real treasures were buried deeper, with the vessel either serving as a lid, or being the more shallow hard item that could be probed-for by poking a rod in the soil by the person who hid the cache so they would know where to dig years later. Please show pictures of it cleaned!
Michael, I always for permission from the owner of the land, and this site is NOT under archeological protection..Owner of the land is always curious about our findings, but, old farmer never wanted to keep something for him..and, my friend decided not to sell this pot..
A friend of mine lives in France (near Lyon) and practice metal detection in his spare time. He explained me that he had to get registered first in the « archeological circonscription » where he is before doing anything. It seems that there are no problems if you find something on your land or on beaches. If you ever find something big, like a hoard,even if it is in your backyard, it will start to be very complicated.....anyway it’s for a good cause, protecting and controlling national antiquities. If you read french,here is the link that may SCARED you for good....... http://www.culture.gouv.fr/content/download/28056/233627/version/6/file/2017aout31_ddm_web.pdf