Have you ever been digging around in the garden and come across some old pottery or coins and wanted to know more about them?

You can now turn to Oxfordshire's very own Lara Croft, Anni Byard, who is the county's new roaming archaeologist.

Oxfordshire's Finds Liaison Officer, she will be on hand to meet people who have found buried treasures.

She will have access to hundreds of experts in museums around the country, and will record finds for posterity.

Miss Byard said: "Lots of things that people find tend to disappear into garages or cupboards under the stairs — we want people to rummage things out and get in touch.

"Everything that we get brought to us we record and give back — unless it's a real treasure, in which case we would perhaps ask to be able to exhibit it.

"Oxfordshire has a long and rich history, ranging from the early prehistoric Stone Age, so it covers almost 10,000 years."

And having been in the job for a couple of weeks, she has already encountered one artefact that dates back to 3000 BC.

She said: "It was a flint arrowhead that someone had found. Things like that show the whole scope of the thousands of years of history we are dealing with."

Miss Byard said she hoped to form links with metal detectors' clubs and would be holding monthly surgeries around the county. Anyone who has found an artefact can call her on 01865 300557 or email anni.byard@ oxfordshire.gov.uk. For the rest of the year monthly find surgeries will be at: Banbury Museum, on the first Tuesday of every month between 10.30am and 4.30pm, and the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock, on the first Wednesday of the month from 2-4pm. From January, they will also take place at the Museum of Oxford, St Aldate's, on the first Friday of the month from 10am-noon, and the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage on the second Tuesday of the month from noon-3.30pm.