Plugstreet Blog

Back to the Bustard

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

	Monday 2nd June and we were joined on Salisbury Plain by a team of Bristol University students, ably led by Nick Saunders. They have joined us to spend a week digging on the site of the Anzac 3rd Division training trenches at The Bustard on Salisbury Plain. The site takes it’s name from the large bird and from the nearby pub named after it. _ In 1916 the Australian soldiers took over, adapted and trained in a series of trenches dug on Salisbury Plain to instruct and inform soldiers in the practice of trench digging, maintenance, routine and life. The Australians are known to have spent days and nights in the trenches familiarising themselves with trench life. They are known to have been involved in exercises with live fire and the blowing of a small mine, which they seem then to have “captured” and fortified, just as they were to do at Ultimo crater, during the Battle of Messines. _ The dig is designed to do a number of things. It will see what can be discerned in the archaeological record of the activities of these and other soldiers. The dig will also assess the survival and condition of the remains. Information gained here will add to the picture of preparation for War in 1916/17. _ Richard and Martin led an NML team here in 2005 but since then there has been neither opportunity nor resources to return so the help given by Bristol is invaluable.

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Fromelles

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

	Steve L is a key member of the No Mans Land team at Plugstreet. Steve is one of the core team excavating the mass grave at Fromelles. The grave was dug in July 1916 by the Germans to bury bodies of British and Australian troops killed in an attack on the Aubers Ridge. For 90 years the bodies have lain undisturbed as they seem to have been overlooked during clearance in the 1920s. _ Excavations are now underway to confirm that there are bodies in the large holes identified from aerial photos and geophysical survey. News reports suggest that bodies have been found. However the project is heavily political, as its impetus comes from campaigners in Australia who wanted to find their fallen. This pressure means that the focus is biased one way! The connections felt by descendants in these situations is not like that with any other relative who died in 1916 and who may feel rather remote. Rather the war dead still hold a mysterious power and in connection with them individuals (and not only at this site) develop attitudes more akin to first nation groups than 21st century westerners. This is not to criticise anyone’s opinion but is worth remarking upon. In a culture which does not deal well with death and in which the dead are usually not accorded stature the war dead are fetishized to an unusual extent. However, as I have written here before the emotional dynamics are complex and strange.

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Two Pints of Leffe and a Packet of Frites…

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

	Your intrepid correspondents were in Belgium at the weekend. The intention of our trip was to meet once more with M. Delrue, whose land we are investigating, Claude, chef-patron of the Auberge and all round good chap, and our friends from the Warneton Historical Society. _ We are pleased to report that all the signatures are in place and that we have now formally applied for the permit to dig again. We hope the Wallon authorities will look kindly on us again! _ While we were out there we stayed at the Messines Peace Village again and look set to use them as Dig HQ again this year. As ever we got a very warm welcome and we salute Louise, who is customer-service personified. Good luck with the pregnancy! _ We are several steps closer to another season at Plugstreet.

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Here we are, here we are, here we are again

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

	Dear Readers (If there are any left out there) _ The lack of posts does not reflect lack of activity on behalf of the Plugstreet Project team! Since last posting we have been busy working towards a 2008 digging season in Belgium and securing a second tranche of works on the Anzac 3 Div training trenches on Salisbury Plain. _ In addition we have been finalising further reports, including one for the annual round up of archaeology in Wallonia. Last year we published our research objectives in “Cahiers de l’Urbanisme” so it was nice to be able to report our first years findings in an interim for the Belgian archaeological community. _ At the end of the month we will be undertaking a recce to Belgium to secure the permissions for this year’s work and look set to be over there in August. _ In the meantime our friends from Bristol University, including Project member Nick Saunders, have agreed to come down and work with us on Salisbury Plain to excavate further sections of the Australian training trenches. As discussed in earlier posts these were part dug and used by 3 Div in preparation for the Messines battle and include a defended mine crater, similar to but smaller than the one we worked beside at Ultimo Crater last year. _ The team will be here 2nd to 6th June, so watch this space for regular dig updates during that period.

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In Despatches

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

	Digging is only part of the story…the site work is fun but ultimately meaningless without reporting. Accordingly Richard and Martin have been working to collate the records from the summer and a report on the 2007 work is now complete and has been sent to our key partners in Belgium. The report is rather large as it includes integrated photos and illustrations so please don’t ask us to email you a copy (all 26MB of it). We are very grateful to anyone who helped us in compiling this – you know who you are (and so do we)! Team members who want a copy should ask and we’ll burn a copy to disk or do some illicit photocopying. _ Now that we have submitted a report we can seek permission to undertake further work this year and already the landowner has received a letter asking where we can dig. _ More news when we have it. I hope that soon we will be in a position to start talking in firmer terms about the 2008 season!

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Emotion and Archaeology

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

	At times this blog has delved into the issues surrounding our work, including issues of emotional engagement. Anyone interested in this aspect of our work might like to seek out Martin’s latest paper on this subject, which appears in Archaeological Review from Cambridge. _ Brown, M. 2007 “The Fallen, the Front and the Finding: Archaeology, Human Remains and the Great War”, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 22.2, 53-68 _ This edition of the journal is subtitled The Disturbing Past: Does Your Research Give You Nightmares? Martin’s paper is concerned with the emotional stresses engendered during the discovery and excavation of human remains. Although he does not cover the work at Plugstreet there were emotional issues enough raised in our work there. However he does consider personal responses to bodies found on other NML projects at Serre and Loos, where bodies recovered were identified and in two cases members of the families of the dead were contacted. _ The human remains we uncover are likely to have died chaotic, traumatic deaths, sometimes in prolonged agony. If one takes this fact and considers it alongside the possibility that we could use forensic techniques and careful research to identify them then the reader may begin to understand why this is an issue and why it is significantly different to dealing with bodies on a more conventional archaeological site. _ Readers wanting to know more about the process of researching a casualty should seek out the paper written by Martin and another team member Alastair Fraser in Journal of Conflict Archaeology: _ Fraser, A.H. & Brown, M. 2007 “Mud, Blood and The Missing: Excavations at Serre, Somme, France, JCA, 4, 147-171 _ As the abstract says: The article gives a description of archaeological excavations at Serre and a brief historical overview of the German position south of Serre known in the Great War as the Heidenkopf or Quadrilateral. The remains of one British and two German soldiers were discovered during an excavation there in 2003. The process of identification is discussed and biographies of the two German soldiers are provided. _ While some might seek to see archaeology as emotionally detached and pretending it is scientific we believe that dealing with humanity in such an intimate frame and considering such traumatic issues makes such extreme detachment impossible and pretence to it an abdication of responsibility to not only present results but also to explore the processes and engagements inherent in the study of humanity, especially in time of conflict.

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Christmas Listening

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

	Art in The Trenches BBC Radio 4 Boxing Day (26th December 2007) 11.02 UK time _ The programme includes a major contribution from anthropologist Nick Saunders on the subject of Trench Art. Nick is a key member of the Plugstreet Project team. It also includes a number of No Man’s Land members talking about the group’s other major excavation at Thiepval Wood on the Somme. _ If you are unable to hear it then go to: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/listenagain _ Happy listening and if you do listen to it why not post a comment about it?

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An early Christmas present

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

	The results from the Magnetometer survey are now delivered as an early Christmas present by the Colonel, and pretty special they are! _ The front line runs from top left to lower right with a splodge representing the crater from the mine explosion (now home to a badger) being present in front (to the right) of the front line near the top of the main rectangle of the survey. Interestingly, there is clear evidence for a T-head running from this as part of practice of crater fortification. This equates well with Dan’s excavation trench at Messines. All manner of Saps and Comms trenches are also visible. There is a clear need for a small, targeted excavation we think….

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Back to the Bustard

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

	Last week Peter AKA The Colonel came down to Salisbury Plain to work some more of his geophysical magic. He undertook three days of magnetometer survey over part of the trench system dug and used by Anzac 3 Division during their training ahead of their deployment to France and, ultimately, to Messines. Among the exercise was the blowing, capture and refortification of a mine. Admittedly the mine was much smaller than the Ultimo Mine but they seem to have refortified it in just the same way as we saw in Dan’s trench last summer. _ As soon as Peter has sent me his results I will post them here! Interestingly they show again that this is the technique to use when looking for buried trenches. “Mag” certainly seems quicker and more productive than resistivity. _ What this survey means is that we have an accurate plot of the remains and can target some more excavation to see if we can get more comparative data between Belgium and the training ground here in UK. _ Watch this space!

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