Sponsored by
We are currently seeking a sponsor for this website
as it follows the progress of the excavations on the battlefield, with contributions from established historians and well known experts, as the team attempt to match the historical evidence and family history to the archaeology on the ground.
If you enjoy this website
please consider making a donation towards the costs of the project.
|
Last images for the evening Monday, August 6th, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
_
1) The delectable Carla holding a Pipe stem found in the sap of the Australian Lewis gun pit. Especially poignant given the diary accounts of the Australian 3rd Div of their troops advancing with rifles slung and smoking their pipes….
_
2) Some Webbing buckles, again from Dan’s Lewis gun sap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Images 2 Monday, August 6th, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Some more images of the site
_
1) German stick grenade – one of several examples found on site and dealt with by Gontrand, ex of DOVO
_
2) British Mills bomb (again, Gontranded)
_
3) German Bunker found in the German fire trench. If anyone questions the merits of archaeology and the great war, well this bunker was never mentioned in ANY diaries of the battle (Battalion or otherwise), is not visible in aerial photos or trench maps. Even the farmer did not know of its existence until Kirsty, Tori and the gang worked their concrete-maiden magic
_
4) Dan excavating the sap dug by the Australians to provide a T-head for their Lewis gun as part of the refortifying of Ultimo Crater. This produced bottles, pipe stems, food tins and the contents of a brazier.
_
5) Lovely result as this trench is finished – note wriggly tin sides and iron strap holding them in place
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
2 Comments »
|
|
Some images of the work Monday, August 6th, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
At an early stage yet, but thought we should add some images of the site and of finds. Look out for images of the team in action soon.
_
1) Remnants of Factory Farm in the Crater Upcast
_
2) British High Explosive shell fuse (dated 1915 but adapted in17) found in German fire trench
_
3) British (or Australian!) .303 clip
_
4) Great War re-enactors that took part in the Passchendale 90th anniversary march visit the site
_
5) Pocket knife from the German fire trench
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Jon’s Archaeographic Record Sunday, August 5th, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
While NML were out in Belgium Michael Shanks was busy post processing the home territory of three of the team: the Hadrian’s Wall zone. So I have no problem in mis-appropriating his terminology by making this an ARCHAEOGRAPHY of Factory Farm 07 as seen from the T4,6,7 team. I have a bad memory for names, so not everyone is name-checked.
_
_
T4 opening on day 1. Idyllic pool (moorhens, dragon flies, willows) masquerading as ecofact was actually artefact of major calorific and kinetic event in 1917. Diggers accompanied by in house film crew member._
Keith Maddison, third longest serving Trench Team member on site, demonstrates approved methodology by digging faster than can be captured digitally.
_
But methodology follows intent and position. Metre grid excavation looking for fragmentary residue. Rare evidence of Conflict Arch/Anth theory-father Nick Saunders with trowel. Coops, Paula and Swantje adopt correct reverential stance.
_
Belgian (Flemish) team member Berger talks to Flemish archaeology capo Mark De Wilde as they observe primitive Wallonian agricultural techniques at T7.
_
Imperial archaeology in T7 as Keith (UK), Swantje (DR), Avril (UK), Coops (UK), and Paula (IT), impose their foreign technical interpretation on head of local history/archaeology org Gontrand (Wallon) who is forced into subordinate role of bucket carrier.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
The end….or is it…? Saturday, August 4th, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
so its 2.20 am and we’re all doing our best to help the funds of the Peace Village by spending euros in the bar…again.
_
What a day though. We got to the end, all finds off site, records written and drawn and one happy famer saying “anné prochaine”… which seems to mean we have to come back.
_
Seriously, after work we attended the Last Post at the Ploegsteert memorial and Tori and Ralph laid a wreath for the team. Tori’s great uncle is on the memorial and Ralph, from the US is the historian of the German Army 1914 to 19. Very moving.
_
Claude did us proud with dinner after and we presented him with a decorative shell case, trench art.
_
Enough from me…
_
Good night, we did it…we win…great team, great weather, great results.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
1 Comment »
|
|
Break of Day in the Trenches… Friday, August 3rd, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Friday morning, 08:10 local time. I was disciplined enough to go to bed last night but then kept waking up worrying about the last day, particularly the thought that we might find a body without time in hand.
_
Anyway. The last day for the digging season 2007. We are very pleased: not only have we uncovered a previously unknown concrete bunker and explored both German and Allied trenches we can also see Belgian life before the war and its utter dislocation; this from the remains of Factory Farm. Then we have the period of reconstruction seen in the demolition of the bunker. Finally we can contextualise everything through the geophysics and the map, air photo and phenomenological work that Peter, Peter and Birger are doing.
_
Visitors yesterday included Captain Owen (not the poet) and 3 colleagues from the Royal Logisitics Corps who had a site tour and then pitched in to help for the afternoon: Rod you have a good captain coming, look after him!
_
So, to work…
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Lebende Geschichte Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Aufgrund der Funde am Montag verblieb das Team auch am Dienstag nahe der Factory Farm. Weitere Vermessungen wurden vorgenommen, um das Suchgebiet zu spezifizieren. Nachdem nochmals wenige Funde gemacht wurden, konnte die Suche ausgeweitet werden. Mithilfe der Geophysik wurde das nächste Gebiet bestimmt: ein Granattrichter. Im Anschluss an den arbeitsreichen Dienstag bestand die Möglichkeit an einer Zeremonie in Ypern teilzunehmen, zum Gedenken an die gefallenen Soldaten. Eine sehr bewegende Zeremonie.
_
Auch am Mittwoch konnten wieder vielversprechende Funde gemacht werden. Die Arbeit ging gut voran und die ersten Kleidungsstücke wurden gefunden (z.B. Beinbandagen). In der Mitte des Tages wurde die Ausgrabungsstelle von Soldaten in verschiedenen Uniformen (britische, australische und deutsche) besucht, um dem Team einen Eindruck über die damalige Kleidung zu vermitteln. Dabei konnte das Basiswissen erweitert werden, so dass in Zukunft weitere Fundstücke besser identifiziert und zugeordnet werden können. Durch die lokale Presse wird auch das Interesse der ansässigen Bevölkerung erweckt; so gibt es immer mal wieder Zaungäste, die auch ihr Wissen durch Überlieferungen mit ins Team einbringen. Dadurch entsteht ein kultureller Austausch, den man auch in den umliegenden Museen miterleben kann.
_
Die Woche neigt sich leider bereits dem Ende. Die Zeit verfliegt bei den vielen verschiedenen Eindrücken, so dass es einem vorkommt als habe man gerade erst begonnen. Nur die Schwielen an den Händen erinnern an die arbeitsreichen Tage – doch diese sind aufgrund der interessanten Funde schnell wieder vergessen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Digging the civilian stuff Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
What I have found most exciting in this excavation is stuff we have excavated that speaks of the civilian experience of the Great War in this area, before and after the war. In one of the trenches we have remains of a farm blown up by a mine during the war, part of the battlefield but with soil full of brick, tiles, china, curtain cloth, parts of a cattle byre, a horse harness and so on – very ordinary remains, that really speak of what the war did to very ordinary places and people.
_
These are losses not often commemorate or remembered (I was struck by the comment of a local woman visiting the trench, who said that while in her household they collect military stuff they come across in fields, tiles, bricks etc… ‘mean nothing at all for us’). The other thing we have found is evidence of post-war recuperation, when local people and possibly some enterprises smashed up bunkers to retrieve metals that they could resell and perhaps hardcore for repairing local roads. I think it’s great to have documented civilian activities archaeologically – and tomorrow I am going to meet some elderly locals to see if I can add some stories to flesh out the civilian picture of the wartime (no of course they are not THAT old – but I hope they will have stories from their parents and grandparents). To be continued tomorrow…
_
Paola (the dig’s social anthropologist)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Ghosts of the past Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
The final one today from the team. God; who invented European keyboards?
_
As an amateur in the trench I’m still trying to get my head around what we can possibly learn from excavation that accounts of the time don’t already document. One other interesting element is the way that (as a geochemist by training) I have found the scientific method to be used. I thought that, in archaeology as elsewhere, the evidence would dictate the hypothesis; however so much of the evidence has to be liberally interpreted (such as vague colour change within a clay horizon) as to make the whole discipline appear to have more than a passing element of ‘black art.’ Certainly, the temptation to fit the evidence to the theory must be incredibly strong. As a result, I am in awe of those that can detect seemingly tiny changes in the profile of our trenches and can assess thier significance. I know I am still in bewilderment at it all… give me a stratigraphic sequence any time!
_
Bring it on tomorrow… more rusty metal (great war archaeology in a nutshell)
_
…By the way, I’d just like to say that was stumped after ball number 3 and didn’t show any vicious tendencies!
_
Sue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
Add a Comment »
|
|
Finds! Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Luke, I’m really missing your experience in this job! They keep bringing back bagfuls of rusty stuff and it’s getting out of hand. Never mind, though, we learn by doing…
_
Some of the best stuff so far, at least in my book: a piece of domestic china from the Factory Farm crater lip with molten glass fused to it, the result of the incredible heat of the mine explosion; a bone-handled pocket knife in lovely condition; some black cloth almost certainly civilian and probably the farmer’s wife’s best Sunday dress!; a toothbrush; the bowl of a delicate liqueur glass, a large leather-covered horse collar (removal of which seemed to take away most of the section; bits of a gas mask; and finally, whatever they decide to bring me tomorrow!
_
I’m receiving vital assistance from Androuma, who can decipher stuff that’s way beyond my eyesight and who brings me coffee on a regular basis. When I’m not glued to a comfortable table qnd chair in the sun, I’m acting as Adjutant, Commissary, Transport Corps and general dogsbody. The checkout girl at the local Carrefour is becoming a close personal friend.
_
Forgot to mention, some of us were mad enough to get up at 3am yesterday 31st July to fire the flares that started the Wipers March. A moving, if cold, experience.
_
Shirley
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filed under: A Dig Diary by
admin
2 Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
