Damn Bonekickers/ Ploegstreet 2008 thoughts Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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After having left the UK for 10 days, I return and discover that my local bowling team has given me the nickname “Bonekicker”, at which point I ranted for 10 minutes at my disgust of the final, terrible episode. Who was the grey haired man at the end? Who knows? Who cares?
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Onto more relevant business:-
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This year’s dig was, once again, extremely enjoyable and a great success. My highlight of the week has to be (rather strangely) being up from 4am – 7am on Thursday morning. I woke up at 3:15 to frequent flashing blue lights which I assumed to be an alarm going off in the main building, only to discover that it was infact a deadly silent thunderstorm. Only once before have I seen weather of such awe and beauty. Those thoughts evaporated soon after when myself, Peter C. and Henry arrived at the site, when the heavens began to open, and continued to do so for the next hour. Enduring the weather was worth it though for the spectacle of a sunrise surrounded by more silent lightning all around.
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Being in that field, in that severe weather, and at that time of the day (not long after what would have been the beginning of the pivotal attack at 3:10am June 7th 1917) gave me a small glimpse of what conditions and life would have been like in that area during the days of the Great War. I remember exiting the tent at around 5am and seeing Kirsty’s trench in front me, which had become muddy with many puddles, not unlike models of landscapes ravaged by warfare that I had seen in the Ypres museum a couple of days before. The experience has certainly changed my perceptions of the Great War, and left me feeling emotional at the Last Post at the Menin Gate later that day and also at Toronto Avenue Cemetery in Ploegstreet Wood on Friday.
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I was pleased to be given the pleasure of working with Jon and Team Nosferatu again this year. I am happy to say upon discovering a 4 and a half inch Howitzer shell in the ground I didn’t smack it with a mattock this time! I am also pleased that after 5 days of hard work they discovered the remains of a collapsed dugout. All other trenches produced fine work also: Team Slither proved again their capabilities of conducting excellent archaeological excavation. Team Steve R. worked tirelessly despite digging the wrong side of the tin(!), and Team Avril refused to be disheartened by the discovery of THAT danmed hand shovel! Team Concrete succeeded in discovering a new species- Archibould Titch will be sorely missed. My work for Team Colonel has been valuable experience and thoroughly enjoyable, my thanks go out the rope monkeys who helped later on in the week.
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I look forward to next year and seeing you all again.
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P.S- The World Premiere of ‘Daisy Gets Duked’ will be taking place shortly on YouTube and Facebook.
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Coops £:)
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Artwork and Landscape at Ploegsteert, Messines, Wytschaete Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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Photo: copyright Peter Chasseaud 2008
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Landscape and phenomenology
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After a week on site (there or thereabouts) with the No Man’s Land group at Plugstreet, I’ve started to post some drawings, photographs and writing on my blog: http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com
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Some of my work is a continuation of my Willows project, which resulted in an exhibition in Lewes, Sussex, last year, and also in a book: Willow/Wilg/Weide/Saule (Ypres Willows), which I produced under the imprint Altazimuth Press, which I use for my artist’s books and poetic photobooks.
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There’s also a link from my main blog to one I’ve set up for landscape, maps and air photos, and this will include some images and interpretation of the St Yvon (Factory Farm/Reebrouck/Ultra Trench, and also Ultimo Trench/Ultimo Crater.
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Peter Chasseaud (The Wanderer).
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On reflection… Sunday, August 10th, 2008
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Back in Blighty (Where the internet works and the keyboard isn’t confusingly Belgian)…
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It’s been a roller coaster of a week. Great teamwork, unforgettable experiences and lots of working hard and playing hard (working behind the bar until 2.45 am on the last night resulted in almost falling asleep standing up on the ferry home!).
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Top experiences? Well, lying on my top bunk with my head out of the roof light, at 4am on Thursday morning, watching the bolts of lightning and listening to the thunder crashing all around, gave me a taster of what being under shell fire must have been like. Being periodically baked alive and then soaked wet through in the flax field was a test of true grit and determination (not least when doing the YMCA as part of “Team Colonel” when we couldn’t Geophys due to the rain and lightning).
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Again the last post ceremony at the Menin gate saw us without a dry eye in the house, especially when we realised we had chosen a spot standing in front of the Australian panel – spooky.
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The finds too have been fascinating and I fear I am going to become a sad expert in “bits of rusty crap”. The “show and tell” on our second evening brought everything to life and really helped us identify finds in the field. The boot studs found on day 2 in Trench 12 were amazing and the area of fire step I unearthed in the same trench, with what appeared to be the remnant of a cape lying on the top were a special find (until the rain came in and created a lovely pool).
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All of the trenches have had finds which start to piece together a story, adding to the discoveries of 2007. We’ve had glass bottles, tins, ammunition, bits of clothing and personal kit as well as wriggly tin and timbers from a dugout which may have collapsed as a result of the shock wave from the mine which created Ultimo crater.
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Of course the final part requires literally digging deep to backfill the trenches, but the team spirit and singing helped!
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I am already looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!
Jo x
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Lehen Mundu Gerra Ikerketa Friday, August 8th, 2008
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Aste honetan gure nazioarteko arkeolojia taldea ikerketa bat egiten ari da Messinesen, Belgikar hiri bat Ypreseren ingurumenan.
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Plugstreet, herrialdeko herri txiki bat (Belgikaren hiri txikiena!), oso ospetua da Erresuma Batuan. 1917’ko Ekainaren 7etan bataila haundia piztu zeren. Bataila honetan oso interesgarria da Lehen Mundu Gerran. Ingalaterra eta bere Inperio Koloniala Alemaniaren kontra.
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Team Nosferatu gets serious Friday, August 8th, 2008
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With five days to concentrate on one trench Team Nosferatu finally found serious solid Great War artefacts in the deepest hole on the site.
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Despite having to dig out two metres of fill we uncovered the solid timbers (preserved because previously below the water table) of a trench mortar emplacement, with an exciting live improvised demolition charge for Rod and Gontrand to work their magic on.
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Lehen Mundu Gerra Ikerketa Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
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Aste honetan gure nazioarteko arkeolojia taldea ikerketa bat egiten ari da Messinesen, Belgikar hiri bat Ypreseren ingurumenan.
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Plugstreet, herrialdeko herri txiki bat (Belgikaren hiri txikiena!), oso ospetua da Erresuma Batuan. 1917’ko Ekainaren 7etan bataila haundia piztu zeren. Bataila honetan oso interesgarria da Lehen Mundu Gerran. Ingalaterra eta bere Inperio Koloniala Alemaniaren kontra.
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Meanwhile…….. Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
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In the command bunker we are still smiling… It is all going very well and the team are mostly well-behaved!!!!!
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The local TV came out today to interview Martin and Paola about the site – Paola is the better looking and speaks French! Look out for us on a Walloon television set near you!
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More news tomorrow.
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Day 2 – confusion reigns Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
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Well what a day – mystery and mayhem have ensued!
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The `back to front trenchers´ aka Steve R´s crew, found that they´d spent two days digging their trench in the wrong place. Av´s team discovered an amazingly well preserved hand shovel circa 2007! Cheers for that Dan!
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The bunker team found some remnants of trench board, while Chris the gravedigger found an 1898 bayonet. Team Nosferatu spent all day digging the deepest trench in the world and found nothing until the amazing discovery of “the bottle of Messines” at 5.30pm!
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Meanwhile, Team Slither strike again. Bags and bags of finds including webbing, mauser rounds galore, 4 18lb shells, various tins, leather mush with rivets still attached, angle irons and finally a full wine bottle until Gontrand used his chink, chink, smunch excavation techniques resulting in eau de sulphur.
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All in all a good day!
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Day 1 – the beasting begins Monday, August 4th, 2008
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Well, the rest of the Plugstreet crew have spent the first day on site, after much drinking the night before!
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We now have 7 trenches open and even on day 1 we have had some interesting finds. Of course Team Slither have come up trumps, as we did last year, and despite only starting `Trench 12´ after our usual large baguette lunch, we´ve already found parts of a German pickelhaub!! Just the rest of the untouched German frontline to find in a baking hot flax field! No pressure!
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As for the rest of the group, well we have discovered a few interesting facts about Coops´ biological makeup which reacts unusually to a metal detector (see Facebook for those on it) and we´re all waiting to see Daisy Duke in his hotpants.
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The beer supplies are disappearing fast but we haven´t yet had to resort to the pink stuff! And for those absent friends who couldn´t make it back this year we are all enjoying wedding style buffet dinners of smoked salmon, but we are thinking of you and drinking to your health!
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Plugstreet 2008 Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
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Well ‘The Colonel’ has been deployed. Bar takings last night totalled 66 euros but only 6 team members were present!. We are expecting to drink the bar dry yet again!. The Colonel this year is going to concentrate on surveying around the Ultimo Crater in order to locate the other lewis gun emplacements and Company Headquarters.
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The advance party is now ensconced in the Peace Village at Messines. Last evening we hooked up with the excellent Claude at the Auberge and said hello before going off to eat in Ploegsteert. Sadly Claude had just come back from holidays so his kitchen wasn’t open so no moules yet!
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And now it’s time to hit the landscape and get out, meet some of our other key players like the farmer and the Historical Society ready to start laying out trenches tomorrow and digging on Monday. Meanwhile there are tools to collect, geophysical surveys to do and a supermarket run to chase.
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Meanwhile… we say CONGRATULATIONS to Louise from the Peace Village who is a new mum to Dylan, two weeks old!
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We also wish Caroline the PV Manager a good weekend at the Dranouter Folk Festival! Top Brit folk acts Billy Bragg and the Men They Couldn’t Hang are on. Enjoy!
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