Traces of History Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
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Reading letters sent home from the trenches, many soldiers describe the Belgian landscape as being similar to England. Gentle rolling fields dotted with sparse farms, narrow lanes and familiar trees. Today the fields have been restored to their pre-war state and farmers tend the crops as they have for a thousand years, for this is an old landscape, briefly disturbed by the war. Our trenches on the German third line remind us of this, evidence of the trenches is mixed with shards of Roman and medieval pottery left by those who called this place home. The older archaeology obliterated by the battle, leaves us wondering if the men who dug these impressive fortifications were aware of these traces of the past; evidence from other sites suggests that some of them were.
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A co-Director writes….. Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
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Hmmmmm
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Well, as readers will have perceived the morale of the teams is high, despite baking heat, thunder and lightning and the mercurial and arbitrary decisions of the bosses.
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Seriously, everyone has done incredibly well. Finds are telling an interesting story, including the Roman and medieval material found redeposited in Steve’s trench, which tells the ancient landscape in which the war was fought. Meanwhile, the structures show us much about how much the armies changed the geography between 1914 and 1918, sometimes in ways we didn’t expect, such as the concrete guttering or the reuse of much older landscape features.
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Two more digging days to go and still much to expect, including the solution to the mystery of what lies beneath the timber in Jon’s trench.
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Keep Watching!
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From Damier Farm Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
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2010 saw the start of excavations on a new site courtesy of Monsieur Lefebvre.
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2 trenches were opened following geophysical survey to explore German trenches. One of them, located on the third line of the German first line of defences, has revealed a wide fire trench with traverses. In the bottom of this trench we have found a U-shaped concrete lined drain or conduit for cables constructed from prefabricated sections. The trench also showed evidence of shell damage including the 1916 dated fuze of a British shrapnel shell.
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 concrete drain or conduit _
 A head scratching moment! _
A German communication trench is also under investigation; this feature reused a pre-existing drainage ditch that was converted to military use. Today excavation revealed trench boards in the base of the main east-west trench and a second trench cutting in from the north. The latter had been badly damaged by shell fire and appeared to have lain unused for some time.
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 Trench Two; Trench Wenches at work (and Henry!)
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Filed under: A Dig Diary, Archaeology by
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Thank you! Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
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A big thank you to Claude and Nelly of L’Auberge Ploegsteert for providing the Team with delicious lunches and evening meals through out the dig.
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Rain Stopped Play Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
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Thunder storms are a bit of a thing while we are in Belgium, this afternoon saw dark clouds rolling across the fields towards us.
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Dark clouds bringing heavy rain, swirling winds and the rumble of thunder. A gentle rumble this time, nothing like the sharp crack of thunder which woke us on Thursday night a matter of hours after we had laid Alan Mather to rest in the peaceful place that is Prowse Point, or the violent cracks that echoed over the battle scarred landscape the night after we had found him, as the team stood guard over the site.
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It may be a coincidence, but in the emotion soaked fields where men lived and died, there is an evocative echo of the big guns perceptible in nature’s voice.
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Hello from the Finds Room! Monday, July 26th, 2010
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It has been a bit quiet the last few days as our dedicated diggers get down to the archaeology. We’ve got the usual finds coming out – 7.92 mm German rounds, .303 British rounds, shrapnel balls, some textiles (probably blackout), domestic items and a wonderful array of the aptly named “rusty crap”.
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We’ve also had a few nice finds that we will share with you.
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First of all, we have a shoulder badge that would have been worn by the Australian Imperial Forces, with a modern example for comparison:
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A piece of timber a with a standard .303 British round still in situ:
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Shirley and Rob cleaned up this nice example of a number 85 fuse made in September 1916, manufactured by ALCO.
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Filed under: A Dig Diary, Archaeology by
Finds Room
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Lighting in the Dugouts Sunday, July 25th, 2010
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Over the last couple of days a selection of broken light bulbs have been recovered from Avril’s trench, if the large timbers are the remains of a dugout, it looks as though it may have had electric lighting.
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Cleaning in the finds room has revealed a batch number in cyrillic figures on the remaining glass.
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Thank you to our Sponsors Sunday, July 25th, 2010
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The Plugstreet Team would like to thank Ypres Flanders Battlefield Tours and Cherry Blossom B&B at Brandhoek, for their support.
Part of the fund has been put towards essential services to help make our stay on site more civilized.
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The project is still seeking sponsorship in exchange for advertising on our website, if you are interested in advertising on this site please get in touch
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Team Nosferatu vs Team Avril: The battle lines are drawn! Saturday, July 24th, 2010
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Plugstreet 2010 has produced the latest trench rivalry between the 2 teams excavating in the copse at St. Yvon. Latest reports have suggested that a verbal slanging match has broken out across the 30 metres of No Man’s Land between them. The latest exchange has been an argument over who has got the biggest timbers.
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Team Avril has struck the first blow with the sensational unconfirmed claim that the discovery of mirrored glass inside their trench is conclusive proof that they have the discovered the dressing room of a German officer. It is assumed that Team Nosferatu was angered by this when their leader, Jon Price, was unable to confirm or deny that the two puncture marks on Angela’s elbow were caused by a member of his team.
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As the stand-off continues, it is expected that eventually one of these teams will go over the top. Team Nosferatu is currently fortifying their 2 metre deep trench in anticipation for a German grenade attack by Team Avril.
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The Plugstreet Project 2010- Days 1 and 2 Saturday, July 24th, 2010
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The Plugstreet Project 2010 is underway!
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Work began at 9am on 23rd July 2010. Three trenches have been opened overall and our four teams have been working hard through tough conditions to find the trenches of the German line.
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Team Kirsty (led by Kirsty Nichol) and Team Slither (led by Steve Litherland) are working on 2 trenches in close proximity to each other on an area to the north-west of St.Yvon. Team Colonel (Geophysics) has identified a German crenellated trench with a communications trench connected to it which is located far back from the German front line.
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Day 1 for these teams consisted of de-turfing and digging down about 30cm on very hard ground. On Day 2 (today) Team Slither found the crenellated trench with shell fragments and components of shrapnel ball explosives. Team Kirsty has had less success, with the somewhat unexpected discovery of Roman pottery, redeposited by the actions of the Great War!
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Team Avril (led by Avril Gibson) are extending the trench that they excavated last year. So far timbers and a post hole have been found.
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2010 has seen the return of Team Nosferatu (led by Jon Price) and they are back with a vengeance, complete with black high vis jackets! The team is resuming excavation of Trench 7, which, after digging to a depth of around 2 metres in 2008, is not yet finished. Days 1 and 2 have mostly consisted of digging to the 2 metre finish point from 2008.
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Day 3 looks set to promise some exciting discoveries as with past seasons! More news soon!
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