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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Desptaches

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

	The British Museum in London was the venue for the first British Archaeology conference over the weekend just gone. It was organised by magazine Current Archaeology as a “festival” of, as they put it “The best of British Archaeology, at home and abroad”. In truth, the speaker list was impressive enough to substantiate this strap line with some of the big names and big themes under discussion. _ On Sunday there was a session on Conflict Archaeology in which two of our project members spoke: anthropologist Nick Saunders gave an overview of the rise of “Conflict Archaeology” and made clear its difference to “Battlefield Archaeology”. It was nice to see that Nick’s second image was of the team at work on Jon’s trench beside the Factory Farm crater. _ One of our intrepid leaders, Martin, presented on “Mud, Blood & Archaeology” and sought to look at No Man’s Land projects on the Western Front (by which he meant France, Belgium and the training areas of UK). Inevitably the Plugstreet Project featured heavily in the presentation due to its innovative use of such a wide range of techniques and its belief in looking beyond the battlefield to the wider world affected by the war. _ There was some interesting discussion and comment we have subsequently received also showed that the full lecture theatre had thoroughly enjoyed it and continued to think about it afterwards. _ We have nothing but thanks for the organisers for this opportunity to present in such a remarkable venue and at such a prestigious and well organised event and wish them all success in trying to make this conference an annual event.

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We are all people

Monday, January 28th, 2008

	The BBC News website is carrying a report from Germany. It states that a man believed to be the last German veteran of the Western Front has died. _ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7210346.stm _ The phrase “believed to be” is important because Germany has no records of its veterans. As the article points out this is due to the country’s 20th century history and it’s role in the two world wars. _ Whatever else this passing marks another sure step toward the War ceasing to be memory and becoming History. The people who were there are disappearing and we must seek other ways to explore, understand and commemorate the events. We are trying to show how archaeology can do this. _ We say commemorate and mean it: whether German or Belgian or Indian or whoever the War was a tragedy that has effects at national and personal levels that can still be felt today. To commemorate the War is not to glorify it or celebrate national triumph, rather it is to mark an event that still has resonance today. Above all we remember that we are all people.

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O For a Muse of Fire

Friday, January 25th, 2008

	Yesterday Martin gave a lunchtime lecture about the Plugstreet Project at the National Army Museum. There was an audience of about 50, including two team members. The lecture was well-received and stimulated both interesting questions and enjoyable discussion both in the lecture theatre and the NAM’s cafe afterwards. _ Thanks to anyone reading this who did come along and thanks to the Museum for giving us the opportunity to give the first major presentation on our work. _ If your archaeological/historical society would like to hear about our work then get in touch via the blog and we’ll see if we can arrange a lecture for you. _ Martin also included the project in a presentation to Stafford and Mid Staffordshire Archaeology Society last Friday to an audience of about 100. He was actually talking about training camps on Cannock Chase and the New Zealanders but used the project as an example of how we can follow techniques and units from training to combat. It helps that the New Zealanders were assaulting Messines at about the time the Anzac 3 Div were attacking “our” German trenches.

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Opportunities to Hear More…

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

	Happy New Year folks. _ Readers in London wanting to hear more about the project have an opportunity to see Martin give a presentation on the project at the National Army Museum in Chelsea on Thursday January 24th at 12.30. This forms part of the NAM’s lunchtime lecture series and we are grateful to them for this opportunity to present our results. _ The Museum lecture series is listed here: http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/whatsOn/lunchtimeLectures _ The NAM is situated on Royal Hospital Road, next to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London. The nearest Tube station is probably Sloane Square. From the station walk down the King’s Road and turn left at McDonalds (yes they do have one on the King’s Road) and follow your road until you see the Hospital. The Museum is the 1970’s block on the right! _ Meanwhile this blog will continue, describing our efforts to deal with last year’s results and set up another season of digging for 2008. _ Onwards!

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