Plugstreet

The Plugstreet Project Blog has now moved

2010-07-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Plugstreet Team are pleased to announce that our Blog now has a new home and we are developing a website to share the results of our work.

Our new address is:

http://www.plugstreet-archaeology.com

Please update your links and bookmarks.

Christmas Gifts

2009-11-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

Martin models the SOS hat and wristband in a British trench at Plugstreet 2009.

We find evidence of gifts for the troops in the trenches at Plugstreet, including toffee tins and the like. It was an important part of trench life, getting parcels. The most famous gifts were the Queen Mary tins that included cigarettes and chocolate but colonies sent chocolate and individials sent the men on all sides presents to keep their morale up.

This Christmas gifts for the troops on deployment are as important as they were in 1914. If you would like to contribute to gifts to our boys then go to:

http://www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk/index.html

and make a donation.

The Project has donated to the charity before and sent some more money to them this evening.

We wish them all safe home, but in the meantime we remember them and use the insights from the archaeological evidence to reflect on the soldiers' experience, far from home, eating boring food and having, at best, an unusual Christmas...

Support SOS

Merry Christmas

Happy Reading

2009-11-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers

As Christmas is coming and you're no doubt stumped for gift ideas why not consider a copy of "Digging Up Plugstreet" by Martin Brown & Richard Osgood. It's a cracking read.

On the subject of great reads, you could also have a look at the "Chroniques de l'Archaeologie Wallone" 26, 2009. It's published by the Province of Wallonia and includes short reports on work undertaken in the region in 2007, including Plugstreet.

Finds from 2009

2009-09-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

In a recent post we promised to show a few of the finds recovered from the site this year. Here is a small selection.

Thanks are due to Rob, Egon, Shirley and their team in the findsroom who cleaned, catalogued, conserved and generally made things recogniseable again.

A set of German ammunition pouches.

The plate and badge from a Saxon pickelhaube helmet.

A patent medicine bottle - troops often took their own cold remedies and lice powders into the line.

Lots of cartidges, mostly fired, which are probably evidence of battlefield salvage that someone dumped in a position when he couldn't be bothered to carry them to the rear!

Our star find,the German 1915 snipers face mask. This is a particukrly evocative artefact as it leaves no doubt about its evil intent. No aesthetics, just malevolence. It is also very rare, only one of 1500 made.

And we found all this rusty munition but thanks to Gontrand and Rod it wasn't a significant problem. There are German stick grenades and trench mortar rounds, as well as a British Stokes mortar bomb and someother bits and pieces. DOVO have now removedthem from the safe area on site.

Recording Methods

2009-09-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

Those of you that have visited us on site will know of all the many methods we employ for recording our work. One of these is to film our work to provide detail on decisions made and methods employed. This has the added benefit of the potential for producing documentary work on the excavations. Angela and Derek have filmed all of the fieldwork so far and Angela has now put together a 1 minute clip of the work as a trailer for a documentary proposal. We hope this leads to further work for the project!

The Project was selected as one of five finalists for the National Film Board of Canada Cross-Media Challenge 2009 competition at The Sheffield Documentary Festival. Angela delivered a presentation to the international judging panel and gathered audience, which was well received. Unfortunately we didn't scoop the main prize, but were very pleased to have reached the final and obtained some useful feedback and encouragement.

An Irish Memorial

2009-09-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

The team was fortunate enough to have Billy Quinn working with us this summer. Billy has posted his thoughts on the excavations here: http://mooregroup.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/my-summer-holidays-by-billy-quinn-aged-41-and-a-half/

In other news - there is the possibility that this week we will hear the results of the stable istope work that was undertaken on the remains of the Australian soldier recovered in 2008. Was he from Western Australia, New South Wales, England, Scotland or.....Sweden?

Lastly, it is confirmed that the volume on the project so far is now out: you can purchase at many book stores or Amazon... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digging-Up-Plugstreet-Archaeology-Battlefield/dp/1844255425

Food & Drink

2009-08-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Without the assistance of Claude and Nelly at the Auberge in Ploegsteert we wouldn't have the succesful, nor as well fed project that we do.

For amazing moules or the best carbonade of beef, you should visit the Auberge, just opposite the Ploegsteert memorial to the missing. Claude will also do amazing vegetarian food!

http://www.auberge-ploegsteert.be/welcome_on_the_auberge_website.htm

Thanks again, from the whole team!

Over the Parapet

2009-08-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some photographs of the project, these are of the trenches excavated but there will be more, including finds coming soon!

The blown off roof of the bunker in T3. The small scale is in the alcoves for used to store German stick grenades, ready for use in an attack.

Remains of the battered German bunker in T4

The remains of the collapsed shelter in the side of the crater investigated in T6. More to see there next year, I feel!

The intercutting German Trenches in T5. These had been filled by the upcast from the mine! The postholes were supporting the revetment of the walls and were almost a metre deep!

Part of theamazing architecture in T1.

Brian, Avril & Egg hard at it with trowels in T2, only to discover in was empty - still, even negative evidence is evidence!

Henry and Bev working in Trench 4.

As you can see the team were pretty busy. Next time, more images of the treasure uncovered!

Ave atque Vale II

2009-08-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

As Richard and Martin were on the ferry out to Belgium they caught the end of Henry Allingham's funeral in Brighton on a TV in the ship's lounge. Meanwhile, Harry Patch was buried in Wells while we were actually engaged in work on site.

How poignant to be engaged in a project as the events it investigates pass from memory into history. Harry Patch would have heard, or felt the Messines mines go off, as he was nearby at the time.

We wonder how long it was between the death of the last Roman, Saxon or English medieval monk and the first archaeological excavation of their sites? We feel strangely priveleged to stand on the threshold.

Our work is driven by academic considerations but it also embodies acts of remembrance for in the action of investigation we remember, respect and commemorate the people involved here, of all nationalities and whether in uniform or civilian clothes and in some small way restore them to history by our narratives.

Changing the Geography

2009-08-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

The Plugstreet Project team was on site between Friday 31st July and Thursday August 6th. Unfortunately, rather intermittent internet connections at the Peace Village in Messines meant that we were unable to blog while actually out in the field. However the next few entries will give you a flavour of what happened, as well as a few thoughts and reflections on the site, the Project and some of the wider issues attendant on Great War conflict archaeology.

This summer the main team was based, once again, in the field by Ultimo Crater, where we opened a number of trenches, some more confusing than others. Meanwhile we were ably supported by the Finds and Conservation team back up at the Peace Village. Meanwhile Team Colonel was primarily out on Hill 63 at Le Rossignol surveying features around the Chateau de la Hutte, getting bitten by horseflies and trying to avoid the field with the bull in!

Trench 1 produced the most spectacular results, architecturally speaking, as Steve's team uncovered a very nice right-angled fire trench dug into the lip of the mine crater and overlooking no-mans-land and the German positions.

Trench 2 was a speculative test pit and produced nothing.

Trench 3 crossed two sections of German trench and also revealed the roof of a demolished German concrete shelter. This area also included a rather nice midden deposit that included the star find (of which more later)... as well as bottles, tins and a number of stick grenades.

Trench 4 was intended to find the in-situ remains of the German concrete shelter, which it did. Unfortunately we got the front face and the breastwork cast up around it, rather then the rear, which was the target, so that we could see the relationship between trench and bunker.

Both trenches 3 & 4 were in the trees and suffered from very hard ground, as it hasn't rained as much in Belgium as in UK, so the trees have taken up much of the groundwater! All credit to both teams. However, they did have shade, unlike trenches 1 & 5 - until I put team 4 into the crater!

Trench 5 saw the redeployed team from T2 opening an area on top of German communication trench. The maps and air photos were unclear about whether it had continued in use following the capture of the area in june 1917. They actually produced remains of at least 2 German trenches, as well as communications wire, post holes and trench boards. Both trenches appeared to have been filled by upcast soil from the mine, as there was no evidence of post-war clearance debris in them. So the date of the fill is between 03.30 and 03.35 on 7th June 1917 (so for any Prehistorians reading that's a really secure date, without need for Bayesian analysis)

Trench 6 saw the T4 team go down beside the water-filled Ultimo Crater where they uncovered the remains of what is probably a collapsed shelter dug into the face of the crater following its capture by the Anzacs. Such utilisation of craters was common, with shelters in the crater and defensive positions on the lip.

Photographs will follow later, once I can upload a few.

Digging Up Plugstreet

2009-07-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

We have just been told that "Digging Up Plugstreet" by Richard Osgood and Martin Brown will be going to press this afternoon.

This account of our research to date is published by Haynes and is available through Amazon, as well as from all good bookshops.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h__4_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=digging+up+plugstreet&sprefix=Digging+up

http://www.haynes.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=48413&langId=-1

Rest assured that Martin and Richard will be rearranging the displays in bookshops to give themselves more prominence. I am assured it's the perfect Christmas gift for the Great War obsessive in your household.

Ave atque Vale

2009-07-28T05:45:00.001-07:00

With the death of Harry Patch it seems that the last living link to the trenches has gone. Harry knew the world we are excavating and reconstructing through our work. To him the trenches were newly built, the tins weren't rusty and all those names on the memorials were real, living, young people.

How appropriate that the man whose passing marks this moment of shift should be one who did not want to fight but was conscripted and who held off killing for as long as possible.

Harry Patch, plumber, fireman, gentleman and soldier.

Standing To!

2009-07-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again.

We will be on site from Friday 31 to Thursday 6th August at St Yvon.

The main team will be looking for further evidence of the Australian fortification of the mine crater and of ground held following the Messines attack. In addition we hope to investigate the entrance to a German concrete shelter to see something of the architecture and stratigraphy of the acess to it from the trench.

While the main thrust of fieldwork will concentrate on the 33 Bn objectives from 7th June 1917, The Colonel will be leading a recce party to look at Hill 63 and carry out geophysical survey that we hope will inform work in coming years.

As ever we will be joined by our Belgian friends, including members of the Comines-Warneton Historical Society.

Not all the regulars will be with us in Belgium, we'll be missing James, Chass, Lesley, Birger and Jon, but we do say "Congratulations!" to Sylvia who isn't coming out on the paltry excuse that she is getting married!

We hope to be continuing with the blog while we are away. Watch this space.

Updates

2009-06-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

The dates for the August season at Ploegsteert have been announced and the likely team members alerted. It's nice to be looking forward to another week in the field.

Meanwhile our friends from GWAG and our own Rod have been busy looking for the traces of WW2 anti-invasion defences and WW1 anti-aircraft defences at Shooters Hill, near Woolwich in London. You can see what they've been up to here:

http://diggingdadsarmy.blogspot.com/

And finally...
Richard and Martin hosted a Bristol University Masters group for a week of excavation on part of the Bustard practice trench system. While one area opened gave inconclusive results, apart from as a rubbish dump, the other revelealed a beautifully dug, deep trench cut into the chalk.

Lost in Flanders

2009-04-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Anzac Day is almost upon us - April 25th. Some my recall the filming of the first season of excavation back in 2007 - well this will form part of a documentary, 'Lost in Flanders', that is being aired in Australia tomorrow. A link to a ste with a promo of the programme is here http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/lostinflanders/showcase.asp

Along with Jo, Becks, Martin (and perhaps others?!) the film will include two members of the team from 2007 - Mat and Michael.

Left: Mat, right: Michael

What they carried

2009-03-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

The first object photos

Amongst other grenades and framents was this tin for rifle grenade fuses, found in the British fire trench

Given the NML recovery of the remains of the Australian soldier in 2008, the find of this shoulder title as part of the topsoil machining was especially poignant.

The Value of Archaeology

2009-03-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

Some time to reflect later..

An amazing amount was packed into the No-Man's-Land rescue work at St Yvon. Survey using GPR (radar) and other geophysical techniques were excellent in locating some of the mine shafts in the region - excellent news for the overall project research.

Radar in Operation with Peter and Becs

The top of the bunker we found was viewed in full by the farmer who thinks he will only need to move a small part of it to prevent damage to his plough and there should be no risk of damage to the British trenches. The true value of archaeological research was thus shown.

Working on the trenches, bunker and trench boards

As mentioned earlier - many finds. From butterscotch tins, pipe stems and mirrors to medicine bottles and an Australian shoulder title and (?) Fusilier shoulder title.

A sandbag filled with concrete and still showing the original weft

We always work with the highest standard of bomb cover, essential both in dealing with live ammunition and also in identifying some of the other elements of spent ordnance we uncover. Cheers to Rod and Gontrand once again!

Justin and Gontrand at work

Beneath Flanders (or Wallonian) fields

2009-03-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Traverse in the British trench, St Yvon 2009

The team is now back from an enormously successful piece of rescue archaeology at St Yvon. For three days we recorded the remnants of a bunker that lay on the front of the British line. In association with this concrete structure was the multi-phase British fire trench, initially with brick footings and then with trench boards, corrugated iron revetting and A-frames. A concrete-filled sandbag also survived. As one would expect, the trench had hundreds of spent .303 rounds, along with rum jar and more personal items such as a pipe, mirror and some printed material; perhaps part of a racy magazine story at first glance! Much more to follow...

Remnants of the Bunker

Thanks to the Comines-Warneton history Society, Mnr Delrue, Messines Peace Village and (of course) Claude and Nelly at L'Auberge in Ploegsteert. the weather was fine, the beer good and the team excellent. Hurrah!

Ground Penetrating Radar

2009-03-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

The Project team want to say a very big thanks to Geomatrix and to their owner Chris Leech.

The company (Geomatrix Earth Science Ltd) offers one of the largest hire pools of near surface geophysical instrumentation in Europe. They are exclusive sales representatives for many of the leading geophysical instrument and software manufacturers. Their instruments are world renowned for their emphasis on providing high data quality and instrument reliability in the most arduous of field conditions (which now includes former battlefields).

Geomatrix are loaning us GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) equipment to help us survey the British line, and to have a look at Jon's German position, that we started to excavate last year.

We welcome Geomatrix as the first Corporate Sponsor of the Plugstreet Project and welcome their contribution to our on-going research into both the battlefield itself and into the use of geophysics on this sort of site.

We hope to be able to post results of the survey soon, so you can see their amazing kit in action.

http://www.geomatrix.co.uk/index.htm

Back Into The Line

2009-03-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

On Friday a small party of us will be going out to Belgium.

Last year during ploughing the tenant discovered the remains of a British concrete bunker. Unsurprisingly he wasn't happy about a bent plough and a load of rubble in the potato field so plans to remove it. Fortunately the landowner told us that this will happen and has given us the opportunity to undertake rescue recording of the bunker and do a limited amount of excavation around it in the British Line.

Previously we have never had opportunity to look at the British trenches so this is both exciting and very useful for our research into the development of the battlefield.

As usual we will be staying with our friends at the Peace Village in Messines and enjoying the excellent food of Claude at The Auberge at Plugstreet - www.auberge-ploegsteert.be

We hope to be updating the blog during our stay.

The Day Thou Gavest

2009-02-28T16:44:00.000-08:00

Well we survived the conference.

Thank you to all the wonderful speakers for their excellent contributions and for sticking to their allotted timeslots. Also a big thank you to tha audience for a stimulating set of questions and discussions points,as well as for being generally nice people who wantedto talk and even buy us beer!

It was good to see a few of the Plugstreet regulars in the audience,as well as our friend Eric,who will be joining us: Welcome Back from "Over There" mate!

Meanwhile we're planning a short foray to record a concrete shelter on the British line before the potato crop goes in. More breaking news soon!

2009-02-27T01:44:00.001-08:00

Conference on Saturday 28th

Following a presentation of project findings to the Society of Antiquaries of London last week, several of the project team will be addressing this conference at Oxford University on Saturday.

Nick, Peter, Martin, Richard and Jon will all be giving papers which will draw in aspects of our work at Plugstreet. for any readers brave enough, you might also be able to find us at the Eagle and Child pub on St Giles on the evening of Friday 27th....

Lost in Flanders

2009-01-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

Those of you that followed the project in 2007 will recall the presence of an Australian tv film crew on site. The fruits of their labours will be shown this year (date and time to be announced) and will follow team members Mat and Michael as they look at the discovery of remnants of the Great War in Belgium. Some of this film will examine our excavation and the flyer seems to show two of the dig team on the cover...step forward Jo and Becks...

Martin and Richard are still liaising with the Australian Govt in attempts to gain an identification of the soldier we found

Of Peace and Christmas Truces

2008-12-19T06:18:00.000-08:00

A Very Happy Christmas
Joyeux Noel
Vrolijk Keerstfeest
Froheliche Wienatchten
Nodlaig Mhaith Chugnat
Buone Feste Natalizie
Kala Chrristouyenna
Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!

We at the Plugstreet Project wish you all the compliments of the Season and pause to remind you that it is our study area that the famous Christmas Truce between British and German soldiers took place in No Man's Land.

Finding the Archaeology of such an event may be impossible but we hope the spirit of this event pervades your Christmas and New Year.

In the spirit of international cooperation that pervades the project we wish you a Happy Christmas in English, French, Flemish, German, Irish, Italian, Greek and Basque.

We also think of our friends who are far away, some of them in dangerous places and wish them Peace.

All Good Wishes

The Project Team

Remembrance

2008-11-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

11:00 hrs on the 11th November.

Our last surviving veterans in Whitehall, Prince Charles at Verdun and silence across so much of the world.

We Will Remember Them!

As archaeologists in this sector we are become agents of remembrance as we excavate the sites and reveal the human stories.

Jakob Hones,Albert Thielecke, Leopold Rotharmel, our Anzac and others, as yet un-named, we in No Mans Land are proud to have brought in from the cold...

We remember you.

Conference Announcement

2008-10-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

Dear all
a chance for those of you that have been following the blog to come and meet a number of the key players and learn more about the archaeology of the Great War, with Plugstreet featuring prominently! Oxford University is holding a day school on Saturday 28th February 2009 at Wellington Square. The programme is detailed below (with an astersik adjacetn to Plugstreet project team members...)

The Great War: the archaeology of the first of the 20th Century's Great Conflicts

'Our knowledge and understanding of the First World War is considerable and yet much remains hidden. As we rapidly approach a time when there will be no surviving veterans of the conflict, the Great War through its archaeology offers a relatively new phenomenon that utilises familiar methodologies as well as innovative approaches to gain a better understanding of the war. This day school draws together a number of leading experts on Great War archaeology to examine a broad range of themes - from the sands of the desert war to the mud of Flanders and the material traces of those who fought

09:45 - Introduction
10:15 - Dr Nicholas Saunders* - Trench Art: Material Culture and the Antrhopological Dimensions of Great War Archaeology
11;15 - Coffee/tea
11:45 - Richard Osgood* & Martin Brown* - 'We shall Certainly Change The Geography: Soldiers, civilians and the battle of Messines
12:45 - Lunch
14:00 - Peter Chasseaud* - 'Imaging Golgotha - Aerial Photpgrahs and Trench Maps of the Western Front'
15:00 - Coffee/tea
15:30 - Dr Neil Faulkener - 'Trains Trenches and Tents: the Archaeology of Lawrence of Arabia's War'
16:30 - Jon Price - 'Rise and Deride This Sepulchre of Crime: The Role of Archaeology and the Missing Dead of the Great War'

Programme Fee
Tuition: £40.00
Catering
Hot lunch: £10.00
Baguette lunch: £2.50

Join online: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/apply/apply_online.php?id=O08P158AHJ
For an application form, click here:
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/files/O08P158AHJ_2_Application.pdf

Hope to see you there!

Fields of Conflict

2008-10-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days an number of the project team have been attending the 5th Fields of Conflict conference in Gent (Belgium). FOC exists to bring together specialists in Conflict Archaeology from around the globe. Delegates included Doug Scott, who virtually invented battlefield archaeology when he investigated the site of Little Bighorn, Glenn Foard, who has worked on Civil War sites from the UK and Susana andAchim Wilbers-Rost from the site of the Varian disaster (AD9) at Kalkriese. Inevitably the range of papers was wide, diverse and stimulating.

Project members Peter Masters, Birger Stichelbaut, Jon Price and Martin Brown all presented on Great War Archaeology, heavily drawing on the Plugstreet Project. Peter and Birger spoke on their remote sensing work, marrying geophysics, aerial photographs and map regression work, wowing the audience with their results. Jon spoke about methodological approaches to excavation. Martin spoke on the subject of looking over the parapet, which explored the wider frame in which excavations on the Western Front exist - militarised landscapes, civilians, training and the international links of the war.

Also speaking was Veerle Hendricks from the Flemish Heritage Institute, the VIOE. Veerle is writing up the A19 excavations arouns Ieper from 2002 onwards, including sites dug by No Man's Land. It was her first major conference paper and she performed very well and wasn't fazed by the eminent panelof delegates.

It wasn't all work and we did enjoy some lovely Belgian beer, including some rarities and oddities, while Oude Druide is nice we weren't so keen on Spook! Birger was an excellent local guide and we especially salute the Ratz Bar, opposite the Opera House!

Poodlefaking

2008-10-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

You may well ask...

It's a term used in the Indian Army (pre 1947) by officers of other junior officers who were seen out with ladies without their Commanding Officers' permission.

One team member was accused of it by the University Officer Training Corps' regular officer when at Cambridge.

We were surprised to see it here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7659954.stm

In an article of forgotten words you still love...

Photographs by Frank Hurley

2008-10-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

Frank Hurley was the photographer on the Shackleton expedition to the South Pole and then went on to accompany Anzac 3 Div at the Battle of Messines, where he took some remarkable photographs of the battlefield.

Hurley felt that his pictures did not capture the full horror of the things he had seen so manipulated images, creating composites of scenes. Some thought this was clearly wrong but others feel it was an appropriate artistic response to the war.

An new exhibition at Charleston Farm outside Lewes in Sussex addresses this issue and displays a number of his images.

http://www.charleston.org.uk/visit/gallery.html

Charleston has its own Great War heritage of a kind in that the Bloomsbury Set holed up there to avoid zeppelin attacks and to be pacifists. Meanwhile the nearby Firle Place was used as a hospital for Australian troops.

You can see Hurley pictures on the AWM website:

http://www.awm.gov.au/captured/official/hurley.asp

You can also find examples elsewhere on this blog where they are accompanied by photos of the archaeology, landscape and team inspired by Hurley's work and taken by Ian, our own photographer, who was using a plate camera, just like Hurley's own.

Read All About It

2008-10-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

The Plugstreet Project is featured in this month's "Britain at War" Magazine - available in the UK via WH Smith and Sainsbury's and all good newsagents.

BAW includes a double page spread on the discovery and excavation of the Australian casualty. It includes both text and a number of photographs of the site, the finds and archaeologists at work.

www.britain-at-war-magazine.com

Thanks to our good friend Mark Khan for the publicity and for his journalistic skill in drafting the story.

Britain at War will include a larger piece on the dig in a coming edition. In the meantime this month includes interesting pieces from both World Wars, including a fascinating article on the siege of Tsingtao in 1914, when a combined Anglo-Japanese force assaulted and took the German colony in China. I suspect I'm not alone in never having heard of this action before!

Down the Road...

2008-10-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

According to newspaper The West Australian:

"Details about a new cemetery for 400 Australian and British World War I soldiers found in a mass grave in France are set to be unveiled later this week."

The paper then goes on to report the plans to exhume the bodies of the soldiers from Fromelles, south of Plugstreet on the Aubers Ridge. Once exhumed there will be attempts to identify the bodies before all are reburied.

The budget is rumoured to be $10 million Aus. and some of that money will be coming from the UK as just over half the bodies are Brits, even though the Australians have led on the project following pressure at home from descendants.

Across the site

2008-09-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Although incredibly powerful, the find of the Australian soldier was not the only part of the site this year. The team also worked very hard to accomplish many other elements. Even more of the battle site was subject to geophysical survey and four other trenches were opened. These showed:

1) the complete plan of the German bunker seen in part last year

2) more of the Lewis gun position on the eastern lip of Ultimo crater

Avril records the Lewis gun post

3) a major wriggly-tin-lined redoubt was located on the south edge of Ultimo crater

Moving into the redoubt

4) at some depth, a massively-engineered timber structure was encountered. Large timbers were found revetted with timber uprights. A gas cape or similar was present here too. Is this a dugout? A German trench mortar position? Something else? Whatever it is, the timbers all appear to have been pushed over in one direction - the blast of the mine?

Keith and Jon working with the German feature

What they Carried

2008-09-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

In addition to all the military elements that the Australian soldier had with him, there were some other effects.

His toothbrush - Flexadent France

His wallet - some French Francs clearly 1916 dated

His spoon (with razor on the top)

Finds like these added still more to the overall picture of the man.

Dogs in Hats

2008-09-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

This post is more serious than it sounds from the title. I have been considering the pickelhaub we found with the body and in an effort to find out more information about it went here:

www.kaisersbunker.com/

Yes, there are pictures of dogs in hats and, indeed, helmets on it but it contains lots of lovely information about spiked headgear and the like.

Essentially our man had acquired a Hessian helmet. We had wondered if the fluted spike and fishscale chinstrap were indicative of rank and status but it appears that all Hessians had this style, although the scales differed in some cases, with Dragoons apparently having rounded scales.

Very useful.

A couple more images

2008-08-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

We shall aim to post some images of the other main excavation trenches at Plugstreet 2008 at some point over the weekend, but in the meantime, a couple more images of items found with the Australian.

An image of one of the pockets of ammunition with chargers of .303 rounds and webbing attached to the pocket.

This is the interior of the brodie helmet note the buckles of the straps at the edge - with the mineralised strap thus up over the outer rim of the helmet

The components of the PH hood following initial conservation work

The entrenchment tool found at the back of the man, below his pack

Some of the finds

2008-08-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

In the following days we will aim to post some of the images from other important parts of the excavations of 2008. Today perhaps it would be worthwhile to show some of the finds with the man that was excavated

Proof of nationality (Collar badge and shoulder title)

Box respirator and iodine under conservation

Button and Boot

We have posted these images as only a TINY portion of the kit found with the man to illustrate the quality of the surviving elements. Other parts of his panoply of arms are as well preserved and his remains too tell a story. We shall post more over the coming weeks

Ministerial Announcement in Australia

2008-08-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

THE HON. WARREN SNOWDON MP Minister for Defence Science and Personnel

MISSING WORLD WAR ONE SOLDIER DISCOVERED IN BELGIUM
Wednesday, 20 August 2008117/2008
MISSING WORLD WAR ONE SOLDIER DISCOVERED IN BELGIUM

The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, the Hon. Warren Snowdon MP, today announced the remains of an unidentified Australian World War I soldier have been unearthed in Belgium.The human remains were discovered along with pieces of Australian equipment and clothing during an authorised excavation by a British archaeology team at Ploegsteert; the site where the Battle of Messines took place in June 1917.“I can confirm the remains of one of our courageous World War I soldiers have been uncovered in Belgium,” Mr Snowdon said.“Two British archaeologists undertaking an official excavation unearthed the remains, along with evidence they are of a fallen Australian Digger who fought in the Battle of Messines.”The bones, which are reported to be in reasonably good condition, were exhumed under the supervision of the Belgian Police and Army, who are housing the remains at a Belgian Army Barracks until further notice from Australian authorities.“The Australian Government is firm in our commitment to honour our war dead, and is already undertaking historical research to establish any initial identification links,” Mr Snowdon said.“We are also hopeful that some of the equipment located with the remains, such as badges and buttons, may assist with identification of the soldier and will consider the possibility of DNA testing if there is reasonable chance of a match.”It is likely the remains will be re-interred at one of the existing Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Belgium later this year.

An Announcement

2008-08-20T01:03:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen it is with some pride that I am able to now make this announcement...

No Longer Missing in Action:

No-Man’s-Land Archaeology recovers the body of an Australian soldier of the Great War

On 6th August 2008, No-Man’s-Land Archaeology, a multi-national archaeology group who specialise in the First World War, found the body of an Australian soldier of the Great War whilst excavating German trenches near St Yves in Wallonia, Belgium. The soldier was in full battle order with all his well-preserved equipment, medical kit, weaponry and parts of his uniform. His shoulder and collar titles identified him as an Australian. The area was attacked by the Australian 3rd Division on the morning of 7th June 1917 as part of the Battle of Messines, a prelude to the better known battle of 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele). Unlike recent discoveries at Fromelles, this was a battlefield casualty in full kit buried where he fell rather than a burial in a grave behind the lines.

The work is part of a wider landscape project to examine the effectiveness of the training of the Australian 3rd Division on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire with the actuality of battle through archaeological excavation of trench systems, historical studies, aerial photography, map work, geophysical survey and other techniques. The project has run for four years so far, with this being the second season of fieldwork in Belgium and the first time that significant human remains were recovered. The work has been accomplished by a multinational team in collaboration with a number of academic departments and local partners.

The remains of the soldier tell a significant story of one man’s involvement in a major piece of world history through his personal kit and effects including the evidence for the taking of trophies in the form of a German pickelhaube. The body was recovered with scientific techniques; geophysical survey, forensic archaeology (techniques familiar to viewers of CSI), and on-site conservation from our mobile lab.

The group is very proud to have recovered a previously missing soldier with the highest scientific skill and appropriate levels of respect; this was a man who endured unimaginable hardship and met a violent end.

Over the years, there has been strong Australian involvement in the project with assistance from the Australian War Memorial, fieldworkers from Australia, and the presence of the Australian Army at commemorative events.

All of the artefacts, along with the remains of the soldier have been taken by the Belgian Army to be given to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission prior to attempts to identify the man.

Contacts: Richard Osgood and Martin Brown Co-Directors, the Plugstreet Project.

Ploegsteert Blog

2008-08-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

A link from the website www.ww1.plugstreet.org which has some details in French on some of this year's results...including hints on the announcement which will soon follow. http://www.ploegsteert.info/ploegsteert/blog/index.php?entry=entry080807-180000
Martin (back row in middle), Glen (back row, second from right), Henry (front row, on left) and Kirsty (front row on right) from the dig team are all present.

Monday Announcement???

2008-08-18T12:41:00.001-07:00

Dear readers,
well the best laid plans of mice and men...sadly no press release by Australian Defence today and thus our team has to hold back its press release. Fingers crossed that the coverage of the Olympics in Australia isn't keeping the story from the news - perhaps the powers that be are waiting for Australia to once again climb above GB in the medals table before issuing their statement. Thus, Plugstreet Project blog announcement will follow that made in Canberra.

On another note, it was heartening to see this blog linked into 'Bonekickers' when Prof Mark Horton was discussing real Great War archaeology on BAJR!!!...

Setting the scene

2008-08-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Two images that may or may not seem pertinent. The first is something I took in Canberra - the battle order of an infantryman of the Australian 3rd Division from France in 1918. This was given to the Australian historian of the Great War, Charles Bean - mud and all. You will note the ammo pockets, webbing , water bottle, collar dogs etc.

The second image is of the Menin Gate and depicts the names of all those missing men of the 33rd Btn, 9th Brgd, 3rd Div. Some 20 of these men fell in the attacks of the Battle of Messines in 1917 in and around the fields in which we worked. A sobering thought.

Remember, there will be a major announcement on the findings of our project tomorrow.

Major announcement on Monday

2008-08-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,
on Monday there will be a major announcement on one of the findings from this summer's excavations for those of you that weren't on site. The excavation team has been waiting for the Australian Army to reveal the news to the press in Australia before we issued our press release. Those of you on site will know what this discovery was and I hope that Monday's announcement will prove to be the first on many revelations on the subject. Apologies for being so cryptic but you will appreciate the sensibilities on next announcment.

Damn Bonekickers/ Ploegstreet 2008 thoughts

2008-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

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?

Onto more relevant business:-

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.

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.

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 succeded 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 monkies who helped later on in the week.

I look forward to next year and seeing you all again.

P.S- The World Premiere of 'Daisy Gets Duked' will be taking place shortly on YouTube and Facebook.

Coops £:)

Artwork and Landscape at Ploegsteert, Messines, Wytschaete

2008-08-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

Photo: copyright Peter Chasseaud 2008

Landscape and phenomenology

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/.

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.

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 interpreatation of the St Yvon (Factory Farm/Reebrouck/Ultra Trench, and also Ultimo Trench/Ultimo Crater.

Peter Chasseaud (The Wanderer).

On reflection...

2008-08-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Back in Blighty (Where the internet works and the keyboard isn't confusingly Belgian)...

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!).

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).

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.

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).

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.

Of course the final part requires literally digging deep to backfill the trenches, but the team spirit and singing helped!

I am already looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Jo x

Team Nosferatu gets serious

2008-08-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

With five days to concentrate on one trench Team Nosferatu finally found serious solid Great War artefacts in the deepest hole on the site. Despite having to dig out two metres of fill we uncovered the solid timbers (preserved because previously berlow the water table) of a trench mortar emplacement, with an exciting live improvised demolition charge for Rod and Gontrand to work their magic on.

Lehen Mundu Gerra Ikerketa

2008-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

Aste honetan gure nazioarteko arkeolojia taldea ikerketa bat egiten ari da Messinesen, Belgikar hiri bat Ypreseren ingurumenan.

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.

Meanwhile........

2008-08-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

In the command bunker we are still smiling... It is all going very well and the team are mostly well-behaved!!!!!

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!

More news tomorrow.

Day 2 - confusion reigns

2008-08-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Well what a day - mystery and mayhem have ensued!

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!

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!

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.

All in all a good day!

Day 1 - the beasting begins

2008-08-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, the rest of the Plugstreet crew have spent the first day on site, after much drinking the night before!

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!

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.

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!

Plugstreet 2008

2008-08-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

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.

The advance party is now esconced 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!

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.

Meanwhile... we say CONGRATULATIONS to Louise from the Peace Village who is a new mum to Dylan, two weeks old!

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!

Bonekickers

2008-07-30T01:34:00.000-07:00

As the first day of the dig draws nigh the No Man's Land team have been pipped to the post with exciting discoveries by the Wessex University "Bonekickers". For readers not familiar with them the group are stars of a BBC TV drama set in a fictional university department. You can tell it's fiction as they drive nice cars, live in the Royal Crescent at Bath and are all attractive and witty. Oh and they found the True Cross, Boudicca's body and the Tablet of Destiny (gasp!).

Anyway this hugely enjoyable tosh is broadcast on a Tuesday evening and next week's episode centres on the discovery of a First World War Tank near Verdun. We shall all be watching to see how one should really do Great War Archaeology!

If you do watch let us know what you think via the comments!

You will be able to see Martin and Prof Mark Horton (Bristol University, adviser to the series and alleged model for "Dolly" Parton) talking about tanks and Great War Archaeology on the Bonekickers website after the broadcast of next week's programme. It was worth it to crawl around tanks at Bovington's excellent Tank Museum.

Approaching Zero Hour

2008-07-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

Readers,
we aer delighted to be able to announce that the project now has official permission for its excavations at St Yvon this summer. The team will be on site for a week in August and will update this blog with news of finds and thoughts as we did last year

Spreading the Word

2008-07-14T10:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Richard and Martin gave a presentation to the annual Conflict Archaeology conference at the Royal Logistics Corps Museum at Deepcut. It was good to present to an audience of interested amateurs and fellow practitioners in the field and the responses to our multistrand approach to the landscape and the individual sites was well-received.

The event was a mixture of ancient (Ramesses II) and modern (WW1 & 2 and Bosnia) with an interspersing of post-medieval (English Civil War). Tal Simmons paper on Bosnia was hard viewing and listening but ultimately worthwhile, not only because of her powerful delivery but also because it served to remind us of the reality of conflict, including injury, sickness and death in traumatic circumstances. Meanwhile Neil Faulkner's paper on the Arab Revolt and TE Lawrence threw up some interesting differences withour work, although Plugstreet and Lawrence were contemporary. However there were marked similarities too, including the German trench systems.

The cross current in several papers was that this is essentially a community endeavour, whether those communities are close to the sites in UK, in Jordan or at a remove in a second or third country, as we are for this project. The nature of conflict means that it may have resonance and meaning years after the event for those affected, even indirectly. Archaeology gives some people the opportunity to engage directly with that heritage and, we hope, offers everyone the chance to hear something new about the events and people in the past.

Thanks and credit to Andy Robertshaw and his staff at the RLC Musuem.

Zero Minus 3

2008-07-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Three weeks that is!

We have agreed the trench locations with the farmer and are set to launch our next season of excavation and survey at Plugstreet.

Once againa crack team of archaeologists and fellow-travellers is set to embark. This year the team includes some new faces, including two more American friends and our first representative from the Republic of Ireland. Kat has a missing relative so joins the members of the team with that particular attachment to the battlefields. We are also pleased to have Rod on board, after his absence last year due to a more modern war. Welcome to you all.

As we have said before the idea of No Man's Land is an international venture and so we go on, our common purpose being to investigate something that once divided us.

Bonekickers

2008-07-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

How could I let the media event of the year go by unremarked?

Bonekickers started last week on BBC1 in the UK. If you didn't watch it you missed out. The new series follows the story of fictional archaeologists from the University of Wessex and each week they will be involved in a plot centring around a site.

I suggest you read the reviews for yourselfs. Particularly amusing are the pieces in The Guardian...

But why am I telling you this?

If you watch the episode coming up in a couple of weeks you'll see a dig on a wreck of a Great War Tank and the recovery of its crew. I'll say no more so I don't spoil the surprise.

Tales of the Bustard

2008-07-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

Apologies, dear reader, for leaving you hanging with the tales of the Bustard - our heroes in the rain with only a cake to sustain... Unfortunately the rain meant that we had to work twice as hard on the remaining 3 days to achieve our ends, so blogging rather suffered.

So, I hear you cry, what DID happen?

We opened several areas, some of which were blank and one of which had the most marvellous section of trench in it. The picture is here:

Image Copyright:Defence Estates

Scale is 1m vertical and 2m horizontal. The stain running along the base of the trench is believed to be the marks left by a rotted trench board.

Oddly there were no 1914-18 finds, by contrast to the 2006 dig when we found lots of materiel. This suggests that the soldiers were made to clear up after their exercise.

One find that did turn up was a Prehistoric flint in the backfill of another comunication trench. It just goes to show that the archaeological landscape is indeed a palimpsest, layered and full of artefacts stories and meanings.

Happily the Bristol students were still smiling when they left us (maybe with relief at leaving) and all agreed that it had been an interesting and useful week.

We would have prefered to have found more evidence of the use of the trenches but the excavated section does show that the soldiers were digging proerfeatures to the prescribed deoth to afford head cover and to keep you relatively safe in the battlespace in Flanders or France. Good training? It looks like it!

Rain

2008-06-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

It was raining all night and it is still raining now.

At 8 we decided to stay off site for the morning and see what the weather did...at 12.30 "rain stopped play" and the day was binned.

Tomorrow everyone will work harder to make up for lost time ;-)

There will be a cake though, as your correspondent had occassion to go the the excellent bakery on the A303 near Yeovilton.

More news as it happens!

Back to the Bustard

2008-06-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

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 Bustrad 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 amd trained in a series of trenches dug on Salisbury Plain to instruct and inform soldiers in the practice of trench diggin, 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 survivial 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.

Fromelles

2008-06-03T08:58:00.001-07:00

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 feek 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 worh 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.

Two Pints of Leffe and a Packet of Frites...

2008-06-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

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 Wllon 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.

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

2008-05-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

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 defendeed 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.

In Despatches

2008-03-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Emotion and Archaeology

2008-02-13T01:42:00.000-08:00

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 subtiteld 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 humaity, especially in time of conflict.

Desptaches

2008-02-13T01:27:00.000-08:00

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 substatiate 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.

2008-01-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

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 tradgedy 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.

O For a Muse of Fire

2008-01-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

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.

Opportunities to Hear More...

2008-01-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas Listening

2007-12-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

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?

Match of the Day

2007-12-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas draweth nigh...as if we didn't know it.

Christmas moves the thoughts of many of us to that moment in 1914 when elements of the armies facing each other along the Western Front declared local, unofficial truces between them. Famously officers hosted their opponents for dinner, German barbers set up shop in no man's land and the world's strangest, most inspirational football international took place. I met someone who had interviewed a veteran who'd been involved in one of these matches and he said that the Germans won on penalties!

You know all this. What you may not know is that the truce didn't take place everywhere but it did take place at Ploegsteert, in fact Bruce Bairnsfather records it in trenches immediately north of our site. Is it possible that the fields we traversed during our work saw the Match of the Day 1914?

So may the Peace of 1914 be yours at Christmas, especially to readers in "hot spots", dear reader, and good things follow you through the year. This blog will be resting over the Festive Season but will be back shortly with exciting news, such as the 2008 season and our plans to dig more holes, as well as conferences, lectures and miniature battlefields that are connected with the project. The mini battlefield isn't a wargame by the way but I can say no more now.

Happy Christmas
Frohe Weinachts
Joyeux Noel
Goioe Kerstmis (I think that's right for Flemish)

2007-12-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

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 runnning 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....

Back to the Bustard

2007-12-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

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 sson 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!

The Serre Memorial

2007-11-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

I mentioned the Serre memorial to the chaps NML found in 2003. It was made by Keith Maddison from the group and stands by the road in front of the site of the German position known as the Heidenkopf. It comemmorates Jakob Hones and Albert Thielecke, both killed in 1915 during the Battle of Hebuterne and an unknown man from the King's Own killed on 1st July 1916.

This picture shows the memorial on the day of its unveiling.

Of Things Past

2007-11-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

It's now almost a week since Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. Of late this has meant that the nation thinks of the Great War, probably more than anything else and the TV underlined this with programmes about Jack Kipling and Wilfred Owen.

The Owen programme was interesting as it included land at Serre where Martin and several other of the NML members were involved in a dig in 2003 that was seeking a dugout occupied by Owen. The story of the project is on the No Man's Land website and will shortly appear in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology. Sadly they didn't mention the archaeology, nor the rather nice memorial that NML member and Plugstreet digger made to commemorate the three men we discovered. This brings us back to 11/11, of course because of the emotions evoked by the knowledge that we have excavated these men and in two cases restored them to their families. We found no identifiable remains at Plugstreet this year but in Steve L's trench the absence of remains was probably a testament to the destructive power of the mine. Whatever the case we know that we are in a place where men fell and died and where there are still missing bodies across the landscape. I am also confident that when we do find our first skeleton we will be approaching the excavation in a professional and respectful manner.

The Spreading Word

2007-11-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

As you know Richard and Martin recently went to an event at the Belgian Embassy (thanks to Franky Bostyn). They took along a number of short interim reports on the project to leave for interested parties to take away.

Lo and Behold! Some kind soul has scanned it and put it on the web here:
http://www.leinster-regiment-association.org.uk/download/plustreetproject.pdf

We say thank you to the Leinster Regiment Association for giving us another outlet for the story. The Leinsters were part of 16 Division, who stormed Wytschaete (White Sheet) during the Battle of Messines while the Anzacs were busy around, or possibly creating, our dig site.

Also on the topic of spreading the word Martin has been out and about this week lecturing to post-grads at Liverpool University and to the lovely Forensic Archaeology students at Cranfield University. Both groups got an introduction to the Plug Street Project as part of wider discussions on Great War archaeology and some of them may join the team in 2008.

The Sincerest Form

2007-11-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

We broke new ground with the project blog for this project, giving you up to date information on the planning and then offering news from the front line. It's nice to see another group following our lead in disseminating information about a Great War project.

If you want to read about the Great Arab Revolt Project in Jordan go here:
http://garp2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/day-3-wadi-rutm.html

It's the archaeology of the Arab insurgency against the Turks (Lawrence of Arabia stuff). How topical!

It's led by friends of ours and members of our team (Nick Saunders mostly) are out there.

Good Luck Guys!

Some site record shots

2007-10-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

As you will sense, Ian has been very busy. the three above photos are some of his record shots of the trenches excavated in 2007. Top is Steve L's team trench with Australian recut of demolished German trench. Middle is Steve R.'s team trench through the trench that presumably led to a punker which illustrates the 33rd Btns reuse of what was left of the German line. The bottom image is Dan's team excavation of the Lewis gun sap. The lighting for these sondages (in woodland and very sunny) was incredibly tricky and thus the results are really fantastic.

Ian's Images

2007-10-08T13:16:00.001-07:00

Those of you on site in 2007 will remember the presence of Ian R. Cartwright, photographer with the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Ian brought his box camera with him and took plate photographs on site in much the same way as Frank Hurley did in following the Australian 3rd Division. His stunning results are presented below. We have also included the original Hurley image of the Australian 3rd Div artillery limber (Richard's grandfather's old mob!) to illustrate the motivation for Ian's studies. The images speak for themselves and we hope to be able to announce their exhibition alongside some of the Messines finds at some point.

'Spoils of Archaeology': detritus of war emerging from the excavated trenches

'Front Line dirt': part of the (enormous) spoil heap from the bunker trench

'Life in no-man's land': Mr Delrue's crop emerges in no-man's land.

Entitled 'Anzacs' - Michael in the Australian Lewis Gun sap

Entitled 'Fallen Remembered' - Tori and Ralph laying the wreath at the Ploegsteert Memorial

Entitled 'Sap Team' Danny and his team (with Martin and Richard) at the Lewis sap

'Generations': Tori and Kirsty by the German bunker with the church of Messines in the distance

'Peace Dig' - Jo and Becki looking on as the Australian recut of the German front line is dug

'Messines Ridge' taken from no-man's land

'Shell burst' - Tangled iron work from Jon's excavation of the shell crater

Archaeological Limber - Ian's take on the famous Hurley photo of the gun team (below)

More news on the re-burial...find Mat and Michael..

2007-10-08T00:49:00.000-07:00

Many more images of the events surrounding the re-burial of the 5 Australian soldiers are present at this location: http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=10901

The images are noteworthy not simply for their recording of this event, but also for capturing evidence of Mat and Michael in suits!!! (they appear in two or three images. I'll leave you to find them...) oh, and what appears to be a Belgian military outside urinal!

This site also includes images on the Anzac rugby match played as part of the commemmorations in Belgium (sadly not featuring either an Australian scrum that posesses a reverse gear, nor a ref that allows forward passes v the New Zealanders!), and of the launch of the Passchendaele Australian walk put together (I think) by Franky and his team with elements of the miltiary railway used by, amongst others, 'our' 33rd Btn.

Re-burial of Australian Soldiers

2007-10-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

5 Australian soldiers killed at the battle of Passchendaele were yesterday re-buried at Buttes military cemetery. Their remains had been discovered by Belgian workers laying a pipeline and were recovered by a team lead by Franky Bostyn. DNA analysis has led to two of the individuals being identified. Our Australian film crew that covered the Messines dig filmed the event, hopefully for inclusion in the documentary of our work and Michael and Mat from the dig team were also in attendance. Some newslinks are present below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071004/wl_nm/australia_passchendaele_soldiers_dc

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/quest-for-identity-laid-to-rest-in-flanders-fields/2007/10/04/1191091276328.html

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=383&sid=1261590

New Exhibition on 3rd Ypres in London

2007-09-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was our privelege (as reps of No-Man's-Land archaeology and the Plugstreet Project) to attend the opening of an exhibition to commemorate the 90th anniversary of 3rd Ypres. This exhibition, in the residence of the Belgian ambassador in Belgrave Square, London, was asssembled by Franky (whom many on site will remember as being the chap that brought the crate of beer over on the last day!) and launched by the ambassador and HRH Duke of Kent. In addition to displays of kit in dioramas, and finds from the battlefield, there are some wonderful photographs and sculptures - the latter made from elements of the iron harvest. A link to the exhibition can be found here:

http://www.diplomatie.be/london/default.asp?id=1&ACT=5&content=42&mnu=1

Free to enter and worth a visit!

Martin and Richard also met Ian Passingham, the author of the excellent 'Pillars of Fire' on the Battle of Messines. Ian was most enthusiastic about the team's work and will visit site next summer. Other archaeologists present were Tony Pollard (1/2 of 'Two men in a trench' amongst other things) and Col Philip Robinson from Durand. Another plus was to meet up with Tori and Carla to confirm that they had indeed survived the excavation!

Elsewhere on the web...

2007-08-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Three members of the project team work at Defence Estates, so the PR staff were interested in what we did in Belgium. Since running a piece on the project for the DE intranet they have expanded the article, added some new photos and had it accepted as a story for the main Ministry of Defence website.

You can access the story here:

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/HistoryAndHonour/

Most soldiers will have been on a battlefield tour to the Western Front at some point and many are interested, as are MOD civil servants, for perhaps obvious reasons but it's great to see the project getting another boost.

Spirit of Radio

2007-08-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

Don't all Rush at once but you can hear the interview Martin did for BBC Radio 5 Live programme Up All Night.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/upallnight.shtml

Under the heading for Tuesday you'll see at 03:30 Archaeology with Win Scutt and there is a feature marked listed again, so you can hear what was said. Martin says his key points were that we can still find things on pulversied battlefields, that this is a real archaeological story with physical evidence of the effects of war on people and landscape and that No Man's Land are an international team investigating a common European heritage. As you would expect he also mentioned smoking, food and the Battle of Messines. All in 13 minutes!

If you do listen let us know what you think via the comments.

On My Radio...

2007-08-20T05:25:00.000-07:00

Not the Selector's Ska classic sadly, rather another media opportunity for the magnificent Plugstreet Project.

For the insomniac readers who are up at 03:30 UK time tomorrow (Tuesday) morning you can listen to Martin being interviewed on Radio 5 Live about the Plugstreet Project. Thankfully the interview will be done slightly earlier in the evening so Martin might make some sense, but I wouldn't count on it. Up all night is the umbrella show for the dead zone and there, at 03:30 is our mate Win Scutt and his Archaeology slot. Win is digging at Durrington Walls at the moment so listen out for an update on that exciting project too.

If you really wanted to hear what he has to say you can probably download it via the "listen Again" feature that many BBC programmes have. To do this you'll need to go to the BBC webpages at www.bbc.co.uk and follow the links to 5 Live.

Overseas fans of the project can listen on the internet via the BBC homepage.

Peter Chasseaud's panorama drawing looking east from Ultimo Crater

2007-08-15T06:08:00.000-07:00

Photos of a 3-section panorama drawing I made from the north-east lip of Ultimo Crater, looking east. The coverage is approximately an arc from north-east to south-east. The photo below shows the whole panorama obliquely. The three above show the individual sections in the sequence: left - right - centre. All images Copyright Peter Chasseaud 2007.

Such panoramas were drawn during the First World War to show the views from observation posts for artillery and intelligence purposes. The drawing was often overlaid with a degree grid, sometimes showing bearings right and left of a centre-line, e.g. Warneton Church. The bearings given on my drawing are very approximate, and the whole thing needs to be recalibrated to give correct bearings.

Birger's images

2007-08-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Birger Stichelbaut, the project's aerial photographic expert from the University of Ghent, has already produced some aerial images of the excavation trenches. This in addition to his terrestrial photographic skills that his website amply illustrates:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birgerstichelbaut/sets/72157601321458068/

Plugstreet images by Peter Chasseaud

2007-08-14T02:57:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of images I made while working at St Yvon, Ploegsteert, while on the dig. Does anyone have a photo of me at work drawing, which I can post on my blog? In addition to these two images, I produced, as part of my phenomenology/visibility/intervisibility project several panorama drawings, including one in three sections from the north-east rim of Ultimo Crater looking east towards Warneton, and some of the views from Hull's Burnt Farm and St Yvon looking towards Factory Farm, Ultra Trench and Ultimo Trench.

Another part of my work was locating the medieval moat of the old farm relative to the present crater and the pattern of roads, old property boundaries, drainage ditches, etc. Aerial photos from 1915 to 1918 were hugely useful here, and I found that the medieval and early modern boundaries and ditches are still significant features of the landscape today. These, of course, are fundamental for geo-referencing.

I'm also doing some writing (including poems), which I will post on my blog (http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com/). You can also see my blog by googling 'peter chasseaud artist'.

The image below is Pillars of Fire, and shows the Trench 122 mines being blown on 7 June 1917 under Ultimo Trench (left) and Ultra Trench (Factory Farm, right). The view is from the British front line at Trench 123, opposite Ultimo. [Willow charcoal and pastel on paper. Copyright Peter Chasseaud 2007].

The image below is Ancient Willow, Factory Farm. [Willow charcoal on paper. Copyright Peter Chasseaud 2007].

I'll post some more images, and some writing, in a few days' time. Images from my Ypres Willows project (2007) and my May 2007 exhibition (the book to accompany this include some of Ultimo and Factory Farm) can be seen on my blog.

Jean-Michel's Blog

2007-08-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

Tori and Ralph laying the No-Man's-Land wreath at Ploegsteert, Friday 3rd Aug

Worth reminding everyone of the blog of Jean Michel Van Elslande. You may all have seen Jean-Michel on site as an important member of both the Comines-Warneton History Society and also the Ploegsteert Memorial Committee. His blog has pictures of the last post ceremony on Friday 3rd August, and also elements of the dig. I commend it to you:

http://www.vanelslande.org/blog/

Concrete Evidence

2007-08-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested in the bunker excavated in Trench 1 by Kirsty and her magnificent team there is on-going discussion at the Great War Forum. Regulus and Jack Sheldon (author of some excellent works on German war experience) have been very generous with information and images, including a machine gun post that looks suspiciously like our position.

More at:
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80046&st=0#entry741703

Trench 3 exploits - on the edge!

2007-08-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

What a great week! Here are some pics and my experience of Trench 3.

We made a good start with Dan and Sue hard at work but it's all too much for Bex who needs a sit down.

Felix and Joel do some filming for ABC while Steve encourages the boys digging with a song(?). Hang on - is that Mat actually working in the trench?! Surely not when he's just had his nails done! Our Belgian diggers look on from behind our mounting and long barrow like spoil heap...

Steve shows our trench finds to the WWI re-enactment guys when they visit the site. Very spooky!

More filming by the ABC guys with Martin and Richard (check out the uniform!), the Auzzie boys (Mat and Mike), our geophys whizz Peter aka"the Colonel" and Gantrand, our Belgian EOD guy, at hand to deal with any volatile divas!

Last but not least - the hard core of the team on Friday afternoon, still digging and still smiling! Steve is in the Auzzie recut of the German frontline trench. The Auzzie trench measurements matched the historic records exactly.

And finally...

Since the dig I have been enthused to find out more about my family in the Great War. My Grandad, born 1897, joined the Leicesters PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry as my dad calls it) in 1914 at the age of 17 and spent the entire war either in France or Belgium. He was one of the very lucky ones who came home, and went on to also "survive" WWII as part of the British Expeditionery Force. I now hope to do some more digging (of the research kind) to find out where the Leicesters went and therefore what he might have experienced. I may even have trodden in his footsteps last week!

Page 8 Lovely

2007-08-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

As Featured in the Nord Eclair, Mr Litherland and the excavation team...

The Team

2007-08-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

So here we are, the core of the team, including the field archaeologists, conservators, artist, geophysicist and anthropologist. Missing are Patrick and Nicolas, as well as a number of other locals, and Gontrand who was sorting out his Para-Commando veterans following their parade at the Last Post Ceremony. Also present with the group are our two Australian guests, Matt McLachlan (author) and Michael Molkentin (historian) who joined us on site with a film crew from ABC. We wait to see whether their recording of our work will make it to a final cut documentary.

We are standing in front of the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, where we were honoured to take part and lay a wreath on behalf of the group. Our wreath party included Tori, who has a great uncle on the memorial and Ralph who is our expert on German military history. The Australian Defence Force also laid a wreath and were represented by Lt Col Paul Smith.

It is an odd thing to excavate a site and then to attend ceremonial at a monument to the Fallen, some of whom may lie in the fields where we had been working. This is one of the odd dynamics of working in contemporary archaeology, as is the possibility of idnetifying any skeletons. As it was, we didn't find any bodies.

Conservation

2007-08-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

So the next stage of the work is to ensure that the delicate finds that require conservation work are looked at. To this end, Rob Janaway of Bradford University was on site at the end of the dig. ob was able to advise on suitable methodologies (a new 'First Aid for Finds' needs to be written when it comes to the archaeology of the Great War). Objects such as leather, copper alloy, and the gasmasks found in trench 3 will be conserved prior to their being photographed and recorded. Ultimately they will be returned to Belgium to join the rest of the finds.

Objects below for Conservation - German gasmask filter (held rather lovingly by Jo it must be said..) and the Lyons bottle from the sap leading to the Lewis position (otherwise known as Dan's trench)

Photos from the Front

2007-08-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Kirsty's German Bunker on the edge of the wood. This is about half of it excavated with the other half left in situ for future preservation.

en retour...

2007-08-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again

We're back from the Front, feeling tired but happy...

Big thanks to all the team, to Patrick and his friends from the historical society, to the boys from the RLC who came for a site tour an ended up digging a big hole for us (with beautiful straight edges I might add), to Gontrand and to Tony the barman (who knows why). The lovely folk from Zonnebeke Museum also get thanked for their kind words and end of day gift.

More pictures as we go!

Martin

Projekt Plugstreet: Abschlussbericht

2007-08-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Der Donnerstag und Freitag wurde noch einmal ausgenutzt um einen weiteren ehemaligen Schützengraben auszuheben. Dieser wurde erneut mithilfe der Geophysik ausfindig gemacht und ließ vielversprechende Resultate erwarten. Es wurden hier neben jeder Menge Stacheldraht auch wieder einige andere Funde gemacht u.a. eine Mundharmonika, Glasflaschen, Ampullen und Hemdknöpfe. Gegen Nachmittag wurden dann die letzten Fotografien und Zeichnungen gemacht. Anschließend wurden die Schaufeln und Kellen niedergelegt und zum gemeinsamen Gruppenfoto aller Beteiligten aufgerufen. Am Abend ging es dann zu einem Kriegerdenkmal in Ploegsteert. Hier wurde unter der Begleitung von Dudelsackklängen ein Kranz niedergelegt und so den Soldaten gedacht.

Im Auberge, ein gemütliches kleines Restaurant, wurde gemeinsam gespeist und die Gedanken über die vergangenen Tage ausgetauscht. Am Samstag blieb dann für einige noch ein bisschen Zeit Museen und Soldatenfriedhöfe in der Nähe zu besuchen. Anschließend hieß es dann Abschied nehmen. Emailadressen und Telefonnummern wurden eifrig ausgetauscht und man freut sich schon auf ein gemeinsames Wiedersehen im nächsten Jahr. Das Projekt war somit ein Erfolg und stimmte die Projektleiter sehr zufrieden, so dass bereits an eine Fortsetzung des Projektes gedacht wird.

Projekt Plugstreet war eine sehr gute Erfahrung. Ich habe jede Menge gelernt, viele interessante Menschen kennen gelernt und viele neue kulturelle Eindrücke erlebt. Die Erinnerung an den Ersten Weltkrieg ist allgegenwärtig und bleibt besonders durch die vielen Museen und Denkmäler erhalten.

Special thanks to Martin and Richard who gave me the opportunity to participate in Project Plugstreet. I am glad I met all these great people and it was a pleasure being a part of this team. It has been a great time and I look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you.

Last images for the evening

2007-08-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Ok - last images for tonight.

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.

images 2

2007-08-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

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 byt he 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

Some images of the work

2007-08-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

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 aniversary march visit the site

5) Pocket knife from the German fire trench

Jon's Archaeographic Record

2007-08-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

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 Madisson, 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.