Conference Announcement

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!

Ian's Images

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)