La Boisselle Project

 La Boisselle Project

Western Front battlefield sees most detailed ever study
The tunnellers are situated beneath privately-owned land in the rural village of La Boisselle, northern France, which has remained eerily untouched since First World War hostilities ceased in 1918.
These “sappers”, mainly professional miners from Britain’s collieries, were tasked with the terrifyingly dangerous job of digging beneath enemy trenches, packing high explosives and blowing them up. At times they were just yards away from Germans carrying out the same job underground.
La Boisselle was of huge strategic importance when the British launched the  Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 — in which 420,000 British soldiers were killed from a total of 1.5 million total casualties – as it stood on the main axis of the attack.
Historian Peter Barton said La Boisselle was the “holy grail” for historians, containing the “complete evolution” of trench warfare.
“We’ll know the Germans who killed the British and French, and vice versa – it’s the most supremely researched piece of battlefield on the Western Front,” he said.
After six years of painstaking documentary studies by the historian Simon Jones, researchers managed to pinpoint the precise locations and depths at which each man was lost, how they died and most of their names.
But they could do nothing until the French family who has owned the land since the 1920s, decided to open it up to research last May.
Mr Jones, a former curator at the  Royal Engineers Museum, said the dig was crucial to complete the stories of the 179th and 185th Tunnelling Companies who worked at the Glory Hole, as they called it.
“Although we know a great deal about the lives of soldiers in World War One, these men have left very few clues as to their experience or feelings,” he said.
Through war diaries, tunnel plans and records, Mr Jones has identified 25 of the 28 British and all 10 French tunnellers at the site. The number of Germans remains unclear.
One victim was  Sapper John Lane, 45, from Tipton in Staffordshire, a married father-of-four killed along with four others 80ft underground on 22 November 1915.
His great grandson, Chris Lane, 45, from Redditch in Worcestershire, said he had been gripped to learn about his relative’s fate.
“It’s important to know your past, one small incident for one family is history for lots of other people,” he said.
Archaeologists and historians from Britain, France and Germany intend to preserve the area as a permanent memorial to the fallen. As sapping was long a state secret, the men did not get the recognition they deserved at the time.
The task of mapping the tunnels and trenches with ground penetrating radar has begun, with digging due to start in October.
Some open tunnel sections have already been inspected and are remarkably well preserved.
Researchers intend to leave the bodies undisturbed in the collapsed tunnels, but any others found in trenches will be reburied in accordance with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Bomb disposal experts will be at hand to defuse the probably abundant unexploded ordnance they come across.
They expect to unearth a “time capsule” containing a wealth of untouched artefacts, including graffiti on the walls, poetry, bottles of drink.
The project is expected to take five to 10 years and the site will ultimately be opened to the public.

 In the tunnels underneath a WWI battlefield [video]

WWI underground: Unearthing the hidden tunnel war [pics and maps]

Norwich well skeletons

Jewish bodies found in medieval well in Norwich
The remains of 17 bodies found at the bottom of a medieval well in England could have been victims of persecution, new evidence has suggested.
The most likely explanation is that those down the well were Jewish and were probably murdered or forced to commit suicide, according to scientists who used a combination of DNA analysis, carbon dating and bone chemical studies in their investigation.
The skeletons date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries at a time when Jewish people were facing persecution throughout Europe.
They were discovered in 2004 during an excavation of a site in the centre of Norwich, ahead of construction of the Chapelfield Shopping Centre. The remains were put into storage and have only recently been the subject of investigation.
Seven skeletons were successfully tested and five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family.
DNA expert Dr Ian Barnes, who carried out the tests, said: “This is a really unusual situation for us. This is a unique set of data that we have been able to get for these individuals.
“I am not aware that this has been done before – that we have been able to pin them down to this level of specificity of the ethnic group that they seem to come from.”
The team has been led by forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black, of the University of Dundee’s Centre for Anthropology and Human Identificaton.
Professor Black, who went to the Balkans following the Kosovo war – where her job was to piece together the bodies of massacred Kosovan Albanians – said this discovery had changed the direction of the whole investigation.
Regarding the nature of the discovery, Professor Black said: “We are possibly talking about persecution. We are possibly talking about ethnic cleansing and this all brings to mind the scenario that we dealt with during the Balkan War crimes.”
Eleven of the 17 skeletons were those of children aged between two and 15. The remaining six were adult men and women.
“In terms of the brutality of the ethnic cleansing, it was thought women and children quite frankly weren’t worth wasting the bullets on,” added Professor Black.
“Pregnant women were bayoneted because that way you got rid of a woman because that wasn’t important and you got rid of the next generation because you didn’t want them to survive. So I know what sort of pattern I am looking for.”
Pictures taken at the time of excavation suggested the bodies were thrown down the well together, head first.
A close examination of the adult bones showed fractures caused by the impact of hitting the bottom of the well. But the same damage was not seen on the children’s bones, suggesting they were thrown in after the adults who cushioned the fall of their bodies.
The team had earlier considered the possibility of death by disease but the bone examination also showed no evidence of diseases such as leprosy or tuberculosis.
Giles Emery, the archaeologist who led the original excavation, said at first he thought it might have been a plague burial, but carbon dating had shown that to be impossible as the plague came much later.
And historians pointed out that even during times of plague when mass graves were used, bodies were buried in an ordered way with respect and religious rites.
Norwich had been home to a thriving Jewish community since 1135 and many lived near the well site. But there are records of persecution of Jews in medieval England including in Norwich.
Sophie Cabot, an archaeologist and expert on Norwich’s Jewish history, said the Jewish people had been invited to England by the King to lend money because at the time, the Christian interpretation of the bible did not allow Christians to lend money and charge interest. It was regarded as a sin.
So cash finance for big projects came from the Jewish community and some became very wealthy – which in turn, caused friction.
“There is a resentment of the fact that Jews are making money… and they are doing it in a way that doesn’t involve physical labour, things that are necessarily recognised as work… like people feel about bankers now,” said Ms Cabot.
The findings of the investigation represented a sad day for Norwich.
Ms Cabot added: “It changes the story of what we know about the community. We don’t know everything about the community but what we do know is changed by this.”

Update

The postponed episode of History Cold Case, which investigates these skeletons and their circumstances, is scheduled to air tomorrow on BBC2 (14.07.2011).

NB: mobile forensic unit = a tent!

 Research work continues on skeletons found in Norwich city centre

Hadrian’s Wall round huts

 ’Refuge’ huts found at Roman Vindolanda Fort & Museum

Archaeologists at the  Roman Vindolanda Fort & Museum have unearthed dozens of circular huts which they believe could have been used as temporary refuges. The excavation at the site in Hexham, Northumberland, has unearthed various finds from Roman Britain including letters,  murder victims and  shoes. It is thought the huts were built during the invasion of Scotland under  Emperor Septimius Severus (AD 208-211). Dr Andrew Birley described them as “remarkable structures”. An earlier fort at Vindolanda was completely levelled for the construction of the buildings, which could number into the hundreds. The find has intrigued archaeologists at the site as Roman soldiers did not build round houses. They are interested as to why the Roman army would go to such lengths to accommodate the unusual structures. Dr Birley, who is director of excavations, said: “These are remarkable structures to be found inside a Roman fort, unique in fact. “They are the sort of building you might expect to find north of Hadrian’s Wall in this period, used by small farming communities. “It is quite possible that what we have here is the Roman army providing for these farmers – creating a temporary refuge for the most vulnerable people from north of the wall. “Those people may have helped to feed the army and traded with the soldiers, and would have been regarded as being traitors and collaborators in the eyes of the rebellious tribes to the north. “It would make a certain sense to bring them behind the curtain of Hadrian’s Wall and protect them while the fighting continued, as they would have had real value to the Romans and they certainly tried to protect what they valued.”

Another  ‘heads-up’ from my roving reporter, Woodwose.

Boreray prehistoric settlement

A ‘heads-up’ from my roving reporter, Woodwose:

Prehistoric settlement found on Boreray

Archaeologists working on the St Kildan island of Boreray, previously thought to be home only to seabirds and feral sheep, have found the remains of a permanent settlement which could date back to prehistoric times. Less than a square kilometre in size, Boreray is situated over 65km west of the Outer Hebrides. It was previously thought that inhabitants of St Kilda’s largest island Hirta visited neighbouring Boreray only in the summer, to hunt birds and gather wool. This practice ended in the early part of the twentieth century, and in 1930 the last remaining inhabitants of St Kilda were evacuated from the islands – at their own request. Now this latest discovery by archaeologists suggests that a farming community lived and worked on the steep slopes of Boreray before the 17th century, and perhaps as far back as the prehistoric era. During eight days of research on the island, the team recorded an extensive agricultural field system and terraces for cultivating crops, and identified three possible settlement mounds. Remarkably, one of these contained the intact remains of a stone building with a corbelled roof, sealed up over centuries by soil. It is believed that some of these remains could date to the Iron Age. Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: “This extraordinary discovery is further evidence of the international importance of the St Kilda archipelago, reinforcing its value as one of Scotland’s five World Heritage Sites. It is also wonderful to see the collaboration between the  National Trust for Scotland and  Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments (RCAHMS) survey teams yielding such spectacular results.” RCAHMS surveyor Ian Parker said, “This is an incredibly significant find, which could change our understanding of the history of St Kilda. “Until now, we thought Boreray was just visited for seasonal hunting and gathering by the people of Hirta. But this new discovery shows that a farming community actually lived on the island, perhaps as long ago as the prehistoric period. “These agricultural remains and settlement mounds give us a tantalising glimpse into the lives of those who lived for a time on Boreray. Farming what is probably one of the most remote – and inhospitable – islands in the North Atlantic would have been a hard and gruelling existence. And given the island’s unfeasibly steep slopes, it’s amazing that they even tried living there in the first place.” The recent investigations on Boreray mark one of the few times archaeologists have set foot on the island. It comes as part of a five year partnership project between RCAHMS and the Trust – begun in 2007 – to map traces of human occupation on the islands from early prehistory right through to the present day. Inhabited for well over two millennia, but with a population which probably never exceeded 200 people, St Kilda’s main island Hirta was finally evacuated in 1930 at the request of its remaining 36 islanders. Jill Harden, who is under contract to the National Trust for Scotland for her professional knowledge and experience of St Kilda, said: “Trust staff were an integral part of the overall mapping project, and having the opportunity to stay and work on Boreray was a highlight of my professional input to the Trust’s management of St Kilda. New discoveries and interpretations are fundamental to people’s understanding of ways of life associated with all the islands and stacs that make up the St Kilda archipelago. It is refreshing to know that there is still so much to learn about these islands. The public will soon be able to access the results of the survey on the RCAHMS online database Canmore. The survey also represents an essential resource for the Trust for the long term management and conservation of the internationally important historic environment of St Kilda.

Boreray pictures

Jenner garden skeleton

 This is a Jenner Garden update:

 Archaeologists discover skeleton in doctor’s garden
A skeleton, possibly dating from Roman times, has been unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Bristol during a dig in the garden of vaccination pioneer Dr Edward Jenner in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
The archaeologists, led by  Professor Mark Horton and Dr Stuart Prior have been excavating part of the garden of The Chantry, the former country home of vaccination pioneer, Dr Edward Jenner (1749-1823), during a series of annual digs since 2007.  They have already established that Berkeley is an important Anglo-Saxon site with a mynster of the same scale and status as Gloucester.
Last week, they uncovered a skeleton believed to date from the Roman or possibly sub-Roman (that is the ‘Dark Ages’) period.  The Roman occupation of Britain ended in 410AD, making this an extremely rare find of great historical significance.
As the skeleton was painstakingly excavated it became clear that it was cut in half by a later ditch.  Roman material was found in this ditch, which could have either been deposited by the Romans themselves or later inhabitants of the area as they were robbing the Roman buildings nearby.
The skeleton is known to be adult but its sex has not yet been determined.  It was found underneath the sealed remains of part of the Anglo-Saxon Mynster, founded in the 8th century.  This latest discovery, however, clearly puts Berkeley on the map as an even earlier religious site than previously thought.
Professor Mark Horton said: “This was a completely unexpected but really important discovery because it fills in the history between the Roman villa that we believe is on the site and the Anglo-Saxon monastery discovered during earlier digs.
“It just goes to show that you never quite know what lies under your feet.  It is unlikely that Dr Jenner was aware of these unexpected neighbours lurking at the bottom of his garden.”
Sarah Parker, Director of  Dr Jenner’s House said: “Year on year the archaeology and recorded data that the University of Bristol uncovers from Dr Jenner’s garden never ceases to amaze.  It reinforces the importance of this historic site alongside the Birthplace of Vaccination.  We are very pleased to be working with the university, sharing history being made being with the public.”