engaging the public
Richard Wright
archaeology, here is one way of engaging the public.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4OyuP9Ne34
It was Oxford Archaeology that in 2009 did the exhumation and
analysis of the 250, mainly Australian soldiers, from WW1 mass graves
at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles. This week is the centenary of the battle
at Fromelles. From the media reporting that I have seen, Oxford
Archaeology's painstaking work has been written out of the accounts.
On the whole, it is as if the cemetery, with its identified dead,
rose spontaneously and fully formed from the soil at Fromelles.
There are exceptions. An ABC reporter wrongly attributed the
exhumations to somebody else. See the editorial correction, at the
end of the article.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-16/fromelles-dig-proudest-moment-of-archeologist's-career/7628322
I heard another reporter on Radio National's AM describe the 250
remains as being 'pulled from a mass grave'. Some pulling.
It's a funny old world.
Incidentally, Oxford Archaeology's work at Fromelles was published in
a book edited by Louise Loe (2014) - "Remember Me to All". It is a
model for the blending of technical archaeology and anthropology with
the popular.
https://www.amazon.com/Remember-All-archaeological-identification-Fromelles/dp/0904220753
Richard Wright
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Iain Stuart
Thanks Richard I was wondering about all that as Tony Pollard seems to be being asked a lot about Fromelles. I suppose there must be a TV series looming. I am a bit over “battlefield archaeology” in the media as I fail to see that the results really advance our understanding of the past in any great way. There is one good example the Maritime Archaeology of the Jutland wrecks in the north sea which clarify the actual location of the various incidents in the battle and the sequence of destruction of the battlecruisers.
Personally my view was that they should have been left “in situ”. I doubt that we learned much more about the soldiers or about Fromelles.
Cheers
Dr Iain Stuart
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Richard Wright
In fact the excavations at Fromelles were not intended to advance our understanding of the past.
The Australian Army, motivated by "Lest We Forget", wanted the AIF diggers to be exhumed and buried in individual war graves.
Considerations that I heard at the time were that:
1. Their current resting places were in mass graves created by their then enemy - the Germans.
2. For some reason, the body recovery teams that operated immediately after WW1, missed the graves at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles.
3. Bodies recovered by those teams had been buried in war cemeteries in France and Belgium.
4. Army wanted the soldiers buried at Pheasant Wood to have the same respect given to them as their comrades had previously received.
5. Descendents of the dead wanted their relatives to be identified, and consequently gave blood samples in preparation for the possibility that the remains would contain viable DNA.
To this end, the Australian and British departments of defence commissioned Oxford Archaeology to do the exhumations in 2009.
150 of the 250 soldiers have now been identified, and have their names inscribed on headstones in the new cemetery at Fromelles - the last six being unveiled at the centenary ceremony earlier this week.
So the enterprise was driven by Army's wishes, not by archaeological curiosity.
Richard
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Anne Bickford
Yes it is a funny old world. I’m surprised that you didn’t mention in your post that you were a member of the Oxford Archaeology team at the Fromelles dig and that you have written a chapter in the book that you incidentally referred to and praised.
I would have thought you should let people know the standpoint you are writing from. Especially since Iain has just given his view that they should have been left in situ.
Anne Bickford
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tessa corkill
Iain
I would think that now relatives of many of the soldiers have some details of their loved ones (Richard's point 5) would be more than enough to justify the excavation.
Tessa Corkill
Shaun Canning
It was never about the ‘archaeology’…….
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Richard Wright
You are correct. I should have mentioned, for
those that didn't know, that I have a personal interest in Fromelles.
Cheers,
Richard
At 11:49 22/07/2016, you wrote:
>Hi Richard,
>that you didn’t mention in your post that you
john...@ozemail.com.au
Hello,
Interesting discussion thanks.
And for what its worth, I ALWAYS agree with Tessa.
Or if there have ever been any exceptions I have probably forgotten them.
Tessa maybe doesn't agree (or others might not agree) that Bambara Road (where all our ancestors were created by the Star People strand-ees [after the Mothership Rexegena exploded in the upper atmosphere above Brisbane Water) should be heritage listed .. i.e. that even PSEUDOSCIENCE is heritage (cultural heritage) ... IF there is enough of it (and Bambara/Kariong certainly has heaps and heaps, layers and layers, of it).
Cheers,
John
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