Issue 115

Nov / Dec 2010

news

All the latest archaeology news from around the country

features

On the Trail of Viking Women

Jane Kershaw reports on an astounding quantity of Viking-style jewellery found in England

THE BIG DIG: Bestwall Quarry

At this large site in Dorset local, largely unfunded amateurs were nominated to manage the archaeology with fascinating results

Life Between the Nations

The wartime correspondence of German refugee archaeologist Paul Jacobsthal

Excavating the Living Dead

Alistair Barclay examines the stories of the many people who were buried on Boscombe Down, Wiltshire

The Human Remains Crisis

Change is promised, but fieldwork continues under conditions that many are unhappy with

The Little House by the Shore

The directors of the Star Carr excavation update readers on the endangered organic remains

The Varmints Show

In the Varmints' third exploration, we introduce Great Excavations – The Musical

on the web

Neolithic excavations online and the Cranbourne Chase gets an overhaul

CBA Correspondent

From CBA Director, Mike Heyworth on academia

letters

Your views and responses

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

letters

A home for archaeology

Star Letter

John Scholfield and Rachael Kiddey

As authors of the recent feature on homelessness (Jul/Aug), we wanted to share with readers some positive aspects of the CBA's bold selection of cover image. Of the three homeless diggers shown on the cover, and who worked alongside us on the CBA-funded Heritage & Homelessness Project, Rich has been approached several times by magazine readers, and is very happy with his new "celebrity" status; happier still to find that his part in the project means local people see him as more than "just a homeless bloke"; while Andy (formerly Smiler) has begun to introduce himself by his "real" name. This project played a significant part in Andy recognising and accepting that he is not the same person as the one whose traces we have been following around Bristol. And Disco Dave is soon to be a father, with Ratty, his girlfriend. We hope we share with other readers in wishing the couple well in their future together. Overall, the project has caused a positive stir locally. The links it forged – between homeless people, local police, residents, business people and students – continue to strengthen. Shared heritage has become a meeting point for a diverse and previously disconnected community.

Thanks CBA for making much of this possible.

John Schofield, University of York, and Rachael Kiddey

On boxes and booths

Norman Hammond

There are a couple of debatable points in Martin Carver's feature, Archaeology: What is it for? (Sep/Oct). Of his map of "how people dig today", he suggests that "method varies by geography" and asks, "How to explain this pattern?", invoking differing terrain, research questions and social context. What is left out is the impact of individuals: the continued use of Wheelerian boxes across India, Pakistan and China is due to Mortimer Wheeler having been director-general of archaeology in British India (1944–48) and trained the generation of archaeologists there whose own students are only now retiring; and to Xia Nai, Mao's head of archaeology in China for many years – and thus in a position to impose standards – having dug at Maiden Castle with Wheeler and adopted his methods (as Xia Nai told me himself some years ago).

Carver's statement that "the test pit [suits] those who have virtually only skilled labour" is the opposite of much American practice, where unskilled students and local workers can be given a 2m-square "telephone booth" (as Kent Flannery dubbed them) to be dug in 20cm spits, under minimal supervision, sacrificing precision and subtlety of understanding for a rapid documentation of sequence and recovery of artefacts. (Interestingly, a 1983 study by Susan Cohen showed that a 1m-square pit, ie a quarter of the area and volume of the standard unit, yielded proportionally much more than a quarter of the information, and with little further sacrifice of understanding).

Norman Hammond, Department of Archaeology, Boston University

Another for the pot

Guy de la Bédoyère

The most likely context for the distribution of the adventus type of Roman coinage seen in the Frome hoard (News, Sep/Oct) is an event where Carausius addressed his troops and supporters, probably with lost panegyrics (the RSR exergue mark on many of Carausius's silver denarii represents the slogan Redeunt Saturnia Regna [the Golden Age is back] from Virgil's Fourth Eclogue).

The Frome silver example – in as-struck mint condition, with its RSR mark – might have been handed out on one such occasion and been buried very shortly afterwards. The other four Carausian silver denarii are all in similar grade, feature the same mark and depict different reverses, reinforcing his rule as a messianic restorer of Roman traditions and virtues. Perhaps they were all originally in the possession of the same person.

The suggestion that the Frome hoarder would have used several different containers if recovery had been intended [and thus that the hoard was sacrificial], assumes that hoarders approach the whole process with a clear plan. They are usually more interested in the hoarding than anything else. LaVere Redfield accumulated $600,000-worth of US silver dollars, concealing many behind false walls. He never recovered them, and they were found only after his death. Ted Binion saved 100,000 silver dollars because he hated paper money, and paid a contractor to build him a vault in the desert near Las Vegas. The contractor killed him and was caught helping himself to the bullion. Had these men ever intended to recover their hauls? Impossible to say.

The Frome hoarder(s) might have buried the coins as part of a religious process as suggested, or equally could have hidden them for personal reasons without having seriously considered the practicalities of recovery. Who takes all their money out of the bank at once? It would have been feasible to recover coins as and when necessary, or just sleep easily in the belief that the future had been secured. Hoarding is, essentially, an emotional activity even if cloaked in rationale at the time.

Archaeology often tells us how, but very rarely why.

Guy de la Bédoyère, Welby

INDIANA JONES: It belongs in a museum. ANTIQUITIES COLLECTOR: So do you. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

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