I am on the left side sitting behind our Explosives Tech who has just "dealt" with the British 8 inch shell that is sitting in front of our group. Somebody in jest called out "Team Photo", and it actually seemed like a good plan. An international group, Germany, Belgium, UK, US, Slovenia, Spain and maybe one or two I have not figured out yet. Photo credit to Helen the Wedding Photographer!
In any case that was yesterday. Today started out less sunny. In fact Flanders was a grey, mysterious place on my walk to the dig site. The local cemetery. All post war of course, the original one was destroyed.
More work on our cellar. We moved a lot of bricks and debris today. Finds were few but interesting.
The fuse from a good sized artillery shell.
A German army issue folding spoon and knife kit. Not exactly a Spork but kind of like one.
And the best find of today. This is the metal trimming on a German army "Pickelhaube" helmet. Those are the ones with the spikes on the top. They were actually quite useless in modern war, being made of leather, and were replaced fairly early on.
Of course the main job is not finding stuff but defining the structures and figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I spent this entire week clearing out a cellar. The other cellars that had been done were all just scooped out with the excavator and then tidied up. For us it was shovels, buckets and barrows. It seems our cellar was in an inaccessible corner where the digger could not reach properly.
Here we are, end of Friday.
A nice bit of work if you don't mind my saying so. One of the other excavators who hand not been over for a day or two asked "Machine dug?" I just flexed a bicep. The last corner and those big cement bunker blocks can be reached by the excavator so I'll let the machine do a little of the work.
Our cellar has a connection to another cellar next door. It looks to have been made during the war, as a way for troops to safely move about under ground level. We were the first to go through this passage way in 100 years. From the obvious cracks appearing above me in this photo it is fair to say that we will quite likely be the last to ever do so.
3 comments:
I really enjoy your site. Your archaeology posts are most fascininating.
Tim, you represent what one can do to help humanity after retirement. If you ever make it to Cleveland, dinner is on us. You have my email. But you'll be the principal speaker...
Well done, sir.
Well the digging is mostly for my own entertainment but the aspect I can't show you, exhuming the war dead for repatriation, is worthy stuff. 80 bodies found so far.
Cleveland. Might happen. I'll keep it in mind..
Tim
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