12/23 "GROUP WORKSHOP '87 - BRITISH MUSEUM"

BRITISH MUSEUM VISIT

11.

ABOVE: Brian Tremain FRPS, Chief Photographer at the British Museum, pl~tured here by John Walden In the egatlve/transparency archive during the A&H Group Workshop on Saturday 14th March 1987.

;, VE: Puzzle picture taken during the Workshop at the British Museum. fum page to find the answer.

12.

BRITISH IIUSEUII VISIT

ABOVE - Skull of Homo Saplens shot at British Museum - March 1987 - JW

BELOW: Members waiting for the "PERIPHERY CAMERA to complete Its rotation during Brian's demonstration. Photo by G. Chapman LRPS on 400150 colour fi Im.

LEfT: Answer to Puzzle. leica camera placed on the turntable of the "PERIPHERY CAMERA".

SKELETONS GALORE!

13.

by Brian Houlder

During the past eighteen months or so I have become sick and tired of excavating and photographing skeletons. It all began in September 1985 when our local archeological society, in conjunction with the County Archeological Service, began a weekend dig close to the parish church in Pontefract, Yorks.

The area was ·scheduled for re-development, and as it seemed likely that there would be medieval levels here, close to both church and castle, a dig was arranged. Direction was by Tony Wilmott, a taciturn professional of vast experience, the local society provided the diggers, and in my folly I volunteered to do the photography. At first all went well; post-medieval and Civil war features were dug and recorded, then medieval houses and workshops. Beneath these were found human remains, aligned east-west in the Christian manner. As we were only twenty yards from the churchyard, it seemed logical to supposed that we wer'e looking at a long-abandoned portion of the church burial grounds.

Many of the skeletons were badly decomposed, one having only a set of tooth enamel remaining, and he/she was promptly labelled THE CHESHIRE CAT COFFIN,

14.

SKELETONS GALORE! -

By this time our deadline for quitting the site was fast approaching, and it was decided to work over Christmas, having only Christmas Day off! So, whilst the rest of the nation spent Yule in a happy haze of wellbeing, a small band of dedicated archeologists laboured away to peel back the pages _of the past! Actually we !lad to chip away the said pages, as by now the ground was frozen .hard. Fortified with flasks of turkey soup and other combestibles, we chipped away while cursing the weather. The few passers-by must have though we were crazy, but probably secretly envied us. As each grave was cleaned, I photographed it from the tripid using HP5 and RDP 100. We finished on New Year's Day and, apart from the processing, my job appeared to be over. Towards the end of January, the workmen doing a road re-alignment close to the site found a lot more skeletons. Our team was re-constituted (sounds like Campbell's Soup!) and the cemetry, as it turned out to be, was dug. · The full story was told in my articles in the PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL in May 1986. This time the mud was so thick that any tripod work was impossible, and I had to rely on the good nature of HP5 and 3M 400. The discovery of a Saxon church ended the threat to the site, and the Unit took over and completed the excavations. As I write, the foundatiuons of the Saxon chl!rch are being conserved, and Cl4 dates now available for two of the skeletons give dates of AD 920 :1: 50 and AD 690 :1:50. Our church and its associated population are amongs · the earliest Christian sites in Yorkshire. The professional dig finished around Spring Bank Holiday (correctly speaking, Whitsuntide), and most of us thought our contact with skeletons on the site was ended. BUT, one Saturday morning halfway through November last, I received a telephone call to the effect than another ancient ·cemetry had been discovered. As it was a Saturday, it was up to me as Excavation Director of our local Society, to arrange a dig. The Unit helped with volunteer diggers and tools, but everything else was done by we amateurs. having said this, some of the said amateurs have been excavating skeletons for thirty years and more, whilst one was an ex-professional archeologist. A Home Office Licence is required to excavate human remains, but luckily the proximity of the new site to the old one allowed us to utilise the previous licence • During one Sunday afternoon, our small team cleaned, recorded and lifted sixteen deposits of human bones, and the site is illustrated in many of the· pictures in my first article in the April 1987 issue of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL. Site-code BOX 86. Early in February, having just delivered a short paper on the excavations to the C BA (4) Symposium in leeds, I returned home to a 'phone message that more skeletons had been found. This was becoming more than a joke! The following morning, two of us investigated, finding that workmen with a JCB had skimmed the edge of a cliff near the previous site and cut into seven or eight graves. Clearly visible in the section were the intrusions with two femurs sticking out of each. Bob and I carefully photographed the section, bagged the skeletons and returned home to write a report. As I write this, I am expecting another phone call to go out and photograph yet more skeletons!

A MOVING STORY

AUTl-0~ and photographer Roger Darker tells us he is on the move this month to the sunnier climes of Malaga. Spain. Roger has built himself a villa complete with darkroom and studio, and he suggests fellow photographers doing projects in the area should contact him at La Villa Rosetta, El Curate, Campo de Camara, Almogia, Spain.

-To DATE 40 GRAVES = 1.5.

Dear VictQr, The wonderful North Downs is where I, in 1946, decided I would like to live. The area was then sparsely populated, being largely farmland, open downland, and of course the Epsom Downs Race Course. My wife and I with our two young children soon made friends, two of' whom were armers who worked large fields nearby. Housing development soon began apace, and the farmlands gradually made way for houses. Some of the farmland was not immediately developed, but had no doubt already been earmarked for housing. Meanwhile it had returned to common land in appearance, a sort of no-man's land. I had meanwhile become more and more interested in photography as a hobby, and rather inclined to the 'before and after' record variety. I had also joined the local Camera Club, and this year, 1986, we at the 'Club' are running a project 'Epsom Record'. While prowling around for · suitable material for this project, I came upon another new housing development at Tadworth. The site-work appeared to have been started recently, and seemed a suitable subject for submission to our 'project'. I met the builder's foreman and after a few moment's discussion he informed me that whilst preparing the site they had found some remains in the form of human bones. Would I like to see them on the site, which by now was being visited by the Curator of the local Museum. I introduced myself as a member of !the R P S and the Epsom Camera Club find humbly and anxiously offered myself! as perhaps being of assistance ,as a photo-

grapher.

contz- p21