Arch-eology

[Unkraut]

Hello Arch - assuming you read this, and I'll look pretty daft if you never do - does the name Colonel Meats mean anything to you? He was responsible for the excavation of Lullingstone Roman Villa.

I remember doing a 'dig' with him on the remains of an old chapel at a place called Stone, just outside of Faversham in Kent. The village had gone about 5 centuries ago, but parts of the walls of the church were still there, the original ones dating back to Roman times I think. Didn't find much there except a few skeletons, which I suppose you would expect.

I recall the site was situated off the A2 in the middle of a switchback, and two motorcylists roared down one side and up the other, absolutely deafening, and the Colonel looked up and said 'cursed egotistical illegitimate children' or words to that effect. You can imagine what he really said!!

The idiots might well have been riding Triumph motorbikes, now themselves the subject of archeological excavations, no doubt.

 

[Arch]

I can't say the name is familiar - although I've heard of Lullingstone. Mind you, it's a while since I did the 'History of archaeology' course as an undergrad, and we were mainly told about people like Petrie, Wheeler, Basil Brown and so on, when archaeology was often the preserve of a certain class...

Those were the days. Work overseas and you get armies of local chaps to do all the heavy work, work here and you can drive your caterpillar-tracked Bentley up to site every day... (really, I've seen a photo...)

Mind you, we still have a few characters. A little more health and safety and public relations these days, but there are still a few characters here in the department you feel would feel right at home in tweeds and a Bentley...

"Didn't find much there except a few skeletons, which I suppose you would expect."

I've worked on digs where you'd give your eye teeth for a few skeletons. The first time you find "a slight difference in soil colour" it's interesting, but the novelty wears off.

On the other hand, excavating hippo ribs and an elephant femur from a Norfolk quarry was fun - but more palaeontology than archaeology..

"The idiots might well have been riding Triumph motorbikes, now themselves the subject of archeological excavations, no doubt"

I seem to remember, not that long ago, seeing a picture of a vintage car excavated in a bog, where it had been buried rather than scrapped when the owner tired of it and got the next model... And some students at Bristol, I think, recently did a project to fully record their old Transit minibus before it was scrapped - took the floor up and recorded all the stuff that had collected over the years in the various panels - all sorts of odds and ends that bore testament to years of use lugging people and equipment about...

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Recording their old minibus?

Perhaps 'Time Team' should have had a dig through the stratas of dirt on the sofa in our student house.

Piecing together the stories that could tell would have made great television.

On a pay for view channel.

 

[Unkraut]

I can't say the name is familiar - although I've heard of Lullingstone. Mind you, it's a while since I did the 'History of archaeology' course as an undergrad, and we were mainly told about people like Petrie, Wheeler, Basil Brush and so on, when archaeology was often the preserve of a certain class...
...

It was the preserve of the upper crust, like myself.

So Arch studies at university, and in the history of archeology might stumble across someone within who yours truly participated in a local dig. I'm starting to feel old .....

Lt.Col. G. W. Meates died around 1984.