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Archaeology in Marlow
Volume 7 Issue 6, December 2009www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk
In this issue Click for details
Romadam Other events Preserving the heritage of Marlow Zahi Hawass Jordans Rotary Club Talk Warren Wood War and Peace at Medmenham The Staffordshire Hoard Historic Towns ProjectA grave enigma in KV5
Forthcoming Events Monday 7 December 8 p.m. Christmas Quiz. Free Entry Garden Room, Liston Hall: Turn up and we arrange teams of 4 on the night (unless you come as a team already) Nibbles (sausage rolls, mince pies etc) and drinks (mulled wine and soft drinks) will be provided. A prize for the winning team. There is, as usual, a raffle. If you have any items for the raffle, please either let Ann know, especially if it needs collecting, or bring on the night. Ann’s number is 01628 481792.
Sunday 13 December 11 a.mRoman Road Project walkThree Horseshoes pub car park at Burroughs Grove. Andy Ford is leading this walk to see if we can find evidence of a Roman Road. No booking necessary, just turn up – if you need more info call John on 01628 481792.
Thursday 25 February 2010 8 p.mChairmaking in the Chilterns.Garden Room, Liston Hall A talk by Catherine Grigg (Curator of Wycombe Museum). £2.50
members, £3.50 non members
Old but Interesting
The second husband of the ‘Queen of Crime’ author Agatha Christie was
the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan who served as Director of the British
School of Archaeology in Iraq. She was reputedly fond of quoting that ‘an
archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she
gets, the more interested he is in her’. Towards the end of their lives, the
couple lived at Winterbrook House in Wallingford.
Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan at Tell Hallaf
Queen to Open the AshmoleanOn Wednesday, 2 December 2009,
Her Majesty The Queen will officially
open the new Ashmolean Museum
after its £61 million redevelopment.
The new Museum provides the
Ashmolean with 100% more display
space. 39 new galleries, 4 temporary exhibition galleries, a new
education centre, state-of-the-art conservation studios and Oxford’s
first rooftop restaurant make up the majority of the new development.
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U3A ROMADAM Talk
The ROMADAM talk scheduled for the 29th of October was rescheduled for Thursday the 22nd of October. AIM overcame this minor obstacle and the talk duly took place in the main hall of Liston Hall at 2.30pm, to an audience of about 100 U3A members.
Dave Greenwood (see photo’) and John Laker ran the ROMADAM film with the Powerpoint presentation (on
the Trenches) interspersed. John and Dave answered questions on a wide variety of subjects.
It was good to expound on the archaeological importance of local areas and add to people’s local knowledge.
We thank U3A for their invitation and hope that they enjoyed AIM’s presentation.
Other Organisation’s Events
Archaeological finds identification
Saturday 5 December 2 p.m. to 4 p.m
Wycombe Museum
Priory Avenue, High Wycombe HP13 6PX
01494 421895
Every year thousands of objects are found by
members of the public. Ros Tyrell will identify your
finds and record them on the Portable Antiquities
website. Free, drop-in.
Little Marlow Local History Walk
Sunday 6 December 2009, 2 p.m.
Location: Little Marlow
Discover the historic buildings of Little Marlow and
find out how the local landscape has changed over
the years. Tea and cake for sale in the church at the
end of the walk. Please wear stout shoes or boots.
Booking is essential.
Meet at Emmett’s Farm Shop car park. Parking is
free, though a donation would be appreciated
Organised by Chilterns Conservation Board
Contact Cathy Rose 01844 355506, crose@
chilternsaon.org
Maidenhead Archaeological and Historical Society
Watermills of the River Thames
Talk by Brian Eighteen
Wednesday 16 December 8 p.m.
WRVS Centre (ex King George VI Club)
York Road, Maidenhead, contact Mrs Fowler 01628
635156
Trees, woods and the Grims Ditch
Thursday 14 January 2010
A 5 mile walk to explore the Oxfordshire Chilterns
led by John Morris of the Chiltern Woodland Project.
Free entry but donations are welcome. Booking
essential
Meeting in the King William IV pub car park at Hailey,
Ipsden 10 a.m.
Organised by Chiltern Woodlands Project
Phone 01844 355503
Email [email protected]
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Preserving the heritage of Marlow
An appeal has gone out for volunteers to join a scheme aimed at preserving the ‘heritage of Marlow’.
Over recent months there have been a number of examples of such actions being taken without planning permission first having been obtained. So the Marlow Society is launching a Building Watch - aimed at making sure the town’s 160 listed buildings are not changed by unlawful building work. Volunteers will be allocated a patch, trained, and will be responsible for reporting any changes which have not been approved by the planning authority.
Sarah Pratt, the coordinator of the scheme, said “It is all about conserving the heritage and character of the conservation area.” To get involved email Sarah - [email protected]
More Events
Mapping and measuring woodland
enclosure earthworks
Saturday 30 January 2010, 10am
Hastoe, near Tring
Woodland archaeology workshop to map
and measure enclosure earthworks in
a wood at Hastoe, near Tring. Bring a
packed lunch. £20 per person. Booking
essential
Organised by Chiltern Woodlands Project
Phone 01844 355503
Email [email protected]
An Evening with Dr Zahi Hawass at The British Museum, 8th December 2009
The British Egyptian Society, has
announced that world-renowned
archaeologist, Dr Zahi Hawass, the
Secretary General of the Supreme
Council of Antiquities in Cairo and
Director of Excavations at Giza,
Saqqara and the Bahariya Oasis, will
be visiting London in December this
year to launch a series of his books.
On 8th December, the British
Egyptian Society and Heritage World
Press are hosting a reception in the
British Museum at 6.45pm. During
the reception, Dr Hawass will sign
copies of his book,
‘Inside the Egyptian
Museum,’ and will
present a copy of
‘A Secret Voyage’
in a specially
bound edition
to the British
Museum; this
will be followed by
a lecture. They are expecting this
event to be heavily oversubscribed,
even though the Gallery can hold
600 and the lecture theatres
hold 450 between them. Tickets
are free and going fast (and yes,
I have one!) - but you can apply at
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Jordans Rotary Club Talk
David Greenwood, John Laker and Ann Pitwell
visited the Bellhouse Hotel on the A40 between
Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross on Monday
the 2nd of November to give a ROMADAM talk
to the Jordans Rotary Club.
The aforementioned personnel erected the AIM
publicity boards, connected up the computer
equipment and laid out other publicity materials
including the ROMADAM Project book.
The Club convened at 8 o’clock and, after
some Rotary business, John Laker introduced
AIM and the ROMADAM Project, followed by
a film of the Project made by AIM member Robert
Dunsmuir. Midway through the film, Dave Greenwood
gave a Powerpoint presentation on the First World War
Training Trenches at Pullingshill Wood. When Dave had
finished, the film was restarted until its conclusion.
There were a good selection of questions from the
Rotary members which Dave and John answered as
best they could.
Dave, Ann and John were treated to drinks, sandwiches
and biscuits and much appreciated the fine hospitality
given to them.
Hopefully a good night was had by all!
Warren Wood
The planned excavations at Warren Wood have been delayed,
as the plan for the investigation needed to be written to a higher
standard, as requested by Sandy Kidd (Senior Archaeological
Officer for Bucks). This has been done and the revised plan
forwarded to Sandy for his comments.
We hope that our new plan will be accepted soon and that we
can then arrange some dates. We also hope to commence
our investigations in December, but more realistically January
2010 looks more likely.
Rest assured we will keep all AIM members up to date with
developments.
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War and Peace at MedmenhamI recently explored Medmenham, the
peaceful village next to two sites on which
AiM has worked and whose main street
has picture postcard pretty houses.
Parked incongruously in the forecourt of
one house are two naval cannon - see
photo - above which the Blue Ensign flies.
A notice explains that they are two of
the original seven naval guns dragged
1,500 miles overland by the crew of
HMS Powerful in order to relieve the
siege of Ladysmith in February 1900.
Winston Churchill, acting as a Boer
War correspondent, was among the relief force. On
their return home, the sailors from the Naval Brigade
paraded their guns through London. This led in 1907 to
the inter -port field gun competition that was a highlight
of the Royal Tournament until its demise in 1999 but
which has now been revived as part of the Windsor
Military Tattoo.
The Church has a fine bas
relief memorial plaque to a
parishioner killed defending
the beach-head at Dunkirk
in 1940. In its churchyard is
the grave of another soldier,
Sir Basil Liddell Hart, the war
correspondent and military
historian whose life was not
without controversy. Formerly
secret files now released
revealed MI5 suspicions of
leaks of the plans for the D-Day landings, and that
Liddell Hart had known all the details three months
before the invasion. Winston Churchill had demanded
Liddell Hart’s arrest but MI5 instead placed him under
careful surveillance.
As those of us present at the unveiling of the hill fort
interpretation boards learned, Sarah Churchill, the
actress daughter of the wartime Prime Minister, worked
for some years at the RAF’s Imagery Intelligence Unit
in the requisitioned Danesfield
House. Winston himself, we
were told, would pay visits to
his daughter and receive first
hand briefings at what was
then RAF Medmenham. Next
door to Danesfield House, in
the SAS Company’s grounds
where the hill fort also extends,
we were shown a prototype of
the ‘bouncing bomb’ designed
by Barnes Wallis. (At Hurley,
just across the river and the
location for US Naval Intelligence in WW II, models of
the ‘swimming tank’ that went ashore on D-Day were
tested in the former monastic fish pond.)
Medmenham, which could have served from its idyllic
appearance as a wartime Ministry of Information “this
is what we are fighting for propaganda” English village,
revealed links with warfare right across the centuries.
Not only does it have two neighbouring prehistoric hill
forts but the one above Medmenham also probably
housed Hugh de Bolebec’s Norman castle. On Ferry
Lane stands a symbol of a conflict which saw the
humbling of the British Army by the Boers but which
we now associate with our armed forces’ pageantry.
Men with links to Medmenham straddled a great
leap in the development of warfare. In the person
of Liddell Hart was someone who was gassed in
World War I and who later controversially claimed
to have propounded theories which were then used
against the allies during World War II with the practice
of Blitzkrieg, lightning attacks dependent on speed
and surprise. Two years before Ladysmith, Winston
Churchill had taken part in the British Army’s last
meaningful cavalry charge at the battle of Omdurman in
1898. When he visited RAF Medmenham four decades
later its personnel were involved in locating the launch
sites of ‘Doodlebugs’, the earliest type of military cruise
missiles.
Jeff Griffiths 21 Nov 2009
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The enigmatic 1,600 piece, 7th century Staffordshire
Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard yet found and
has now been valued at a whopping £3.285m!
H o w e v e r ,
besides its
exceptionally
high quality
one of its
most striking
features is
that it is so
unbalanced.
As Dr Kevin
L e a h y ,
National Finds
Adviser from the Portable Antiquities Scheme explained,
it is “Unbalanced because of what we don’t find. There is
absolutely nothing feminine. There are no dress fittings,
brooches or pendants. These are the gold objects most
commonly found from the Anglo-Saxon era. The vast
majority of items in the Hoard are martial - war gear,
especially sword fittings”.
This is not simply loot; swords were being singled out
for special treatment. If it were just gold they were after
we would have found the rich fittings from sword belts.
Perhaps gold fittings were stripped from the swords to
depersonalise them – to remove the identity of the previous
owner. The blades would then be remounted and reused.
It looks like a collection of trophies, but it is impossible to
say if the Hoard was the spoils from a single battle or a
long and highly successful military career. We also cannot
say who the original, or the final, owners were, who took it
from them, why they buried it or when. It will be
debated for decades.
The discovery of this Hoard in
Staffordshire should cause no
surprise. It is in the heartland of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia which was
militarily aggressive and expansionist during the seventh
century under kings Penda, Wulfhere and Aethelred.
The only items that are
clearly non-martial are
two, or possibly three,
crosses. The largest
may have been an altar
or processional cross.
Other than the loss of
the settings used to
decorate it (some of
which are present but
detached) it is intact.
However it has been
folded, possibly to make
it fit into a small space
prior to burial. The lack of
apparent respect shown to this Christian symbol may point
to the Hoard being
buried by pagans,
but Christians were
also quite capable
of despoiling each
other’s shrines.
A strip of gold
bearing a Biblical inscription in Latin is one of the most
significant and controversial finds. Michelle Brown, Professor
of Medieval Manuscript Studies, has suggested the style of
lettering dates from the seventh or early eighth centuries.
Professor Elisabeth Okasha, University of Cork, on the other
hand concluded that it dates to the eighth or ninth centuries.
It will be debated for years.
The Hoard is remarkable for the extraordinary quantity of
pommel caps and hilt plates. There have been at least 84
pommel caps and 71 sword hilt collars so far identified.
These highly decorated items would have adorned
a sword or seax – a short sword/
knife. Most are of gold and many
are beautifully inlaid with garnets.
Such elaborate and expensive
decoration would have marked out
the weapon as the property of the highest
echelons of nobility. The discovery of a single sword fitting is
a notable event: to find so many is absolutely unprecedented.
The Mystery of the Staffordshire Hoard
Images reproduced by permission from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Millefiori Stud
Gold plaque with entwined stylised arms
Pyramid sword fittings
Stylised horse terminal
Fish and Eagles
Gold plate in the form of two eagles separated by fish.Gold helmet cheek piece
Some Questions and Answers
Is the site protected?
The site has been thoroughly examined
using specialist equipment provided by
the Home Office and with support from
Staffordshire Police. The site is now
considered sterile, meaning experts are
satisfied every item able to be recovered
from the immediate area has now been
found. However, Staffordshire Police
continue to monitor the site.
What happens to the site now?
The partners agree there is no
immediate need for statutory protection
of the site as the Hoard has now been
recovered. The partners will, however,
continue to work together to learn
more about the Hoard and its context.
Metal detector guidelines
Metal detecting in England and Wales is
legal providing you have the permission of
the land owner and avoid protected sites.
All detectorists are strongly urged to follow
the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal
Detectoring in England and Wales, and
this includes avoiding protected sites and
reporting finds to the Portable Antiquities
Scheme. For more information go to
http://www.finds.org.uk/documents/
CofP1.pdf
Hilt Fitting
Staffordshire Hoard ...contImages reproduced by permission from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Historic Towns Project
On Thursday evening on the 26th of November, in
the Garden Room of Liston Hall, a group of people
interested in how Marlow is portrayed to the outside
world, met to discuss the forthcoming Historic Towns
Project report on Marlow.
This report will give guidance to developers and
builders as to the historic and archaeological heritage
of the Town, so that inappropriate developments are
less likely to take place in future decades.
We concentrated our thoughts on a similar report
already published for the Town of Haddenham (near
Aylesbury). This report has 14 sections and is 78
pages long.
After going through each section in some detail, we
ascertained what help we could give the compiler of
the report (David Green, working for English Heritage).
Most sections can only be commented upon once the
draft report has been published, however, we thought
it might be useful to forward some views to David,
prior to publication, in order to help him in his task.
We thought it important that a good selection of
Marlow’s Listed Buildings should be present in the
report and that the Industrial Areas of the Town
should also be featured.
We agreed upon a list of Listed Buildings to be
suggested to David for inclusion, as follows; Marlow
Bridge, All Saints Church, Marlow Place, the Old
Parsonage, St Peter’s Church, Court Garden,
Remnantz, Morris Place (Old Barn), Sir William
Borlase’s School, Gyldernscroft, the Two Brewers,
and the ‘Xerox Building’.
We also thought that the relatively modern housing
developments branching out from Wiltshire Road (North
& South) and at Terrington and Barnard’s Hill, plus the
Brewery Conversion, should be included in the report.
Once the draft report is published, 12 copies will be
printed for distribution to interested parties for comment.
We plan to have another meeting within two weeks of
publication, so that we can agree on any changes that
we might want to suggest. It is likely that the draft report
will be published in early 2010 and AIM members will
be informed as soon as another get-together has been
arranged.
Remains of Hammurabi seal discovered in Cairo
The remains of a Hammurabi seal, made of burnt clay with inscriptions in cuneiform, has been found in Cairo. Hammurabi, was the sixth king of Babylon and is best known for the Hammurabi’s Code, possibly histories first recorded codes of law.
The seal is the second to be discovered and, as the most ancient Babylonian seals found in Egypt, they are of paramount importance, dating back to 150 years before the seals inside Akhetaten’s city of Tel al-Amarna.
Hammurabi extended Babylon’s control over Mesopotamia by winning a series of wars against neighbouring kingdoms, although he controlled all of Mesopotamia at the time of his death, his successors were unable to maintain control over the empire.
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Tomb KV5 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings is already
the most exciting tomb found since Howard Carter’s
discovery of Tutankhamen - and may even be set for
new excitement in 2010 when the excavation is due
to learn (at last!) if chamber 5 is a burial chamber as
archaeologists suspect.
But, amid all of the wild media attention there is an
enigma about KV5 that has not hit the headlines –
who it was first dug for!
KV5 is by far the largest tomb in the Valley of the
Kings and was lost, found, re-lost and eventually re-
found by Kent Weeks just 20 years ago. It belonged
to the sons of the great Ramesses II and so far 121
corridors and chambers have been found – though
based on symmetry up to 150 may be expected.
But was it actually dug out for the 19th Dynasty
Ramesses II? Or did one the greatest Egyptian
builders simply borrow and extend an hundred year
old tomb from the 18th Dynasty? Well the jury is
out but there are three features of KV 5, its location,
design, and size that imply he did!
The first and weakest clue is location, KV 5 lies in a cluster
of four 18th Dynasty tombs, including Tutankhamen’s.
Second, and somewhat stronger evidence, is that 19th
Dynasty tombs all have a series of long, narrow corridors,
cut one after the other to form a tunnel leading toward a
burial chamber. The only variations in Dynasty 19 tombs
is the right-angle turn in Ramesses II’s tomb and the jog
in the axis in Seti I’s. But KV 5 is not like this, it has a
central sixteen-pillared hall with doorways leading off it
James Burton, the first person to map KV5 in modern times, left his signature on the ceiling from using the smoke from his candle!The tomb was lost when covered with workmen’s rubble early in the 20th century.
A Grave Enigma in Tomb KV5
KV5, Valley of the Kings
KV5’s entrance in 1884 - its the depression on the right
in all directions. No other known tomb in Thebes, Giza,
Saqqara, or Amarna is remotely like this. Instead KV 5’s
entrance leads straight into a rectangular chamber –
a feature that is seen in six 18th Dynasty tombs, again
including Tutankhamen’s.
But the most compelling evidence lies in size of the tomb’s
doorway. 18th Dynasty Tomb doorways are never more
than 200cm wide, and royal tombs average just 150cm.
Entrance doorways of Nineteenth Dynasty tombs are
never less than 200cm and royal tombs average 211cm.
The size change between the two dynasties is half a metre.
KV 5’s entrance doorway is just 110cm wide! - and even
that is after it was increased by over 15 centimeters
during Ramesses II’s reign. Originally, it was only about
ninety-five centimetres wide.
When you consider each of these elements — the location
of the tomb, how it was laid out, and the width of the
doorways — they may not be individually convincing, but
taken together all features are compelling. They mean that
a part of KV 5 was almost certainly originally dug in the
late Eighteenth Dynasty, and then usurped by Ramesses II
some thirty to a hundred years later.
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AiMDon’t forget the Xmas Quiz on Monday 7th of December 8.00pm, in the Garden Room, Liston Hall.Free entry, snacks and refreshments, a prize for the winning team and a monster raffle which guar-antees (almost) everyone a prize!
AiM would like to welcome the following new member Valerie Smith
AiM Annual Membership Rates
Individual Membership £9.00 or £4.50 if in full time educationFamily Membership £12.00, School Membership £18.00Corporate Membership is available on application
AiM Committee Meetings
All members are welcome to attend all AiM meetings The Main Committee Meeting - 7.30pm on Tuesday 1st December
The Fieldwork/Research Meeting - 7.30pm - To be announced
AiM Committee Members
Chairman Vacant Secretary Kathy Bragg01628 631952 - [email protected] Acting Treasurer Ann Pitwell 9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT 01628 [email protected] Membership Secretary Gerry Platten12 The Croft, Marlow SL7 1UP01628 472126 Field Work Co-ordinator John Laker 9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT01628 481792 - [email protected]
News sheet compiler Gerry Palmer 01494 637499 [email protected]
