Coldharbour Plain

Guest post by Stellar Diggins: A tale of country folk in old Wiltshire....

CHAPTER TWO

Pomona Poste came down to breakfast a little after nine to find the farmhouse utterly deserted, save for a muttering from behind Aunt Awenna Threefold's bedroom door, which she had never so far seen opened. It sounded like: "I saw somethin' NARSTY inna Museum...".  Making her way downstairs to the kitchen, she replaced the kettle on the Aga and made a pot of her precious recaffeinated coffee she had thought to bring with her.

Not liking the look of anything in the cupboards, Pomona was idly flicking through her copy of British Archaeology and waiting for her coffee to cool, when the door banged open and Amairghin Starkadder stomped in and sat down heavily, glaring at her across the table.  Pomona affected not to notice.

A silence ensued, as of the brooding tension between the waiting, round-bellied earth and the burgeoning, ballooning thunderclouded sky in the heat of late harvesting.

"I ha' scranletted a' the way down from Cursus Acre up to Barrowight Hill," said Amairghin Starkadder eventually.  

"Did you, really?" Pomona exclaimed, wondering what on earth scranletting was.

A longer silence followed, broken only by Amairghin munching his way through a bowl of ayurvedic museli.

Pomona sipped her coffee, and perused an article on a neolithic burial of someone who had been shot full of arrows who they were calling The Boscombe Bowman. Finally Amairghin pushed the bowl away from him for Ash Mistcalf the hired man, to 'cletter', as they called it, and began to roll a spliff.

"Ar." He said, affirmatively. Then, after a pause: "Could you a' done that?"

Pomona looked up from her article. "No, Cousin Amairghin, I'm sure I couldn't - and I wouldn't want to, anyway."

'Ar". Amairghin snorted. "I 'spec' you wouldn't, neither. Rather get a site supervisor in, I reckon you would, from Wessex Archaeology, an' a whole team o' diggers. Or maybe they Time Team fellers an' camera crews, an' suchlike."

Amairghin shuddered, then lit up. Then he resumed:

"Hear me, Cousin Pomona - I ha' nursed this sacred landscape like a sick mommet, man an' boy, these thirty year or more. Many's the round barrow I ha' scranletted over, an' many's the Bronze Age burial urn I've re-cremated." He blew a long cloud of green smoke across the table, as if to illustrate.

Pomona did her best to dissemble her mounting sense of horror. These Wiltshire Starkadders were even worse, more backward and ignorant, than her other cousins the Sussex Starkadders that Great Aunt Flora had told her about, before she had reformed them all with what she called The Higher Common Sense. Here they were, scranletting - was that a metal detector by the door, next to Cousin Amairghin's
wellingtons? - prehistoric artefacts on Coldharbour Plain, and - well - destroying them!

"Haven't you heard of The Portable Antiquities Scheme?" Pomona asked. 

Amairghin's eyes narrowed. "Oh, ar. We don' 'ave nuthin' to do with he. Bronze Age bones is for re-cremation, to send 'un back to uns rest, an' their jewellery - well - 'tes ours, ain't it?"

"Yours?!" Pomona declined the spliff Amairghin held out to her, with a wave of her hand. "Don't you think they belong to everybody?"

"Nah. Course not. They'm our ancestors, up Barrowight Hill, look.  They's always been Starkadders on Coldharbour Plain. So the gold torcs and amber beads an' copper alloy bracelets, is our heirlooms. Nobody else's. Not for folk to gawk at in no museum. 'Twould be flyin' in the face o' the ancestors. 'Tes disrespectful.

Amarirghin's brow furrowed in thought as he took another toke. "See here, Cousin Pomona. You'm Robyn Poste's child. You wouldn' sift her ashes out o' the bed o' the River Awen an' put 'em in a peepshow, would you? But you wears her old pentacle. No. 'Tes disrespectful, to do anythin' diff'rent. Jewellery belongs in the family."

Pomona forced a cheery smile at her eldest cousin. "Well, Cousin Amairghin, I certainly don't want your portable antiquities, and I'm not qualified to say how you should farm your land -"

"- sacred landscape," Amairghin interrupted.

"- how to look after your sacred landscape, but just think - if Uncle Dagda were to - go off on a long lecture tour - a very long, international lecture tour - about Honouring The Ancestral Dead, don't you see - the Sarsen Grove round the farm would be yours to - er - scranlett - as much as you liked. In Uncle Dagda's absence, there needn't be another Hereditary Chief Archdruid of Wiltshire."

Amairghin's eyes blazed and his saturnine face split open in a wide, toothy grin. He lurched forward, and seized Pomona's hand. "By the Goddess, Cousin Pomona, I misjudged yer! Would you - could you - talk to the old man about it? He'd never listen to me, but you -" and his voice tailed off as he sat back, drew a long lungful of weed and slowly exhaled, his ruddy countenance beaming like a child's as he
reflected on the possibilities of Pomona's suggestion.

"I'll go and talk to him this minute if you like, said Pomona. "Where would he be this morning?"

"Away with the Quivering Aspen Grove over at Herne Abbot's, picketing they television fashionistas who be feminizing the Long Giant for a wimmin's underwear documentary."

"I'll take the Range Rover, then," said Pomona over her shoulder as she made for the door. "And by the way, Amairghin - a struggling British farmer on an SMR-listed site can make a lot of money out of portable antiquities. More than the Ministry of Defence pays you for scranletting up unexploded bombs. And much more than DEFRA pay you for not immunising your cows against bovine TB. You might even be able to afford to grow some food. "

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Readers wishing to know about the adventures of Flora Poste among the Starkadders of Sussex might want to read the very great Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, of which I and the author of the above are both devoted fans.

TAG -Theoretical Archaeology Group conference 2008

So I submitted an abstract for TAG 2008...

Our silent ancestors:
an exploration of the discursive construction of issues around ancient British human remains

There is currently some discussion among museum staff (Levitt and Coats, 2006) and archaeologists (Carroll, 2005: 1) about how best to treat ancient human remains. Some druids (Davies, 1998) have been calling for the reburial of all ancient British human remains, partly in response to the perceived greater respect given to Christian remains, and partly in response to calls by indigenous peoples in other parts of the world for the repatriation and reburial of their ancestors (Wallis and Blain, 2004: 3). Pagans' responses to this issue vary considerably, but illustrate the interrelationship between their spiritual and other concerns. Amongst the respondents of my study, I identified two main groups; those who took a broadly holistic and ahistorical view of the past, and wanted remains reburied eventually; and those who took a more scientific and historical view, and wanted remains to be studied. They also felt that their positions were not the only possible ones, acknowledging the validity of other views, as is quite common among Pagans. However, Pagans form a significant sector of the heritage audience, so the diversity of Pagan discourse should be considered in formulation of policy (Blain and Wallis, 2007a: 10-11).

In order to explore the various discursive positions occupied by Pagans in relation to this issue, qualitative interviews were selected as the best method for this project because they can elicit 'multiple and contradictory perspectives' (Burck, 2005: 241).

Clearly, with such a small sample, it is not possible to generalise about all Pagans; there are several different contemporary Pagan traditions. All that I can describe is how these particular Pagans frame their talk discursively, and compare it to the writings of others on this theme.

Currently, 'official' discourse largely doubts the 'legitimacy' of Pagan concerns, some even dismissing them as 'frivolous' (Blain and Wallis, 2007b: 10), but this has begun to change. It seems that the issue of human remains is now firmly on the agenda, though it remains to be seen whether the multiplicity of Pagan voices will be heard, especially of those who do not want to see remains reburied.

Don't know if they will like it.

CHAT 2007

Joint paper by me & Nick at CHAT 2007.

Archaeology & Paganisms: a clash of cultures?
Nick Hanks & Yvonne Aburrow, English Heritage & Bath Spa University.

Both science and religion involve a form of faith; the former involves faith in reason and the scientific method; the latter involves faith in the unseen or spiritual realm.
However, the purview of science extends only to the material realm, as science chooses to exclude the spiritual realm from consideration.

Archaeology is sometimes claimed to be a science, sometimes an art, and perhaps even a craft. Its practitioners range from rationalist scientific materialists to postmodern theorists. Both ends of the spectrum look down on the other.

Paganisms are sometimes thought of as religions, sometimes as spirituality, art or craft. Pagans range from counter-cultural festival-goers (the ones most visibly encountered by the heritage sector) to academics and professionals (including archaeologists) attracted by the intellectual and spiritual heritage of ancient paganisms, and the post-modern attitude of contemporary Pagans, who acknowledge
the multivalency of truths. There is sometimes conflict between the two ends of the
spectrum in Paganisms.

Both archaeology and contemporary Paganisms have their origins in the modern and
post-modern discourses of the last three hundred years. Both are misrepresented
by the media (as explored in "Archaeology is a Brand", Holtorf 2007). Despite this,
both are proving to be highly popular. Both Archaeology and Paganisms have an
institutional, organised aspect (IFA and Pagan Federation). Both have an experimental aspect which is often misunderstood (the recent excavation of the Ford Transit, and Chaos Magicians who perform Tellytubbies rituals). Both have a maverick anti-establishment fringe from which they seek to disassociate themselves (metal detectorists and Stonehenge protesters), but which those outside the discourse regard as the same group.

Ironically, the two extremes (hardened rationalists among archaeologists and
counter-cultural holists among Pagans) have more in common with each other than
they do with the rest of their respective discourses, in that they are disinclined to
listen to others’ perspectives. Sadly it is these who generally get the media attention.

The more moderate in both discourses are inclined towards compromise and
dialogue – an example of hope and charity.

There has sometimes been conflict between archaeologists and Pagans (in the areas
of human remains and access to sacred sites), but due to their shared origins, there
has more often been considerable mutual influence between Paganisms and
archaeology; for example landscape archaeology drew on the earth mysteries
tradition for ideas of phenomenology; and contemporary Pagans have revised their
foundational myths in response to developments in archaeological and historical
theories. This paper developed from the research and personal experience of the
two authors in both Paganism and Archaeology. Both practice Wicca and Druidry.