CHACRCRITIQUE JULY 2024
#10
TO THE GREEN FIELDS BEYOND
Published by Oxbow, Hardback, £25 ISBN: 9781789259384
TITLE Broken Pots, Mending Lives: The Archaeology of Operation Nightingale AUTHOR Richard Osgood REVIEWER Dr Timothy Clack, Oxford University and CHACR
The connections between soldiering and archaeology are long-standing, and derive, in part, from the shared features of mapping, fieldwork and large-scale, task-orientated deployment of people and equipment. T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) was an archaeologist before he was a soldier, and Augustus Pitt-Rivers, whose founding collection was the genesis of the Pitt Rivers Museum, made the opposite transition. In its overview of the origins, growth and merits of Operation Nightingale, Broken Pots, Mending Lives makes evident further military-archaeology crossovers linked to recovery, wellbeing and transition. Operation Nightingale, a Ministry of Defence initiative to assist wounded, injured and sick military personnel and veterans, has been running since 2011. The book’s author, Richard Osgood, is a senior archaeologist in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and runs its archaeology programme. The title is structured around eight chapters, and also includes an introduction, conclusion, further reading and index. The work is accessible
to the general reader and production values are high. The contents are illustrated sumptuously in colour throughout helping to tell the story but also bring the trenches, sites and landscapes to life. The book describes aspects of Operation Nightingale’s various deployments to date. The diversity of these – in time and space – is a real highlight. These include: Netheravon (Neolithic); East Chisenbury (Iron Age); Barrow Clump and Avon Camp (Anglo-Saxon); Barton Farm, Winchester (1770s); Burrow Island (1840s); Bullecourt, Normandy (World War I); and Aldbourne Camp (World War 2). The features excavated range from feasting sites, barrows and burial grounds to battlefields, military encampments and a Spitfire crash site. The book describes how participants have engaged not only in survey and excavation but also the analyses of aerial photography, documentary research in archives and experimental archaeology. The latter ranging from pot-making, blacksmithing and preparing ancient foods to the construction of a Bronze Age roundhouse using period materials, tools and methods.
BROKEN POTS, MENDING LIVES // CHACR CRITIQUE