What on earth was the occasion?

A curious pair of photos from either 1988 or 1989 from the Phillpotts archive. The team seems to have taken a break, or organised a party or decided in Arwel Barrett's case upon a nap in the middle of what is plainly an exhibition about the excavation featuring a hand-shovel and a catbasher pinned to the wall above Penny's head. Also featured are Ros Cleal and Bernie Dawson. Can anyone recall the event?

Not for website publication ...

This 1988 or 1989 photo of Jill Hummerstone's bears the caption "Dodgy goings-on in a field: not for website publication": so I've respected her wishes up to a point ...

Experimental archaeology 11: here are some she made earlier ...

Perhaps Dr Cleal can remember whether this was the triumphant result of the experimental potting which she did in either 1988 or 1989? They certainly look very fine, but it's hard to tell (for me at least) what stage in the process had been reached when the Chronicler took this picture. And what's she doing? Singing into an imaginary microphone? Examining a broken nail? The legs on the left behind Ros belong to Steve Vaughan.

Experimental archaeology 10: baking potatoes ...

Perhaps Ros Cleal will recall what she was actually doing in this photo sent to me by Manda Jones: getting ready to fish out the baked potatoes? Measuring something - temperature? Figuring where the pots are under the heap? Probably from 1988 or 1989.

Experimental archaeology 8: Dr Cleal the Potter part two

Ros looks as though she is feeling her way gingerly around the edge of this pot searching for any cracks or weaknesses in the rim before consigning the pots to firing. There appears to be more than one episode of potting: this photograph was taken by Phil, but when you compare it with the picture which I posted some months ago taken by Dr Phillpotts she's wearing different clothes.  Then again she is wearing the same clothes as she is in the Dixon photograph in this other Phillpotts shot.  Perhaps Dr Cleal can remember whether there was more than one potting episode in 1988 or 1989, - whichever year it was - or whether she did a quick change during the course of the day?

CH88 or 89: Steve Vaughan's cutting

Unless there were two photographic towers I'm not entirely sure how Dr Phillpotts managed to get sufficiently high to take his photograph whilst the photographic tower is in shot on the far side of the cutting.  Depicted is the Long Mount cutting supervised by Steve Vaughan in 1988 or 1989. when Dr Ferris and I were looking at this a few weeks ago we noticed that there appears to be a quadrant of a circle which rather looks as if it might be the circular enclosure of the shrine described and pictured in Richard Savage's 1988 booklet 'Crickley Hill: Village, Shrine and Fortress'. But I'm now wondering whether we were right because the timings look a bit tight given that the booklet was published in 1988 and this, according to Dr Phillpotts, is a photograph taken either in that season or the one after.  I must seek enlightenment from Richard.

Experimental archaeology 6: a watched pot never fires ...

Waiting for it to happen: Steve Vaughan, Nick Snashall and Ros Cleal hang about, in Steve's case hopping from foot to foot while pouring tea from his mug on the ground behind him, whilst waiting for the pots to fire.  This is the latest in the 1988 or 1989 series showing various experiments.  Nick seems to be half way through a sandwich to pass the time and Ros seems to be sucking a lemon.  I suppose it may just be that the colours are fading in Dr Phillpotts's original photo and it's an orange ... perhaps Ros can enlighten us?

From a freezing garret in Shrewsbury ...

... the Chronicler, Dr Phillpotts, his mittened fingers almost paralysed with cold, taps out a message on the keyboard: "I am glad to see that the Crickley blog continues to attract attention. Amongst the things I have noticed recently is your query about the Yellow Bus and the Hula Hoop Frenzy. You may not be aware that after the Yellow Bus became redundant in 1989(?), being not so much a white elephant as a yellow elephant, it was adopted by the supervisors' circle as a semi-illicit after-hours drinking den called the Yellow Elephant Club. In this it was the successor to Naughty Nicky's (a caravan in the car park) 1983-1985, and the Boudoir (a room filled with mattresses at the end of the Brick House) 1986-1988(?). Despite our efforts to promote the sleazy aspects of these establishments, proceedings were usually quite sedate, lapsing only occasionally into the orgiastic. The Hula Hoop Frenzy refers to one night in the Yellow Elephant Club when Joanne consumed a bottle of white wine and several packets of Hula Hoops in pretty short order before retiring. When Steve followed her a little while afterwards he found her lying on her back with her head poking out of the downhill end of their tent,  at which point Steve decided that what she really needed was a walk round the car park and a cup of strong black coffee. Of course it was the Hula Hoops that did it, hence the name. Why Jock should be putting his finger in Nicky's ear I don't know. It joins other such notably named events as the Dance of the One Cagoul and the Night of the Exploding Schoolgirl. "

I think I want to hear more about the Night of the Exploding Schoolgirl, please ...  did we ever tell her parents?

Experimental archaeology 5

Back to the Phillpotts 1988 or 1989 experimental sequence.  Here, L to R, Terry Courtney, Nick Snashall, Ros Cleal, Arwel Barrett, ? and Phil Dixon watch intently to see whether the pots, which appear to have attained their finished state, are going to move of their own accord ...

Experimental Archaeology 4: but what is Julie doing?

I can't figure out what Julie Fissenden is doing in this photo: it looks as though a fair-sized log has been upended and then had a fire built around its base.  It seems to have been burned about half way through without falling over.  And what's the whiteish thing that Julie is adding to the fire? There are a couple of other similar items on the right side of the fire.  Magnified they look like bones or scrolls.  General mystification.

"Come come, Crickley Man, it is all very clear. Julie F is stoking the fires (by throwing on a billet) around a make-believe house post, to see whether the burning of a house would cause posts to char below the level of the ground surface. Postholes, you see, regularly have charcoal in their infill. The answer, however, is probably not. The charcoal must derive from other sources, rather than the burning of the post itself. Clear?  Phil."

Clear!

For once a cutting that looks a little bit untidy ...

Iain Ferris was speaking approvingly, a few weeks ago here, of the soundness of the training given on the excavation and the rules by which an orderly and safe site was maintained.  He also recalled how neatly the cuttings were left.  Amongst the many photos I have, this is about as untidy as it got, and if that's the worst I can find, the team did well. Deduct half a mark for the buckets left the right way up rather upside down during the break to protect tools from rain showers.  Turf stack in background squared up nicely.  

I've been trying to work out where this cutting was on the hill but have failed.  Back of the rampart? North side of hill? Perhaps I'm being confused by the way the ground comes down in steps and drops away, but the shelf stops at the edge of the cutting.

Update: Dixon rides to the rescue: "The latest blog has just about fooled me, but I think that it is a view of the Long Mound valley during or just before backfilling, showing the LM itself dug and reconstructed as a made up pile with the turf neatly on it (as you mention), and the strange mounds on the left ready for backfilling over the area of cleaned bedrock in the foreground and the centre. Viewed from high up (but not the top of) the photo tower, looking SE. Should be about cutting T5, and about 1986 or so????????"

Experimental archaeology 3: Dr Cleal the potter

Clay, tempering, water, and Cleal are the necessary requirements for these pots which Ros made for the experimental archaeology open day in 1988 or 1989 - Dr Phillpotts is unclear about which year - can anyone recall?  Having enlarged the photo I can see that Ros is applying some fingertip decoration to the pot in her hands.  I think I can see, but it may just be a trick of the light, some colour applied to the pot sitting in front of her.   

Resting in the shade between the huts ...

Some of the pictures taken during the teabreaks and lunchbreak seem, with the benefit of many years' hindsight, to have a virtuous, exhausted contentment about them: it must have been all that exercise and fresh air. Here in 1988 or 1989, from the Phillpotts archive, L to R: Sally, Ian Wykes, Rob, Richard Ozanne and Alan Ford (according to the caption Alan "The Sheep" Ford - presumably a hairstyle reference ...)

Steve Vaughan and his cutting ...

The mists of time have fogged the Phillpotts memory so he's not sure whether this is 1988 or 1989: it looks a little Long Mound-ish? Any light that you could shed Steve, please when you see this post? The feature in the foreground looks intriguing - some kind of fence line perhaps? Any illumination would be welcome ...  Note that even though Steve is standing in a hole, the top of his head is still above the height of the person next to him!

Experimental archaeology 2: John Gale having a knap ...

Another Phillpotts shot from the 1988 or 1989 experimental archaeology open day - here's John Gale, sitting on a rubber bucket, flint knapping with the aid of a piece of carpet, a lump of limestone as a board and a rather fetching pair of gloves.

What was this all about? Answers on the e-mail, please

I haven't had a chance to discuss what led to this pair of photos with Dr Phillpotts. Was a party ever held in the Yellow Bus? No drinks are on show. Careful comparison of the 2 photographs shows the following. In the top one, Joanne is between Nick, whose sleeve can be matched to the lower picture, and Steve, whose ear and eye are recognisable.  Steve has his pullover on.  Joanne appears to be eating Hula Hoops. Indeed Dr Phillpotts's album title mentions a "Hula Hoop frenzy".  The frenzy must have been heated, because by the time of the second photo, Joanne has turned into Jock Bruce, and is kindly cleaning Nick's ear and Steve has taken his pullover off. Clear interpretation of the archaeological record is sometimes hard to achieve ...

Late 20th Century encampment ...

View from the Neolithic enclosure bank towards the Iron Age Rampart with late 20th century encampment in the middle. Dated to 1988 or 1989 by careful examination of the food residues ... Did the number of huts creep up over the years? Think it might be Terry Courtney sitting in the chair to the right of the black van.

One man and his section ..

Intense focus from Malcom White as he sits in his feature and measures the vertical section with a tape measure: short steel tapes were used for sections: the long fabric blue tapes, like the one sitting on the edge of the cutting in the bottom corner of the picture, were used for plotting the locations within the 10m cutting squares of the individual finds. Of which there were, over the years, more than a million. Which is an awful lot of measuring so it's just as well those tapes were robust. From the 1988 or 1989 Phillpotts archive.

Experimental archaeology 1

I will have to rely on those present (L to R Joanne Milroy, John Gale, Steve Vaughan, ?, Ros Cleal, Rebecca Chambers & Arwel Barrett) to give an account of the objectives and the achievements of this tableau from the Phillpotts archive, as I was not around: Chris thinks this was 1988 or 1989. So what were you all up to? Carving? Chiselling? Firing pots? Baking potatoes?