Do you recognise these archaeologists?

This remarkable photo shows an excavation team in Dorset in 1970. At the time of posting this, we’ve been able to identify 35 of the people there, but 18 remain unknown to us [updated, currently 36/17]. Can you help?

The story begins in Wiltshire, near Stonehenge, in 1966. The council had decided to straighten a road that passed close to Woodhenge. Unfortunately, it passed through a significant prehistoric monument, but one about which little was known: Durrington Walls. In an unprecedented decision, the Department of the Environment approved a proposal by Geoffrey Wainwright, an archaeologist then at the beginning of a distinguished career, to excavate before the road was moved.

The result was dramatic. Wainwright upset the archaeological establishment by bringing in a large crew and machinery – including a fleet of excavators and dumper trucks. They dug a huge area, and discovered two great circular, ritual timber structures of the same era as Stonehenge. Up to then, only two comparable constructions were known, at Woodhenge and up at Avebury at the Sanctuary; it was assumed they were unique.

Inspired by this, Geoff Wainwright went on to dig at two other large Wessex henges, at Marden in Wiltshire and Mount Pleasant in Dorset. Both sites were under plough, and again the Department of the Environment paid for the work. The project to investigate the three henges was one of the great achievements of 20th-century British archaeology.

The excavations were run by a core team of highly skilled archaeologists, backed by paid labour at Durrington and volunteers on subsistence pay at the others. People lived on site, in tents and caravans. The digs were temporary, secret communities with a mission, where friendships were made and broken, drunken labourers were sacked, discoveries and setbacks were shared. There was little health and safety, and fashionable dress consisted of sandals and shorts.

The photo at the top shows the Mount Pleasant gang. It surfaced after British Archaeology magazine carried a feature by Susan Greaney about her new research into that great henge. The earthwork, known then only as cropmarks, was sampled by Wainwright and his team in 1970 and 1971. They discovered a long sequence of events between 2600 and 2400BC, including the construction of a circular timber and megalithic monument (above, a clip from the magazine feature), and a massive palisade encircling the hill top.

In the magazine feature, Susan Greaney asked if anyone had photos of the dig: most of the original photographic archive has been lost. The search continues, but this is one shot that was sent in. It was taken by Peter Sandiford, Wainwright’s photographer at the time, and sent to the magazine – which I edit – by Peter Addison. He was a Mount Pleasant digger, and says that anyone who paid and left their address was sent a copy. This is his print.

I was a bit surprised to see it, as I’d been among the volunteer diggers at the site and knew nothing about the photoshoot. But then I saw someone in the back who I thought might be me, and others confirmed it was! I have no recollection of it at all, and my poor memory also means there are many there I probably knew at the time I don’t now recognise.

Some of them became archaeologists (among them myself and Keith Ray, now Honorary Professor in Archaeology at Cardiff University – we were at school doing A levels at the time). Some pursued entirely unrelated careers. Some married each other, and some are no longer with us.

Do you recognise anyone? Are you there? Do you have a story to tell?

8 thoughts on “Do you recognise these archaeologists?”

Apart from being a stunningly interesting site to work on with a great team of people, digging in the palisade trench at Mount Pleasant (very deep, very narrow) taught me to completely ignore wasps- lashing out at a wasp with a hand-shovel risked dislodging the fragile chalk bedrock sides to the trench. At break times, someone had to come round with a ladder to help each of us climb out of our individual sections. Some of our leisure time was spent in the local hostelry- the Trumpet Major (celebrating Thomas Hardy country). It was one of those characterless out-of-town post-war pubs built to catch ‘passing motor car’ trade. Not reknowned for our sartorial elegance (exemplified in the digging team photo) the landlord was torn between profitable beer sales and upsetting the locals by serving such scruffy rapscallions. We were rather pleased that the sign had lost its initial ‘T’. The locals were supporting the Rumpet Major.

My main memory of excavating is on the Site IV structure, wearing down my new trowel scraping chalk to white to make postholes stand out. I used the same trowel at my excavations at Stonehenge, which i realise now began only 9 years later, in my memory they were a liftetime apart. I was well trained at MP, my first, and other excavations. I loved Dorchester, the pub, the chip shop, the bookshop where i bought a copy of John Michell’s new A View over Atlantis (someone on the dig was a leyline convert), later bumping into John over the years

My dad took some B&W photos of the Durrington Walls dig. It was on a day when Reg Prentice visited (Minister of Public Buildings and Works). Geoff Wainwright is very evident. I’m even in some of the photos myself as a 7 year-old lad fascinated by the finds trays.

I’d love to see those!

I have no recollection of this being taken. Well done to whoever was able to identify so many of the diggers. Please add my name. I am in the middle row to the left, with long dark hair, standing in front of the person wearing a hat. I carried on digging for another three years before going to UCL to do a degree in Early Medieval Archaeology. I am currently writing up the results of a community project researching the Anglo-Saxon period in Romsey and the Lower Test Valley.

That’s great, thanks Karen, another archaeologist! It’s been a bit of group project, many of the identifications were made by Dave Buckley, Pete Addison, Jeff Coppen and George Smith