Battlefield Excavations to Begin
It has been announced today that excavations on the Flodden battlefield at Branxton will commence on the 2nd September and run to the 12th September. The aim of these excavations will be to locate and characterise any remains, so that evidence can be provided to the government to allow the burials be declared war graves or protected from further intrusion as scheduled ancient monuments. These works will target the sites of body pits identified in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries during works to lay water and drainage pipes. With more than 10000 dead on the battlefield a question the archaeological team working on the project are frequently asked during talks and site visits is ‘what happened to all the bodies?’ The answer to this question is simple, with a few notable exceptions (primarily Scottish nobles and royalty), they were buried, as quickly as possible and as close as was possible to where they fell. Supervised by professionals from the Flodden 1513 project and the Archaeological Practice Ltd (Newcastle), the team working on these excavations are primarily volunteers from across the north of England and Scotland. They will spend the two weeks targeting the results of geophysical surveys in the hope of locating the exact spots where these burials took place. Currently it is not planned to exhume (remove) any of the remains, just simply record their location and the state of their preservation in the hope that government agencies (including English Heritage) will seek, with any evidence the team can provide, to protect the remains in the future. Christopher Burgess, the Flodden 1513 Project Archaeological Manger explains the background further: ‘We are acutely aware that these are war graves and will be treating any remains found with the utmost respect. There is an overriding aim to locate these body pits so that the last resting places of some of the dead of both nations who fell on Flodden Field 500 years ago can be protected.’ There are still some places left for volunteers to join in this investigation. As a volunteer, no previous experience is necessary, just an interest in learning about archaeological techniques. All training will be provided on site by the professional experts involved. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact the project by email [email protected] for further information and to book a place. Anyone wanting to visit the excavation sites, which are in adjacent fields to the west of Flodden Field, are more than welcome to do so. To see what the archaeological team are finding, the site will be open to all visitors from the 3rd-11th September between 10am and 4pm.
