The archaeological techniques being employed by Oxford Archaeology at the Pheasant Wood, Fromelles site for the exhumation of the remains of World War 1 soldiers buried by the German Army has recently been criticised in the Australian Press. This has prompted Richard Wright, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology from Sydney University to comment from first hand experience on the techniques being used by Oxford Archaeology.
Photo: Air Commodore Steve Martin, Pheasant Wood May 2009 [Chris Munro]
The Australian newspaper carried this report, written by Leigh Dayton, on Tuesday 18 August:
A WORLD expert on forensic archeology says verbal attacks on a British team excavating the World War I burial site at Fromelles in France are unfounded.
Richard Wright, a senior forensic adviser to the group, Oxford Archaeology, headed groups that located and excavated mass graves in the former Yugoslavia and graves of victims of the Nazi Holocaust in Ukraine.
The Sydney University emeritus professor said claims yesterday in Fairfax newspapers that methods used by Oxford Archaeology were a “nightmare” and “wickedness” were untrue and showed complete ignorance of basic archaeological procedures.
“My view is that the ‘nightmare’ and the ‘wickedness’ rest not with Oxford Archaeology, but with a reporter that furthers untruths,” Professor Wright told The Australian. “These disturb both relatives of the dead and the stakeholders in the Fromelles project.”
Oxford Archaeology won the contract to recover the remains of up to 400 Australian and British soldiers killed during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. There has been speculation that Fairfax’s negative coverage stems from one of the two failed bidders, one in Glasgow and the other in Birmingham.
Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, acknowledged the reports, saying: “I am aware of some criticism of excavation measures and water management at the site at Fromelles, which has appeared in media reports. I am advised that such claims are untrue.”
The key allegation is that Oxford Archaeology has compromised the project by “going deep into the centre of graves instead of working meticulously layer by layer”.
The debate on archaeological methods has continued with a further article in the Fairfax Press by Paola Totaro on Wednesday 19 August. The article in The Sydney Morning Herald asserts that there is “mounting controversy about the way the men’s remains have been excavated as well as the tender process won by the private company, Oxford Archaeology.”
However, the article cites Air Commodore Steve Martin, the Head of Australian Defence Staff in London as saying that concerns raised with the British Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group had come from someone ”who had not been on the site since work began” in May earlier this year.
The report also includes comments from Dr Tony Pollard of Director of the Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology who led the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) team for the original evaluation dig in 2007, that there is ”a tremendous amount of confusion about what is happening and we really need more transparency”.
Read The Sydney Morning Herald article by clicking here.
The latest progress reports on the fieldwork as part of the exhumation process are available on the Remembering Fromelles website for 10 August and 3 August and the Australian Army Fromelles website for 17 Augustand can be accessed by clicking on the following links. These give some insights into the archaeological techniques being used as well as the progress.
10 August: Oxford Archaeology’s Louise Loe reports on progress in the field
17 August Fromelles Project Update
*****
The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, announced by The Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Kevan Jones MP, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery presently under construction at Fromelles.