SUSTAINABILITY

grave goods (including 24 amber and
paste beads, 2 pairs of copper alloy
sleeve clasps and a copper alloy
swastika brooch) all indicated an
Anglian date for the burial. Permission
was subsequently granted for a small
trench to be excavated by Professor
Rosemary Cramp in order to see if the
burial was part of a larger cemetery.
Members of the Operation Nightingale team excavating the Roman building at Marne Barracks © Crown
the Base. In a field to the south of the
runway, the excavation of an
archaeology trench was preceded by
an ordnance sweep undertaken by Keri
Thomas of the DIO Environment and
Planning Support Explosive Ordnance
Clearance (EOC) team. More than
fifteen 2” smoke mortars were
recovered, probably fired during
training exercises during World War II,
and clearly demonstrating the
importance of the EOC search prior to
an archaeological excavation.
In 1939 workmen digging foundation
trenches for a new ammunition store
discovered building remains and a
skeleton buried with a large Anglian
cruciform brooch of 5th – 6th century
AD date. Subsequent rescue excavation
revealed evidence for a total of three
rooms, pottery from the end of the 3rd
century AD and first half of the 4th
century and three skeletons. The rooms
may have formed a block of buildings
associated with a possible Roman villa.
A further archaeological intervention
was carried out on almost the same
spot in 1966 after a burial with grave
goods had been discovered whilst
digging the footings for a signpost
immediately west of the Catholic
Chapel. Although the police originally
removed the body and grave goods,
these were later returned for study.
The attitude of the skeleton and the
What goes round…comes round and
49 years later Dame Rosemary Cramp
came back to the site... only this time at
the invitation of the Operation
Nightingale Team who were working at
Marne Barracks in summer 2015.
Operation Nightingale is an initiative
established by DIO and the Defence
Archaeology Group (DAG) to use
archaeological fieldwork to help the
recovery and wellbeing of wounded
injured and sick military personnel and
veterans. At Marne Barracks part of
Rosemary Cramp’s original trench was
enlarged and produced further Anglo-
Saxon burials and an additional room of
the Roman building. The Operation
Nightingale Exercise was supported by
CarillionAmey/Morgan Sindall the Joint
Venture responsible for upgrading the
A1 in the area adjacent to Marne and
by 5th Regiment the Royal Artillery (the
Yorkshire Gunners) who hosted a curry
night in the Officer’s Mess at the start of
the dig. The Commanding Officer, the
Quartermaster and other officers
attended together with Karl Poole, a
former RAF Regiment Sergeant who
gave a keynote speech about his
positive experiences on Operation
Nightingale excavations. After the
dig had finished the site director,
Dr Stephen Sherlock, and members
of the Operation Nightingale team, put
together a booklet which included
personal recollections of the
participants and highlights of the
Exercise. By their account it was a great
success. DIO and DAG can make it
happen, but only the participants can
make it a triumph!
Phil Abramson
Archaeology Advisor
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Mortars recovered by the EOC team prior to the archaeological investigation © Crown
SANCTUARY 45 2016
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