"Late Roman or early Saxon period" mutilated corpses from Cambridgeshire

[Jim Webster]

Old school journalism used to drum into heads the mantra of 'what, where, when, how and who'. If it was an opinion piece, you had the luxury of why. Sadly, the distinction between opinion and news has become so blurred, it is hardly surprising you complain. The outsourcing of sub-editing to huge hubs in countries with cheap labour further disconnects the writer and reader. And always the pressure to create a throw away read that will prove irrestible so the advertising can be flogged.

add to this the problem that the money is drying up. So yes, a lot of articles can be seen as 'click bait' to encourage people to buy the paper and to advertise in it
Local newspapers have taken this to another level with the posters they have in the street advertising that night's evening paper

It's rare the story matches the headline on the poster, but writing the poster is becoming a competitive art form in itself.
The North West Evening Mail is probably hoping for an award for the imaginative use of the word 'probe'

[Erpingham]

I suspect the problem with the piece is that newspapers don't have archaeology correspondents as once they did.  The sensationalism of the burial probably owes itself to the press release.  If I wanted to get coverage for my dig, it's what I would lead with.  Some of the other bits, quoting the archaeologists about Hadrian's Wall for example, are more press release populism, picking up on something the lay public will have heard of .  But other parts of the press release probably actually made more logical reading before they were seemingly randomly distributed about the article and key evidence discarded by a journalist who didn't understand it but had a deadline to meet.

Patrick picks up another interesting oddment.  They claim evidence of farming inside the "enclosure".  Is this inside the Roman ditched enclosure or inside the previous civilian one?  If the Roman one, ploughing would have removed any sign of insubstantial structures.

[Patrick Waterson]

Patrick picks up another interesting oddment.  They claim evidence of farming inside the "enclosure".  Is this inside the Roman ditched enclosure or inside the previous civilian one?  If the Roman one, ploughing would have removed any sign of insubstantial structures.

A good observation.  I think (and this is conjecture based on agriculture occurring within the ditched area) we are looking at someone's attempt to keep a fortification and food supply going simultaneously, much like a traditional hill fort (sdubject to the usual caveats about hill forts).  This would suggest that hostile forces had free run of the countryside, and that the said hostile forces were not very good at sieges.  Hence we may have - given the usual caveats - some form of semi-permanent settlement by embattled Late Post-Roman British who were trying to hold their own amid a Saxon-controlled, or at least infested, land.

That is my best effort at reconciling the various driblets of information we have.

Old school journalism used to drum into heads the mantra of 'what, where, when, how and who'. If it was an opinion piece, you had the luxury of why. Sadly, the distinction between opinion and news has become so blurred, it is hardly surprising you complain. The outsourcing of sub-editing to huge hubs in countries with cheap labour further disconnects the writer and reader. And always the pressure to create a throw away read that will prove irrestible so the advertising can be flogged.

Very true, Doug: a few decades ago one could get a newspaper and look forward to reading some good informed comment from people who really knew their field.  The era of the internet and the superficial 'ad-byte' seems to have largely put paid to that.

[Mark G]

If ever there was a place for putting a chronological context around a statement, it would be stating that there was evidence of farming in the area, in the context of an archaeological dig in a non urban area .

[Dangun]

Very true, Doug: a few decades ago one could get a newspaper and look forward to reading some good informed comment from people who really knew their field.  The era of the internet and the superficial 'ad-byte' seems to have largely put paid to that.

While true, to be fair, its probably the high school summer intern sitting on the "archaeology desk."

And its the same Internet that has enabled/could enable specialist publications Slingshot to find a larger audience.

[DougM]

Very true, Doug: a few decades ago one could get a newspaper and look forward to reading some good informed comment from people who really knew their field.  The era of the internet and the superficial 'ad-byte' seems to have largely put paid to that.

While true, to be fair, its probably the high school summer intern sitting on the "archaeology desk."

And its the same Internet that has enabled/could enable specialist publications Slingshot to find a larger audience.

And gives us immediate access to an array of sources that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago, methods of sharing and review that are unparalleled, and opportunity to get input from experts worldwide, in near real time.

For me, living where I have been, simply doing the research I have, would be unthinkable without being in a large university town with a well stocked library, to which I had access.

[RichT]

These are from the A14 excavations (A14C2H) - a recent (most recent?) issue of Current Archaeology has a large freature on this - I haven't read it yet (maybe somebdoy else has?) - will see if it covers this.

The main problem with the article is the use of 'the site' without being clear whether they mean the whole of the A14 excavation (which is enormous) or just the site where these legless people were found, which is not necessarily closely related to the other features referred to - the Cambridge News site version of this story for example reports "Elsewhere in the expansive site, a Roman military camp was found. Located in a ditch measuring three metres wide and 1.5 metres deep, there is evidence for buildings and industrial activity within an enclosed area - but the size has led experts at the site to explore whether it was an earlier, temporary Roman military camp."

Further reading:

https://molaheadland.com/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a14-cambridge-to-huntingdon-archaeology-shines-light-on-6000-years-of-history

Edit: NB my own poor journalistic standards are revealed by the first two sentences of the above - for clarity, I mean that CA has a feature on A14C2H, not necessarily on the legless bodies, and 'the article' I rever to at stat of para 2 is the article in the Guardian, not that in CA. Imprecision in language is so easy...

[Jim Webster]

And gives us immediate access to an array of sources that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago, methods of sharing and review that are unparalleled, and opportunity to get input from experts worldwide, in near real time.

For me, living where I have been, simply doing the research I have, would be unthinkable without being in a large university town with a well stocked library, to which I had access.

Yes I can remember paying close to half a week's wages for my six volume Loeb Polybius
Without the web research was always going to be a nightmare here.I did check with the nearest university to see if i could join the library, but frankly the cost of that membership, plus the cost of getting there, means that if the book is under £30 it would be cheaper to buy it!

[Erpingham]

Thanks Richard.  Reading the MOLA website, there is nothing to connect the ditch to the pottery kilns.  The enclosed site has buildings in it, not fields.  The buildings may not relate to the original purpose of the ditch. 

Also on the Government site

"A massive Anglo-Saxon tribal territorial boundary with huge ditches, an imposing gated entrance and a beacon placed on top of a hill overlooking the region."

This seems to have missed the press release, as does the deserted medieval village.

[Patrick Waterson]

Without the web research was always going to be a nightmare here.I did check with the nearest university to see if i could join the library, but frankly the cost of that membership, plus the cost of getting there, means that if the book is under £30 it would be cheaper to buy it!

Although with the cost of some books it might in the long run be cheaper just to buy the university.

Thanks Richard.  Reading the MOLA website, there is nothing to connect the ditch to the pottery kilns.  The enclosed site has buildings in it, not fields.  The buildings may not relate to the original purpose of the ditch. 

Also on the Government site

"A massive Anglo-Saxon tribal territorial boundary with huge ditches, an imposing gated entrance and a beacon placed on top of a hill overlooking the region."

This seems to have missed the press release, as does the deserted medieval village.

You have to hand it to today's reporters.  One hopes they will develop the habit of including a link to a website with the relevant information.

[Erpingham]

You have to hand it to today's reporters.  One hopes they will develop the habit of including a link to a website with the relevant information.

Reporters don't write press releases, just read them and quote them.  One of the aims you used to be taught in "How to write a press release "(or these days,I suppose, a media release) courses was to get the reporter to use as much of your own words as possible, to get your message across, not theirs.  Also, all the press releases I've seen recently have copious "For further information" weblinks - you just can force people to seek further info.

[RichT]

One thing about this story - it's apparently not from a press release - it's headed: "Exclusive: men believed to be from late Roman or early Saxon period were found in pit being used as rubbish dump", and if you follow the story around the interweb other tellings of it quote the Guardian original, rather than a press release - for example, this one:

http://www.newsweek.com/archaeologists-find-legless-skeletons-excavation-982610

This is a slightly better telling in some ways (despite some Chinese whisper elements) and includes comparisons with other mutilation burials (though strangely, there's nothing about Roman reaping machines).

Maev Kennedy, the writer of the Guardian piece, maybe got this from personal contacts rather than a press release - she is an archaeology writer and FSA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maev_Kennedy

That makes the vagueness of the scene setting ('the march north to Hadrian's Wall') worse rather than better of course, and the lack of links out to official sites all the more regrettable. But there it is - that's sources for you.

[Erpingham]

Maev Kennedy, the writer of the Guardian piece, maybe got this from personal contacts rather than a press release - she is an archaeology writer and FSA

Well that blows the excuses out the water.  Could do better, as my school report used to say.