Digging up the past

A small island is about to offer up its secrets...

It’s coming. I can feel it in the old bones (not mine, but the ones we dug up in 2019). A truly great story of ancient times when Iron Age folk lived and loved on ‘my’ tiny island a few miles off the Normandy coast.

Yes, Dig Alderney is back next month with a team of professional archaeologists bent, literally and figuratively, on scraping away centuries of history to find the story behind an Iron Age settlement on top of which lie Roman structures found in serial digging by Drs Jason Monaghan and Phil de Jersey since 2017.

All of this will be uncovered in the area surrounding our amazingly well-preserved Roman Fort which has stood intact since the 4th Century. Well, that’s a lie, the huge central tower has long gone, its stonework no doubt used to build medieval houses in the vicinity, and part of the south wall tumbled onto my local beach who knows when, where its parts can still be seen to this day.

I’m looking forward to working with local historians again, including friend Nich Hogben seen on the left in this picture on our way to find yet more island treasures.

And find them we will. Although this time I may not be permitted to get down and dirty alongside the real pros. You see, last summer Dr Rob Fry from the University of Reading, assisted by Guernsey specialists and on occasions by yours truly, dragged his radar kit across swathes of land where we knew the real history lay.

I’ve seen the mapping results and will of course share it once planning permission has been approved for digging to begin the day after the King’s coronation (that’s King Charles III, not the King of Alderney, although he is of course as we are a Crown Dependency).

The area is crowded with what looks like archaeological features. Some will relate to German activity (Alderney was occupied during WWII) or the installation of modern utilities, especially in front of the Fort. These partly conceal what we know is an Iron Age cemetery, witness this discovery in 2019.

Dr Phil de Jersey (straw hat) contemplates the discovery of an Iron Age skeleton in Alderney 2019. Photo: David Nash.

Two skeletons were discovered back then, complete with with bronze torcs and jewellery. This year’s dig will be led by Guernsey Museum Archaeology Group, and the digging team will chiefly comprise professional archaeologists which means I’ll be given backroom jobs like pot-washing and sandwiches. Just to be there is a privilege, have no doubt about that!

Bringing in the pros means they know something very special will be found – this is now a three-year project to learn more about the Roman and Iron Age settlement on Longis Common, a few yards from my home. How extensive is the Iron Age cemetery, and where was the village in which these people lived?

They’ll be asking how far do the Roman buildings extend, and was this the site of an earlier Roman fort that predates the 4^th Century one, or the ‘vicus’ municipal administration settlement that grew up close to a fort, or a purely civilian village?

I already know the answers because they’re in my head, as you would expect from an adventurous historical fiction author (yup, we can bend the facts to the fit the narrative anytime we like!). You can read about some of it in my next novel, providing the publisher likes the nifty plot.

I know I’m on to a winner.

Take this exuberant comment by Dr Monaghan: “Finds will include pottery, metalwork, glass, building materials, human bones and food remains including animal bones. Later, the finds need to be examined by specialists to refine ideas about the dating of the site and to uncover more about the people who lived and were buried there. We want to learn about their lifestyle and how ancient Alderney was connected to the wider world.”

I’d call it making the facts fit a good story, and I’m already on Chapter 10.

So, do watch this space and catch up on my novels so far here.

Time for Crime?

Exciting things are happening here on the island where I live. Firstly, we had the best ever Alderney Literary Festival a week or so ago. Truly astonishing. Summed up thus by Festival Chairman, historical fiction author Anthony Riches: “Ask any of the authors who have spoken at the Festival in the past and they would all agree to come back in a heartbeat, which is testimony to just how special an experience the Alderney Literary Trust has created.”

Next up is the ‘Anatomy of a Crime Thriller’. Organised by The Alderney Literary Trust and sponsored by Ravenscroft, best-selling authors Kate Rhodes, Elly Griffiths and Jane Casey will talk about their latest books and the crucial ingredients of their gripping stories.

The mini festival will take place on Saturday June 10th with three hour-long sessions in which the authors will reveal the inspiration for their atmospheric settings, complex characters and twisty plots.

Details can be found here; tickets go on sale on April 17th.