“Archaeological excavation of neolithic causewayed enclosure, Great Wilbrahim, Cambridgeshire, England, UK 1976 – captioned ‘Bab and Cristobel’:
As yet I don’t know about the photographer(s) but I have been very much enjoying discovering these slides of UK archaeology mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Quite a few are captioned as being related to Cambridge University but I can’t be sure that all of them are.
Update ( 3 Jan ’25)
The archaeologist taking the photos was my maternal grandfather Alex Martin, a retired Colonel in the British army.
Babs was his wife, my grandmother, actually Alison Martin, always known as Babs.
He was originally a scientist and always interested in archaeology, but when WWII came he signed up. He spent part of the war in Egypt, part of a team designing tanks, and researching the most efficient way to blow up German tanks.
After the war he was posted to various locations including Trieste & Celle, Germany, then as military attache in Bern, Switzerland.
From these places they often holidayed in areas such as Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Italy, Croatia , hence the photos from those areas.
On retirement he got a degree in Archaeology at Clare College, Cambridge. He went on to visit many sites, often accompanied by his wife Babs when on holiday. He also gave talks and lectures.
I chose the photo above because it would be very interesting to know more abut the two people pictured as well as more about the images included in the collection.
The name Bab or Babs appears a couple of times so I assume she is linked to the photographer. She is the woman on the left. I don’t know anything about Cristobel.
The photographer was clearly strongly interested in archaeology – perhaps in a professional capacity. I hope to be told more by the family and will publish a more detailed blog if and when I can.
I’ll also try and make contact with Cambridge University to try and learn more especially about the excavation images captioned ‘Great Shelford’ because I can’t find any information online. Also several images simply captioned ‘Cambridge excavation’ without any location.
Quite a few of the other images include people – some of whom perhaps may be known by the university and who will find the images interesting.
The most interesting images are the ones of archaeological excavations in progress at several different UK locations ( not all locations are specified). As a non-expert I would very much welcome any specialised information about the techniques and practices illustrated.
From Google I read that the Great Wilbrahim excavation (pictured) was of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure begun in 1975 by David Clarke a leading, and perhaps controversial, figure in ‘New Archaeology’. This was the first excavation that Clarke had directed. He intended it to be an experiment in what he called ‘Total Archaeology’ – an approach which attempts to integrate information from “all of the disciplines capable of bringing understanding” to a site. The intention was for it to be a study lasting five years. Unfortunately, Clarke died unexpectedly in summer 1976.
The images that I have so far processed are published here on Geography Photos. Comments would be very much appreciated.