{"id":99,"date":"2018-09-17T12:56:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T11:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copyright.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/?p=99"},"modified":"2018-09-17T12:56:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T11:56:40","slug":"bradgate-park-archaeology-fieldschool-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/2018\/09\/17\/bradgate-park-archaeology-fieldschool-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradgate Park Archaeology Fieldschool, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Bradgate Park Stables dig, with horse bones outlined.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week I blogged about my visit to the Archaeology Fieldschool, where I met Richard Thomas, the lead archaeologist.\u00a0 There was a lot to take in, both information and atmosphere.\u00a0 Richard is clearly a great communicator, explaining the site to me as well as leading the work of the students.\u00a0 The job requires incredible attention to detail as well as the interpretive imagination: Richard has a look in his eyes that is calm but intensely focused.\u00a0 I can do the imagination bit, but not the attention to detail – and I was immediately grabbed by a find at the dig for which there is not, as yet, a clear explanation.\u00a0 To the right of the entrance, where the porch would have been, is a large, dense pile of horse bones.\u00a0 Not whole skeletons, just legs.\u00a0 And buried with joints still intact.\u00a0 As I stared at the find, I could see hooves sticking out; a fibula, a stifle joint, a tibia…\u00a0 Why would the legs be detached and buried intact?\u00a0 Some macabre building material? Superstition? It’s not clear.\u00a0 For an archaeologist, it’s a conundrum.\u00a0 For a poet, it’s a gift.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the Discovery of a Cache of Horse Bones at the Stables in Bradgate Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The horses are waiting.<\/p>\n

Under the floor, their legs still-jointed,<\/p>\n

running from the dark dream of the stables.<\/p>\n

The grooms have gone; the stone has been robbed out<\/p>\n

but the horses are waiting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They are waiting to click monstrously upright;<\/p>\n

shaking off the rubble, to play<\/p>\n

their hooves on the cobbles,<\/p>\n

cracking coronets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The horses are waiting to find their heads:<\/p>\n

to flare their nostrils with phantom breath and turn<\/p>\n

towards the outer door.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The horses are waiting in heaps of bone, marrow and pulse<\/p>\n

sealed in gravel and clay<\/p>\n

for a July day when the dig will find them,<\/p>\n

and drive them across the water-meadows<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to barrel onto moss and bracken,<\/p>\n

drumming up Bowling Green,<\/p>\n

in the summer drought where the undergrowth dies,<\/p>\n

herding revenge under the sun at Tyburn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For a charge of fury, throat-latch at the cry,<\/p>\n

by the paths and riverside<\/p>\n

in a rake of metal shoes and wild eyes,<\/p>\n

the skeleton horses are waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I blogged about my visit to the Archaeology Fieldschool, where I met Richard Thomas, the lead archaeologist.\u00a0 There was a lot to take in, both information and atmosphere.\u00a0 Richard is clearly a great communicator, explaining the site to me as well as leading the work of the students.\u00a0 The job requires incredible attentionRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33,2,21,3],"tags":[34,6,8,10,4],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archaeology","category-bradgate-park","category-landscape","category-poetry","tag-archaeology","tag-bradgate","tag-leicestershire","tag-leicestershire-poetry","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}