Prescot Dig

The Charcoal Burners

This image has a lot of interesting resonances, despite the fact that the photograph itself is not as atmospheric as I wanted. Firstly, we have the charcoal burner as a marginal, the band of black faced people living and working out in the forest cut off from the well to do, the settle and the sedentary, at least in theory managing the forest resource through careful woodland management, coppicing and the like. Their camp is symbolic of their impermanence in the landscape. As late as the first half of the 20th century, this lifestyle was still practised in England. Next up, we have the fact that this is a reconstruction of a charcoal burner's camp. Details of the reconstruction don't ring true, such as the steel reinforcing bar used to make the mock tripod. The reconstruction is part of an open air museum in England. Thirdly, we have the fact that this 'exhibit' is falling into ruin. The reconstruction could have been made several years ago, but the damp woodland conditions are rapidly eating up the remains of the camp, and thus we have the reconstruction becoming archaeology. This is therefore not about charcoal at all, but about how things fall apart, how sites are formed, or as archaeologists would say, Taphonomy. I have no idea if this is the idea behind the 'exhibit', whether this layer of meaning is intentional for the museum, but it raises a host of questions about reconstruction, the nature and purpose of museums, site formation process itself, the nature of truth, reality and objectivity in people's perception of the past. Archaeology, ain't it grand.