What can we dig out in Ulverton by Adam Thorpe and The dig by John Preston?

Archeology is a way of learning about the past; it is not merely digging out a fourteenth century nail and putting it into a local history museum, but an attempt to reconstruct the story which was once going on in that place. We are highly dependent upon archeology as sometimes only this activity can bring the distant past into the present, to give the material proof of some statement concerning our past. Literature in its turn brings this factuality in a slightly different way. In your study of a work of fiction you make your assumptions about the plot and its development on the basis of what is in the novel or poem, on the so-called ‘fictional fact’

The Dig by John Preston and Ulverton by Adam Thorpe are novels which deal with fact, fiction and time in a manner similar to archeology. Ulverton is a very multidimensional novel, covering a wide range of topics10 (see Hewitt et al. 2011), where we will see that in some of its chapters, especially ‘Treasure’ (1914), ‘Shutter’ (1859) and ‘Here’ (1988), archeology is one of the central issues. In The Dig the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon ship at Sutton Hoo is the event around which the narrative is constructed, thus making archeology one of the central themes of the novel.

Ulverton is a novel about a fictional place, which, though being based on some real villages in Berkshire Downs, is ‘non-existent’. The Dig is about a real archeological discovery and in many cases gives facts¹¹ which puts it into the genre of a historical and even biographical novel, which Ulverton is definitely not. It should be noted however that Preston is not writing an official report on the Sutton Hoo excavation, and he adapts facts for the sake of the plot. For example, one character says: ‘After all, you two are supposed to be on your honeymoon’ although the couple concerned, Peggy and Stuart Piggott had in fact been married for three years at the time of the dig.

We would first of all like to concentrate on the apparent similarities between the two excavations. If we compare the reasons to commence the dig, we see that they are quite similar. The narrator in ‘Treasure’ refers to the excavation as the Squire’s ‘whim’. Curiosity drives Edith Pretty in The Dig to dig up the moulds in the fields, because ‘there should be something in there’. If we then look at the time perspective of the excavations we will see a striking similarity between ‘Treasure’ and The Dig. Both excavations are happening on the verge of war, in the case of ‘Treasure’ it is the First World War, and in the case of The Dig it is the Second World War. This time setting creates a striking contrast between the peaceful ‘Merrie England’, of the excavation site, so much appraised by E.M.Forster¹²,

(Davies 171) and the harsh reality of the outer world which brings destruction.

Both Thorpe and Preston make us think about the relation of the past and the present, using similar benchmark events but with a different purpose. If we look at the chapters ‘Shutter’ and ‘Wing’ in Uherton, we will see references to the excavation of tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. (Ulverton p.183). Introducing into the narrative a very ‘unUlvertonian’ event, Thorpe makes a very good point about the continuity in history. The seeds brought to England from Egypt in ‘Shutter’, are rediscovered in ‘Wing’ (pp. 211). In The Dig Edith Pretty shows interest in the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, but the focus is on the other aspect of continuity of history, which is ‘leaving trace’. When Basil Brown unearths the ship, what he sees are imprints of the ship’s hull in the sand, not the wood. Sand is all that remains of the ship and the buried body of the warrior as we learn from Robert Pretty’s diary of 1965 - ‘time had blurred the body’s features into anonymity’ (The Digp. 229).

If we look at the characters of The Dig and Ulverton (in the chapter ‘Treasure’) we will see some similarities which might be considered important. The characters of the Squire and Mrs. Pretty, and to some extent Basil Brown are all driven by curiosity in their attempts to excavate the barrow. Both Mrs. Pretty and the Squire have their ‘lines’ ending. Even though Mrs Pretty does have a child, Robert, we learn that he will not inherit Sutton Hoo. Basil, very much like the Squire did not go to war though the reason was quite different. Still we can draw a parallel between Percy Cullerne and Basil Brown, who is also perceived as a kind of outcast by Robert Pretty:

I took out my pipe and began cleaning it. Running my penknife round the inside of the bowl and then tapping it on the wall of the hut to dislodge the bits and pieces.

‘What was it like?’ he asked.

‘What was what like?’

‘Fighting.’

T did not fight,’ I said

‘You did not fight?’, he repeated, his voice rising in astonishment.

‘No’.

‘Why ever not?’...

(The Dig p.84)

The excavation depicted in ‘Shutter’ looks more like a treasure hunt in the beginning and then gradually transforms, at least for the narrator, into the process of interpretation of the images witnessed. We can turn for instance to the remark:

(Uberton p.186)

And another one:

If this image also puts one in mind of the stone burial chamber upon the English downs (see Plate XIII) then in such coincidences of appearance, a long sea-voyage apart, may lie a secret web of knowledge, that once ascertained and drawn out, could provide a key to all mysteries - and make of the past a well wherein our own thirst might be slaked, and our petty confusions buried

(ibid)

This is probably the first instance when we see the characters actually trying to interpret history on the basis of not just superstition or religion (though this would still be coming out). Ironically, we cannot read about the English burial site as the photograph is obviously missing, so the whole comparison is built not on some evidence that we have, (as Plate XIII is only claimed to be existent), but on an assumption of knowledge. The effect of this is, to my mind the following: we, as readers, are given some glimpse of history which, if interpreted will make us prone to falling into the fallacy of misreading and forgetting the history that actually happened. Even material objects from the past cannot cast much light upon anything.

The image of the archeological site provides an interesting framework for the interpretation of both novels. By depicting excavations of some ancient barrow both novelists make us think not just about history and memory, but also about our desire to leave a trace, to become part of the ‘big history’. Very much in the way Robert Pretty did by marveling at his rusty roller-skate, which came back to him from the past both near and remote.

Excavations in both novels may be seen as interesting metaphors for human perception of history and the world we live in. If we look at The Dig and Ulverton from the archeological perspective we will be able to treat them as novels about human ambition. In The Dig it is Mrs. Pretty’s curiosity that unleashes the rivalry among the characters for the chance to unearth the ship of Sutton Hoo and achieve fame. An archeological discovery can also be used as an effective narrative move. In Ulverton the discovery of the skeleton in the chapter ‘Here’ brings together the beginning and the ending of the novel, making us reconsider the possibility of historical truth. The discovery of the warrior gives the fictional ‘Adam Thorpe’ a chance to tell his ‘story’ and thus become known and remembered as the saviour of ‘good old Ulverton’. Moreover, the excavations in both novels are their actual starting point, since in Ulverton the whole of the book is a huge aftertext of ‘Here’ and ‘Return’. The excavations give life to the story of the village which to an extent is moving from the possible future to the past, the reality of which is questionable.¹³ Archeology in The Dig is a form of historical alienation of the characters. They become disconnected with the present they live in focusing on the past. This is true of Edith Pretty with her obsession with spiritualism and Egypt, Basil and Robert Perry, especially by the end of the novel.

The motif of disconnection may be a way of thinking about the way people deal with change. On the verge of some historical or cultural shift we tend not to look into the future but to the past, trying to find answers there. We like ‘Adam Thorpe’ interpret historical artifacts the way most suitable for us, or like Robert Pretty reduce it to some personal element which we want to bring into present and (possible?) future.