Barrows, stone circles, megaliths – these ancient monuments have not only influenced our imagination of the past, but have also found their way into the media, including games. As a fan of point-and-click adventures, there are several games in this genre that not only deal with specific megalithic sites, but also focus on excavation practices and, of course, some unnatural appearances: The two-part Barrow Hill series by Shadow Tor Studios and the recent The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow by Cloak and Dagger Games.
This essay will focus on the latter (here is my German review), touching on the issue of altering history in a videogame and providing some historical and comparative background knowledge.
When a man becomes a woman
2021: The film “The Dig” visualizes for the general public the important role played by a specific woman in the 1930s during the excavation of a 7th-century AD ship grave – 2022: The main protagonist of the game “Hob’s Barrow” is a woman excavating Bronze Age barrows in Derbyshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. Overall, the influence and appearance of women in 19th and early 20th century excavation and for research is limited to a few individuals. So it is a delight to see Thomasina Bateman being featured as a “barrow digger” or “antiquarian” (as she is called in-game) trying to cope with the local authorities in order to excavate the legendary “Hob’s barrow”. She is, of course, a noble-woman and thus able to carry out more or less scientific excavations and to pay some skilled workers. And, of course, her father was also an antiquarian. So there is tradition – and forced autonomy: She was a “single lady managing her career without a husband”.
A curious leap into the present. An unusual name, this Thomasina, let’s see. Oh, there was a barrow digger called Thomas Bateman in the second quarter of the 19th century, a Derbyshire archaeologist who dug something like 200 barrows in his lifetime. Among them was a barrow near Beeley called “Hob Hurst’s House” (Thomas Bateman, Ten years’ diggings in Celtic & Saxon Grave Hills, in the Counties of Derby, Stafford, and York, from 1848–1858, London 1861, p. 87 f.; OS Map Ref SK28736923). Coincidence? Maybe. In this publication, Thomas Bateman mentions a rectangular burial chamber surrounded by a mound about 4ft. high (ca. 1,2 m), and bearing the name
“of an unearthly or supernatural being, accustomed to haunt woods and other solitary places, respecting whom many traditions yet linger in remote villages”.
Th. Bateman, Ten Years’ Diggings, p. 88.
A letter leading Thomasina to Bewlay confirms the shape and legend of the mound. But here the similarities end: Whereas Bateman found layers of fire, bones, and the remnants of a pyre in the real barrow, Thomasina’s excavation reveals … that would be too much of a spoiler.
But to what end? Thomasina’s aim is stated at the beginning: the results of the excavation will form part of her book “Vestiges of the Antiquities in Rural England”. And what is Thomas Bateman’s other publication called? Right, “Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire”. On the other hand, Thomas Bateman wrote his books 1848 and 1861, while the game takes place in the early 1890s, as the developers have stated. For further clues, we will have to delve into the life of Thomas Bateman.
“There’s naught on earth like barrow digging”!
This quote is from the poem “Barrow Digging” by an anonymous “Barrow Knight” in the person of the Rev. Stephen Isaacson, a friend of Bateman’s; Thomas Bateman as the main protagonist appears several times. He himself was a man of his time (for the following information, see “Thomas Bateman, Barrow Opener” by G. Lester, and “Thomas Bateman, Crania Britannica, and Archaeological Chronology” by D. Harlan). His father, William, passed on his interest in archaeology and antiquities collecting to his son, and his grandfather, Thomas Sr., the money to pursue a career as an excavator and collector. During his short career, Thomas Bateman managed to set up his own collection on his estate; here, operating on a local level, he met other researchers of his time and discussed current issues such as craniology, the Celts as an ancestral race, the 3-age-system, etc.
In the field he was an effective barrow opener, a skilled but not outstanding excavator. Through his fieldwork and publications, he saved many barrows from destruction and finds from oblivion. Aged 39, Thomas Bateman died in 1861 and was buried with one of his five children (11-year-old daughter Sarah) in an isolated monument at Middleton-by-Youlgreave. Note the replica of a Bronze Age collared urn as a grave marker and compare it to what happened with the one in the game (no image for reasons of spoiler).
Mix me a new reality!
Let’s get back to the game. If Thomasina was influenced by Thomas Bateman, there should be more objects and locations with historical value. First the name of the town, Bewlay, resembles modern Beeley (= beau lieu) for obvious reasons. The woman outside of the church didn’t want us to take a bite of a famous pudding from Bakewell, another existing town. In his entry for Hob Hurst’s House, Thomas Bateman describes it as being on the Baslow Moor, which is entirely consistent with its actual location. Finally, a Steam user was able to identify the church of Bewlay in Castleton, both dedicated to St. Edmund. So, from a range of approximately 35 km, four existing sites and ideas have been transferred to Bewlay in the game (certainly even more).
Talking of altering reality: Some of you may have noticed the marker stone near the barrow bearing an inscription “AR”. Without spoiling too much of the hobgoblin’s true nature (see the excellent Wikipedia article including amulets), this marker stone actually exists near the site of Hob Hurst’s House (see here): But here the abbreviation is “V.R.“, i.e. Victoria Regina. This refers to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882, under which Hob Hurst’s House was one of the 68 first sites to be protected. If we follow this thought, we would already have known who the owner and king of the barrow is…
Apart from the quality of the game itself, it was a pleasure to find this eclectic mix of historically accurate locations, spots, artefacts, and ideas concentrated in the fictional Bewlay and its moor. However, in contrast to the alterations mentioned in the paragraph above, the developers of Cloak and Dagger Games changed the gender of the main protagonist. In doing so, they attempted to give the game a touch of freshness in terms of the role of women in 19th century research and excavation. This is something to be applauded.
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The Archaeologist plays... 