“Little gentlemen in black velvet” aiding Belgian archaeologists

Archeonews recently reported on an unusual source of assistance in an investigation of the area around Damme in West Flanders. In the medieval centuries the area had supported a number of substantial fortified houses which have completely disappeared above ground. Modern technology can indicate potential sites but this information can only go so far without excavating, which poses its own difficulties.

This where the “little gentlemen” come into the research. As they tunnel away they, of course, create mole hills.  Much beloved by gardeners wanting soil of a fine tilth, such field supplies can also, on sites such as this in Belgium, yield archaeological material which when analysed can indicate building materials and evidence of human occupation.

 

Mole doing his spring cleaning from

The Wind in the Willows

 

Image: cassus-vas.blogspot.com

 The article can be seen at 800-Year-Old Medieval Structure Discovered in Belgium with Help from Moles

For the uninitiated the version usually known today refers to a mole, the subject of the Jacobite toast to “the little gentleman in black velvet”, but other sources give “the little gentleman in the back velvet waistcoat” whose molehill caused the horse of King William III to stumble, the King to fall, break his collar bone, develop pneumonia, and die, in 1702.

 

Gives you paws, or claws, for thought.