Conflict Archaeology Research Articles

The Devil’s outriders: a LiDAR and KOCOA investigation of the battle of Buckhead Creek, 1864

ABSTRACT Funded by an American Battlefield Protection Program grant, LiDAR and KOCOA, guided a systematic metal detector survey to identify, and evaluate levels of preservation and battle pattern signatures from the Battle of Buckhead Creek, the largest American Civil War battle site in Southeast Georgia untouched by development. In November 1864, during Sherman’s March to the Sea, Confederate and Union cavalry forces waged a running battle across Jenkins and Burke County, Georgia. These actions were ephemeral events in an archaeological sense, in time-depth and their impact on the archaeological record. However, this paper demonstrates that the application of conflict archaeology methodologies can identify and evaluate these sites, despite their wide-ranging geographical context, short-time spans, and the impacts of illicit metal detecting on the battle site.

Pull Tab Archaeology

The Pull Tab Archaeology project (PTA project) was launched in 2018, with the aim of diving straight into the creative, communication-oriented and fluid archaeological experiences of the life world, and of breaking some implicit rules of formal (Dutch) archaeology in the process. As narrowly defined, the project comprises the study of beverage can pull tabs. However, it also has broader significance due to its focus on archaeology as a craft, on archaeological experiences and on Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture. The project emerged out of Dutch conflict archaeology in cultural resource management, and involved a world-spanning social-media citizen-science project. Over 4700 pull tabs from 37 countries were recorded, and c. 100 pull tab types – or “species” – were found. Drawing on the work of David Gauntlett, the article proposes that experiential DIY archaeological craft creates social capital and can be a modest remedy for our late modern world, which is afflicted by alienation from its environment and by solastalgia. The article proposes that archaeology as a tool for reconnecting is of greater importance for current society than our traditional focus on knowledge production for cultural histories and the vulnerability of heritage.

Drone photogrammetry as a tool for modern conflict archaeology: a case study of a Second World War armament bunker in Bavaria

ABSTRACT Within this paper, a case study on the application of drone photogrammetry at the Second World War armament bunker Weingut I is presented. The aim of the project was the mapping of the preserved remains in advance to the installation of a memorial site. In particular, the preserved concrete arch and one of the ventilation shafts were mapped by this method in high quality. Therefore, even small details of the building structure as well as several damage spots needing remediation became visible. One important advantage of drone prospecting is an enhanced occupational safety and a cost and time reduction as no further manual resources are necessary. In areas without finalized clearing for Unexploded Ordnance, other manual survey method would be especially dangerous. By comparing the photogrammetric model of the bunker Weingut I with corresponding ALS Digital Surface Models (DSM) of varying resolution, the increase in information is shown.

Digging deeper is always rewarding. Policy instruments, challenges and recent research on conflict archaeology, WWI and WWII in Flanders

In 2017, the government of Flanders decided to award yearly grants for synthesising research on archaeological data produced via development-led archaeology in Flanders (Belgium). At present, no less than 34 archaeological projects have been financially supported this way. Three of those projects deal with the archaeology of modern conflicts. The project 'Conflict archaeology of the Second World War in Flanders' will be discussed in more detail. World War II archaeology is a very young discipline in Flanders, although the enormous expertise in conflict archaeology of World War I caused a turnaround in recent years. Putting all the archaeological information together, it turned out that traces of WWII were already being investigated at 172 sites, far more than expected. Some are targeted excavations on large sites, but mostly they are small traces that came to light by chance. This picture is contrasted with knowledge gained in recent years from historical research and from remote sensing sources. The Centre for Historical and Archaeological Aerial Photography or CHAL (Province of West Flanders, In Flanders Fields Museum, Ghent University) plays an important role here. Over 43,000 historical aerial photographs taken during both World Wars provide a unique overview of the war landscape in Belgium and offer enormous archaeological potential today. A combination of analysis of the digital elevation model Flanders for the above-ground preservation of war traces and the archaeological information from excavations give us an unseen landscape insight.

Archaeology of Modern Conflict and Heritage Legislation in Lithuania during Thirty Years of Restored Independence

After the Lithuanian National Revival in 1988 and the restoration of independence in 1990, the public on their own initiative searched for the remains of fallen anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans (1944-1953), excavating the burial sites of partisan remains, their bunkers and dugouts. Such excavations prompted the need to establish regulations and procedures for the exhumation and transfer of the remains of victims of 20th-century conflicts and occupation regimes. Government resolutions adopted in 1992 obliged prosecutors, archaeologists, anthropologists and forensic medical experts to be involved in the exhumation procedure and to carry out the exhumation in accordance with the basic requirements of archaeological research. Owing to the restoration and destruction of authentic partisan bunkers and dugouts, the increase in archaeological investigations at 20th-century conflict sites, as well as the emergence of a distinct field of modern conflict archaeology, the 2022 revision of the Archaeological Heritage Management Regulation stipulated the necessity to carry out archaeological research prior to any excavation works at all 19th- and 20th-century conflict sites. Between 1995 and 2022, a total of 171 permits for archaeological excavations at 20th-century conflict sites were issued. Investigations were mostly carried out at the burial sites of Wehrmacht and Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) soldiers of the Second World War and Lithuanian partisans. Partisan bunkers, dugouts, campsites, battlefields also received considerable attention. Today, more than 1700 20th-century conflict sites have legal protection in Lithuania. These include Lithuanian Partisan War sites (mainly sites of death and burial), burial sites of soldiers from the First and Second World Wars, sites of massacres and burials of Jews, and other sites associated with the Soviet and Nazi occupation regimes. This article focuses on 20th-century conflict sites in Lithuania, examining issues of their protection, heritage conservation and archaeology, as well as current trends in archaeological research methodology.

LiDAR and conflict archaeology: the Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945)

Although conflict archaeology is now well established, the archaeological remains of many specific military confrontations are still to be explored. This article reports the results of fieldwork to document the site of the Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944–25 January 1945). The authors use drone-mounted 1m-resolution LiDAR and very high-resolution simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) methods to reveal more than 940 features within the forested Ardennes landscape, many of which were subsequently visited and confirmed. As well as highlighting the potential of the LiDAR-SLAM method, deployed here (both in this geographic region and in conflict archaeology) for the first time, the survey results emphasise the need for a debate on managing the heritage of a key modern conflict landscape in Europe.

‘Lest We Forget’: The Archaeology of Warfare, Conservation, Interpretation, and Engagement in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire

ABSTRACT Much conflict archaeology is undertaken by or with the involvement of community groups and individual volunteers. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach are considered in the light of three initiatives underway in East Yorkshire, which include both relicts of modern warfare and more historic conflicts. The paper argues for ethically informed and sensitive narratives to be derived from conflict archaeology projects of all periods and not just modern conflicts. Community-led archaeological initiatives are seen as posing a challenge to achieving this by overly functionalist approaches to interpreting and communicating the remains of conflict archaeology. The paper concludes that the involvement of community groups and volunteers in conflict archaeology in general, in the construction of narratives and the process of memorialisation is essential. Narratives need to be less functionalist and more social to be more sensitive and informative. In achieving this conflict archaeological projects will meet societal needs, deliver better academic outcomes and in a local authority context meet the requirements of paymasters and politicians.

Archaeology, Emotional Storytelling, and Performance

Archaeologists tell stories about the past through the interpretation of material remains, frequently an emotional pursuit. Even so, the profession is often represented simplistically, dispassionately, or problematically, according to perspectives on practice that have little to do with the actuality. The South Korean stage musical Return: The Promise of the Day is an example of how the representation of archaeology and archaeological fieldwork specifically have been incorporated into staging and storytelling to tell difficult stories about the past to both domestic and international audiences. The practice of conflict archaeology is represented as a means of facilitating the understanding of violent conflict across generations. This paper accounts for how Return makes use of archaeology, further showcasing the potential for representations of archaeology and archaeological practice to tell emotional stories and expand heritage audiences.

The Battle of the Seelow Heights, April 1945: conflict archaeology in the forests of Eastern Brandenburg, Germany

ABSTRACT During the final days of World War II, the Red Army’s Berlin Operation culimnated in the capture of the Reich’s capital and the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht. Between 16 and 19 April 1945, the most intense fighting of the operation ensued in what is now called the Battle of the Seelow Heights. Due to the vast quantities of men and matériel involved in the fighting, an extensive militarised landscape has developed within the forests of East Brandenburg that has largely evaded archaeological scrutiny. A combination of airborne laser scanning data, archival research, and GIS-analysis reveals a highly diverse archaeological assemblage, including trenches, firing positions, dugouts, logistics facilities, along with other types of war- and conflict-related infrastructure. This unprecedented degree of preservation distinguishes the Seelow battlefield from other WWII contexts in Europe and provides a unique opportunity to investigate the combat activities and supply infrastructures of two combatting forces.

Review: On the Importance of Military Geoscience

Review: On the Importance of Military Geoscience

The Gallipoli Mission, landscape and the changing meanings of heritage: On Dangerous Ground (2012), by Bruce Scates

Bringing together history, heritage studies, conflict archaeology, ecocriticism and literary analysis, this article contends that the 2012 novel On Dangerous Ground: A Gallipoli Story provides an important reflection on the multiple meanings of Australian national heritage and its fluctuations at the First World War centenary. As I argue, its author, Bruce Scates, recognizes the different heritages of the Gallipoli peninsula by including a multiplicity of voices and perspectives in the 1915 layers of his novel. The whole tradition of Australian historiography, to which Scates himself has largely contributed, finds its echoes in the text. The article demonstrates how Scates undermines the myth of the glorious Gallipoli campaign and the heroism of the Anzacs, revisiting the mythologized site of conflict from a Turkish perspective. The Gallipoli peninsula is approached as an affective landscape, which deeply transforms the protagonists. However, the fabricated nature of this site of the conflict, and the construction of its special place in the national mythology, are also emphasized in the analysis. Synchronously, On Dangerous Ground problematizes the obligation of the nation towards those missing in action, and the cultural malaise accompanying exhumations.

New perspectives on the Sertorian War in northeastern Hispania: archaeological surveys of the Roman camps of the lower River Ebro

AbstractIn recent decades, conflict archaeology has renewed study of the Roman Republican military, with Hispania as one of the most prolific areas of research. Following this trend, since 2006 the University of Barcelona has conducted archaeological investigations at several sites in the lower Ebro basin. When no structures or archaeological layers remained in situ, surface survey became a key methodology. Based on the artifacts retrieved during surface survey, this article identifies four new military establishments dated to the first half of the 1st c. BCE and reinterprets the campaigns of the Sertorian War in northeastern Spain.

‘Winter camp’ 1917: integrated conflict archaeology on the Messines Ridge 1914-1918 (Belgium)

ABSTRACT Integrated research using aerial photography, proximal soil sensing, historical research and excavations of an unusual First World War site in Flanders (Belgium) is presented. Aerial photography revealed a grid of 5x6 huts unusually close to the front line. Geophysical research indicates good preservation of these structures. A targeted excavation was carried out. The results give insight into the structure of a military camp built in autumn 1917, used until the German offensive of April 1918. Research on excavated objects and historical sources revealed the camp was as the winter quarters for British and Australian pioneers. The unusual location and the fact that the pioneers occupied the camp themselves means that the huts found were not standard and dug in to provide extra protection. This research shows that barracks camps can be well preserved in the soil archives and have the potential to uncover stories from everyday life behind the front.

The conflict archaeology of the 19th–20th century in Hungary

Conflict archaeology has significant traditions in Hungary. This paper presents conflict archaeological research on three military sites of the 19th and 20th centuries (the battlefield of Kismegyer, the POW camp of Ostffyasszonyfa and the aircraft wreck of Bágyogszovát) associated with the Ministry of Defence Military History Institute and Museum. Finally, the Appendix concludes the study by presenting 25 more Hungarian conflict archaeological research projects from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War.

Desert Insurgency: Archaeology, T. E. Lawrence, and the Arab Revolt

Desert Insurgency: Archaeology, T. E. Lawrence, and the Arab Revolt

The use of portable XRF as a forensic geoscience non-destructive trace evidence tool for environmental and criminal investigations

Hand-held, portable X-Ray fluorescence instruments (pXRF) provide a means of rapid, in-situ chemical characterisation that has considerable application as a rapid trace evidence characterisation tool in forensic geoscience. This study presents both a control test study which demonstrates optimisation of the data collection process, alongside a range of individual forensic case studies, including heavy metal contamination, conflict archaeology, forensic soil characterisation, and verification of human remains, which together validate the technique and provide some comparison between field-based and laboratory-based pXRF applications. Results highlight the time-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of in-situ, field-based pXRF analyses for material characterisation when compared with other trace evidence methods. Analytical precision of various analytes during in-situ analysis was sufficient to demonstrate considerable application of field-based pXRF as a tool for rapid identification of specific areas of interest to be further investigated. Laboratory-based pXRF analyses yielded greater accuracy which could provide an efficient compromise between field-based pXRF and traditional laboratory-based analytical techniques (e.g. WD-XRF, ICP-MS). Further studies should collect more advanced datasets in more diverse locations to further validate the techniques capability to rapidly conduct geochemical surveys in a range of environments.

The Devil Burns Gold There: The Heritage of Nazi Germany Crimes in Death Valley, Chojnice, Poland

This paper is about Death Valley – a site of mass killings orchestrated by Nazi Germany that took place on the outskirts of Chojnice during the Second World War. I begin by referring to some examples of conflict archaeology that persuasively demonstrate how what has so far been the domain of history is transforming into archaeology. I then present historical information concerning Death Valley. Following this, the paper presents the results of archaeological investigations into material traces of mass killings in Death Valley. Finally, I present an ethnography of Death Valley, scrutinizing the contemporary role of the site among local communities.

New data on the Roman temporary camps in Șureanu Mountains

The conflict archaeology topic is a challenge all over the world, developing in the past ten years simultaneously with the new techniques in understanding the past and use of high‑resolution recordings of cultural heritage. Besides, in close relation with the topic of conflict archaeology is continuously improved the methodology of another sub‑domain, the landscape archaeology, with great results in the last couple of years, important here are the discovery of many new temporary camps in Germany and north west of the Iberian Peninsula. Especially the last ones are similar in shape and positioning with the Roman camps in Șureanu Mountains, though each has its own uniqueness. These reveal in a very special way the Roman army strategy in one of the most important conflicts of the Roman Empire in an alpine area.

The interpretation of WWII conflict landscapes. Some case studies from the Netherlands

ABSTRACT From a wider disciplinary perspective, modern conflict archaeology is now a thoroughly established and mature sub-discipline and need no longer seek to explain itself. However, a main problem faced by conflict archaeologists in the Netherlands is that modern eras, including both World Wars, have not received serious attention. Although both World Wars appeal strongly to the popular imagination, modern conflict had not been approached from an archaeological perspective to any great extent in Dutch academia until recently. Since laws and legislation on the topic are problematic in the Netherlands, I will argue that Dutch archaeologists need a different methodological toolkit to be able to conduct conflict archaeology. When applied and interpreted appropriately, archaeology can play an important role in the preservation, the contemporary experience and the historical reconstruction of recent conflicts. However, research methods other than excavations will be needed.

Constructing the archaeology of the Roman conquest of Hispania: new evidence, perspectives and challenges

The first meeting of specialists from different fields relating to research on the Roman army in Hispania took place in Segovia in 1998 under the title “Roman Military Archaeology in Hispania”. Its aim was to gather within one forum different experts working in this field.1 The term “military archaeology” was provocative in the Spanish academic world of the late 1990s, as military studies were viewed with slight suspicion in some quarters, both by those researching indigenous contexts and by those who remained anchored in a classical concept of Romanisation which rather neglected the contribution of the army to the process of assimilating Hispania into the Roman world. In Anglo-Saxon scholarship other terms with more historiographic tradition (e.g., “Roman army studies” or “Roman frontier studies”) were preferred. The goal in choosing the title of the 1998 congress was to create debate around a topic on which research efforts were becoming increasingly focused. Despite its limitations,2 the term “military archaeology” since then has become for many Spanish scholars the methodological basis for material-based and topographic studies of the military world and of war in its widest sense. As archaeology in the Iberian peninsula becomes increasingly open to new methodologies and practices being adopted elsewhere (especially in the Anglo-Saxon world), similar terms such as “conflict archaeology” or “battlefield archaeology” are appearing, which all form part of the conceptual frame of reference of military archaeology. In the last 15-20 years, research in this field has increased exponentially in the Iberian peninsula, particularly in the north and northwest where the Roman army had a much longer-lasting presence. This has allowed scholars, for example, to begin interpreting episodes such as the Cantabrian Wars, practically unknown from an archaeological perspective until very recently. In the last few years, progress has extended to earlier periods, affecting other regions such as the peninsula‘s northeast, southeast and E coast, where military topics are starting to be differentiated into Republican and indigenous contexts. A new generation of congresses and their resulting proceedings have generated some of the most significant contributions. The Segovia congress of 1998, its follow-up at León in 2004,3 the Roman Frontier Congress held at León in 2006,4 thematic French-Spanish congresses such as the meetings of the project “La guerre et ses traces dans la péninsule Ibérique” (2007, 2009 and 2010),5 and recent colloquia on the Republican period6 and on the Cantabrian Wars,7 have all become reference works. Coinciding with the first occasion upon which the Roman Frontier Congress was held in Spain, the first monograph — still an essential reference work — on the archaeological evidence for the Roman army in the peninsula was published.8