World War Archaeology

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Kia ora,

Today (25th April) is ANZAC Day (ANZAC is an acronym for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps), an official day of commemoration in New Zealand and Australia of the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women (past and present).

The day itself is the anniversary of landings by the allied forces of the First World War on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, in 1915. 

As noted elsewhere: 

"In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the death toll in France and Belgium during the war. However, for New Zealand, along with Australia and Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign is often claimed to have played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity."

It may surprise many to hear that archaeologists have been actively involved in the investigation of the campaigns of twentieth century wars. For example, some World War II archaeology that I have previously noted on this blog - the study of battlefields in the forests of Northwestern Europe. 

And on a survey of the Gallipoli battlefields undertaken from 2010-2014 by a joint team of Turkish, Australian and New Zealand archaeologists and historians ahead of the centennial commemorations in 2015: 




My experience is that when laypeople think of archaeology, they naturally don't think of events as recent as this. Instead the term archaeology tends to evoke thoughts of Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs, the excavation of ca. 2000 year old Roman villas (shout out here to Time Team!) and the like (that is, for those who think of the study of human societies and not dinosaurs, which readers of this blog will know we don't study!). But in fact there really isn't actually any 'minimum date' in archaeology - despite what the legislation in some countries may imply. 

Archaeology is intertwined with cultural heritage. The world wars of the twentieth century were hugely significant events in shaping the world as we know it today (and as has already been noted, have played a role in shaping the identity of nations) and created a substantial material record (i.e. structures/features and changes to wider landscapes). The study of this record archaeologically has the potential to inform our understanding of events beyond what was written at the time and may assist to overcome biases evident in those written accounts. Also, the time that has passed since these events is now such that our connections to this time through those that lived through them and remember a world at war is rapidly disappearing - Lest We Forget as a result! 


Further Reading:

A piece from The Post Hole, an archaeology journal run by students at the University of York in the UK, which provides a brief history of 'Great War archaeology' along the Western Front. 

Further discussion of what archaeology can contribute to our understanding of (relatively) recent conflict can be found here.


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