1st Edition
Conflict Landscapes and Archaeology from Above
The study of conflict archaeology has developed rapidly over the last decade, fuelled in equal measure by technological advances and creative analytical frameworks. Nowhere is this truer than in the inter-disciplinary fields of archaeological practice that combine traditional sources such as historical photographs and maps with 3D digital topographic data from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and large scale geophysical prospection. For twentieth-century conflict landscapes and their surviving archaeological remains, these developments have encouraged a shift from a site oriented approach towards landscape-scaled research. This volume brings together an wide range of perspectives, setting traditional approaches that draw on historical and contemporary aerial photographs alongside cutting-edge prospection techniques, cross-disciplinary analyses and innovative methods of presenting this material to audiences. Essays from a range of disciplines (archaeology, history, geography, heritage and museum studies) studying conflict landscapes across the globe throughout the twentieth century, all draw on aerial and landscape perspectives to past conflicts and their legacy and the complex issues for heritage management. Organized in four parts, the first three sections take a broadly chronological approach, exploring the use of aerial evidence to expand our understanding of the two World Wars and the Cold War. The final section explores ways that the aerial perspective can be utilized to represent historical landscapes to a wide audience. With case studies ranging from the Western Front to the Cold War, Ireland to Russia, this volume demonstrates how an aerial perspective can both support and challenge traditional archaeological and historical analysis, providing an innovative new means of engaging with the material culture of conflict and commemoration.
Contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Series Editors’ Preface, by Nicholas J. Saunders and Paul Cornish
Introduction: Conflict Landscapes and Archaeology from Above
Birger Stichelbaut and Dave Cowley
1 The Archaeology of World War I in Comines-Warneton (Belgium) through Aerial Photographs and Proximal Soil Sensing
Wouter Gheyle, Timothy Saey, Yannick Van Hollebeeke, Stephanie Verplaetse, Nicolas Note, Jean Bourgeois, Marc Van Meirvenne, Veerle Van Eetvelde and Birger Stichelbaut
2 Bellewaarde Ridge (Belgium): Survey of a World War I Landscape
Marc Dewilde, Hilde Verboven and Franky Wyffels
3 Contested Landscape: La Boisselle and the Glory Hole
Peter Masters
4 World War I Remains in Scotland: Aerial Photography as Heritage
Allan Kilpatrick
5 Protecting the Home Front: Understanding and Conservation of Twentieth-century Conflict Landscapes in England
Helen Winton
6 Airborne Laser Scanning and the Archaeological Interpretation of Ireland’s World War I Landscape: Randalstown Training Camp, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Heather A. Montgomery and Rory W.A. McNeary
7 Aerial Perspectives on Archaeological Landscapes: The Anzac/Arıburnu Battlefields, Gallipoli, Turkey
Jessie Birkett-Rees
8 Landscapes of Death and Suffering: Archaeology of Conflict Landscapes of the Upper Soča Valley, Slovenia
Dimitrij Mlekuž, Uroš Košir and Matija Črešnar
9 The ‘Gas-scape’ on the Eastern Front, Poland (1914–2014): Exploring the Material and Digital Landscapes and Remembering Those ‘Twice-Killed’
Anna Zalewska
10 Remembering Uncertainty: The World War II Warscape of the Australian Northern Territory
Keir Reeves, Birger Stichelbaut and Gertjan Plets
11 World War II Conflict and Post-conflict Landscapes in Northwest France: An Evaluation of the Aerial Photographic Resource
David G. Passmore, David Capps Tunwell and Stephan Harrison
12 Mapping Unexploded Ordnance in Italy: The Role of World War II Aerial Photographs
Elizabeth Jane Shepherd
13 Erased Landscapes: Conflict, Memory and Post-World War II Landscape Transformation in Western Poland
Grzegorz Kiarszys
14 A Cold War Conflict Landscape in the Borderlands of West Bohemia
Michal Rak, Lukáš Funk and Lenka Starková
15 ‘Anzac from the Air’: Re-imagining the Australian War Memorial’s Gallipoli Aerial Collection
Luke Diggins, Kate Morschel and Snow
16 Italian World War I Aerial Photographs for Landscape Study and Public Engagement
Roberta Cuttini
17 The Aerial Perspective in a Museum Context: Above Flanders Fields 1914–1918
Birger Stichelbaut and Piet Chielens
Index
Biography
Dr Birger Stichelbaut is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Historical and Archaeological Aerial Photography - a collaborative initiative between Ghent University, the In Flanders Fields Museum and the Province of West-Flanders - and is engaged with aerial photography, archaeology and the conflict landscape of the First World War. He is the author of the book In Flanders Fields: The Great War seen from the air (published in English, French and Dutch) and of several papers dealing with historical aerial photography and the archaeology of the Great War. David Cowley is an archaeologist who manages the aerial reconnaissance programme at Historic Environment Scotland. He has published extensively on applications of historic aerial photographs, remote sensing for archaeology and aerial archaeology. His research is framed within landscape archaeology and includes conflict archaeology, methodology and sources. He is also undertaking part-time doctoral research at Ghent University.
