Archaeological Approaches to and Heritage Perspectives on Modern Conflict

Archaeological Approaches to and Heritage Perspectives on Modern Conflict

Beyond the Battlefields

From a wider disciplinary perspective, modern conflict archaeology is now a thoroughly established and mature sub-discipline. However, a significant problem conflict archaeologists in the Netherlands face is that modern eras, including both World Wars, have so far not received serious attention. Although both World Wars appeal strongly to the popular imagination, until recently Dutch researchers had not approached modern conflict from an academic archaeological perspective to any great extent. This is partly the result of problematic legislation on archaeological activity in the Netherlands. When applied and interpreted appropriately, archaeology can play an important role in the preservation, contemporary experience and historical reconstruction of recent conflicts. However, as this book argues, research methods other than excavations will be needed in order to conduct conflict archaeology in the Netherlands effectively. This study aims to develop a Dutch approach to conflict archaeology, integrating archaeology, heritage research and history at a landscape scale.
  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • 1. Introduction
    • 1.1 The tragedy at Mont Cornillet
    • 1.2 Aims and research perspectives
  • 2. Conflict archaeology
    • 2.1 Historical background
    • 2.2 Roots of war: warlike behaviour in prehistoric times
    • 2.3 Basic principles of total war and modern warfare
    • 2.4 Modern conflict archaeology: methods and techniques
  • 3. Landscape biographies of commemoration
    • 3.1 Landscape biography
    • 3.2 Scope and definition of heritage
    • 3.3 Landscapes of commemoration
    • 3.4 Ypres and the commemoration of WWI
    • 3.5 Potsdamer Platz, Berlin – A multilayered urban landscape of commemoration
  • 4. Status quaestionis of conflict archaeology
    • 4.1 United Kingdom
    • 4.2 Flanders
    • 4.3 France
    • 4.4 Germany
    • 4.5 Poland
    • 4.6 The Netherlands
    • 4.7 Conclusions
  • 5. Scientific and societal importance
    • 5.1 Archaeological heritage management in the Netherlands
    • 5.2 Dutch excavation protocols
    • 5.3 The Buried Past of War project
    • 5.4 Metal detecting in the Netherlands
  • 6. The application of LiDAR-based DEMs
    • 6.1 Light Detecting And Ranging (LiDAR): use and misuse
    • 6.2 Landscapes of conflict – Battlefields and defence works
    • 6.3 Landscapes of conflict – Air power and German logistics
    • 6.4 Landscapes of conflict – Behind the lines
  • 7. Summary and final debate
    • 7.1 Community interest versus scientific interest
    • 7.2 Heritage management versus management of research potential
    • 7.3 Site-oriented approach versus landscape approach
    • 7.4 Research agenda on modern conflict
  • Synopsis
  • Appendix: WWII-related archaeological researches in the Netherlands (1984-2017)
  • Bibliography
  • Index
  • List of figures
    • Figure 1.2 The final resting place of the 330 recovered German soldiers at Warmériville, France
    • Figure 1.3 Diagram of a more encompassing multidimensional approach of conflict archaeology, using a historical-anthropological perspective
    • Figure 1.4 Landscapes of war. La Main de Massiges in northern France, 2014. The site saw heavy fighting in 1914 and 1915; this fighting is still clearly visible more than a century later.
    • Figure 2.1 The mass grave of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Vilnius, Lithuania
    • Figure 2.2 The remains of a British Brenn Gun Carrier near Loker, Flanders
    • Figure 2.3 Human remains at the bottom of a former lake near Vædebro
    • Figure 2.4 Nose art on a German Messerschmitt Bf 110 of a dachshund eating a Soviet plane. This fighter-bomber is on permanent display at the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (the German Museum of Technology), Germany.
    • Figure 2.5 The former WWI battlefield at Hill 62 near Ypres, Flanders
    • Figure 2.6 The influence spheres of a battlespace
    • Figure 2.7 The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) research at the concentration camp of Castuera revealed the humiliation of the prisoners surprisingly well. The Catholic cross was part of relentless process of the re-education of the Republican pris
    • Figure 3.1 The round towers of Ardmore, Ireland (left) and of Messines, Flanders (right), Belgium
    • Figure 3.2 Since 1928, every evening a Last Post ceremony has been held under the Menin Gate at Ypres to commemorate missing soldiers from the Commonwealth.
    • Figure 3.3 The reconstructed Cloth Hall of Ypres
    • Figure 3.4 British and German unexploded shells in the former Ypres Salient
    • Figure 3.5 Conservation of destruction, Oradour-sur-Glane, 2015
    • Figure 3.6 An inaccurately located demarcation stone. At the background Kemmel Hill
    • Figure 3.7 Saint Symphorien Military Cemetery. In the foreground are German war graves. Commonwealth graves can be seen in the background.
    • Figure 3.8 The memorial to the missing of all known soldiers from the battlefields of 1914-1918 in Nord-Pas-de-Calais at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, France
    • Figure 3.9 German soldiers on top of the Berlin Zoo-Flakturm, 16 April 1942
    • Figure 3.10 Haus Huth, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin
    • Figure 4.1 The Tunnellers Memorial at Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée was unveiled on 19 June 2010.
    • Figure 4.2 Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery
    • Figure 4.3 The Mulberry harbour of Arromanches, Normandy
    • Figure 4.4 The reconstructed Yorkshire Trench in the former Ypres Salient
    • Figure 4.6 The former mass grave of Alain-Fournier and his fellow soldiers in the forests of Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne transformed into a place of remembrance.
    • Figure 4.7 German mass grave as discovered by archaeologists near the village of Gavrelle, France
    • Figure 4.8 American troops cross the Westwall and enter German territory
    • Figure 4.9 The prisoner-of-war (POW) camp at Quedlinburg, 1914-1918
    • Figure 4.10 Excavated barracks of the POW camp
    • Figure 4.11 The remains of a British gun emplacement at Oosterhout
    • Figure 4.12 German troops advancing near the Grebbeberg, May 1940
    • Figure 4.13 Archaeological excavation at camp Amersfoort
    • Figure 4.14 WWII crash sites monitored by archaeologists
    • Figure 4.15 The collected remains of the Junkers 88A at Leidsche Rijn
    • Figure 5.1 Scheme of the archaeological valuation and selection process of the Netherlands, the Archaeological Monument Care
    • Figure 5.2 Foxholes of F Company, Second Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Division, near Bois Jacques in the former perimeter of Bastogne, 20-27 December 1944
    • Figure 5.3 A selection of the findings at the former concentration camp of Vught, 1943-1944
    • Figure 5.4 The Dutch military cemetery (1940-1945) at the top of the Grebbeberg
    • Figure 5.5 Rich grave gifts in a prehistoric grave at Dalfsen
    • Figure 5.6 Members of the Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service are collecting ammunition near Nijmegen.
    • Figure 5.7 The remains of a nineteen-year-old German soldier discovered at Arnhem-Schuytgraaf in 2008
    • Figure 5.8 Flak tower in the Obere Augarten, Vienna, Austria
    • Figure 5.9 The most used instrument during a conflict research is the metal detector.
    • Figure 5.10 Sinimäe, Estonia. WWII artefacts on display outside the local war museum that was unearthed in the forests and swamps around Narva
    • Figure 5.11 Bois Jacques near Bastogne, Belgium; the debris of an illegal digging
    • Figure 5.12 The excavated British Mark IV female tank D. 51 ‘Deborah’
    • Figure 6.4 The archaeological remains of a Cold War era truck loading station near Austerlitz
    • Figure 6.7 Deepened foxholes of the British Fourth Parachute Brigade near Wolfheze
    • Figure 6.9 The remains of a German slit trench near Wolfheze constructed before Operation Market-Garden
    • Figure 6.11 A distinctive German zigzag trench of the defence line at Herkenbosch-Rothenbach
    • Figure 6.12 Comparative crater sizes for selected bomb types and fuses. Illustrated craters are for one-hundred-pound GP bombs in clay soils.
    • Figure 6.13 One of the craters at Herkenbosch-Rothenbach, most likely to be created by a one-hundred-pound GP bomb dropped by a fighter-bomber
    • Figure 6.17 A greyscale DEM of the Landschotse Heide showing four German practice boats
    • Figure 6.18 One of the practice boats at the Landschotse Heide (number 2 on Figure 6.19). On ‘deck’ some of the German Type ZC (Zement Cylindrisch) 250 practice bombs
    • Figure 6.21 One of the preserved fighter-plane hangars (Ypenburg Halle) at the former military airfield of Havelte
    • Figure 6.22 A schematic typology for identified bunkers and vehicle shelters at German logistic depots features
    • Figure 6.23 An overview of the Munitions Ausgabe Stellen (M.A.St.) der Luftwaffe sites in the Netherlands
    • Figure 6.26 One of the remaining Type Va vehicle shelters at the M.A.St. 8/VI near Loon op Zand
    • Figure 6.27 One of the few remaining Type Ia ammunition bunkers at the M.A.St. 8/VI. Note the divergent exit/entrance of the bunker compared with the layout of Figure 6.23.
    • Figure 6.28 The remains of a German military supply structure at the Hoorneboegse Heide
    • Figure 6.30 A picture postcard of the Belgian village of Ede, 1915-1917
    • Figure 6.31 Monument at the location of the Belgian village of Ede, unveiled in 1984
    • Figure 7.1 Diagram of WWII-related archaeological studies conducted in the Netherlands from 1984 to 2017
    • Figure 7.3 Monument for fallen Muslim soldiers of WWI at Verdun

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