This paper examines archaeological materials from three border patrol stations in Finnish Lapland that were in use during the Cold War. The Cold War was essentially an ideological division between the East and the West, and the Finnish border guards were situated in the epicentre of Cold War ideological divides. We excavated trash pits that were located in the yards of three border patrol stations in Inari. The pits contained food-related finds, alcoholic beverages and traces of some leisure-related activities. We discuss daily life in the border zone and examine it from the perspective of masculinity, military discipline, and frontier mentality, which manifest uniquely in the materiality of the Finnish border patrol stations.
King George V Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, long rumoured to be haunted, sits atop a mass grave from the Japanese occupation (25 December 1941- 30 August 1945). This paper locates and interprets the mass grave at the Park, where the site was obscured by urban development and excavation is infeasible, by joining historical research methods, digital spatial humanities, and geospatial technologies. Combining archival study, oral history, georeferenced wartime aerial photographs, and Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), the study locates a burial pit in a mass grave that contained at least 2,632 bodies, according to post-war exhumation records. By mapping the spatial and social context, this paper also argues that the site reveals the spatial inequality experienced by the urban poor during the Japanese invasion and occupation. This paper offers an example of investigating dark heritage sites across Asia, where post-war urbanisation has obscured civilian wartime suffering.
This study examines the roles of military architecture in Late Postclassic Oaxaca, integrating archaeological and 16th-century linguistic evidence to explore daily life under Aztec imperial expansion. While fortifications provided defence, some also controlled movement and reinforced social divisions. Oral histories and colonial records describe the Zapotec site of Guiengola as a garrison where the Zapotec successfully resisted the Mexica (Aztec) in 1490. However, LiDAR mapping reveals that Guiengola was more than a military outpost - it was a 360-hectare city with internal social complexity, functioning as an autonomous political capital. Its 4.5-kilometre system of walls provided significant defensive capabilities. This article analyzes the physical characteristics of Guiengola's fortifications, their distribution across the city, and their strategic integration with the mountainous terrain. It examines how walls, gates, and watchtowers formed a coordinated defence system while also serving to regulate movement and enforce social hierarchies.
The & Scedil;ahkulu Rebellion, which posed a significant threat to Ottoman stability, took place in the Teke region in 1511. Various religious, political, and socio-economic factors prompted & Scedil;ahkulu to launch the insurgent movement. The rebellion ended with & Scedil;ahkulu's defeat in Sivas. K & imath;z & imath;lkaya is of great importance in the rebellion, both as a military base and a defence unit. Archaeological remains in Avdanc & imath;k, G & uuml;ndo & gbreve;du, and Karap & imath;nar have confirmed the existence of small defence units around K & imath;z & imath;lkaya, which were used effectively during the rebellion. The most important reason behind this location is the advantage offered by the mountainous structure of K & imath;z & imath;lkaya. In this study, a rebellion that started on the Yal & imath;nl & imath;k & ouml;y-K & imath;z & imath;lkaya axis has been concretised with archaeological data from Avdanc & imath;k, Karap & imath;nar, and G & uuml;ndo & gbreve;du (Burdur). This study represents a pioneering effort as the first investigation of the & Scedil;ahkulu Rebellion through battlefield archaeology in the early Ottoman Empire.
The Missile Crisis of October 1962 is widely recognized, yet a lesser-known Cold War confrontation occurred in Cuba in September 1970. That year, the Soviet Union initiated the construction of a nuclear submarine base on the islet of Cayo Alcatr & aacute;z in Cienfuegos Bay on Cuba's southern coast. The United States argued that the installation violated the "gentlemen's agreement" established between the superpowers after the 1962 crisis. The situation developed into a diplomatic confrontation but was resolved through discreet nuclear diplomacy. Due to the emerging policy of d & eacute;tente between the superpowers, the crisis received limited public attention and has remained largely unknown. Nevertheless, material remains of this event persist on Cayo Alcatr & aacute;z. By applying a contemporary archaeological approach that integrates archival research with the study of physical remains, the text complements the written historical accounts while offering new perspectives on Cold War history and its continuing relevance.
The Second Siege of Malta during the Second World War witnessed a huge amount of aerial activity, with over 3300 air raids from June 1940 to August 1944. The close proximity of the islands with the airbases of their attackers, separated only by a relatively small passage of water, the irregular nature of resupply to an island under siege, its size and even its geology; all had a profound effect on the nature and deployment of its anti-aircraft (AA) defences. In this paper, the background to Malta's considerable investment in its anti-aircraft defences (in particular Heavy Anti-Aircraft defences) will be explicated, followed by examining how that coverage evolved to adapt to the changes both in the course of the war and those who were responsible for prosecuting it.
This article examines a First World War suitcase lid belonging to Lieutenant Reginald Alfred Charles Brie of the Royal Flying Corps, later RAF, inscribed with his name, those of twenty-two fellow prisoners, and nine place-names. Drawing on service records, a contemporaneous diary, and Red Cross archives, it reconstructs the shared experiences and social networks of British airmen captured in 1918. The suitcase lid is interpreted as both a mnemonic object and a collaborative act of commemoration, functioning simultaneously as keepsake and social document. Positioned at the intersection of object biography, material culture, and wartime memory, this study demonstrates how a single, inscribed artefact can illuminate resilience, identity, and community within captivity. In doing so, it offers a microhistorical model for exploring the emotional and social dimensions of prisoner-of-war life through material remains.
Conflict archaeology is an increasingly popular field of study within Roman archaeology, but not all regions have developed it to the same extent. This paper analyses the archaeological evidence of conflict from the region of the Galaics (NW Iberian Iron Age society), whose existence has been usually overlooked or even denied. We will review the ideological, historiographical and archaeological reasons for this absence; then, a review of archaeological evidence is proposed. The first section explores evidence of the structural role of warfare and conflict as a 'negative imprint' in society and culture. Subsequently, several contexts of Iron Age intergroup violence are analysed, with a focus on the crisis of the 400 BC. Finally, three case studies showcasing the conflict between Iron Age communities and the Roman Empire are explored. Our aim is to provide a preliminary approach to conflict in the Galaic Iron Age, proposing new, unpublished contexts and suggesting different research paths.
Determining the tactical effectivity of 17th century firearms a difficult task, as even if the firearm and the projectile can be properly replicated, finding the muzzle velocity of 17th century charges is not possible based on written sources. The conflict archaeology project of Novi Zrin offers a new, indirect method that is based on the impact velocity of projectiles fired from the fortification entering the sand walls of a siege trench at 80 m distance from the walls. Novi Zrin was defended by Christian troops against an Ottoman siege in 1664 and played a vital role in the campaigns of the 1660s. The research is based on the recreation of the deformity of a pure lead 29 g musket ball impacting the sand wall of the siege trench. This project that can offer a new method for researchers to better understand the tactical capabilities of firearms used in the 17th century.
Monumental architecture, in the form of town and city walls, was a common feature on West Africa's precolonial landscape. Such walls served a variety of defensive, prestige, rank-marking and organisational purposes. Whatever their primary purpose all such walls also served as containers - marking the walled settlement on the landscape; uniting often heterogeneous communities within a confined space. Such was the case with the walled town of Gwollu in Ghana's Upper West Region. The residents of Gwollu built their walls primarily for defensive purposes in the late nineteenth century, during a period characterised by intervals of violence related to slaving and raiding. The history of the walls of Gwollu highlights the role of both conflict and cooperation in constructions of this type and sheds light on the way in which different kinds of power may have been negotiated within the community.
The paper explores the application of archaeological theory and methods to the study of contemporary conflict sites. It focuses on memorials created in the Kyiv region (Ukraine) after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, using a methodological framework that combines spatial analysis with cultural biographies of objects. This approach examines how war-affected objects and spaces are transformed and reused. The study identifies distinct patterns in the treatment of military and civilian objects and discusses how their original purpose and later memorialisation differ after experiencing violent events. Another key observation is the largely spontaneous nature of civilian memorials and their potential role in trauma integration. These findings show the need for further research into how both memorials and their perception evolve over time.
In this article I discuss competing interests in relation to former sites of internment from the Second World War. These places often provide testimony to historical periods that, although relatively brief, may be painful or politically inconvenient to recall. On the other hand these short periods of a place's overall history may also be disproportionately focused upon. The interested parties often stretch beyond immediate and local residents. Drawing upon four examples from different countries, I explore the complex afterlives of sites of Second World War internment, especially concerning the potential discord of wishes and needs from the different stakeholders and spheres of interest involved with these places. These spheres of interest are driven by diverse motivations, such as family history, remembrance, education and academic research. The sites themselves are managed (or unmanaged) in various ways, but their situation is never static, as interest in them ebbs and flows over time..
A substantial number of pebbles has been recovered from the Early Iron Age (c. 800-575 BC) fortified residence of Sant Jaume d'Alcanar, Catalonia. This study identifies these pebbles as slingstones, determines their likely source, and examines their role in the site's defensive strategies. We further investigate the potential connection between the use of the sling and successive modifications to the settlement's fortifications, as well as the circumstances surrounding the assault that led to its destruction and abandonment. Finally, we integrate these findings through a comparative analysis of slingstone assemblages from similar archaeological contexts, evaluating their broader implications for understanding siege warfare during this period.
This study investigates Allied prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in Belgium from 1944 to 1948, focusing on their location, structure, and archaeological relevance. Using archival research, historical aerial photography, and LiDAR analysis, 63 sites were identified and assessed. These largely overlooked camps, where German POWs contributed to post-war reconstruction through agriculture and mining, are evaluated for archaeological potential via a new methodology analyzing preservation and disturbance levels. Results show 42 sites hold research potential, with seven showing visible traces and 10 having preservation rates above 90%. This highlights archaeology's role in filling archival gaps and understanding the broader post-war context.
In this paper, we present the results of archaeological field research in the Sonderlager (special camp) of Stalag X B Sandbostel, a Wehrmacht prisoner of war camp from the Second World War in northern Germany. The Sonderlager was part of the camp's internal punishment system and an externalized part of the POW camp. Beyond the existence of the Sonderlager, hardly anything is known from a historical and archival perspective, which is why it is suitable for archaeological investigations to complement our knowledge. A multi-methodological approach was chosen for this project, consisting of various non-invasive methods and an excavation campaign. In particular, this research yielded findings and insights into the last days of the Sonderlager, during which it was used as an emergency hospital for typhus patients before it was finally burnt down after liberation by the British army.
