A New Kind Of Activity Tourism
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Join us as a member of an archaeological team exploring and recording this iconic battle from WW2. Become one of the select few to experience this ground-breaking opportunity to experience conflict archaeology first-hand.
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Modern conflict archaeology is a relatively new branch of field archaeology that employs a wide range of multi-disciplinary techniques to develop understanding of modern industrialised warfare through the study of its material remains and impacts.
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A Unique Opportunity
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Between October 1943 and May 1944, some of the most ferocious fighting of the Second World War took place along about 50 miles of front-line between the west coast of Italy and the mountains inland of the Cassino-Mignano extents of Autostrada 1 and Route 6. The battlefield comprised the western ends of the Winter and Gustav Lines, the latter anchored on Monte Cassino itself, these being two successive German defensive lines constructed after the Allied landings at Salerno in September 1943.
Due to its unique location, the tiny medieval village of San Pietro Infine became the site of the most significant battle in the run up to Cassino itself. German forces occupied the village from September 1943, and established major fortifications in the village itself, and over the entire surrounding landscape. The area contains thousands of features – stone sangars, concrete emplacements, bunkers, pillboxes, fortified buildings, observation posts, cave shelters, deep dugouts, communication tunnels, etc – relating to the battle. More broadly, the area offers a landscape of human settlement and land-use against which the impact of modern industrialised warfare can be measured. It therefore represents an exceptionally rich archaeological resource for understanding modern conflict in all its dimensions. We have been given a unique opportunity to study these features and record them for the first time using modern conflict archaeology techniques. |
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You can join us
This is your chance to become one of the pioneering members of the team
undertaking this exciting work.
undertaking this exciting work.
MODERNModern conflict archaeology is a relatively new branch of field archaeology that employs a wide range of multi-disciplinary techniques to develop understanding of modern industrialised warfare through the study of its material remains and impacts.
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CONFLICTIt is not restricted to ‘battlefield archaeology’, but involves: a) comprehensive investigation of the full range of material impacts on the landscape; b) historically and anthropologically informed interpretation of their meanings for soldiers and civilians at the time; and c) exploration of long-term cultural legacies in the form of altered landscapes, recycled material, memorialisation, etc.
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ARCHAEOLOGYNot least, conflict archaeology is intimately concerned to understand, expose, and publicise the human experience and cost of modern industrialised warfare.
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