Conflict Archaeology

Conflict archaeology is a relatively young sub-discipline, often dominated by the survey and excavation of battlefields. At Aberdeen we take a broader, social approach to the subject, using material culture to recover the full-spectrum  traces of violence and its impact. Conflict is studied at a range of scales from the local to the geopolitical, and across a timeframe that encompasses both the instant of action and its long-term echoes. Our fieldwork extends from  the Pacific island battlefields of World War II and proto-historic conflicts among the Yup'ik of Alaska, to the Opium Wars in China and the Scottish naval base at Scapa Flow.

Within this theme we have a particular focus on:

• indigenous peoples
• colonial environments
• multi-ethnic forces
• small-scale and insular communities
• women and war
• memory and commemoration

and on the study of conflict between combatants of radically differing world-views.

• Dr Rick Knecht
• Dr Charlotta Hillerdal

Archaeological Field School in Quinhagak, Alaska

Peleliu 1944: Social Archaeologies of World War II in Palau, Micronesia