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.