Battlefield Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future

Battle represents the climax of political conflict culminating in a loss of life, often on a large scale. Archaeologically, battle is manifest in the rapid deposition of an assemblage of materials and features as well as buried and unburied remains of victims. The social and political consequences of battle often extend far beyond the episode of fighting. Battle can dramatically reshape political boundaries as well political, social, demographic, and economic organization. This symposium focuses on the changing methods, practices, and motivations for the study of battlefields. New technologies, political agendas, historical repercussions, and moral responsibilities to those who died and their surviving families all shape the nature of battlefield studies. Our goal here is to present the latest work within the framing archaeological theory of how we study battlefields, why we do it, and the ramifications of what is learned from battlefield sites. This symposium is limited neither by spatial or temporal parameters. The papers, however, do more than present archaeological contexts; they contextualize the study of battlefields within the science of archaeology and the changing mores of humanity.