Hidden Battlefields: Power, Memory, and Preservation of Sites of Armed Conflict

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Hidden Battlefields: Power, Memory, and Preservation of Sites of Armed Conflict," at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This session interrogates how military history and memorial practice draw distinctions between armed conflicts in American history in ways that contribute to the erasure of significant episodes of collective violence, and how archaeological and historical practice can recenter their legacies. Pervasive failures to recognize and preserve sites associated with Indigenous suffering and resistance contribute to the erasure of Indigenous history from American landscapes. Further, historical distinctions between warfare and conflicts labeled as “riots,” “uprisings,” or “civil unrest” illustrate how the power relations that defined the conflicts themselves can legitimize some as more worthy of remembrance than others. The work of excavating and reimagining the past has potential to reshape these landscapes of memory. The scholars and practitioners participating in this forum will discuss how community-based research can inspire reckoning with the legacies of power and violence in the American past.