Landscapes of Battle and the Search for the Missing

Summary

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is the governmental entity tasked with the investigation, recovery, identification, and accounting for U.S. military members that have gone missing during conflict, while in service. This effort follows stringent scientific archaeologically-based protocols and practices, proving some degree of success especially for the resolution of incidents involving single-event site types such as aircraft crashes or burials. The archaeologist faces a challenging, dynamic environment when attempting to assess sites believed to be associated with loss incidents involving large-scale conflict that cover space as well as time.  This paper will present current efforts for the targeted investigation and recovery of the missing from major fields of battle during World War II. The approach for this investigation involves the application of landscape archaeological principles, geospatial technologies, and the importance of the contextual relationship of material evidence with biological evidence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Same Same, but Different": Considerations and Approaches to Archaeology within the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 559