The Localization of Taphonomy: The Impacts of Physical Environments and the Memorialization Practices of Local Populations on Combat Loss Archaeological Sites

Summary

The taphonomic processes that affect archaeological remains in a given location are some of the most significant factors to be taken into consideration when assessing the type and amount of information potentially recoverable from an archaeological site.  These processes vary widely based upon geographic region.  Human agency as a taphonomic process has similar geographically and culturally-based variability.  Through remembrance, memorialization, and commemoration, or lack thereof, to include exploitation and willful destruction, humans as taphonomic agents are particularly impactful upon combat loss sites.  With the presentation of a number of these geographically variant and dependent taphonomic processes, it is possible to attempt a comparative study of the taphonomy of combat loss sites as they are encountered in an archaeological context.  Investigations and excavations of worldwide combat loss sites serve as case studies to illustrate these geographically and culturally-reliant taphonomic processes and the subsequent recoverability of the archaeological remains these processes alter.

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

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 590