Shared Heritage: World War II American Military Loss Sites in Europe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Historic archaeological sites associated with World War II American military losses on foreign lands represent the physical remains of a shared cultural heritage. Such sites are irreplaceable phenomena of significance to the past of both nations and for the knowledge and understanding of our shared cultural heritage. Recent recovery efforts at a B-17G (Flying Fortress) crash site in southwestern Poland provide an example of how archaeological investigations can meet both the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) mission objectives for accounting of missing US servicemen and address host nation historic preservation requirements. Here we tell the story of the loss incident, describe working with the host nation, explain the methods used in the archaeological excavation, and show how artifacts recovered from the site, even those with no evidentiary value, have local interpretative value for public outreach and education. We examine one case study that includes a collaborative museum exhibition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32457