Conflict Archaeology, Historical Memory, and the Experience of War

Countering
dominant narratives of conflict through attention to memory and trauma

This
volume presents approaches to the archaeology of war that move beyond the forensic
analysis of battlefields, fortifications, and other sites of conflict to
consider the historical memory, commemoration, and social experience of war.
Leading scholars offer critical insights that challenge the dominant narratives
about landscapes of war from throughout the history of North American settler
colonialism.Grounded
in the empirical study of fields of conflict, these essays extend their scope
to include a commitment to engaging local Indigenous and other descendant
communities and to illustrating how public memories of war are actively and
politically constructed. Contributors examine conflicts including the battle of
Chikasha, King Philip’s War, the 1694 battle at Guadalupe Mesa, the Rogue River
War, the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862, and a World War II battle on the island of
Saipan. Studies also investigate the site of the Schenectady Massacre of 1690
and colonial posts staffed by Black soldiers.Chapters
discuss how prevailing narratives often minimized the complexity of these
conflicts, smoothed over the contradictions and genocidal violence of
colonialism, and erased the diversity of the participants. This volume
demonstrates that the collaborative practice of conflict archaeology has the
potential to reveal the larger meanings, erased voices, and lingering traumas
of war.

A
volume in the series Cultural Heritage Studies, edited by Paul A. Shackel