Killing Time: Archaeology and the First World War

Nicholas J Saunders

noy, 2011 · The History Press

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The passage of time has all but extinguished any living memory of the Great War of 1914-1918 but the experiences of those who fought in the trenches of the Somme and Flanders have since become epic history and the stuff of legend. Today, hardly a month passes without some dramatic and sometimes tragic discovery being made along the old killing fields of the Western Front. Graves of British soldiers buried during battle - still lying in rows seemingly arm in arm or found crouching at the entrance to a dugout; whole 'underground cities' of trenches, dugouts and shelters have been preserved in the mud; field hospitals carved out of the chalk country of the Somme marked with graffiti; unexploded bombs and gas canisters - all of tehse are the poignant and sometimes deadly legacies fo a war we can never forget. Killing Time digs beneath the surface of war to uncover the living reality left behind. Archaeologist and anthropologist Nicholas J Saunders brings together a wealth of discoveries in family photographs, diaries, souvenirs and in the trenches to offer fresh insights into the human dimension of warfare in the contemporary past.

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Nicholas J. Saunders is a leading authority on, and a moving force behind, the development of a modern and scientific archaeology of the First World War. He organized the first International Conference on the Anthropology and Archaeology of the First World War. His publications include books on trench art, and Ancient Americas: The Great Civilisations. He is Reader in Material Culture in the Department of Anthropology at University College, London.