Archaeologists at War Event
- Time:
- 18:00 - 20:00
- Date:
- 7 December 2017
- Venue:
- Avenue Campus University of Southampton SO17 1BF
For more information regarding this event, please email Mary Andrew at [email protected] .
Event details
Part of the Great War: Unknown War Programme
Join us for this free event, all welcome. Please register above and joining instructions will be sent closer to the date.
In 1914 there were few professional archaeologists in Britain, though more in Germany. This lecture will explore the varied roles played by these archaeologists in the war. Many of those with knowledge of Greece and the Near East, such as T E Lawrence and Leonard Woolley in Britain, were recruited to the intelligence services, or, like Theodor Wiegand in Germany, to monument protection. In many war areas, archaeological sites and historic monuments were disturbed, damaged or looted. On the Western Front, German archaeologists carried out several systematic excavations near the front line, while in Greece the French established an Army Archaeological Service for excavation, survey and protection. Many of the issues concerning historic monuments foreshadowed the more systematic arrangements made in later wars.
The image above shows officers of the 2nd King’s Shropshire Light Infantry with skulls excavated during the construction of trenches and dugouts near Amphipolis, Greece, 1916. © IWM (Q 32521)
Speaker information
Professor Tim Champion,Professor Timothy Champion is an Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. After a first degree in classics and ancient history and doctoral research in prehistoric archaeology at Oxford, my first academic appointment was at University College, Galway (now National University of Ireland, Galway). From Ireland I moved to Southampton and have been here ever since, except for periods when I held Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Michigan and Zimbabwe.