This New Book Chronicle was written during March 2026, with war being reported all over the news, so I turned to look at past wars and conflicts and how we research them through historical archaeology, in the faint hope of making some sense of it all.

The four books chosen are diverse in their approaches and methods. The archaeology of the American Revolution (2025) highlights groups of people that are not always recognised, or are marginalised, in the historical records but are revealed instead through integrating archaeological research. People are also at the centre of the collection of French case studies on the Archaeo-anthropology of conflicts in France: from the earlier Middle Ages to the Second World War (2025). Here, the human remains and their contexts are evidence for the living conditions in times of conflict. The Archaeology of internment camps in 20th century Brandenburg: crime, camps, and commemoration (2025) is an important account on life under systems of control and terror and how archaeological approaches can highlight subject areas that are rarely mentioned in contemporaneous sources. The fourth book War essays (2025) is not strictly historical archaeology but records the events of the 2003 war in Iraq and the following occupation by US forces through the personal lens of Mesopotamian archaeologist Zainab Bahrani who investigates destruction of cultural heritage.

All books emphasise that society has a strong responsibility towards the remembrance and commemoration of the people involved and affected by conflicts and for preserving the memory of the events. Archaeology can help to reveal the less-often documented parties involved. The past is our legacy, the cultural heritage its evidence. Some sites and objects become lieux de mémoire (‘sites of memory’ after the concepts of French historian Pierre Nora) and are bestowed by the society with historical value; a deliberate act to connect a community’s collective memory and history to the present at a time when genuine ‘living’ memory is disappearing.

I admit that the books were in part hard to read, not due to writing style but to their grim accounts of the sites and finds of violence and terror. All authors display a balanced, objective tone underpinned by scientific reasoning, but it does not need much imagination to consider the fates of the real people behind the evidence. This is especially the case for examples in the twentieth century, which is still in ‘living memory’ and we are only one or two generations away from the people described in three of the books. This makes it more personal for many people and, for example, the desire for the repatriation of the dead soldiers and the naming of victims understandable. My grandfather fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and until the end of the war on the German side, and made it home alive, after the front fell. His two eldest sons served on the Eastern front in the Second World War, both died not in action but while sitting at the campfire getting hit by shrapnel and on the back of a hospital truck respectively. They never came home and were very much missed, but their memory lived on. The descriptions in the third book brought back memories of my own school visit back in 1992 to the KZ-Sachsenhausen/Oranienburg. We were guided by a kind older man, who had been about our age when he was interned in the KZ by the Nazis as a young communist. His shared experience and the material remains preserved and displayed there had a profound and long-lasting impact on all of us.

Reading these books and watching the current news, it feels as if repeating history with its recurring reasons for war, mainly for power and resources, over and over again is our fate. But I end this reflection with Pete Seeger’s (hopeful) words from his timeless anti-war hymn Where have all the flowers gone as he asks ‘when will they ever learn?’. It is a when, not if. We are not there yet, but maybe one day we will overcome fighting each other.

Richard F. Veit & Matthew A. Kalos (ed.). 2025. The archaeology of the American Revolution. Gainesville: University Press Florida; 978-0-8130-7941-7 hardback $90.

This book is a compilation of research into the American Revolution (1775–1783). The editors Richard Veit and Matthew Kalos present various multidisciplinary contributions that highlight the diverse groups of people who interacted and fought each other. On one side, the American patriots and the emerging Continental army with their French allies waged a war for independence from the British Empire, which was itself supported by American loyalists and Hessian troops. The tribes of Native American people fought on both sides or tried to stay neutral. The aim of this volume is not to deliver a narrative of the conflict events and strategies but to discuss the different groups involved, with some focus on African Americans, and how they were affected by the conflict. The book offers well-written accounts with an emphasis on exploring people’s life experience and is of interest to a wider audience.

The Introduction presents a concise overview on the development of historical archaeology of conflict, and especially on the archaeology of the American Revolution. It highlights the benefits of integrating archaeological investigations to explore the main narratives further that have long been studied primarily through textual sources and historic records. Material culture and excavations expose finer nuances particularly in areas that did not make the cut for the main storyline that was curated in the aftermath of victory and the following two centuries.

The book is organised in three parts. The first one, ‘Historical narratives and material culture’, has five chapters and begins with an oral history by descendants of an African American soldier, Gershom Prince, who died in the Battle of Wyoming in 1778, fighting in a patriot regiment. The family memory and connection is described using a powder horn carved by Prince’s own hand in 1761 and the chapter illuminates the history of the piece and the Wyoming Valley from the French and Indian War (1754–1763) to the revolution and the participation of African American soldiers. The second chapter focuses on the Red Bank Battlefield, New Jersey, and the impact Black troops had there. It explains how for a long time their active role was not acknowledged, in memorials as in literature and, furthermore, how the Black community overcame the erasure from the nineteenth century onwards fighting for the commemoration of their ancestors. Two further chapters look into Partisan warfare, especially in the Southern states and the fractiousness of the different parties in the revolution becomes obvious. It was not only one big battle after another to gain or maintain territory but rather conflict zones with many small skirmishes, and acts of sabotage behind enemy lines, often organised by local militia. The devastation on both sides that was caused by the fighting is researched via surroundings of the Battle of Brandywine 1777, the largest single-day battle and a defeat for the American patriots. In this study, a sensory exploration is undertaken to understand the immense hardship and lasting impact the battle had for civilians living in the surrounding area, based on the experience of a local pacifist Quaker family. The chapter on the archaeology of the Southern Campaign looking at the partisan warfare and places of battles and skirmishes leads to Part II ‘Archaeological interpretations’.

Seven chapters address the relevance of battlefield archaeology and showcase the methods and new technologies applied in archaeology. The towns that saw the first fighting in the war were Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and the chapter ‘Bullet-riddled artifacts’ describes where the first shots of the war hit, and some houses along the route of the battles still have bullet holes. Another famous encounter was the fight for Saratoga Fort, New York, in 1777 which saw the defeat of the British general John Burgoyne and is seen as a turning point in the war. Here, many archaeological methods—such as metal detecting, surveys and excavations—are applied to gain more information on the logistics, supply and strategy of the battle and its exact location. Lesser-known forts along the frontier and the urban fort of Middlebrook, New Jersey, are the topic of further chapters.

The well-studied camp at Morristown, New Jersey, was recently re-investigated, and the research demonstrates the hardship the soldiers had to endure during their winter camps. A further chapter looks into the effect of battles. The two differing landscape areas are compared to highlight the long-term impact that destruction and devastation of war, in this case the American Revolution, can bring to communities and the land itself. The last case study is on underwater archaeology at Crosswicks Creek, New Jersey, where the Patriot river fleet is being rediscovered.

Part III ‘Remembrance and memory’ reflects in three chapters how the American Revolution was memorialised and perceived in the following centuries, for example with built memorials and re-enacted battles. The editors’ thoughtful Afterword and Conclusions deliver reflections on the chapters and highlight social implications of the revolution and the war. Throughout the book, human beings are at the centre of the narrative, rather than the strategies and battles, and it advocates the need to keep on researching and take up responsibility to keep the interconnected themes of the history, archaeology and memory of the American Revolution alive, especially for those parts and people that historically have been less well remembered or even forgotten.

Emeline Verna, Elodie Cabot, Yves Desfossés & Michel Signoli (ed.). 2025. Archaeo-anthropology of conflicts in France: from the earlier Middle Ages to the Second World War (British Archaeological Reports International Series 3225). Oxford: BAR; 978-1-4073-6289-2 paperback £53.

This volume is the outcome of the French research project ‘Archaeology and Anthropology of Conflicts’ (2020–2022) which gathered around 30 scholars from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, history and genetics to showcase multifaceted approaches on how to investigate funerary sites that are connected to conflicts, such as battles, war zones or military hospitals. The human remains of conflicts and how they were treated after death is the main focus. The various case studies reveal diverse settings and approaches that will help guide future research and discoveries of burials.

A short Introduction leads to 20 case studies, which are divided into two chronological parts, the first with 11 case studies ranging from early Middle Ages to the nineteenth century and the second part discusses in nine chapters research from the two World Wars. The main aim is to show the broad range of possible settings and the many multifaceted ways one can research them rather than a comprehensive narrative about how the victims of conflicts were treated after death. Most chapters detail the finds that came to light during land developments in preventive excavations, and the success of a multidisciplinary approach is clearly highlighted. The contributions are written by mostly French scholars in English, with French abstracts, which makes them accessible for a large audience.

Some of the chapters look at battlefields, such as The Battle of Verneuil (1424) of the Hundred Years War between France and England, where an archaeological survey of the battlefield in 2018 focused on the landscape and material remains and not, as on other sites, on the mass graves. Another study looks at a so-called crisis cemetery where 22 unidentified men, probably soldiers, are thought to be the result of a conflict at the end of the fifteenth century because some bodies bear injuries from culverins, one of the first portable fire weapons. Further examples are mass graves with 154 bodies in nine burials of the Battle of Le Mans (1793) in the Vendée wars, which was fought between the new Republican army and the Royal and Catholic forces. The graves contained men, women and children, all part of the army. One site identified eight soldiers belonging to the 99th French regiment who died in the Battle of Reichshoffen-Woerth (1870) which cost the lives of 20 000 soldiers on both French and Prussian sides.

Twelve mass graves, containing 58 bodies hastily buried at the same time, mainly men, are possibly victims from the siege of Douai in the early eighteenth century and are well placed in their historical context. Though individuals in only one grave have peri-mortem wounds relating to conflict, the research discovered that for people in the other graves the responsible killer was most likely an outbreak of typhus. More examples incorporate the study of certain diseases, such as palaeoserology. In one case, skeletal remains in 12 burials in a military camp of the sixteenth/seventeenth century revealed a relapsing fever as the cause of death. The poor conditions in which soldiers lived are also attested among soldiers from 1793 to 1795 in the army of the young French Republic.

The final chapter in this first part leads to the second part by presenting a way to recognise the buried individuals using DNA-based identification together with the historical-social context to commemorate them by their name and reconnect them with their living descendants. The studied examples are from 1812 and the two World Wars. With the twentieth-century case studies in Part II, there is a closer connection to people who died in the wars, many of whom are still remembered and have identifiable family connections. Therefore, the handling and investigation of these human remains needs to be even more carefully addressed. After battles and with ongoing fighting, graves were often only temporary in the hope that the fallen soldiers could be given more care and the due remembrance later. Many graves were marked, many more, especially of the enemies, were not. Since the end of both World Wars, efforts have been made to repatriate soldiers killed or missing in action with their families or to bury them in cemeteries.

One case study looks at isolated burials in the department of Aisne, which was one of the most fought over territories in the First World War. Another chapter details the discovery of 14 soldiers’ bodies in a trench. They died defending a French village at the beginning of the war and were buried with their possessions by the Germans who overtook the village. Nine have now been identified. At a further site three German soldiers are highlighted as they were buried at the beginning of the war possibly by locals, as well with their belongings. Both cases highlight respect for the dead, even though they were enemies. Even now, it is not uncommon to unearth burials from the First World War especially during land development. One case study sets out how to manage effectively the situation between a developer, the official groups caring for war graves and the archaeologists and it suggests protocols for future finds. A further chapter describes the effort taken to identify the soldiers in a mass grave in Fromelles, where 250 British and Australian men were buried. Through studying the artefacts (around 6000) and with help of DNA analyses, 180 individuals have been named so far. They are now reburied in a Commonwealth War cemetery.

All chapters discuss the forensic investigation of human remains and artefacts plus the contexts in which they were found and combine them with the historical information available. Together they provide a catalogue for capable investigators to successfully research future finds of victims and participants of conflicts, so their stories can be remembered.

Thomas Kersting. 2025. Archaeology of internment camps in 20th century Brandenburg: crime, camps, and commemoration (British Archaeological Reports International Series 3243). Oxford: BAR; 978-1-4073-6283-0 paperback £70.

In this book, Thomas Kersting gathers information on the countless internment camps installed by the Nazis and then used by the Soviet Union in Brandenburg, the German federal state surrounding Berlin, the modern capital but also former Reichshauptstadt in the Third Reich. The personal Foreword explains his way into the subject through heritage conservation and the need to elevate these camps and their objects of everyday life of imprisonment as evidence for the crimes that happened here, especially as fewer Zeitzeugen (contemporary witnesses) remain alive to tell their story. His so-called camp archaeology differs a bit from the conflict archaeology in the previous reviewed books but is part of the wider picture of war and violence, as the archaeology of the military camps and hospitals has shown above. I was not aware that in Germany it is not usual for war graves to be sought out and excavated to repatriate the buried—as is common in other countries of the two World Wars. The camps themselves are also rarely archaeologically investigated; it mainly occurs only when buildings and constructions are scheduled.

The book is organised into 10 chapters and supplemented by an online catalogue on the majority of camps in Brandenburg, of which there are at least 200 (fig. 1.2), ranging from small forced-labour camps to large concentration camps. The catalogue delivers a short description of the camp’s history, archaeology, preservation and literature and includes many maps and plans, and is a valuable resource in itself.

The text has a sobering beginning, highlighting the challenges of the archaeology of the twentieth century in Germany, as the monuments are mainly relics of war and terror (fig. 1.1). The first three chapters deliver the background and framework for the camp archaeology and include the historical development of camp systems from prisoner-of-war camps of the late nineteenth century and First World War to the Nazi concentration camps to the later Soviet Special camps and the prison camps of the German Democratic Republic. A short research history on the camps in Brandenburg follows, as a systematic study has been developed only in the past three to two decades. Chapters 4 to 8 are dedicated to the sites: their archaeology, the identification of features and the many artefacts of various materials discovered, and especially functions of the often-repurposed objects. Taken together these are employed to understand the camp system and identify the different groups of people through the objects. Many of the smaller camps are mentioned but, because they have been more extensively excavated and surveyed, the main sites discussed are the concentration camps Sachsenhausen/Oranienburg and Ravensbrück and factories with forced labour camps in Kleinmachow, Rathenow and Treuenbrietzen. The suppressing powers went to immense efforts to dehumanise camp inmates, to make them lose any feeling of self-worth and individuality and degrade them to, in their words, Untermenschen (subhumans). It is very emotional to read about and see small but significant evidence for the resistance in the imprisoned people, hoping to survive and staying human, such as engraving your name on an object, or holding on to your house keys. The lives of some individuals are traced in Chapter 8 through finds and archival records, and a few biographies are highlighted.

Chapter 9 ‘Spheres of life in the camps: administration, survival and systematic control’ presents a synthesis of all finds and aims to allocate areas to the different ‘actors’, here described as perpetrators and victims, through the features and objects to glean a better understanding of their lives together. The final chapter emphasises the legacy of the camps and their place in the memory of local people, but also in the collective memory of the people of Germany. After the war, the memory of these sites was differently treated in East and West Germany; they were, and are, an important part of re-establishing a mutual cultural identity after the reunification, through a shared history and its remembrance. This is exemplified through some collaborations between the archaeological heritage preservation authorities and youth groups who are exploring their local history, especially from the Nazi-era, that aim to further the understanding of what happened—so that it should be remembered and serve as a warning for the future.

The volume delivers a sound methodical consideration on how to research camps across time and will be a reference for future studies in other regions. It is well written and accessible for a wide audience, ranging from heritage archaeologists to historically and locally interested audiences. I just wish it was available via Open Access because the message of the book is more important than ever. Kersting presents a thoughtful approach as to how archaeological sites of recent history should be carefully investigated, used as places of commemoration and serve as reminders of the terror and violence that were endured by so many, through visualising the life in the camps and giving tangible evidence in place of the Zeitzeugen.

Zainab Bahrani. 2025. War essays. London: UCL Press; 978-1-80008-754-5 paperback £30 ebook OpenAccess https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800087538

War essays is a collection of 24 works, all reprinted items ranging from newspaper and academic articles to a questionnaire, book chapters and lectures written by Zainab Bahrani between 2003 and 2023 (one is available only via hyperlink, for copyright reasons). These texts are employed as historical accounts of the US/UK-led war against Iraq, occupation and the aftermath. They are framed by paragraphs explaining the timeline and events of the war and biographical perspectives of the author. Bahrani is an Iraqi-born Mesopotamian archaeologist and art historian, educated in the West, living in the USA and teaching at Columbia University, New York. She witnessed the war from both sides.

The Introduction delivers a heartfelt reason about the need for this book and why it is important to combine these essays with her personal reflections as a historical record of recent times. She sets out evidence for an alternative narrative as to what happened to the cultural heritage in Iraq during and after the war. These events changed not only the lives of everyone in Iraq, but also the countries’ monuments, museums and academic landscape as well as the discipline of Mesopotamian archaeology. The recurring themes centre on the urgent necessity for decolonising archaeology and the destruction of cultural heritage and through it the destruction and erasure of cultural identity and, connected to this, the politics of antiquities and their trade. In Bahrani’s words, the “grief of war also has to do with the loss of one’s context and environment, when all that is known and familiar is ravaged by war, and all that remains is the bombarded and shattered shell of that past world” (p.7). Still true despite much more knowledge and information being available is the maxim that history is written by the victorious parties. Within this light, Bahrani critically evaluates the defaming and one-sided reports and views in Western media, especially on the looting of museums and destruction of ancient sites. This relates to a key question throughout the book: “What is the stance of international humanitarian law with regard to these events and acts, and were the conventions on the protections of cultural property, established at the end of the two world wars, followed in this war?” (p.7). As per the Hague Convention (1954), it is the task of the occupying power to protect the cultural heritage, such as museums and monuments, in the occupied territory.

The book is organised into four parts, following roughly the chronological order of events. Due to the nature of the collected works some repetition in the text is inevitable. Each part starts with a Preface that places the essays within the wider setting, its contemporaneous context and with personal reflections from the author. Each Preface and essay begins with a short Synopsis, which is printed in English and Arabic.

Part I, ‘War in Iraq’, combines seven essays written in 2003 and 2004, with the main topic of destruction and looting of sites and museums during the war. The general argument that this happened due to bad planning is demonstrated to be entirely disingenuous, with evidence that advice given by archaeologists and official international groups of experts, both before and after the war started, was ignored by the occupying armies. The tragic ransacking of the National Museum in Baghdad in April 2003 caused an outcry around the globe because ancient Mesopotamian artefacts that represented the ‘cradle of civilisation’ were destroyed and looted. Despite the protest, little was achieved to prevent other archaeological sites, museums, archives and libraries from being looted. The abuse of nationally important sites such as Babylon and Ur as locations for military bases led to huge destruction, “an act that had no military value but to declare conquest” (p.27).

Part II ‘Military occupation and archaeological discourse’ emphasises these abuses of heritage and the neglect of protection, especially for the site of Babylon, during the occupation in six works from 2003 to 2011, published mainly in newspaper articles to alert a wider audience at the time. The patterns of looting and military destruction reveal a wilful attack on the collective history and memory of the Iraqi people. This continues through to Part III, which discusses the ‘Aftermath: erasing/writing’ after the end of the US occupation in 2011 in three essays (written from 2011–2013). The long-term consequences of decisions made during this time are highlighted, in regard not only to the archaeological sites but also to archives and pieces of art. It exposes an attempt of an ‘erasure of legacy’ and the thriving antiquities trade as illicit and hiding behind the excuse of saving ‘global cultural heritage’.

The final section, Part IV, records the state of the monuments and archaeology under the rule of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with eight chapters written between 2015 and 2023. Under ISIS, further acts of destruction and erasure attempted to cleanse the past so the military rule and their own storyline could not be challenged. The city of Mosul under ISIS occupation between 2014 and 2017 is the main case study. Bahrani combines the discussions with insights into ancient Mesopotamia. Even then, people were aware of the past and protected it and also knew that destroying the records of the past could be used as a means of warfare. The decolonising of museums and the ongoing trade of antiquities from Iraq are further topics in this part. The final chapter delivers an overview of the long-term destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq from Colonial times and British Mandate to the Gulf Wars to US occupation and modern Iraq.

Sadly, through recent events, this book seems very timely and more important than ever. Though the war between the US/Israel and Iran cannot be compared with the Iraq war of over 20 years ago, parallels exist. Bahrani acts successfully as a courageous advocate for Iraq’s cultural heritage and brings thought-provoking arguments to light. She asks for the repositioning and decolonising in archaeology to prevent further loss of our shared history, but more pressingly to preserve the past for the Iraqi people and their collective identity.