Battlefield Archaeology

After finding objects from French Flak guns at a World War 2 anti-aircraft (Flak) site in Arnhem (the Netherlands), a small (private) archaeological investigation was started. This deviant type of weapon was used as Beutewaffen by the German Wehrmacht. With the help of experts, I wrote this article on the 7.5 cm Flak M 36 (f) gun in use in the Netherlands, around Arnhem and Deelen airfield, during operation Market Garden and other periods, focussing on the finds done in the Arnhem site. This document simply serves as the documentation of these finds, so the archaeological relevance and historical context of them can be understood.

Tiré de les Opérations Militaires durant la Guerre de Succession d'Autriche par Henri Moris d'après des documents inédits découverts dans les Archives de Breil par le Baron Cachiardy de Monfleury alors maire de la cité. Avants Propos. : En l'absence de photographies, depuis des ballons captifs, ou d'aéroplane, il était difficile d'établir des cartes précises des massifs alpins. Les géomètres topographes des différentes armées et forces en présences qui assuraient la triangulation furent assistés par des dessinateurs illustrateurs qui figèrent certain décors que les graveurs « eaux fortes » interprétèrent à leur tour. Une des difficultés rencontré lors des mouvements des Armées, fut l'état des voies de communications ; en effet par suite des conséquences des intempéries, les ponts pouvaient avoir été emportés par des crues, un vallon comblé par une avalanche, le tracé d'un sentier anéantis par un glissement de terrain. Evidement les passages les plus faciles étaient souvent les mieux gardés et les mieux fortifiés (redoutes pourvues de canons disposants d'effectifs pouvant activer des feux de mousqueterie dévastateurs). Ils fallait alors les contourner par des itinéraires plus difficiles qu'il fallait aménager pour permettre aux mulets (moins de 100 Kg par charge) et à l'Artillerie de passer (l'artillerie de siège mortiers, et cannons étant tractée souvent par des boeufs nécessitait plus de largeur de passage, que les colonnes de fantassins ou de cavaliers (cheval à la bride) qui à la queuleuleu empruntait d'étroites corniches qui frisaient l'abîme. La guerre dans les Alpes était une activité saisonnière en effet les zones de montagnes étant par la nature du terrain et ses ressources pauvres, elles ne pouvait fournir les subsistances aux effectifs engagés. Ainsi ne pouvant garantir les communications et l'intendance avec ses bases arrières , les opérations militaires s'arrêtaient ; en gros les forces Austro-Sardes regagnaient les plaines du Piémont et les Franco-Espagnols celles de la Provence plus clémentes. Et l'années d'aprés dès avril, sûr des nouveaux plans élaborés à base de l'expérience précédentes par les états-majors, on remettait çà ! Il est aussi à noter que le volumes des pertes de part et d'autres révèlent l'acharnement et la violence des engagements malgré des technologies militaires qui peuvent nous paraitre archaïques. «Le feu tue» : c'était l'une des maximes du colonel et professeur Pétain, opposé dès avant la guerre aux offensives à outrance mal préparées. Auquel Paul Valéry avait répliqué lors de sa réception à l'Académie Française :Vous avez découvert ceci: Que le feu tue... Je ne dirai pas qu'on l'ignorât jusqu'à vous. On inclinait seulement à désirer de l'ignorer. Je ne me suis pas penché sur des textes plus anciens, ceux de la Conquête Romaines ou ceux de l'époque de François 1er ; mais toujours est-il que les montagnes étant des êtres immobiles qui évoluent très peu, ; il est fort à parier que les sites stratégiques évoqués soient restés les même jusqu'en avril 1945.

Among the manuscript papers and letters of Leibniz (1646-1716) that are preserved chiefly at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hanover, Germany, and are being published in the context of the Leibniz Academy Edition, there are a number of documents relating to the Jacobite War in Ireland of 1689-91. The intention of this paper is to direct attention to and discuss these items, consisting of a series of passages in Leibniz's political and historical correspondence and a hitherto unnoticed eye-witness account of the Battle of the Boyne. The former, paraphrased in English, are incorporated in the text, whereas the latter is given in full translation.

Monohydrocalcite (MHC) is considered to be rare mineral in geological settings due to its metastability. It was recently found in old mine gallery at famous abandoned copper deposit Špania Dolina (central Slovakia) which is popular among mineral collectors for well developed oxidation zone with large amount of secondary minerals. MHC is associated with other carbonates calcite, aragonite and vaterite. MHC shows increased Cu content (up to 0.01 apfu) and slight enrichment in SO3. Empirical formula of MHC can be written as (Ca0.99Cu0.01)CO3·H2O. The unit-cell parameters of MHC refined for the trigonal space group P31 are a 10.554(1) Å, c 7.5537(8) Å, V 728.68(18) Å 3. Raman spectroscopy confirmed water content in MHC structure and revealed presence of vaterite. Raman bands of the O-H stretching vibrations occurred in MHC spectra between 3100 3500 cm-1. MHC from Špania Dolina deposit can be product of meteoric waters enriched in Cu ions which serve as catalysator for MHC crystallizatio...

Abstract
Cesar mentions twice a vocal communication system, by which news were disseminated at very high speed (“incredibili
celeritate” B.G. 5,53) over the territory of the civitates of Gaul (B.G.7,3). In the case of transmission of the news concerning
the massacre of Roman merchants of Cenabum to the territory of the Arverni, Cesar mentions the distance and the time
the message took to be conveyed. Several approaches are suggested to try to verify these statements.
In the first place, a review of technical terms used by Cesar will give a more precise understanding of the original text. This
is followed by a topographical analysis of the route mentioned by Cesar, aiming at identifying the factors which might have
influenced the choice of the precise track of this communication line. An assessment of the manpower resources required
for such a communication system will focus on the practical side of such a venture, as well as on its organisational aspects.
Lastly, an inquiry into other antique military intelligence methods will enable us to better appreciate what role and significance such a system of vocal communication could have played in the context of pre-roman Gallic society and the Gallic War.
This analysis does provide some elements of thought on the possible practical basis of such a system, namely local communication networks between a chieftain and his dependents. These local networks could - at a later stage - have been connected and
extended to a supra-regional level. As the prestige of local leaders depended notably on having a large number of followers,
the fact of being able to summon them quickly might also have been not only a question of rapid support in time of war,
but also of prestige. This would explain the considerable ingeniousness, time and effort invested into the organisation and
functioning of the system by late Celtic elite.

A MOHÁCSI CSATA MINDMÁIG ERŐS ÉRZELMEKET VÁLT
KI. AZ ÖSSZECSAPÁSOK HELYSZÍNEI, A FELELŐSSÉG
KÉRDÉSE, A SZEMBENÁLLÓ ERŐK LÉTSZÁMA LEGALÁBB
SZÁZ ÉVE VAD VITÁK KERESZTTÜZÉBEN ÁLL. A SÁTORHELYI TÖMEGSÍROKBAN FELLELT EMBERI MARADVÁNYOKKAL KAPCSOLATBAN SEM ALAKULT KI EGYETÉRTÉS:
VAJON A CSATÁBAN ELESETT HARCOSOKRÓL, A MAGYAR
TÁBOR ŐRSÉGÉRŐL ÉS SZEMÉLYZETÉRŐL VAGY AZ ÜTKÖZET UTÁN KÉT NAPPAL, AUGUSZTUS 31-ÉN KIVÉGZETT
1500-2000 HADIFOGOLYRÓL VAN SZÓ? AZ ALÁBBI ÍRÁS
E VITÁKBAN IGYEKSZIK ELIGAZÍTANI AZ OLVASÓT.

Im Rahmen der Forschungen zum bronzezeitlichen Schlachtfeld im Tollensetal (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 13. Jh. v.u.Z.) wurden bislang Uberreste von mehr als 130 jungen Mannern entdeckt, die perimortale wie auch verheilte Verletzungen zeigen. Dazu kommen Waffenfunde der selben Zeitphase, hauptsachlich Pfeilspitzen aus Flint und Bronze sowie holzerne Keulen. Das Fundmaterial stammt von diversen Fundplatzen entlang eines mehr als 2,5 km langen Flussabschnitts. Die Fundplatze Weltzin 13 und Kessin 12 markieren den Beginn dieser Ausdehnung am westlichen bzw. ostlichen Flussufer mit dem Auftreten erster menschlicher Skelettreste des Schlachtfeldhorizonts, teils auch mit Verletzungen, sowie Waffenfunden. Zugleich stellt dieser Talabschnitt aufgrund seiner topographischen Situation eine gunstige Moglichkeit zur Querung des Flusstales dar. Fundmaterial vom Neolithikum bis zum Mittelalter aus diesem Bereich unterstreicht die Bedeutung dieses wohl uber Jahrtausende zur Querung genutzten Flusstala...

In the winter of 1464, the Swedish bishop Kettil Karlsson (Vasa) instigated an uprising against King Christian I of Oldenburg who at the time ruled all of Scandinavia. In order to crush the uprising the king quickly responded with a war campaign against the insurgents. In April his army was ambushed in Halla forest in Vastmanland by forces commanded by the bishop. In the battle that followed the king was defeated and fled back to Stockholm. The study of medieval warfare in Sweden has hitherto yielded little interest among scholars. The aim of this article is thus to add to this sub-ject by investigating these events from a military point of view. The article address the question of the actual geographical location of the battle, what elements the two clash-ing armies composed of, further, what really happened during the course of the battle and finally how the battle ended and what the military consequences were.

In the two hundred years since his birth, the Rev. Dr. David Livingstone has been viewed as a Victorian-era missionary explorer associated with ‘humanitarian imperialism’; an image vigorously promoted by imperialists after his death, which survives in the popular mind, e.g. Jeremy Paxman’s 2012 BBC Empire series. Kenneth Kaunda’s description of Livingstone a few years ago as “Africa’s first freedom fighter” has not been generally embraced. Yet the Livingstone who lived among Batswana  from 1841-1853 was a far more radical figure than commonly portrayed. He was as scathing of British as Boer subjugation of the ‘aboriginal nations’ of South Africa Writing of the British Quarterly in 1851 he thus compared the renewed conflict between the Sandile’s Xhosa and British, to the independence struggle of Kossuth’s Hungarians against Austrian tyranny:
“But while England had been sympathizing with the struggles for freedom which she herself knows so very well how to enjoy, she has been struggling to crush a nation fighting as bravely for nationality as ever the Magyar did...We are no advocates of war but we would prefer perpetual war to perpetual slavery. No nation ever secured its freedom without fighting for it. And every nation on earth worthy of freedom is ready to shed blood in its defence.” 

The following slides converted from PPT to PDF were used in my November 11, 2013, Botswana Society presentation on Livingstone's radical legacy coinciding with the year's bicentennial of his birth.

Skytsborg (or Blackbeard's Castle) is a 17th century gun tower built on the hills above the Danish town of Charlotte Amalie, on St. Thomas island in the US Virgin Islands. This study led to the property being designated a National Historic Landmark.

Straipsnyje analizuojami 2013 ir 2015 m. Žiežmariuose archeologinių kasinėjimų metu surasti odiniai radiniai. Atskleidžiama jų įvairovė, analizuojama dirbinių konstrukcija ir gamybos ypatumai. Lietuvos periferijos miestelių archeologiniuose kultūriniuose sluoksniuose šios rūšies dirbinių retai aptinkama. Jų tyrimai padeda geriau pažinti nuo ekonominių ir politinių centrų nutolusių miestelių kasdienio gyvenimo specifiką. Reikšminiai žodžiai: odinė avalynė, archeologiniai kasinėjimai, periferija, Žiežmariai, odiniai dirbiniai.

This article breaks down the battlegrounds of the Second Battle of Boonville which occurred on September 13, 1861. It makes use of a map drawn by a contemporary of the period who served there as well as numerous accounts and news articles describing the grounds.