Research Abstract

Operations Analysis of Second World War Squadrons in Scotland Including a New Methodology for Aircraft Wreck Excavation

With a production total of nearly one million units, aircraft represent the largest composite artefact classification of the Second World War.  Even with such vast production numbers, less than five-percent of operational aircraft remain.  Indeed, the majority of the extant five-percent only exists in a wrecked state amongst the forests and fields of towns worldwide.  Due to both the wreck sites’ proximity to areas of human habitation and their global distribution, the past 70 years have seen thousands – if not millions – of hillwalkers encounter, handle and re-deposit aircraft wreck site artefacts.  It is argued that the increased attention given to WWII wreck sites through popular media, coupled with the ease of artefact identification in the Internet age, endangers wreck sites’ contextual integrity.

Terence explains his research

Terence explains his research

By using historic photographs; Ministry of Defense crash dossiers; and modern archaeological surveying and soil chemistry analysis to examine Scottish WWII aircraft wreck sites, this dissertation addresses the long held belief that such archaeological sites are unmodified time capsules.  In demonstrating large-scale human alteration of artefact distribution prior to geological encasement, this dissertation investigates the ecological impact of developing archaeological sites and examines the deletion of culture-specific technology in the post-modern age.  A new aircraft archaeology-specific methodology will be presented as a means to both compensate for tourism induced site modification and to direct future resource management.

GTA Experience

Level 1 Archaeology of the Modern World

Level 2 Archaeology of Europe and the Mediterranean