Mass Grave Archaeology

During Christmas of 1994, I was just 3 years old, but I remember parts of the occasion very clearly. We have a very small close knit family, and so our Christmases almost always involved my parents and I, my granddad, and my uncle Ken. This particular Christmas, I remember my uncle Ken was not there, and I asked my mum where he was and I can't really recall what she said to me then. It must of been like "he is too busy at work" or something along those lines. Years later when I was a bit older my mum explained to me where he was and what he was doing. He was working for the Red Cross in Rwanda from 1993-1995, right amidst the Rwandan Genocide. She explained to me in the simplest way what was happening, by using terms like "bad guys" and saying my uncle Ken was a super hero of sorts, there on a mission to save the world. I remember being so enthralled and horrified by the story when I was younger, but now I am so interested in African history and politics, which I believe came from when I was little, hearing stories from my uncle. I have a doll (named Anjoma) that he brought back for me from Africa; she was so special because an old woman who was in the field hospital that he was working at had given it to him to give to me after he told her stories of me. She loved hearing the stories because all of her grandkids had been claimed in the genocide and the stories brought joy to her days. I still to this day have this doll. It is on the shelf of my bookcase at my mum's house; I do not think that I would ever be able to get rid of her.

This is me at around 3-4, I am not completely sure.
There are tons of pictures of me with Anjoma but of course
none are with me they are all at my mum's house
and it would take two days to explain how
to use the scanner. So here we are.

I am telling this story because it brings me to what I will be talking about in this blog post. Today in my History of the Twentieth century class we covered the Rwanda genocide. In the span of one hundred days around 800,000 people were slaughtered and their bodies were just tossed into rivers and ditches. The solution a lot of the time with situations like these are mass graves.

I found a very recent article about German archaeologists uncovering a mass grave from the Thirty Years war that spanned from 1618-1648. The particular battle (The Battle of Lützen) this one was from was one of the bloodiest. Inside this grave, the 75 individuals (may be more or less, they are still unsure) were stripped of their weapons and clothes prior to burial so there are no personal indicators that would help with identification. What the archaeologists plan to do with remains is age them, indicate the wounds on the bodies, and narrow down what it was that exactly killed them

The Battle of Lützen by Carl Wahlbom shows the death of King Gustavus Adolphus on 16 November 1632.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Battle_of_Lutzen.jpg

Another article involving finding a mass grave at a Nazi death camp in Poland. During the Holocaust around 800,000 Jews were killed at the Treblinka site. Forensic Archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Collis is the co-ordinator of the site, and is using ground penetrating radar to view the graves because of the Jewish tradition disallowing the graves to be re-dug. This site was one of the camps that the Nazis tried to destroy after the war to get rid of all the proof of killing there, but failed. There are said to be burnt remains of around a thousand bodies in the grave. There are so many mass graves from World War 2 and the Holocaust that mass graves are becoming increasingly popular sites for archaeologists.

Treblinka death camp in Poland where 17,000 Stone Memorial is one of the few reminders of the horrific events of the past

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087735/British-archaeologist-discovers-fresh-evidence-mass-graves-World-War-Two-death-camp-Treblinka.html#ixzz1qXbxiTmX

Most of these gravestones are just markers of the people that were killed at these sites, because of not being able to remove the bodies from the mass graves or potentially even finding the bodies. They serve as reminders.

For me, I think that mass grave archaeology is so important. It allows for people who were forgotten in wars, genocides, massacres, and tragedies to be brought back and properly remembered in burial. Now with advanced technology, we can see into the graves with out digging them up. I hope in the future there is not a need for the use of mass graves.

Sources used:

 http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120324-41541.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087735/British-archaeologist-discovers-fresh-evidence-mass-graves-World-War-Two-death-camp-Treblinka.html