Killing Time: Archaeology and the First World War

The passage of time has all but extinguished any living memory of the Great War of 1914-1918, but the experiences of those who fought in the trenches of the Somme and Flanders have since become epic history and the stuff of legend. Today, hardly a month passes without some dramatic and sometimes tragic discovery being made along the old killing fields of the Western Front. Graves of British soldiers buried during battle - still lying in rows seemingly arm in arm or found crouching at the entrance to a dugout; whole 'underground cities' of trenches, dugouts and shelters have been preserved in the mud; field hospitals carved out of the chalk country of the Somme marked with graffiti; unexploded bombs and gas canisters - all of these are the poignant and sometimes deadly legacies of a war we can never forget. Killing Time digs beneath the surface of war to uncover the living reality left behind. Archaeologist and anthropologist Nicholas J. Saunders brings together a wealth of discoveries in family photographs, diaries, souvenirs and in the trenches to offer fresh insights into the human dimension of warfare in the contemporary past.