The aerial imagery of World War One: a unique source for conflict and landscape archaeology

During World War One, for the first time, aerial photography rapidly developed as an intelligence tool that saw large-scale application by all fighting nations. Large numbers of these photographs have survived in archives all over Europe, the United States and even Australia. These are a remarkable primary record of the progress of World War One, as well as being a unique record of the landscape at the beginning of the 20th century, and a valuable source of data for any archaeologist, landscape historian or cultural resource manager. This paper briefly describes the results of a large-scale archival research project that has created a GIS-based index to the geographical coverage of this imagery, supported by a quantification and characterisation of these collections. In addition to the overview of the archives, a large case study is presented herein which illustrates the potential application of this material in archaeology