Site formation:conflict sites

Although there is little explicit reference to them in the literature of the emerging field of conflict archaeology, the processes by which conflict sites are formed are of significant concern to the field. Deposits that evidence conflict are made in short intense periods of human activity rather than over the longer periods more common for other types of site. Different periods produce sites with very different signatures as identified in the present, and many remain to be firmly established. The sites are then subject to processes of change, which frequently also are the product of direct human interventiondagricultural or industrial work, or the collection of materialdwhich defines the way sites become identified in the present. Such processes are generally perceived as threats to the survival of the fragile evidence rather than as post-depositional processes, which in turn leads to a concern to preserve sites from such threats.