Damascene ‘Trench Art’: a note on the manufacture of Mamluk Revival metalwork in early 20th-century Syria

Conflict, Heritage and World-Making in the Chaco

“…As the technicalities regarding the production of trench art in the form of decorated artillery shell cases have already been discussed elsewhere (e.g. Kobialka 2019; Saunders 2000Saunders , 2002bSaunders , 2003Milwright and Baboula 2014), I focus here on why rather than how people recycled war debris. Employing a symmetrical ontological approach to the material culture of the Chaco conflict, I suggest that such objects should not be seen simply as passive repositories for human symbolism, especially -but not exclusively -in the context of traditional non-modern societies, but rather as active participants in the production of entangled, parallel lifeworlds.…”