Field fortifications from the Second World War: possibilities of archaeological research on post-military landscapes in South Moravia (Czech Republic)

Abstract

Field fortifications from the end of World War 2 which were located in South Moravia are almost forgotten nowadays. This paper presents first results of archaeological research of their remains. Recently, relics of field fortifications have been registered during rescue excavations on 13 construction sites. In the vicinity of the town of Brno, parts of Wehrmacht trench systems, which defended whole town, have been excavated and documented on several sites. Several dozen small infantry entrenchments have been recorded near Pasohlávky and Mušov, where serious fights lasted for two weeks. Also, the use of aerial archaeology will be outlined. On five sites, field fortifications have been identified with the help of digital aerial orthophotos (especially historical) and digital elevation model (derived from airborne laser scanning). Results of both excavations and aerial archaeology suggests that archaeology can enhance our knowledge of this kind of relics.

The prison as a postmilitary landscape

“…Accordingly, a wealth of emergent literature has harnessed the potential to explore 'post-military landscapes': defined as 'those without a military function in the present, but where the imprint of a former military function remains too pervasive to enable the erasure of their military origins' (Woodward, 2014, p. 46). Woodward gives examples such as remnants of Cold War defence landscapes still visible across Europe and North America (see Havlick, 2007Havlick, , 2011; and a multitude of studies explore a variety of cases across the globe, such as remnants of field fortifications like infantry entrenchments in South Moravia (Czech Republic) (Zubalík, 2020). Much of this literature focuses on the (re)use and (trans)formation of former military landscapes.…”