Samuel Walls (University of Exeter; shw201@ex.ac.uk) and Howard Williams (University of Chester; howard.williams@chester.ac.uk)

This session considers the potential for the archaeological investigation of commemoration of the recent and contemporary past, focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries. To date, archaeologists have studied this issue with regard to specific types of data including conflict monuments, mortuary practices and discussions of monument re-use. However, detailed application of archaeological theories and methods to this interdisciplinary subject area has yet to be extensively discussed and debated. Nor have archaeologists investigated the full range of potential data in considering commemorative practices in the present. The session advocates an explicitly archaeological approach to the workings of memory in the recent and contemporary past. Key themes include:

• Contemporary commemoration as analogy for archaeological studies of the past.
• The roles of archaeology practice and theory in contemporary commemoration.
• The re-use of ancient monuments in contemporary commemorative practice.
• Applying archaeological theories and methods to the study of recent and contemporary commemoration including the themes of materiality, biography and landscape.
• Interdisciplinary relationships between archaeology, history, geography, folklore/oral history and anthropology in the study of recent and contemporary commemoration.

Papers may offer theoretical perspectives upon, or present case studies in, the increasingly important role of archaeology in the study of recent and contemporary commemoration.