ABSTRACT

During the First World War, the Italian Front witnessed warfare with unique characteristics. This was industrialized conflict on high altitude mountainous terrain, and, even more extreme, on snowfields and glaciers. In this brief introduction to an unusual kind of conflict materiality, I will consider the ways in which the Italian and Austrian armies were forced to deal with the problems of survival for their soldiers in such hostile environments, and identify key issues and areas for the future development of battle-zone archaeology in this beautiful but unforgiving environment.