ABSTRACT
The Soča (Isonzo) Front was the southernmost section of an almost 600 kilometre long frontline between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Kingdom of Italy. One third of the Soča frontline ran over the Upper Soča Valley and Julian Alps; large parts of this conflict landscape are located in a remote and inaccessible terrain – either covered by dense forest, or located in the mountains. This chapter focuses on the survey of the conflict landscape in the Upper Soča Valley, Slovenia. Conflict landscapes are often multi-temporal, where features that were used, reused and modified during conflicts forming a complex palimpsest of traces. In order to understand the relations between individual features, structures and the surrounding landscape, an integrated approach using remote sensing methods (Airborne Laser Scanning) and field surveys was employed. This allowed us to approach the landscape as a whole. The landscape was not just a setting, nor was it an artefact resulting from human activity. Instead, the landscape played an active role in the lives of people during conflict. The closer perspective offered by field surveying brings additional insights to the vast quantity of remains, their preservation and post-abandonment processes, and the attrition of remains both in the harsh environmental conditions and from scavenging and relic hunting. Integrating remote sensing and field surveys allow us to approach a hostile landscape shaped by forces bigger than a single human life, but also to interrogate material practices that struggle to preserve the integrity and identity of bodies thrown into conflict.
