Cold War Archaeology – an emerging archaeological subfield

If there is anything that archaeologists seem to almost universally cringe at, it is the declaration of a new subfield, or in this case, a new sub-subfield.

As it is, archaeology already has a subfield of historical archaeology, which manages to nicely encompass all sorts of sub-specialities and topics in all kinds of spaces and places– industrial archaeology, medieval archaeology, and Islamic archaeology, to list only a few. So why have I created a blog dedicated to discussions related to Cold War Archaeology?

The rationale behind this madness lies my desire to have others both inside and outside the field of historical archaeology recognize the tremendous potential that I believe can come from studying the material culture and physical legacies (artifacts and structures) left in the United States and around the globe by the Cold War.

The end of the Cold War is now nearly twenty years behind us–if you use the Fall of the Berlin Wall as a marker. Although this is far from the 50 years that historic preservationists commonly use as a marker for consideration of historic properties, the actual start of the Cold War –if one uses the Fall of the Iron Curtain as a marker–is now more than 60 years behind us. This means that each and every day more sites of Cold War activity are likely to roll past the 50 year mark that seems necessary to merit these kinds of studies of our recent past. Whether we wait for the official 50 year sanction or just pick an era or event, each day the enigmas of the past are more open than ever to historical inquiry.

In the Americas, we seem to lag behind the work of our British colleagues like Bob Clarke, Nick McCamley and Wayne Cocroft, who have already begun to put greater shape the field with publications like Four Minute Warning – Britain's Cold War, Secret Cold War Nuclear Bunkers and The Cold War: Building for Confrontation. Meanwhile, the UK's English Heritage supports a strong Cold War program of study into airfields, civil defense structures, nuclear research centers and the like. I believe it is time for Americanist historical archaeology to join the party.

To be sure, the archaeology of the Cold War in the United States is an emerging field fraught with questions and concerns. What, for example, counts as a Cold War artifact or structure? What does learning more about the militaristic culture of the Cold War add to our knowledge of humanity? What do we do with the knowledge we collect once we've collected it? What should we save for future generations and what should we let fall to ruin or beneath the bulldozer's blade? What's at stake and why should anyone care about any of this? We won't know until we start.

With yours and the archaeology community's help, it is these, and dozens of other questions and issues, that I hope to work out in the coming months on this blog. Your contributions and comments are welcome.