Seminar Conveners: Dr Alex Aylward, Professor Erica Charters, Dr Hohee Cho, Professor Rob Iliffe, Dr Sloan Mahone
Seminars in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
Professor Erica Charters (Oxford)
Learning from the Dead: Bodies, Burials, and Archives of Eighteenth-century Imperial War
While historians are used to researching in the paper records of those long dead, less time is spent examining the process of death and burial. This talk examines French and British records of death in eighteenth-century imperial wars, tracking how death was documented and catalogued, and how rates of death were interpreted by officials, as well as by the public. While British records were increasingly quantitative, raising concerns over ‘excess’ numbers of death during colonial campaigns, French archives of death obscure numbers and instead provide details into the daily lives of soldiers and sailors. A case study of a recent archaeological excavation of a military mass grave from the 1757 Battle of Prague shows how much information can be gleaned from bodies and burial practices, demonstrating the range of evidence that death can provide into everyday life and conceptions of health.
Erica Charters is Professor of Global History of Medicine, Faculty of History, at the University of Oxford. Her research examines the history of war, disease, and empires.
