Nicholas J. Saunders is a British academic archaeologist and anthropologist. He was educated at the universities of Sheffield (BA Archaeology, 1979), Cambridge (MPhil Social Anthropology, 1981), and Southampton (PhD Archaeology, 1991). He has held teaching and research positions at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of the West Indies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., and at University College London, where he was Reader in Material Culture, and undertook a major British Academy sponsored investigation into the material culture anthropology of the First World War (1998–2004). Saunders was Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Bristol, where he was responsible for the MA programmes in historical archaeology and conflict archaeology. As of 2018, he is Emeritus Professor of Material Culture in that department. He is a prominent contributor to the nascent field of conflict archaeology, and has authored and edited numerous academic publications in the field. In addition to his research specialising in the anthropology of 20th-century conflicts and the archaeology of World War I theatres in Belgium, France and the Middle East, Saunders has also conducted extensive fieldwork and research in pre-Columbian and historical archaeology of the Americas. He has been involved with major museum exhibitions in London, Ypres (Belgium), Tübingen (Germany), and at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (France). Saunders has investigated and published on material cultures and landscapes of Mesoamerica, South America, and the Caribbean. His most recent research has been on the aesthetics of brilliance and colour in indigenous Amerindian symbolism, an extensive survey investigation of the Nazca Lines in Peru, the anthropological archaeology of twentieth-century conflict (especially the First World War) and its legacies along the Soca (Isonzo) Front on the Slovenian-Italian border, and the conflict artworks of the Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front during and after the First World War.
Major book publications
Curating the Great War, (ed.) (with P. Cornish) 2022: London: Routledge. Feuilles de Poilus: Decorated leaves from the First World War, (with D. Dendooven and Luc Volatier) 2022: Ieper: In Flanders Fields Museum. Conflict Landscapes: Materiality and Meaning in Contested Places, (ed.) (with P. Cornish) 2021. London: Routledge. Desert Insurgency: Archaeology, T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt. 2020. Oxford: Oxford University Press.https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198722007.001.0001 Modern Conflict and the Senses, (ed.) (with P. Cornish) 2017. London: Routledge.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315682228 Bodies in Conflict: Corporeality, Materiality and Transformation, (ed.) (with P. Cornish) 2014. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315851846 The Poppy: From Ancient Egypt to Flanders Fields to Afghanistan, 2013. London: Oneworld. https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2014.0239 Beyond the Dead Horizon: Studies in Modern Conflict Archaeology, (ed.) 2012. Oxford: Oxbow. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dwsh To Capture the Sun: Gold of Ancient Panama, (with R.Cooke, J.Hoopes, and J.Quilter). 2012. Gilcrease Museum and University of Oklahoma Press. Contested Objects, (ed.) (with P. Cornish). 2009. Abingdon, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203873854 Images of Conflict, (ed.) 2009. Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars. Killing Time: Archaeology and the First World War, 2007. Stroud: Sutton. Alexander's Tomb, 2006. New York: Basic. Peoples of the Caribbean, 2005. San Diego: ABC-Clio. Trench Art: Lost Worlds of the Great War, (with D. Dendooven) (2004). Ypres: In Flanders Fields Museum. Ancient Americas: The Great Civilizations, 2004. Sutton. Matters of Conflict (ed.) 2004. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203502549 Trench Art: Materialities and Memories of War, 2003. Oxford: Berg. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003087267 Icons of Power (ed.) 1998. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203383827 Astronomies and Cultures (ed.) (with C.Ruggles) 1993. Niwot: University Press of Colorado. Ancient America: Contributions to New World Archaeology, (ed.) 1992. Oxford: Oxbow. People of the Jaguar, 1989. London: Souvenir.