Major international and UK projects under way for Centre of Archaeology

The University of Huddersfield is the new home for the Centre of Archaeology, who are continuing to develop their world-renowned work in several exciting projects both in the UK and overseas.

Led by Caroline Sturdy Colls, Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation, the Centre’s team of experts investigate past human activity and highlight issues in the present day. 

In particular, the team explore how conflict, genocide, human evolution, identity and climate change have shaped the world in which we live. They utilize archaeological and historical skills to find, document and preserve the evidence and heritage connected to these events.

Professor Sturdy Colls’ groundbreaking work, using non-invasive technology, discovered evidence of gas chambers and mass graves at the site of the World War 2 Nazi death camp at Treblinka in Poland in 2013. The team have investigated more than 60 Holocaust sites across Europe. 

Other projects led by her colleagues Kevin Colls, Will Mitchell and Dr Daria Cherkaska have focused on the Herero and Nama Genocide in Namibia and Holocaust-era mass graves in Ukraine.

The team have brought several ongoing research projects with them to the University of Huddersfield. Linked to Treblinka is the Centre’s project around the Jewish refugee children who had lost their families in the death camp and were evacuated to the Lake District in 1945. The Centre’s experts have excavated the site of a ‘lost’ village near Windermere, and are now archiving physical evidence of the children’s time in the area.

The Centre is also currently carrying out a major investigation at a site at Trawniki in Poland, where thousands of men were trained to be guards at Nazi concentration camps and where thousands of Jews, Poles and Soviet POWs were murdered. The team is also continuing to investigate mass graves in Ukraine despite the Russian invasion in 2022. 

The Centre’s experts have featured several television documentaries and a major two-part documentary now available from Sky History includes their work regarding forced and labourers who were sent to the island of Alderney during a period of German occupation in World War 2. As well as recent events, the team also has expertise in investigating the more distant past. 

The team’s community archaeology work includes an ongoing project at Tamworth Castle that has seen local people help uncover a medieval-era mill. A new project to  help to preserve a building that belonged to William Shakespeare’s daughter in Stratford-upon-Avon is building on more than a decade of research at other properties owned by the Bard.

Linking up with Holocaust Centre North

The Centre of Archaeology, which has moved to Huddersfield from the University of Staffordshire, will also be linking up with Holocaust Centre North at the University to share and highlight more of its work.

Prof Sturdy Colls said: “One of the main reasons why we are at Huddersfield is because of connections with Holocaust Centre North and we hope to develop lots of new projects with the team there.”

Earlier this year, she presented her research to them regarding how she found physical proof of the Treblinka camp where the Nazis murdered around 1 million people.

"I spend a lot of time championing new archaeological methods," says Caroline. "Some people believe that perpetrators can get away with crimes, but they really can't. Treblinka is second only to Auschwitz in the numbers of people killed, but it was thought that it had been completely demolished by the Germans.

"But my view is that as an archaeologist you know that that evidence can't be completely destroyed. 

"I developed a methodology that was attuned to the ethical sensitivities of researching the Holocaust. Jewish law states that you're not allowed to disturb bodies that are buried in a grave unless they're at risk from a natural disaster or similar. Often you cannot excavate the site, so you have to use different techniques and so I do lot of something called Geophysical Survey, which allows you to scan beneath the ground. This gives data for comparison with aerial photography and archive research, and gives a picture of what’s there while adhering to the sensitivities connected to Jewish graves.

"We were the first people to find the Treblinka gas chambers through excavations, off the back of the non-invasive research. 

Interdisciplinary research

The Centre’s team is made up of experts in archaeology, history, forensic investigation and digital humanities and to the team are looking forward to working with colleagues across the University.

"We are already building connections across different disciplines. We look forward to working with colleagues in our School, including colleagues in History, English, Drama and Music. I am co-supervising one of my PhD students with a colleague from forensic psychology, and we will be working with Huddersfield's world-leading archaeogenetics group. We are also planning to work with the University’s AI researchers to investigate how AI can help our work.”

Professor Sturdy Colls’ colleagues in the Centre are:
Kevin Colls – Reader in Archaeology
William Mitchell – Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
Dr Daria Cherkaska – Postdoctoral Researcher
Joanna Spyra – Research Assistant in Holocaust Studies

The team are looking forward to supervising doctoral students – some of whom have transferred along with the team to Huddersfield. They are accepting new PhD students across their areas of expertise and can be contacted at c.sturdycolls@hud.ac.uk.