Gallipoli Survey Progresses

MANATŪ TAONGA/MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE

Media release

October 29, 2012

Gallipoli Survey Progresses

Shrapnel shells and fragments, bullets, boot fragments, a Turkish bayonet and Roman remains have been found by Turkish, Australian and New Zealand historians and archaeologists during the recently completed third field session of the on-going battlefield survey at Gallipoli.

“It was an extremely successful session”, says New Zealand participant Ian McGibbon, historian at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

“We made an intensive survey of three important areas --- the positions at Pope’s Hill, Russell’s Top/The Nek and near the Lone Pine Memorial. New Zealand soldiers operated in the first two places in 1915.”

The survey is the outcome of an agreement between Turkey, Australia and New Zealand in 2005. It began in 2009 and will provide detailed information about what remains of the 1915 battlefield.

A new development this year was the use of ground penetrating radar in several areas. The data obtained, which is now being analysed, indicated several important underground features.

The Lone Pine position was the site of a Roman camp of some sort and Roman remains were uncovered during the campaign in 1915. The survey team found numerous items of Roman vintage in the area.

In all the survey traced more than 3600 metres of trenches, recorded more than 80 tunnel slumps or entrances and dugouts, and found 480 items.

An exhibition of the survey findings and relics is planned for the centenary of the campaign in 2015.

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