PLACEMAKING AT LES BLANCHES BANQUES, JERSEY’S FIRST WORLD WAR PRISONER OF WAR CAMP: NESTED LANDSCAPES OF INTERNEES AND GUARDS

Abstract

Most recent archaeological studies of prisoners of war have concentrated on resistance to confinement and identity creation within the camps. In contrast, the findings at Les Blanches Banques, Jersey, occupied by German military prisoners during the First World War, are here viewed through the lens of the varied placemaking strategies applied by both prisoners and camp staff. The prisoners created places of meaning within the regimented and confined conditions of their internment, but the guards were also limited by their duties in their assignment to this remote location, though all also saw the camp within its wider island landscape setting. This is the first study to consider placemaking at a prisoner of war camp at nested scales and from different perspectives.