Crucifix, calvary, and cross: materiality and spirituality in Great War landscapes

First World War landscapes are a complex layering of commemorative materialities and spirituality, in which the past is recycled and memory perpetuated in the present. Linking the prehistoric and medieval pasts with the First World War and the present are images of calvaries, crucifixes, and crosses, which appear as landscape monuments and miniature talismanic items of bodily adornment. As poignant icons of sacrifice and remembrance, cruciform imagery focuses attention on the ways in which material culture can transform the lives of those with whom it comes into contact. By drawing together the living and the dead, new commemorative gestures are created in the home as well as on the battlefield, illustrating the power of industrialized war to realign worlds of meaning, emotion, and memory.