Abstract Only a handful of mass graves from late medieval battles in Western Europe have been subject to large scale excavation to modern standards. The principal reason is that these, and indeed even early modern battlefield graves, have proven extremely elusive, most being identified by chance. Despite a few successes, no combination of prospecting techniques yet provides a consistently effective method of locating such small archaeological features set almost anywhere within a site covering many square kilometres. But this important resource should be explored and conserved for, as Towton has shown, much can be learnt through modern excavation and analysis of the remains. While this paper does consider the existing archaeological record, its primary focus and the starting point for almost any search for mass graves on a battlefield, has to be the documentary record. Using this evidence one must debate the number who actually died, how they were interred and commemorated and whether this varied according to status or allegiance, and where on the battlefield the graves might lie. One must also consider how often we will need to look further afield for the dead, for it is unclear how often the desire for appropriate Christian burial meant some or even most were interred in, or later moved to, consecrated ground.

中文翻译：

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中世纪战争的死者在哪里？初步调查

摘要 只有少数中世纪晚期西欧战役的乱葬坑按照现代标准进行了大规模挖掘。主要原因是这些，甚至是早期现代战场坟墓，都被证明极其难以捉摸，大多数是偶然发现的。尽管取得了一些成功，但还没有一种勘探技术的组合提供了一种始终有效的方法来定位覆盖许多平方公里的遗址内几乎任何地方的如此小的考古特征。但是，正如托顿所表明的那样，应该探索和保护这一重要资源，因为可以通过对遗骸的现代挖掘和分析来了解很多信息。虽然本文确实考虑了现有的考古记录，但它的主要焦点和几乎所有在战场上寻找乱葬坑的起点，必须是文件记录。使用这一证据，人们必须辩论实际死亡的人数、他们是如何被埋葬和纪念的，这是否因地位或效忠而异，以及坟墓可能位于战场上的哪个位置。我们还必须考虑到我们需要多久到更远的地方寻找死者，因为目前尚不清楚对适当的基督教葬礼的渴望意味着一些甚至大多数人被埋葬或后来搬到圣地的频率。