Gallipoli battlefield survey 'extremely successful'

An all too familiar sight - stretcher-bearers coming in with a casualty at Gallipoli. Photo / New Zealand Herald

An "extremely successful" survey of the Gallipoli battlefield has turned up bullets, boot fragments and Roman remains.

Archaeologists and historians from New Zealand, Turkey and Australia have just completed a third field session at the battlefield.

"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 participant Ian McGibbon said.

"It was an extremely successful session," he said.

The survey is the result of a 2005 agreement between New Zealand, Australia and Turkey.

It began in 2009 and will eventually provide detailed information about the 1915 battlefield, Mr McGibbon said.

The latest survey found several important underground features, including the site of a Roman camp.

The survey traced more than 3600 metres of trenches, recording more than 80 tunnel slumps or entrances and dugouts.

In total it found 480 items, including shrapnel shells and fragments, bullets, boot fragments and a Turkish bayonet.

The data obtained was now being analysed.

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