Largest ever investigation of Gallipoli battlefield completed

New Zealand soldiers, believed to be from the Wellington Mounted Rifles occupying a trench on Table Top during the night of August 6, 1915, as they prepare for the attack on Chunuk Bair. Picture / James Cornelius Read / Alexander Turnbull Library

The largest ever investigation of the Gallipoli battlefield has just been completed by a team of archaeologists, historians and researchers from three countries.

The investigation was part of a five-year project -- the Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey of the Anzac Battlefield -- which resulted from an agreement between the prime ministers of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand.

The project was initially launched to see what remained on the battlefield, but the survey soon developed in to a centenary project.

Since 2009, five field sessions have taken place for about a month each year in September.

Over the course of the sessions, more than 16km of trenches have been surveyed and more than 1000 features and 1100 relics recorded.

New Zealand's only representative, Dr Ian McGibbon of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, has just returned after spending his final month on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

He was one of three historians on-site and has been part of the project from the beginning.

While in Gallipoli for the final field session this year, 2.4km of trenches and 24 earthworks were surveyed, and more than 135 relics were located.

"Places had survived quite well -- there were some very well defined trenches and parts of the battlefield despite 100 years of erosion," he said.

Dr McGibbon said a personal highlight had been surveying outposts in the northern part of the battlefield that were mainly manned by New Zealand troops in 1915.

At Outpost No 1 he pinpointed the site of the Maori Pah, the camp of the Maori Contingent when it first arrived at Gallipoli.

"We found lots of relics there, including a New Zealand uniform button, and everyday items such as a rusty spoon and pieces of broken rum jar.

"There were also some very well formed dugouts. There are still well defined trenches on top of Outpost No 1 that the Maori helped other New Zealand and Australian soldiers to defend."

Dr McGibbon said it has been a huge privilege to study the battlefield more intimately.

"After five years of doing this each year ... walking around the battlefield ... it is a bit disappointing we won't have another session next year."

A book will be published next year, with photographs of relics, trenches and information on how the battlefield was formed, to provide an accessible record of the survey.