Archaeologist gets hands dirty in new Army role

If asked to picture an archaeologist, some people might think of Indiana Jones running through dark, booby-trapped tunnels fighting off treasure-obsessed villains, but for Captain Alison Mountain, archaeology in the Army is about searching for and recovering Australia’s missing soldiers and discovering personal stories behind the Anzac legend.

CAPTION: Army officer Captain Alison Mountain, of the Unrecovered War Casualties – Army Unit, tests some samples of soil in Canberra, ACT. Story. by Flight Lieutenant Marina Power. Photos by Corporal Cameron Pegg.

Inspired by the British television show Time Team, Captain Mountain always loved history and found the combination of the human stories that came with it intriguing.

Before starting her university studies, she took a gap year in England surrounded by castles, which provided further inspiration.

After completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biological Anthropology and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Archaeology, she joined the ADF in 2016 as a part-time musician with the Band of the Royal Military College – Duntroon, playing the flute and piccolo.

“I was studying at uni at the time and I thought that getting paid to play music was a pretty cool thing,” Captain Mountain said.

Serendipitously, a singer from the band who was leaving mentioned, during a farewell speech, that she was heading off to do archaeology with the Army.

“That was the first I heard that Army was engaged in archaeology and because of my interest in that subject matter, I was very keen to find out more and get involved,” she said.

Captain Mountain started working with the Unrecovered War Casualties – Army Unit as a desktop case investigator in 2018, while maintaining her primary role in the band.

Finishing up as a musician and commissioning in May this year, Captain Mountain took up the first-ever part-time role of an appointed Archaeologist, Site Coordinator.

She works with case officers to investigate sites of interest, excavating and recording findings.

“It is incredibly meaningful work – we locate and identify missing Australian service personnel from conflict. These soldiers gave their lives for our country; we work to give them back their names and provide closure to their families,” she said.

“It is a real privilege and I’m so honoured to have been involved in some monumental projects, including finding the Japanese vessel SS Montevideo Maru in the South China Sea in April 2023.

“It was an extraordinarily significant find. She was located at a depth of more than 4 kilometres, which is deeper than the Titanic.

“All our research indicated that at the time of sinking, she was carrying approximately 1060 prisoners of war, including 850 Australian service members and around 210 civilians from different nations.”

Next on the agenda is a project in France, where more than 17,000 Australians engaged in fighting on the Western Front during the First World War remain missing in action.

Many are buried in Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries as unknown soldiers, with some chance of being identified through rigorous historical research.

Others still lay in unmarked graves on the former Western Front battlefields, where the skill and expertise of archaeologists like Captain Mountain play an important part in bringing resolution to families of missing soldiers.

Captain Mountain works full time as a public servant with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

“I am very grateful to my employer; they are extremely supportive of my Army Reserve work,” she said.

CAPTION: Army officer Captain Alison Mountain.

.

.


.


.