"How were the corpses disposed of and to what extent were these men commemorated and remembered?" This is the focus of the article Trophies and Tombstones: Commemoration the Roman Soldier, written by Valerie M. Hope in 2003. The topic, while strange, is something that, unbeknownst to most, is prevalent and well thought out in the military of today. How do our burial traditions differ from those of centuries ago, what might have led to these changes and what exactly is the process that takes place?" First, it is worth remembering that war cemeteries, with individually marked graves, are a fairly recent introduction. in Western Europe - the final fate of a soldier killed at Waterloo in 1815 was little different from that of a Roman soldier: both shared anonymous burial in a mass grave." (Hope, 2003) Differences are already prevalent between current practices. and previous ones. Although mass graves are common in the modern era, they are known as cemeteries, each site is marked with the person's name and they are not lost in anonymity. “The tendency to name the dead individually on municipal war memorials at battle sites or in the hometown is a feature of the modern age” (McIntyre 1990; King 1998). This is not to say that Rome did not recognize fallen soldiers, but to say that they did not recognize the individual; however, they recognized the battle through the use of "arches and columns adorned with classical imagery (Borg 1991:59-67). This creates the possibility that armies of the modern era will practice what was done in the past. The Vietnam Wall , the world The World War II Memorial and the Korean War Memorial are essentially the same concept, however, with a twist... middle of paper... and suffering not only on the front lines, but on the home front Also Valerie Hope's Journal brought us the facts and gave us insight into the motivations behind the burials. It is recognized that, while convenient and economical, the haphazard placement of mass graves does not honor the fighting dead, but simply saves money. the government. If someone fights for a cause, their resting place is as important as any battle that might have been fought. Works CitedBorg, A. 1991. War Memorials, from Antiquity to the Present LondonHope, Valerie "Trophies and Tombstones: Commemoration." of the Roman Soldier. "World Archaeology. No. 1 (2003): 79-97. King, A. 1998. Great War Memorials in Britain: Symbolism and the Politics of Memory. Oxford: Berg. McIntyre, C. 1990. War Monuments : How to read a war memorial London: Robert Hale.