Devastated Land

A journey from the violence of the Palaeolithic to the 21^st century.

A close, human and anti-war portrayal of the horrors of warfare chronicled through magnificent descriptions illustrated with photographs and drawings.

Rubble, ashes and bones; these are the remains that we usually encounter upon exploring an ancient battlefield or the ruins of a village, a devastated land concealing thousands of stories, from the last breath of a fallen soldier to the stifled screaming of a family ravaged by the war. Ever so often, the swift unfolding of events that form our notion of history has numbed our perception of these shocking realities, cutting us off from the narrative of violence and suffering that encompasses them and rarely moves us.

We tend to forget that, lying underneath the destruction and brutality of warfare, there are people, their memories and hopes quietened by the edge of a sword; recurrent human narratives that turn history into something pulsating and tangible.

Using archaeology as a narrative device, Alfredo González Rubial helps us sharpen our hearing, listening to their whispers and unfolding their ruthless tales of violence and abuse, bringing us closer to a reality devoid of the shading tinges of war and ideology. And these are precisely the last vestiges that speak most eloquently about our nature and its disturbing, destructive tendencies.

Along with him, we will explore the forging of human violence up to our present days, embarking on a journey that spans centuries and continents, from the raids of the Neolithic to the trenches of Verdun. A thrilling tale that brims with humanity and erudition.