This chapter deals with a case in which work that aimed at rekindling
a critical memory of a conflictual past ends up producing a certain form of
oblivion instead. The work in question is the archaeological research we
conducted at two battlefields of the Spanish Civil War. During our work, we
found the traumatic history of the war neutralized through memory practices
sponsored, in one case, by government institutions and in another by
grassroots associations. In both cases, the involuntary memories materialized
in things insisted in disrupting the comfortable narrative that people tried
to impose on them. I will argue that archaeologists should work to channel
this material memory so as to construct critical accounts of the past that
are helpful to foster a more reflexive citizenry
