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To the naked eye, the exquisitely chiselled carving of a military insignia could pass for a rare antiquity. And to the touch, it certainly feels like the real deal as well.

In fact, it is a convergence of old-world and new-world technologies, except that this old-world tech, while rooted in the traditions of our cavemen ancestors eons ago, goes back only about 100 years.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Exhibition traces the cave carvings made by Canadian soldiers waiting to serve at Vimy Ridge Back to video

Humankind has certainly evolved – on a technological level anyway. But not so much when it comes to war.

The focus of this convergence of technologies is, in fact, related to Canadian soldiers holed up in caves up to 30 metres underground, in a chalk mine, in northern France as they prepared to join the attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. To many, this battle against German forces was considered to be among this country’s most celebrated military victories – despite the fact that more than 10,500 Canadian soldiers were killed and wounded in the assault.