National Socialist Archaeology In Europe And Its Legacies

This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It analyses national-socialist attempts to denationalize the archaeologies of European nations by creating a new unifying European archaeology on a racial basis. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, archaeology began to develop into an important force behind processes of nation building. At the same time, structures of transnational academic collaboration contributed strongly to the internal dynamics of the research field, which was primarily organized on a national basis. In those European countries that were confronted with national-socialist occupation and repression between 1939 and 1945, these transnational archaeological networks were to prove crucial for the development of national-socialist archaeological policies. This volume will reveal how national-socialist archaeology was to an extent valued positively in its time as highly innovative, even influencing the archaeology of non-occupied countries. Although in the final instance, it generally failed to displace the national archaeologies in Europe, the volume also analyses the long-term impact of national-socialist rule on the development of European archaeology. How did the attempts to create a unified European archaeology after 1945 continue to influence networks, methods and terminologies, institutional structures, or popular representations of the early past?

The fundamental idea of this book is to show – based on the example of Oswald Menghin, Minister of Education of the National Socialist Austrian “Anschluss”-government, and the networks surrounding him – how science and politics were interwoven in Austria in the first half of the 20th century and how the ideas and networks created in that milieu outlasted the alleged caesurae of this period and found continuation in post-war South America. As Menghin traversed an astonishing number of political upheavals and changes – time after time in exalted positions –, his biography may be considered as paradigmatic for the Age of Extremes. The following aspects form the core interest of this book: (1) Menghin’s position in the political and scientific field, as well as the interconnection between these spheres. (2) The transnational entanglement between the two central areas of Menghin’s geographic spheres of action. (3) Continuities and changes both in Menghin’s biography and in a broader political and scientific context in Austria and Argentina. (4) Menghin’s scope of action and the extent of his responsibility for crucial and often dire developments in all these facets.

Since the mid-1990s, political, legal, and historical debates about Nazi theft and confiscation of property, the use of slave labor during World War II, and restitution and compensation have reemerged. Revisiting the National Socialist Legacy presents completely new historical research on these issues conducted worldwide.This volume responds to concern about Holocaust era assets in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. It focuses on both reexamination of the history of National Socialist property theft and employment of forced labor in the wartime economy, and the compensation and restitution solutions advanced in various European and Latin American countries since 1945.

The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology is a multi-authored compendium of articles on specific topics of interest to today’s historical archaeologists, offering perspectives on the current state of research and collectively outlining future directions for the field. The broad range of topics covered in this volume allows for specificity within individual chapters, while building to a cumulative overview of the field of historical archaeology as it stands, and where it could go next. Archaeological research is discussed in the context of current sociological concerns, different approaches and techniques are assessed, and potential advances are posited. This is a comprehensive treatment of the sub-discipline, engaging key contemporary debates, and providing a series of specially-commissioned geographical overviews to complement the more theoretical explorations. This book is designed to offer a starting point for students who may wish to pursue particular topics in more depth, as well as for non-archaeologists who have an interest in historical archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, preservationists, and all scholars interested in the role historical archaeology plays in illuminating daily life during the past five centuries will find this volume engaging and enlightening.

This book explores the way in which the legacy of the German occupation of the Channel Islands has been turned into heritage (or, conversely, neglected) over the last 70 years. Once seen as the ‘taint of the mark of the beast’, the perception of much of what the Germans left behind has slowly changed from being despised and reviled, buried underground or dumped at sea, to being reclaimed, restored, highly valued and treated as ‘heritage’. This book examines the journey of various aspects of this heritage, exploring the role of each post-war generation in picking at the scar of occupation, refusing to let it heal or fade. By discovering and interpreting anew their once-hated legacy, each generation of Channel Islanders has changed the resulting collective memory of a period which is rapidly moving to the edge of living memory. It includes the first in-depth investigation into the multiple aspects of heritage of occupation of a single place and will offer comparative material for other heritage professionals who work with similar material throughout Europe and in other post-occupation areas. It will explore the complex ethical issues faced by anyone who works with the legacy or heritage of Nazism, seeking to understand how and why the Channel Islands have responded in the way that they have and asking how unique – or typical for formerly-occupied Europe - their response has been.

This publication presents the archaeological evidence from two associated Minoan sites situated at Apesokari in the Mesara Plain of South-Central Crete, Tholos Tomb A and the neighboring free-standing domestic complex on Vigla Hill. It thoroughly reconstructs the natural and social landscape of this Cretan community from the late Prepalatial to the early Neopalatial periods through its interdisciplinary character; this includes photogrammetric two- and three-dimensional models of the architectural remains, viewshed analysis of both monuments and of the earlier Tholos Tomb B, as well as A-DNA and stable isotope analysis of the bones. The study of the burial dataset provides insights into the social construction of collective memory and identity by the burying social group, whereas the habitational deposits from the building on Vigla hill establish the longevity and function of the site as a node of the southern Mesara communication and exchange networks.

This volume explores the relationship between archaeology, politics and society in Germany from the later 19th to the end of the 20th century. The contributions discuss key aspects of this relationship in their historical context, beginning with the triumph of national archaeology over universalist anthropology, continuing with the exploitation of archaeology by the Nazi and Communist regimes, the widespread collaboration by archaeologists, and the political and intellectual aftermath of these two episodes. Other contributions raise no less important questions about the role of archaeology in democratic society, by exploring issues such as university teaching, public attitudes, gender, and research abroad. Contributors from outside Germany put this experience into a contemporary, European and international context.

This collection brings together international scholars pursuing cutting-edge research on spatial identities under National Socialism. They demonstrate that the spatial identities of the Third Reich can be approached as a history of interrelated dimensions; Heimat, region and Empire were constantly reconstructed through this interrelationship.