30 Years of Contemporary Archaeology: Gains in Knowledge - Challenges,Opportunities and Future Tasks

A keynote lecture by Claudia Theune held on Friday 10 September, during 27th Annual Meeting of EAA. For about 30 years, sites of the 20th century have been archaeologically investigated in Europe and further afield. The starting point, and without doubt a strong focus, are the investigations at sites of National Socialist terror. Initially focused on Germany and Poland, internment camps were soon investigated in numerous other countries around the world, exposing the structures lying beneath the grassy surface, and recovering countless small and large objects. It became clear quickly that new insights into the world of the camps, the killing and the struggle to survive, could be gained from the close study of the material remains. Such insight could not be obtained from other sources. The excavations conducted have also brought significant challenges due in no small measure to the vast quantities of artefacts. It is a struggle to archive such material in museums and research facilities. It is also testing to address conservation and restoration. These matters require enormous effort. However, our awakening to the archaeology of our more recent past offers the opportunity to deal not only with conflicts of the 20th century, but also to look at numerous other aspects of life during this recent past and to pose questions and use the strengths of archaeological methods to realise new insights.