This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It... more 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?
Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Tijdens d... more Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Tijdens de vijfde Daendelslezing en de aansluitende discussie in het Rijksmuseum op woensdag 25 april 2018, reflecteerde Gert Oostindie op de huidige Nederlandse omgang met het koloniale verleden. Het debat deed veel stof opwaaien en bleef door andere historici niet onbeantwoord. In dit vlammende betoog dienen Barbara Henkes en Martijn Eickhoff Oostindie van repliek.
This article focuses on the formation of memory in relation to the
mass violence of the years 196... more This article focuses on the formation of memory in relation to the mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang. This port city offers a unique opportunity for studying both the violence of 1965/68 and its long-term effects from a local to a global level. Once nicknamed the “red city” and famous for its Chinese community, the events of “1965” deeply affected the city. Many (alleged) communists from Semarang were sent to prison camps in other parts of Indonesia, while many members of the Chinese community sought refuge abroad. As a result, the mass violence in Semarang continues to reverberate not only in the city, but also throughout and beyond Indonesia. The article is based on the results of two workshops in Semarang, during which a group of Indonesian students studied the memory landscapes of “1965” by combining oral history with site observations. The central question is how the memory of violence, shaped primarily by everyday interaction and communication, relates on the one hand to the urban space in which the violence largely took place, and on the other hand to the official state narratives that deliberately created memory gaps regarding this violence. We focus on three sites representative of different aspects of the mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang: the Sarekat Islam building, the Mangkang mass grave and the Chinese Karang Turi school. Scrutinizing these three sites has taught us that people in Semarang make sense of “1965” through stories and activities that, while interacting with the official narratives, include the missing and the dead. Communism might have been “crushed” with success, but the Indonesian state clearly failed to eradicate the memory of state-supported anti-communist violence.
Der Aufsatz nimmt die von Gunnar Brands und Martin Maischberger herausgegebene Gruppenbiographie ... more Der Aufsatz nimmt die von Gunnar Brands und Martin Maischberger herausgegebene Gruppenbiographie »Lebensbilder« als Anstoß und Ausgangspunkt für eine Auseinandersetzung mit der jüngeren Forschung zur Geschichte der Klassischen Archäologie im Nationalsozialismus. Der Autor skizziert die zunächst auf die Rolle des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts konzentrierte Forschung, um anschließend die Aussagekraft des biographischen Ansatzes auf diesem Feld zu untersuchen. ein wesentliches Anliegen der Studie ist es, die Fachgeschichte der Klassischen Archäologie in den Kontext der ungleich intensiveren Diskussion zur jüngeren Geschichte einiger verwandter Disziplinen zu stellen, insbesondere der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie. Zielpunkt der Überlegungen ist die Frage, inwieweit die Beschäftigung mit der Klassischen Archäologie in der NS-Zeit einen Beitrag zur Selbstrelexion der Forschungstätigkeit in der Gegenwart leistet.
this paper focuses on two archaeological excavations carried out by Dutch prehistorians Assien Bo... more this paper focuses on two archaeological excavations carried out by Dutch prehistorians Assien Bohmers and Frans C. Bursch during the Second World War in the villages of Dolni Věstonie (Unterwisternitz) and Solone (Solenoe). These excavations were contracted by SS-Ahnenerbe – a SS research unit – and are therefore examined not only in conjunction with the history of East Central Europe and the history of archaeology, but also on the micro-level, where institutional, organisational and biographical aspects are incorporated alongside cultural and social backgrounds. The inspiration here is the post-colonial approach, in which scientific expeditions carried out outside Europe are understood as a process in which each party influences the other. It thereby becomes clear how during the Second World War, the SS-Ahnenerbe tried to portray the two research sites as material witnesses to a Nordic-(Indo-)Germanic past. In the scenario, Unterwisternitz was a symbol of “origin” and Solon symbolised “propagation”. At the same time, the Czechoslovakian and Ukrainian interpretations (and significance) of the research sites were to be obliterated. Nevertheless, the excavations – including the fact that SS archaeologists had ever been involved on-site – were soon forgotten after 1945. This leads one to the conclusion that SS-Ahnenerbe was indeed a highly active National Socialist scientific organisation and that they developed a new militant and “Greater Germanic” scientific style and a new practice which at the time was directly connected to the terrorist interventions of the National Socialists. The avantgarde nature of the SS organisation did, however, also contribute to the fact that their activities had little “effect” outside their own SS circle.
The scientific emancipation of World War II-related archaeology and the importance of societal c... more The scientific emancipation of World War II-related archaeology and the importance of societal commitment: a response to Ivar Schute
In his response to Ivar Schute’s paper on Second World War-related archaeology in the Netherlands, Martijn Eickhoff criticizes Schute’s predominantly positivist approach that focuses exclusively on material traces of ‘what actually happened’. In addition Eickhoff stresses the importance of developing an interdisciplinary approach among archaeologists and historians prior to the start of excavation projects. Only through this combined effort can archaeological excavations contribute to our understanding of the way societies and communities through time deal with (and try to make sense of) experiences related to war and mass violence.
Am 26. und 27. November 2015 fand in Halle
(Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und
Krieg“... more Am 26. und 27. November 2015 fand in Halle (Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und Krieg“ statt. Sie war die Fortsetzung einer gleichnamigen Tagung ein Jahr zuvor im Karl Marx-Haus in Trier.
note
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection ... more note
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection on National Socialist pre- and protohistoric archaeology from 1933 onwards. It tries to do so by means of a case study of the academic contacts between the Dutch prehistorian A.E. van Giffen (1884–1973) and his German colleague H. Reinerth (1900–90). The approach adopted here differs from traditional historiographical writing on National Socialist archaeology in two respects. First, in its analysis of the academic exchange between the two scholars,the case study seeks to bridge the classical caesura between a pre- and post-war period. Second, contemporary and historical studies of National Socialist archaeology and archival sources, as well as interviews, have been incorporated in the research alongside the usual publications of the scholars involved. It is argued that with the approach taken here we may arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the different ways archaeologists have reacted to National Socialism over the past seven decades.
This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It... more 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?
Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Tijdens d... more Postkoloniale beeldenstormen? Een repliek op de Daendelslezing 2018 van Gert Oostindie
Tijdens de vijfde Daendelslezing en de aansluitende discussie in het Rijksmuseum op woensdag 25 april 2018, reflecteerde Gert Oostindie op de huidige Nederlandse omgang met het koloniale verleden. Het debat deed veel stof opwaaien en bleef door andere historici niet onbeantwoord. In dit vlammende betoog dienen Barbara Henkes en Martijn Eickhoff Oostindie van repliek.
This article focuses on the formation of memory in relation to the
mass violence of the years 196... more This article focuses on the formation of memory in relation to the mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang. This port city offers a unique opportunity for studying both the violence of 1965/68 and its long-term effects from a local to a global level. Once nicknamed the “red city” and famous for its Chinese community, the events of “1965” deeply affected the city. Many (alleged) communists from Semarang were sent to prison camps in other parts of Indonesia, while many members of the Chinese community sought refuge abroad. As a result, the mass violence in Semarang continues to reverberate not only in the city, but also throughout and beyond Indonesia. The article is based on the results of two workshops in Semarang, during which a group of Indonesian students studied the memory landscapes of “1965” by combining oral history with site observations. The central question is how the memory of violence, shaped primarily by everyday interaction and communication, relates on the one hand to the urban space in which the violence largely took place, and on the other hand to the official state narratives that deliberately created memory gaps regarding this violence. We focus on three sites representative of different aspects of the mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang: the Sarekat Islam building, the Mangkang mass grave and the Chinese Karang Turi school. Scrutinizing these three sites has taught us that people in Semarang make sense of “1965” through stories and activities that, while interacting with the official narratives, include the missing and the dead. Communism might have been “crushed” with success, but the Indonesian state clearly failed to eradicate the memory of state-supported anti-communist violence.
Der Aufsatz nimmt die von Gunnar Brands und Martin Maischberger herausgegebene Gruppenbiographie ... more Der Aufsatz nimmt die von Gunnar Brands und Martin Maischberger herausgegebene Gruppenbiographie »Lebensbilder« als Anstoß und Ausgangspunkt für eine Auseinandersetzung mit der jüngeren Forschung zur Geschichte der Klassischen Archäologie im Nationalsozialismus. Der Autor skizziert die zunächst auf die Rolle des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts konzentrierte Forschung, um anschließend die Aussagekraft des biographischen Ansatzes auf diesem Feld zu untersuchen. ein wesentliches Anliegen der Studie ist es, die Fachgeschichte der Klassischen Archäologie in den Kontext der ungleich intensiveren Diskussion zur jüngeren Geschichte einiger verwandter Disziplinen zu stellen, insbesondere der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie. Zielpunkt der Überlegungen ist die Frage, inwieweit die Beschäftigung mit der Klassischen Archäologie in der NS-Zeit einen Beitrag zur Selbstrelexion der Forschungstätigkeit in der Gegenwart leistet.
this paper focuses on two archaeological excavations carried out by Dutch prehistorians Assien Bo... more this paper focuses on two archaeological excavations carried out by Dutch prehistorians Assien Bohmers and Frans C. Bursch during the Second World War in the villages of Dolni Věstonie (Unterwisternitz) and Solone (Solenoe). These excavations were contracted by SS-Ahnenerbe – a SS research unit – and are therefore examined not only in conjunction with the history of East Central Europe and the history of archaeology, but also on the micro-level, where institutional, organisational and biographical aspects are incorporated alongside cultural and social backgrounds. The inspiration here is the post-colonial approach, in which scientific expeditions carried out outside Europe are understood as a process in which each party influences the other. It thereby becomes clear how during the Second World War, the SS-Ahnenerbe tried to portray the two research sites as material witnesses to a Nordic-(Indo-)Germanic past. In the scenario, Unterwisternitz was a symbol of “origin” and Solon symbolised “propagation”. At the same time, the Czechoslovakian and Ukrainian interpretations (and significance) of the research sites were to be obliterated. Nevertheless, the excavations – including the fact that SS archaeologists had ever been involved on-site – were soon forgotten after 1945. This leads one to the conclusion that SS-Ahnenerbe was indeed a highly active National Socialist scientific organisation and that they developed a new militant and “Greater Germanic” scientific style and a new practice which at the time was directly connected to the terrorist interventions of the National Socialists. The avantgarde nature of the SS organisation did, however, also contribute to the fact that their activities had little “effect” outside their own SS circle.
The scientific emancipation of World War II-related archaeology and the importance of societal c... more The scientific emancipation of World War II-related archaeology and the importance of societal commitment: a response to Ivar Schute
In his response to Ivar Schute’s paper on Second World War-related archaeology in the Netherlands, Martijn Eickhoff criticizes Schute’s predominantly positivist approach that focuses exclusively on material traces of ‘what actually happened’. In addition Eickhoff stresses the importance of developing an interdisciplinary approach among archaeologists and historians prior to the start of excavation projects. Only through this combined effort can archaeological excavations contribute to our understanding of the way societies and communities through time deal with (and try to make sense of) experiences related to war and mass violence.
Am 26. und 27. November 2015 fand in Halle
(Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und
Krieg“... more Am 26. und 27. November 2015 fand in Halle (Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und Krieg“ statt. Sie war die Fortsetzung einer gleichnamigen Tagung ein Jahr zuvor im Karl Marx-Haus in Trier.
note
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection ... more note
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection on National Socialist pre- and protohistoric archaeology from 1933 onwards. It tries to do so by means of a case study of the academic contacts between the Dutch prehistorian A.E. van Giffen (1884–1973) and his German colleague H. Reinerth (1900–90). The approach adopted here differs from traditional historiographical writing on National Socialist archaeology in two respects. First, in its analysis of the academic exchange between the two scholars,the case study seeks to bridge the classical caesura between a pre- and post-war period. Second, contemporary and historical studies of National Socialist archaeology and archival sources, as well as interviews, have been incorporated in the research alongside the usual publications of the scholars involved. It is argued that with the approach taken here we may arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the different ways archaeologists have reacted to National Socialism over the past seven decades.
This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It... more 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?
'What’s Left Behind. Lieux de mémoire of Europe beyond Europe' addresses a central and currently ... more 'What’s Left Behind. Lieux de mémoire of Europe beyond Europe' addresses a central and currently pressing question: changing ideas about Europe and European identity. The essays in this volume examine these ideas about Europe by analyzing histories and discourses of monuments, memorial sites, objects of art and other meaningful artefacts. They pay particular attention to cultural transfers between locations, continents, communities and individuals, both within and outside of Europe. In doing so, this volume connects the originally European-nations-centred concept of lieux de mémoire with the outer-European world and gives it a new transnational, transcultural and transcontinental blend. The essays concentrate on four specific topics: colonial memory, religion, imperial and post-colonial contact zones, and changing concepts of Europe. Taken together, these historical perspectives transcend older Grand Narratives by presenting Europe as a multiform and ever-changing cultural construction. They contribute to a better understanding of Europe’s changing position in the world and the way we perceive it.
REVIEW, M. Pollack, 'Archäologische Denkmalpflege zur NS-Zeit in Österreich: Kommentierte Regeste... more REVIEW, M. Pollack, 'Archäologische Denkmalpflege zur NS-Zeit in Österreich: Kommentierte Regesten für die „Ostmark“', Archaeologia Austriaca, Zeitschrift zur Archäologie Europas / Journal on the Archaeology of Europe 100 (2016) 321-324.
Call for Papers for the 21th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Glas... more Call for Papers for the 21th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Glasgow (2-6 september 2015), about the legacies of Nazi-archaeology from Wold War II to contemporary prehistoric research.
This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It... more This edited volume is dedicated to national-socialist archaeology as a Europe-wide phenomenon. It analyses the national-socialist attempts to denationalize the archaeologies of the European nations by creating a new unifying European archaeology on a racial base. It furthermore evaluates the long-term impact of national-socialist rule on the development of European archaeology after 1945 to networks, methods and terms, institutional structures or popular representations of the early past.
The volume consists of 27 chapters and is edited by the historian Martijn Eickhoff (NIOD, Amsterdam) and the archaeologist Daniel Modl (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz). Each chapter deals with a specific European nation of region (both sub-national and supra-national) and is written by (an) author(s) with institutional connections to the area involved. The book will be published by Springer International Publishing AG. The expected date of publication is spring 2018.
Many historians believe that the aim of their work is to produce an objective and accurate recons... more Many historians believe that the aim of their work is to produce an objective and accurate reconstruction of the past, disposed of moral and political judgements. Analysing various scandals and controversies regarding the history and memory of World War II , Dutch colonialism and the Dutch involvement in Srebrenica, the authors aim to show that pleas to free historiography from the traditional patriotic moral schemes did not led to a supposed ‘scientific neutrality’. In contrary, we saw other values rise to predominance, stemming from the common sense idea that most people just try to survive and that life actually depends fully on fate. Within this ‘grey perspective’ any notion of social and moral responsibility is dissolved, while at the same time perpetrators and victims are implicitly equated. To escape the trap of a naive empiricism and to avoid traditional patriotic moralism as well as the ethical indifference of what has been called the ‘grey perspective’, the authors point to more sophisticated strategies to assess the (changing) attitudes, beliefs and acts of historical personae, departing from a multifocal perspective, just like Saul Friedlander did in his magnum opus on the Third Reich and the Jews.
The third issue of the Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis in 2010 contained an article by Martijn Eick... more The third issue of the Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis in 2010 contained an article by Martijn Eickhoff, Barabara Henkes, and Frank van Vree entitled: ‘The Temptation of a Grey Perspective. Moral Values and the Writing of History’. In this article the authors reflected on the moral values of historical-writing, discussing three historiographical themes: the Dutch colonial past, the Second World War and the NIODreport about Srebrenica. In examining the value of historical qualifications in terms of ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘grey’, they attributed a specific moral meaning to the grey accommodation- paradigm. It is not surprising that their discussion of the historiography of the Second World War combined with their critical assessment of the grey perspective has provoked a reaction. In ‘Absurdities about a book’ Chris van der Heijden responded to what he considered to be an attack on his views. The three authors of the previously-mentioned article reply to this criticism.
Programme and abstracts of round table on the history of Dutch archaeology in the mediterranean, ... more Programme and abstracts of round table on the history of Dutch archaeology in the mediterranean, held at the Allard Pierson Museum (Amsterdam) on June 2nd 2017.
Oorlog in onderzoek. 75 jaar NIOD - Jeroen Kemperman, Hinke Piersma, Marjo Bakker en Peter Keppy (reds.), 2020
Wie anno 2020 een voet over de drempel van het niod-gebouw aan de Herengracht 380 zet, en de arch... more Wie anno 2020 een voet over de drempel van het niod-gebouw aan de Herengracht 380 zet, en de architectonische pracht en praal op zich in laat werken, zal niet direct de relatie leggen met een van de gruwelijkste episodes uit de Nederlandse koloniale geschiedenis, die zich afspeelde in Deli op Sumatra. Toch is dat verband er. Degene die in 1888 opdracht gaf tot de bouw van het pand, Jacob Nienhuys (1836-1928, vergaarde er namelijk zijn fortuin met de in 1869 (mede) door hem opgerichte Deli-Maatschappij. Deli was een sultanaat in Noord-Sumatra waar tabaksplanters dankzij speciale koloniale wetgeving, de zogeheten 'poenale sanctie' van 1880, in staat waren eigen rechter te spelen over in China en Java geworven contractarbeiders ('koelies'). Het maakte deze arbeiders in praktijk tot lijfeigenen in een samenleving gekenmerkt door virulent racisme en geweld. 'Aan het Deli-dekblad kleefde bloed,' concludeerde Cees Fasseur in 1988 in een recensie van Jan Bremans studie Koelies, planters en koloniale politiek, waarin het arbeidsregime op de grootlandbouw ondernemingen aan Sumatra's oostkust werd beschreven.
This introduction offers a concise overview of the discussions in the past three decades on how, ... more This introduction offers a concise overview of the discussions in the past three decades on how, and for what reasons, to write the history of archaeology. It is argued that the current urgency of this field of research is reflected in post-colonial studies on the pitfalls of Eurocentrism as well as in heritage studies on the importance of inclusivity. The need for such a history is supported by the initiative of Platform Argos to initiate historiographical research on Mediterranean archaeology in the Low Countries. Thanks to this the contours of the archaeological domain in the Netherlands are becoming visible, while it also stresses the necessity of a more general discussion on methodological and theoretical approaches in the history of archaeology.
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Papers by Martijn Eickhoff
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?
Tijdens de vijfde Daendelslezing en de aansluitende discussie in het Rijksmuseum op woensdag 25 april 2018, reflecteerde Gert Oostindie op de huidige Nederlandse omgang met het koloniale verleden. Het debat deed veel stof opwaaien en bleef door andere historici niet onbeantwoord. In dit vlammende betoog dienen Barbara Henkes en Martijn Eickhoff Oostindie van repliek.
mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang. This port city
offers a unique opportunity for studying both the violence of
1965/68 and its long-term effects from a local to a global level.
Once nicknamed the “red city” and famous for its Chinese
community, the events of “1965” deeply affected the city. Many
(alleged) communists from Semarang were sent to prison camps
in other parts of Indonesia, while many members of the Chinese
community sought refuge abroad. As a result, the mass violence
in Semarang continues to reverberate not only in the city, but also
throughout and beyond Indonesia. The article is based on the
results of two workshops in Semarang, during which a group of
Indonesian students studied the memory landscapes of “1965” by
combining oral history with site observations. The central question
is how the memory of violence, shaped primarily by everyday
interaction and communication, relates on the one hand to the
urban space in which the violence largely took place, and on the
other hand to the official state narratives that deliberately created
memory gaps regarding this violence. We focus on three sites
representative of different aspects of the mass violence of the
years 1965/68 in Semarang: the Sarekat Islam building, the
Mangkang mass grave and the Chinese Karang Turi school.
Scrutinizing these three sites has taught us that people in
Semarang make sense of “1965” through stories and activities
that, while interacting with the official narratives, include the
missing and the dead. Communism might have been “crushed”
with success, but the Indonesian state clearly failed to eradicate
the memory of state-supported anti-communist violence.
der Klassischen Archäologie in den Kontext der ungleich intensiveren Diskussion zur jüngeren Geschichte einiger verwandter Disziplinen zu stellen, insbesondere der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie. Zielpunkt der Überlegungen ist die Frage, inwieweit die Beschäftigung mit der Klassischen Archäologie in der NS-Zeit einen Beitrag zur Selbstrelexion der Forschungstätigkeit in der Gegenwart leistet.
In his response to Ivar Schute’s paper on Second World War-related archaeology in the Netherlands, Martijn Eickhoff criticizes Schute’s predominantly positivist approach that focuses exclusively on material traces of ‘what actually happened’. In addition Eickhoff stresses the importance of developing an interdisciplinary approach among archaeologists and historians prior to the start of excavation projects. Only through this combined effort can archaeological excavations contribute to our understanding of the way societies and communities through time deal with (and try to make sense of) experiences related to war and mass violence.
(Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und
Krieg“ statt. Sie war die Fortsetzung einer
gleichnamigen Tagung ein Jahr zuvor im Karl
Marx-Haus in Trier.
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection on National Socialist pre- and protohistoric archaeology from 1933 onwards. It tries to do so by means of a case study of the academic contacts between the Dutch prehistorian A.E. van Giffen (1884–1973) and his German colleague H. Reinerth (1900–90). The approach adopted here differs from traditional historiographical writing on National Socialist archaeology in two respects. First, in its analysis of the academic exchange between the two scholars,the case study seeks to bridge the classical caesura between a pre- and post-war period. Second, contemporary and historical studies of National Socialist archaeology and archival sources, as well as interviews, have been incorporated in the research alongside the usual publications of the scholars involved. It is argued that with the approach taken here we may arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the different ways archaeologists have reacted to National Socialism over the past seven decades.
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?
Tijdens de vijfde Daendelslezing en de aansluitende discussie in het Rijksmuseum op woensdag 25 april 2018, reflecteerde Gert Oostindie op de huidige Nederlandse omgang met het koloniale verleden. Het debat deed veel stof opwaaien en bleef door andere historici niet onbeantwoord. In dit vlammende betoog dienen Barbara Henkes en Martijn Eickhoff Oostindie van repliek.
mass violence of the years 1965/68 in Semarang. This port city
offers a unique opportunity for studying both the violence of
1965/68 and its long-term effects from a local to a global level.
Once nicknamed the “red city” and famous for its Chinese
community, the events of “1965” deeply affected the city. Many
(alleged) communists from Semarang were sent to prison camps
in other parts of Indonesia, while many members of the Chinese
community sought refuge abroad. As a result, the mass violence
in Semarang continues to reverberate not only in the city, but also
throughout and beyond Indonesia. The article is based on the
results of two workshops in Semarang, during which a group of
Indonesian students studied the memory landscapes of “1965” by
combining oral history with site observations. The central question
is how the memory of violence, shaped primarily by everyday
interaction and communication, relates on the one hand to the
urban space in which the violence largely took place, and on the
other hand to the official state narratives that deliberately created
memory gaps regarding this violence. We focus on three sites
representative of different aspects of the mass violence of the
years 1965/68 in Semarang: the Sarekat Islam building, the
Mangkang mass grave and the Chinese Karang Turi school.
Scrutinizing these three sites has taught us that people in
Semarang make sense of “1965” through stories and activities
that, while interacting with the official narratives, include the
missing and the dead. Communism might have been “crushed”
with success, but the Indonesian state clearly failed to eradicate
the memory of state-supported anti-communist violence.
der Klassischen Archäologie in den Kontext der ungleich intensiveren Diskussion zur jüngeren Geschichte einiger verwandter Disziplinen zu stellen, insbesondere der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie. Zielpunkt der Überlegungen ist die Frage, inwieweit die Beschäftigung mit der Klassischen Archäologie in der NS-Zeit einen Beitrag zur Selbstrelexion der Forschungstätigkeit in der Gegenwart leistet.
In his response to Ivar Schute’s paper on Second World War-related archaeology in the Netherlands, Martijn Eickhoff criticizes Schute’s predominantly positivist approach that focuses exclusively on material traces of ‘what actually happened’. In addition Eickhoff stresses the importance of developing an interdisciplinary approach among archaeologists and historians prior to the start of excavation projects. Only through this combined effort can archaeological excavations contribute to our understanding of the way societies and communities through time deal with (and try to make sense of) experiences related to war and mass violence.
(Saale) die zweite Tagung „Archäologie und
Krieg“ statt. Sie war die Fortsetzung einer
gleichnamigen Tagung ein Jahr zuvor im Karl
Marx-Haus in Trier.
Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1) 73–90
C
This paper reconsiders German reflection on National Socialist pre- and protohistoric archaeology from 1933 onwards. It tries to do so by means of a case study of the academic contacts between the Dutch prehistorian A.E. van Giffen (1884–1973) and his German colleague H. Reinerth (1900–90). The approach adopted here differs from traditional historiographical writing on National Socialist archaeology in two respects. First, in its analysis of the academic exchange between the two scholars,the case study seeks to bridge the classical caesura between a pre- and post-war period. Second, contemporary and historical studies of National Socialist archaeology and archival sources, as well as interviews, have been incorporated in the research alongside the usual publications of the scholars involved. It is argued that with the approach taken here we may arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the different ways archaeologists have reacted to National Socialism over the past seven decades.
The essays concentrate on four specific topics: colonial memory, religion, imperial and post-colonial contact zones, and changing concepts of Europe. Taken together, these historical perspectives transcend older Grand Narratives by presenting Europe as a multiform and ever-changing cultural construction. They contribute to a better understanding of Europe’s changing position in the world and the way we perceive it.
The volume consists of 27 chapters and is edited by the historian Martijn Eickhoff (NIOD, Amsterdam) and the archaeologist Daniel Modl (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz). Each chapter deals with a specific European nation of region (both sub-national and supra-national) and is written by (an) author(s) with institutional connections to the area involved. The book will be published by Springer International Publishing AG. The expected date of publication is spring 2018.
For general project information and a detailed list of all authors see our Websites:
http://www.niod.knaw.nl/en/projects/national-socialist-archaeology-europe-and-its-legacies
https://www.museum-joanneum.at/archaeologiemuseum-schloss-eggenberg/ueber-uns/forschung/archaeologie-in-der-ns-zeit
For further information contact our project assistant Erwin Nuijten: e.nuijten@niod.knaw.nl