WWI POW CAMPS by Mikołaj Kostyrko
Landscape Research, 2020
The centenaries of the outbreak and end of the Great War have caused a renewed social, cultural, ... more The centenaries of the outbreak and end of the Great War have caused a renewed social, cultural, and scientific interest in the complex nature of the conflict as well as its manifold consequences. Archaeology has been actively involved in re-discovering the material imprint of the Great War on various local landscapes. This paper discusses the application of, and recent advancements in, non-invasive archaeology of the Great War in Poland, taking research at a prisoner of war (PoW) camp in Tuchola, Poland as a case study. Through an analysis of the historical, oral, and material records related to the opening, operating, and closing of the camp, we intend to present recent analyses and discoveries related to the Tuchola camp and indicate the role of archaeological research with regards to such archaeological landscapes as PoW camps dated to the Great War.
This article discusses a selected assemblage of remains of a prisoner of war camp in Tuchola, Pol... more This article discusses a selected assemblage of remains of a prisoner of war camp in Tuchola, Poland that was built during the Great War. The first chapter deals with the history of its opening, functioning, and final closing. The second part is focused on a reconstruction of the camp landscape basing on various categories of the historical record (e.g. a geodetic plan, propaganda postcards, historical and contemporary aerial photographs) in correlation to the material remains of the camp’s structures that have preserved until the present. The last chapter presents information, records, artefacts concerning the camp that were documented during ethnographic research. It is indented to show how various categories of the records (historical, material, ethnographic) can supplement and enrich each other. The research proves that the remains of allegedly gone past, which are traces of the Tuchola camp are, in reality, part of lives of the local communities. This observation is the main thesis of the paper.
The article deals with the problem area of POW camps of the time of World War I, which were locat... more The article deals with the problem area of POW camps of the time of World War I, which were located on the territory of today’s Poland. The specifics of the POW camps space is discussed from the perspective of archeological examinations. First, the authors introduce the assumptions of archeological research carried out in objects of this type (the so-called archeology of POWs), then they go on to present a few selected POW camps of the time of World War I. The article ends with a discussion of possibilities and potential of non-invasive archeological examinations (airplane-aided laser scanning, airplane photography, field reconnaissance) in the context of recognizing, documenting and conserving material relicts of POW camps and of very POWs themselves. Since the authors advocate the thesis that archeology can offer a valuable perspective in the context of recognition and documentation of what – a century later – is left as the remnants of camps and POWs of the time of World War I, the article also presents the social dimension of the camps space as landscapes which can function effectively in a variety of ways nowadays.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology , 2017
Many sites related to the First World War are forgotten and neglected in today’s Poland. This pap... more Many sites related to the First World War are forgotten and neglected in today’s Poland. This paper shortly presents the ways of practicing conflict archaeology in Poland and it discusses results of the non-invasive archaeological survey conducted in Tuchola and Czersk, places where during the First World War Germans built and run prisoners of war camps. In the article the material remains of the camps that have survived in the local landscapes till the present are analyzed. Both sites are at the same time remembered and forgotten by local communities. This paper tries to account for oblivion as an inherent part of local landscapes that adds a unique value to them.
This chapter is a case study of a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Czersk,
Poland, established by Ge... more This chapter is a case study of a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Czersk,
Poland, established by Germans during the First World War. The site of
the Czersk camp provides a context for the presentation and discussion
of three issues concerning archaeological research of the recent past. The first issue concerns how each branch of archaeology, including archaeology of the First World War, is by definition archaeology in and of the present. The second discussion is an attempt to conceptualize the First World War as an archaeological event. The third issue concerns reclaiming material memories of First World War POWs of Czersk by using the remote sensing technology of LiDAR. The chapter concludes with the observation that there are inconspicuous and forgotten material memories of the First World War that can be reclaimed only through the craft of archaeology.
Czersk is a small town like many others around the world. It lies among beautiful forests and lak... more Czersk is a small town like many others around the world. It lies among beautiful forests and lakes. However, this idyllic natural landscape hides stories of human humiliation, starvation, and death that go back to the First World War.
Today, Czersk lies in the northern part of Poland, but before the outbreak of the Great War the region was part of Germany. After the first victories of the Kaiser's army over the Russians in August and September of 1914 in East Prussia, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were taken prisoner.
ABTRACT. This paper is a case study of a prisoner of war and internment camp in Tuchola (Kujawsko... more ABTRACT. This paper is a case study of a prisoner of war and internment camp in Tuchola (Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province, Poland). The camp operated between 1914 and 1923. During the First World War it was run by Germans and later, during the Polish-Soviet War, by the Poles. The site provides a context for discussing two issues around archaeological research of the recent past. The first issue is how archaeology can be used to analyse the transformations of landscapes related to modern armed conflicts. The second point deals with the documentation and analysis of the remains of the camp using ALS-derivatives. The main conclusion of this paper is that LiDAR technology can be also a useful tool in the context of approaching landscapes from the recent past. KEY WORDS: archaeology of the recent past, prisoner of war camp, memory, heritage, materiality, remote sensing, LiDAR, Tuchola
Our poster presents the results of reclaiming material memories of the Prisoners of War Camp (PoW... more Our poster presents the results of reclaiming material memories of the Prisoners of War Camp (PoW), run by the Germans during the
First World War in Czersk (Poland) using ALS data and its derivatives. Till our prospection and use of ALS data this place has been unknown to a wider public, only cemetery, postcards and vary few historical documents remained.
Archeologia Żywa, 2017
Archeologia wkracza na nowe pola. Coraz częściej materialne relikty XX wieku traktowane są jako w... more Archeologia wkracza na nowe pola. Coraz częściej materialne relikty XX wieku traktowane są jako wartościowe dziedzictwo archeologiczne. W taki sposób można również postrzegać relikty obozów jenieckich z czasów I wojny światowej.
Książka jest katalogiem do wystawy pt. "Między pamięcią a zapomnieniem: archeologia pierwszowojen... more Książka jest katalogiem do wystawy pt. "Między pamięcią a zapomnieniem: archeologia pierwszowojennego obozu jenieckiego w Czersku". Omawia ona różnorodne materialne pozostałości związane z jeńcami przetrzymywanymi w Czersku.
Metody geofizyczne w archeologii polskiej, 2018
Pierwszowojenne obozy jenieckie należy rozumieć jako specyficzną kategorię stanowiska archeologic... more Pierwszowojenne obozy jenieckie należy rozumieć jako specyficzną kategorię stanowiska archeologicznego, którego relikty można dokumentować i badać metodami stricte archeologicznymi. Jeden z obiektów tego typu znajdował się w czasach I wojny światowej na południe od ówczesnej wsi Czersk (dzisiejsze woj. pomorskie).
Biografia Archaeologii, Mar 6, 2015
Archeologia dysponuje wieloma metodami badawczymi, których celem jest uchwycenie śladów (material... more Archeologia dysponuje wieloma metodami badawczymi, których celem jest uchwycenie śladów (materialnej pamięci) przeszłej działalności człowieka. Wśród nich są metody, które
w nieodwracalny sposób przekształcają krajobraz (np. wykopaliska archeologiczne). Są też takie, których celem jest zadokumentowanie jak największej ilości informacji bez
ingerowania w strukturę stanowiska; takie metody nazywamy nieinwazyjnymi. Aby nie przekształcać dodatkowo zastanych krajobrazów archeolodzy sięgają po metody, które nie
powstały z myślą o archeologii, ale które służą do badania krajobrazów. Wśród nich można wymienić metody geofizyczne, zdjęcia lotnicze, zobrazowania satelitarne czy dane pozyskane
przy pomocy lotniczego skaningu laserowego (LSL). My wykorzystaliśmy LSL jak metodę pozwalającą odzyskiwać (reclaiming) materialną pamięć krajobrazów. Nasze uwagi
prezentujemy na przykładzie materialnych przekształceń w krajobrazie dawnego obozu jenieckiego w Czersku, woj. pomorskie.
Biografia Archeologii, Feb 22, 2015
Sto lat temu trwała już w najlepsze Wielka Wojna (I wojna światowa) niosąc śmierć milionom ludzki... more Sto lat temu trwała już w najlepsze Wielka Wojna (I wojna światowa) niosąc śmierć milionom ludzkich istnień. Działania wojenne, zarówno na froncie wschodnim, jak i zachodnim, wiązały się z trwałym przekształcaniem całych krajobrazów. Oznacza to, że po wojnie, w sensie geopolitycznym i przemian w krajobrazie, Europa była już innym kontynentem. W tym tekście twierdzimy, iż archeologia może postrzegać wydarzenia z I wojny światowej jako przedmiot swoich badań. Archeologiczne badania materialnych pozostałości po Wielkiej Wojnie mogą pomóc w odzyskiwaniu pamięci o tych czasach. Uwagi nasze prezentujemy na przykładzie pozostałości niemieckiego obozu dla jeńców wojennych w Czersku (Kriegsgefangenenlager Czersk – Westpreussen), woj. pomorskie, założonym na początku I wojny światowej.
This poster presents and discusses power relations within Prisoner of War (POW) camp established ... more This poster presents and discusses power relations within Prisoner of War (POW) camp established during WWI by the Germans near Czersk seen from, a perspective of different data. Only some relicts of former interment structures have survived until the present day. They hard to be distinguished for a ground perspective but recognizable through remote sensing data. Their interpretation can lead to a visualization in which there are no clear boundaries. One could say that it was an egalitarian landscape. A different perspective of the same place is offered by historical photos and postcards made during the Great War and this, I argue, causes a parallax effect.
[presented on TRAIL 2018
Training and Research in the Archaeological Interpretation of Lidar - 29th to 31st October 2018, Postojna, Slovenia]
Front wschodni Wielkiej Wojny (I wojna światowa) dopiero
od kilku lat jest przedmiotem zaintereso... more Front wschodni Wielkiej Wojny (I wojna światowa) dopiero
od kilku lat jest przedmiotem zainteresowania polskich
archeologów. Zaczęli oni badać linie okopów, tyły frontowe,
lokalizować zapomniane leśne cmentarze, ziemianki żołnierskie, tzw. pola ziemi niczyjej, leje po wybuchach pocisków artyleryjskich itd. Wiele z tych studiów oferuje – by tak to ująć – ludzką perspektywę wojny.
Aerial Archaeology by Mikołaj Kostyrko
Przegląd Archeologiczny, 2020
This paper presents a case study of a place that during one period in history played an important... more This paper presents a case study of a place that during one period in history played an important role in the structures of the Piast state, and then, as a result of subsequent historical events, lost much of its significance. In the 14th century, Santok was already on the margins of ‘grand history’ and fading into oblivion. This changed as a result of archaeological excavations carried out here for the first time in the 1930s. The narrative adopted in this article is based on a presentation of landscape biography and analysis of spatial sources – namely, historical aerial photographs and ones deriving from air-borne laser scanning. This point of view has allowed the authors to pay special attention to previously neglected fragments of the history of the landscape under analysis.
Uploads
WWI POW CAMPS by Mikołaj Kostyrko
Poland, established by Germans during the First World War. The site of
the Czersk camp provides a context for the presentation and discussion
of three issues concerning archaeological research of the recent past. The first issue concerns how each branch of archaeology, including archaeology of the First World War, is by definition archaeology in and of the present. The second discussion is an attempt to conceptualize the First World War as an archaeological event. The third issue concerns reclaiming material memories of First World War POWs of Czersk by using the remote sensing technology of LiDAR. The chapter concludes with the observation that there are inconspicuous and forgotten material memories of the First World War that can be reclaimed only through the craft of archaeology.
Today, Czersk lies in the northern part of Poland, but before the outbreak of the Great War the region was part of Germany. After the first victories of the Kaiser's army over the Russians in August and September of 1914 in East Prussia, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were taken prisoner.
First World War in Czersk (Poland) using ALS data and its derivatives. Till our prospection and use of ALS data this place has been unknown to a wider public, only cemetery, postcards and vary few historical documents remained.
w nieodwracalny sposób przekształcają krajobraz (np. wykopaliska archeologiczne). Są też takie, których celem jest zadokumentowanie jak największej ilości informacji bez
ingerowania w strukturę stanowiska; takie metody nazywamy nieinwazyjnymi. Aby nie przekształcać dodatkowo zastanych krajobrazów archeolodzy sięgają po metody, które nie
powstały z myślą o archeologii, ale które służą do badania krajobrazów. Wśród nich można wymienić metody geofizyczne, zdjęcia lotnicze, zobrazowania satelitarne czy dane pozyskane
przy pomocy lotniczego skaningu laserowego (LSL). My wykorzystaliśmy LSL jak metodę pozwalającą odzyskiwać (reclaiming) materialną pamięć krajobrazów. Nasze uwagi
prezentujemy na przykładzie materialnych przekształceń w krajobrazie dawnego obozu jenieckiego w Czersku, woj. pomorskie.
[presented on TRAIL 2018
Training and Research in the Archaeological Interpretation of Lidar - 29th to 31st October 2018, Postojna, Slovenia]
od kilku lat jest przedmiotem zainteresowania polskich
archeologów. Zaczęli oni badać linie okopów, tyły frontowe,
lokalizować zapomniane leśne cmentarze, ziemianki żołnierskie, tzw. pola ziemi niczyjej, leje po wybuchach pocisków artyleryjskich itd. Wiele z tych studiów oferuje – by tak to ująć – ludzką perspektywę wojny.
Aerial Archaeology by Mikołaj Kostyrko
Poland, established by Germans during the First World War. The site of
the Czersk camp provides a context for the presentation and discussion
of three issues concerning archaeological research of the recent past. The first issue concerns how each branch of archaeology, including archaeology of the First World War, is by definition archaeology in and of the present. The second discussion is an attempt to conceptualize the First World War as an archaeological event. The third issue concerns reclaiming material memories of First World War POWs of Czersk by using the remote sensing technology of LiDAR. The chapter concludes with the observation that there are inconspicuous and forgotten material memories of the First World War that can be reclaimed only through the craft of archaeology.
Today, Czersk lies in the northern part of Poland, but before the outbreak of the Great War the region was part of Germany. After the first victories of the Kaiser's army over the Russians in August and September of 1914 in East Prussia, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were taken prisoner.
First World War in Czersk (Poland) using ALS data and its derivatives. Till our prospection and use of ALS data this place has been unknown to a wider public, only cemetery, postcards and vary few historical documents remained.
w nieodwracalny sposób przekształcają krajobraz (np. wykopaliska archeologiczne). Są też takie, których celem jest zadokumentowanie jak największej ilości informacji bez
ingerowania w strukturę stanowiska; takie metody nazywamy nieinwazyjnymi. Aby nie przekształcać dodatkowo zastanych krajobrazów archeolodzy sięgają po metody, które nie
powstały z myślą o archeologii, ale które służą do badania krajobrazów. Wśród nich można wymienić metody geofizyczne, zdjęcia lotnicze, zobrazowania satelitarne czy dane pozyskane
przy pomocy lotniczego skaningu laserowego (LSL). My wykorzystaliśmy LSL jak metodę pozwalającą odzyskiwać (reclaiming) materialną pamięć krajobrazów. Nasze uwagi
prezentujemy na przykładzie materialnych przekształceń w krajobrazie dawnego obozu jenieckiego w Czersku, woj. pomorskie.
[presented on TRAIL 2018
Training and Research in the Archaeological Interpretation of Lidar - 29th to 31st October 2018, Postojna, Slovenia]
od kilku lat jest przedmiotem zainteresowania polskich
archeologów. Zaczęli oni badać linie okopów, tyły frontowe,
lokalizować zapomniane leśne cmentarze, ziemianki żołnierskie, tzw. pola ziemi niczyjej, leje po wybuchach pocisków artyleryjskich itd. Wiele z tych studiów oferuje – by tak to ująć – ludzką perspektywę wojny.
Summary
The discovery of the abandoned medieval town of Dzwonowo at the beginning of 2014 might be seen as
coincidental. The orthophotomap used for this purpose was not meant for recording archaeological sites mani
festing themselves in the form of crop marks. The imagery, on which identification of the former town layout
was based, had been taken on the 8th July 2010 between June and July is assumed by archaeologists in Poland to
be an optimal period for taking aerial photographs documenting vegetation marks. Thus, what happened there
is something, in aerial photography concerned literature, called a serendipity effect. Therefore, by chance, there
was a phenomenon recorded, in aerial photographs taken for completely different purpose, of a great signifi
cance from the point of view of archaeologists. Identification of this particular town pattern was also possible
on the basis of analogies with former archaeological discoveries in Poland (e.g. in Stare Szamotuły).
Whereas a serendipity effect was concerned, available historical remote sensing photographs taken for car
tography purposes, as well as obtained from national archives, have been analysed, including aerial photogra
phy (AP) and airborne laser scanning (ALS) derivatives. In the photographs from years 1960, 1976, 1995, and
2010 it was indeed possible to successfully identify structures of the former town layout. These materials have
been also used for an analysis of transformations of Dzwonowo and its vicinity.
The area where the town was located slopes gently westwards, towards a valley, nowadays marshy and for
ested, and partially dried, as a result of melioration works undertaken recently. In the past, a minor meander
ing river used to flow through it. Paleochannels illustrating its original course are still visible in NMT deriva
tives. Within the discussed valley also relics of dykes, used for transportation purposes, were preserved.
Remote sensing data provided new details concerning history of the place, also the most recent.
Hořínková A., Kováčik P., Stuchlík S. (red.), Archeologický výzkum krajiny a aplikace ICT,
sborník z mezinárodní konference ,,Archeologický výzkum krajiny a aplikace ICT‘‘, Opava,
s. 73-92.
Wydaje się, że ślady wydarzeń drugowojennych, które miały tam miejsce są już tylko dawną i minioną przeszłością – bladym i niewyraźnym cieniem II wojny światowej. Jednak prace terenowe realizowane w ramach projektu „Archeologia Doliny Śmierci” rzucają nieco inne światło na ten idylliczny krajobraz. Materialne ślady niemieckich zbrodni przetrwały do dziś w wielorakiej formie.
tive research of difficult access areas. With no doubt, these, from the archaeological perspective, are forested areas. With the gradual advancement of researches applying LiDAR data, a need for further development of non-invasive techniques within forested areas has emerged. In this paper we present
a case study of an early mediaeval round fort from Biedrzychowice Dolne, Lubuskie Province. Te area was analyzed using of airborne laser scanning, aerial photography, electrical resistance and
magnetic survey. Te goal of this study aimed at understanding of the spatial structure of this place,
as well as at recognizing limitation of the applied research methods
https://www.ha30.zcu.cz/
People, things, animals and places are mutually constituted. When comes to leaving traces, people are not privileged. Animals leave traces too. Thus, in our paper we would like to present reflections on archaeology of animals from the perspective of aerial archaeology and human-animal studies. Remote sensing allows us to study the issues of how wild as well as domestic animals leave their traces behind, how they change and inhabit landscape, as well as, how they interact with humans in it.
Archaeological and remote sensing approach to the landscape enables us to understand places that we dwell not as assemblages of sites, but as assemblages of traces produced by people, animals, machines and their various mixes and hybrids. We should be open to any entities that may participate in a world we dwell. Only when multiplicity of things is included, landscapes become pluralistic, relevant and democratic. This point of view not only reconstitutes our approach towards landscape and its perception but it also provokes new questions towards heritage management.
In our opinion it did not change the perspective of archaeological studies. Prehistory is still written by
the winners. Although this time the winners are things not humans. Those features that seem to be not
interesting are omitted in the grand narratives of prehistories. One of the marginalized perspective of
studies are the landscape of villages and farm lives. We would like to present a brief comparison of
landscape studies on this subject from Poland and Czech Republic, focusing only on medieval and later
rural settlements. From the perspective of these is seem like we are living in a different world, were in
the Czech Republic the landscape is full of the past traces of farming activities in opposition to Polish
territory, where only few such places are currently known. Are we living in a different landscape or
perhaps it is the effect of different perspectives on landscape studies? The second topic that we would
like to stress out is how the perception of studying such places can be changed through applying remote
sensing data, especially LiDAR-derivatives.