This paper analyses the so-called biography of a thing as a way of thinking about the value and meaning of heritage. A certain, almost 100 years old, trunk is used as a case study to present how heritage is constituted trough relations between people, things, and places. Indeed, heritage is a kind of relation between humans and non-humans. To back up this thesis, this article offers a five-step approach. First, the starting point is Michael Shanks’ thesis that “we are all archaeologists now”. The British archaeologist – it can be said – argues for broadening the archaeological discourse and to look archaeologically at the world we all live in. From this point of view, a Neolithic pot sherd and a contemporary thing such as a trunk, for example, represent the same category of an archaeological artefact. Through their materiality, they both might be objects of an archaeological scrutiny. Second, I shortly discuss the archaeological research on the recent past. Archaeology is a practice anchored here and now. One of the archaeological perspectives that analyses the relics of the recent past is the approach where archaeologists study their own heritage i.e. the histories of their own families. This is the perspective developed further in this paper. Third, it is argued that the theoretical concept known as biography of a thing, can be useful in the context of the archaeology of the recent past. It is the concept that takes into account the past and present of each artefact, landscape or practice. This approach allows for studying both the social and the material memories which are crucial apropos of the archaeological research on the recent past. Here, archaeologists take into account things as well as people’s memories about them. Fourth, an analysis of a trunk which the author found in the grandmother’s basement is used as a case study to present the potential of the archaeological research on the recent past. Some episodes of the biography of a trunk are highlighted to claim that heritage is constituted through different kinds of relations between many agents, both humans and non-humans. And the last point, the trunk is a good example that shows the limitations of archaeological thinking about heritage through the lens of its preservation and management. Indeed, the crucial conclusion of this article is that, sometimes, the less preservation and management of (archaeological) heritage the better for heritage itself. In other words, destruction and decay of heritage are the very part of its biography.

Case studies of watermills that ceased to exist during the 20th century, examined via archaeological methods in the regions of West and Northwest Bohemia, have brought significant findings in the form of particular building stages from the oldest times to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Watermill of Hutmühle (Litomerice district, Northwest Bohemia, near the village of Zubrice) was the most thoroughly investigated site. In the scope of this archaeological excavation, various methodological differences, possibilities and limits of research of such sites appeared. Based on the scientific activities performed, it is evident that these watermills are highly valuable technical sights, which shall be paid more attention to in terms of both archaeological and historical monument care.

During the 20th century, 43 large water reservoirs were built on the territory of the present Czech Republic. These reservoirs have caused huge changes in cultural landscapes. Large areas have been flooded, many villages and towns have been deserted and many old communication tracts have been broken. There are many sources for studying these abandoned landscapes, such as pictures, photos, movies, old maps and military aerial photos from the 40s and 50s. We can also examine the archaeological relics of former human activities. This paper describes three examples of archaeological monuments that can be found in the landscapes transformed by water reservoirs. The first one is the ruin of the village of Fláje in the north of Bohemia. This village was founded in the Middle Ages and deserted in the 50s due to the construction of the Fláje water dam. This reservoir destroyed about two-thirds of the village, but also the rest of the settlement was abandoned and destroyed when the drinking water protection zone was established. The field research of this site took place during the reconstruction of the dam when the water level was much lower than usual. That revealed dozens of relicts of demolished houses and other remnants of the deserted village. Another example is the closed railway between the towns Cerná Hurka and Želnava in the Šumava mountains (southern part of Bohemia). This railway has been closed due to the construction of the largest water reservoir in the Czech Republic Lipno. Parts of the railway (in dry areas) were studied. Long sections of the rail bank with several structures (bridges, crossings, stations) were discovered with the use of old maps and aerial pictures. The last example describes two concrete bridges of the main Czech highway between the two largest cities in the Czech Republic – Prague and Brno. The construction of the highway began in the 30s, but it was interrupted between the 40s and 60s. Meanwhile, the Želivka water reservoir has been built and it flooded part of the unfinished highway. The bridges of the highway are now abandoned in the middle of the lake. The Czech landscapes of the large water reservoirs hide many remains of former human activities. Archaeology can provide useful tools for the research of the remains and for a better understanding of the history of those abandoned places.

The palace and park in Naklo were built by Count Kajetan Bystrzanowski in the years 1770–1780. After his death the property was passing from hand to hand, to finally get to the Komorowski family (Matilda, the wife of the successor to the throne of Belgium and Franciszek Starowieyski, a painter, belong to this family). Komorowski managed the assets until the end of The Second World War but then he lost them to the state. For several years, the palace housed an agricultural, technical school and later – to 1989 – an orphanage. Since 2002, Marzenna and Kerth Reyher have been the owners of the building. The theme of the article are the stories, memory and community importance of the palace in Naklo, forming a part of the physical and cultural landscape of the Lelów municipality. The authors show the local narratives which were collected during the ethnographic research on the places especially important for the Lelów community, which are the witnesses and traces of the past. Another aim of the article is to discuss the issues of carvings on trees – forms of material culture that are valuable elements in the processes of reconstructing the events from the past. Their reading and interpretation is important in supplementing the state of knowledge about the places and people associated with them, who left carvings on the trees. Like forgotten stories, carvings also lose their legibility with time, yet remaining a legacy that is difficult to grasp and is transient just like life is. Therefore, it is worth noting while analyzing and restoring the memory about them, the more so as they show the unforced, governing need of the moment, and leaving the historical continuity of correspondence between culture and nature. The palace and park is treated as a place in the anthropological meaning and as an element of the landscape understood in the context of aesthetics, perception, memory and ideology.

Writing, signing and carving names in public spaces are popular ways of indicating somebody’s presence in the world. Various inscriptions made in different places have been appearing from the ancient times until today. There are multiple motivations for such practice: a simple signing to indicate somebody’s presence, a declaration of sympathy or antipathy to some idea or person or political manifests and encouragement to engage in some actions. Despite the popularity of such phenomenon and its long duration, archaeologists, especially those involved in studying the recent or contemporary past, are not particularly focused on researching this source of knowledge. Most of the academic works which concern inscriptions and graffiti are conducted by sociologists or visual culture specialists. However, these sources may be truly significant in studying microhistories of the places and people. Thus, in our article we want to present a unique potential of graffiti in the studies related to the recent and contemporary past. The aim of our article is to show various spatial contexts in which graffiti may be encountered and to present how the archaeology of the contemporary past may take advantage of researching such inscriptions. After Laurent Olivier (2001), we think that discovering the local past is a characteristic feature of the archaeology of the contemporary past and our article aims to show how the specific “being” of graffiti around us may contribute to discovering the microhistories of people and places. According to Michael Bell’s concept (1997), we interpret graffiti as “the ghosts of place” which indicate the presence of those who are no longer in the place. Due to the breadth of topics connected with graffiti, we decided to focus on those inscriptions which manifest someone’s presence in the place, narrowing our studies only to its written form (not graphic).

For many centuries, scientists, philosophers, artists and others have been fascinated with ruins. However, this fascination usually focused upon ancient and medieval relics. Indeed, it can be metaphorically said that archaeology was built upon ruins. Nonetheless, the archaeological analyses of ruins, their functions, meanings, uses and re-uses over the next centuries had been very selective. In short, modern ruins have been out of closer archaeological attention. It seems as if modern ruins were deprived of social, cultural, and archaeological dimensions. However, this changed during the first decade of the 21st century when archaeologists started to pay attention to the modern ruins. The so-called archaeology of (modern) ruins is one of the most interesting, provocative, and subversive fields of the contemporary archaeological discourses. The starting point of this paper is that there is no “ontological difference” between the Greek, the Roman and the Soviet ruins. All of them can and should be part of archaeological thinking. A two-step approach is applied here. First, the archaeological value of ruins in Chernobyl is discussed. A documentary entitled Czarnobyl – Wstep Wzbroniony (2015) (Eng. Chernobyl – No Entry) is reviewed to highlight the processes of transformation of the unimaginable nuclear catastrophe into valuable heritage of the recent past. It is argued that Chernobyl can be seen as “Pompeii of our times”. Second, the review of Czarnobyl – Wstep Wzbroniony is used as a pretext to shortly present different categories of modern ruins that one can encounter in contemporary Poland. Many of them are related with the Soviet occupation in Poland between 1945 and 1993. The point that I try to back up in this paper is that these Soviet ruins are also part of the archaeological heritage of the recent past. Accordingly, this paper is a call for a closer archaeological interest in the ruins of the recent past in general.

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Recently, in the circle of archaeologists, we observe discussions on the issues related to the contemporary archeology. This topic is also the subject of disputes between the opponents and the supporters of an innovative look at archeology. Studying this issue, it is worth pointing that the places and events connected with the contemporary history are increasingly becoming a subject of interest to archaeologists. It overlaps with another issue – devastation and destruction of archaeological sites along with many places of battlefields in our country. It is increasingly evident that the field of action of archaeologists touches the dark period of operation in our country by the German occupation authorities and the post-war communist authorities. We should keep in mind that even the dark part of our history must be protected. It is also our heritage, which should be a subject of protection enshrined in the Constitution of the Polish Republic with its tangible and intangible elements and without any restrictions. It would be advisable that the archaeologists, conservation authorities and all stakeholders should explain all the emerging doubts while working out on the common position in this matter. We should realize that the contemporary archeology is not only traces of the past events that surround us, but it is also the material evidence of our existence that will remain after us. It seems that the contemporary archeology is nothing but a continuation of the archeology, which evolves and follows the mankind, along with our sometimes complicated existence. It is still archeology, which is called the contemporary archeology in order to precisely define the period of its interest. We should keep in mind that the contemporary archeology is also an important element shaping the cultural awareness which further increases its value.

There seem to be a lot of differences between archaeology and forensic science but, when we take a closer look, we may find out that some methods and goals may be similar, especially on the ground of exhumation of graves. Since the early 90s, in Poland, archaeologists more often started to take part in investigations covering mass murders and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War. It occurred that their methodology is providing best results in this kind of work. At first, archeologists started only as consultants but then they were given a possibility to lead their own field of excavations in that area of interest. Moreover, it led to creating a new subdiscipline called forensic archaeology. It is hard to tell the difference between archaeological and forensical field methods of exhuming graves. Archaeological literature is way more precise in describing that topic, whereas police experts are thought to provide general procedures of securing a crime scene. The most obvious differences between the two fields in question are visible in the methods of documentation. However, there is no doubt that the specialists in each of the disciplines have learned a lot from each other since they decided to cooperate in some specific cases.

During the archeological research on the churchyard in Góra Swietej Malgorzaty, a collection of almost 400 glass relics was found. It has been discovered from layers dated back to the period between the seventeenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries. The collection was catalogued and analyzed and the conclusions are a basis for this article. Glass relics are divided into 4 categories. The first is table glass, mostly different types of drinking dishes. Most of them are various cups, but it is difficult to define how they were used. The second category are bottles produced manually or mechanically. The third group are panes of glass. Most of them were window glass panes that were kept in frames with lead and wooden joints. A very interesting discovery are glass panes recovered from a crypt. Probably, it was part of a coffin. It has some traces of colour. The artefact is dated back to the first half of the nineteenth century. This kind of artefacts represents a very rare discovery on the Polish land in the modern era.

The article narrated mainly the results of the archaeological research carried out in the little town Bolimów, Pl. 9 (St. 9) in 2005 and village Joachimów-Mogily Pl. 1 (St. 1) in 2008, on the newly built route of the highway A no. 2, (near Skierniewice in Central Poland). The results of the surveys have been limited only to the threads relating to World War I. At the same time, this article is an attempt to bind the information obtained during the test from the message history published in 1931 in the form of memories, providing a description of the combat route 21. Inf. Regiment called von Borcke at Thorn (Torun). This unit from mid-February to mid-May 1915, stayed near the city of Bolimów. The battalions fighting directly on the front lines, occupied the positions in the trenches in the vicinity of the village Humin, to the east of the river Rawka. Other subunits were lodged in the camp called “Reserve-Lager”. This Reserve-Lager is located, according to the guidelines contained in the publication, on the southern edge of Bolimów, on the western riwer bank of Rawka. In this place, in the course of archaeological research carried out on the route of the highway A no. 2, some traces of fortifications (trench and shelter) and remains of German soldiers from the war were discovered. Some paper monuments allow to bind them with Torun 21. Inf. Regiment. At the same time, on the opposite bank of the Rawka, in the village of Joachimów-Mogily, some fragments of trenches as well as a hidden access to the ford on the Rawka and to Resereve-Lager were recorded. The material presented in the article is a hypothetical thesis complemented by knowledge of modern battlefields. Also, it provides a basis for the formulation of several author’s own comments for the discussion on the methodology of the emerging field of science that the archaeology of modern battlefields becomes.

The article deals with the causes and manifestations of the process of disappearing remembrance of war cemeteries from the area of combats on the Rawka and the Bzura rivers during the Great War. The disappearance of the war cemeteries from the landscape and from the social consciousness we describe on the example of one of the communes included in the framework of the project Archaeological revival of the memory of the Great War (acronymically described as ARM). We discuss the attempts to determine the number of resting places of the fallen soldiers as well as the ways to achieve better understanding of cause-and-effect relations, which brought about the current condition of these places. Resulting from war operations of the First World War led from December 1914 to July 1915, tens of thousands of soldiers of Russian and German troops lost their lives in this region. The remains of the fallen in battle, those never buried, and those deposited in war cemeteries and war graves – were left behind on the battlefield. It is worth mentioning that the remains of the fallen, previously unburied soldiers, will be buried in ossuaries, whose foundation we (as archaeologists) postulate in the context of two war cemeteries. One of the recommended places (Joachimów- Mogily War Cemetery) is situated in the area of discussed here Bolimów commune and the other is in the area of the Nowa Sucha commune (Borzymówka War Cemetery). Referring to the disproportion between the number of places currently regarded as war cemeteries (in the formal and conservatory sense) and the potential number of actual resting places of soldiers killed in the battles of the Rawka and the Bzura in 1914–1915 (in the ontological and humic sense), we confronted what is real with what is formal. This prompted us to ask the following questions: why were the war cemeteries from the First World War left out from the study area; how does this obliteration manifest itself and what contributed to the fact that these cemeteries were deprived of the status of protected places – despite the applicable legal provisions? Helpful in recognition of the undertaken problems was the confrontation of data that made up various forms of prolonging the memory of the Great War such as: ‘archives’ memory’, people’s memory, ‘memory of earth’. These include: • results of the archaeological research identification of selected sites related to military operations through analysis of archival and contemporary aerial photographs and the Digital Terrain Model (DTM – generated from the Airborne Lasser Scanning data, as part of the ARM project, as well as surface surveys and survey excavations of selected objects etc.); • archival data (Files of the City of Lowicz, Chronicle of Lowicz history from the first 9 months of the Great War 1914–1915, W. Tarczynski, Files of Bolimów Commune, regimental books, wartime memoirs etc.), • information obtained by using ethnographic methods (interviews with inhabitants of the region where the battle took place); • anthropological data (anthropological analyses of the remains of soldiers taken during archaeological research from outside war cemeteries). The outcome of correlation of these data is the presentation of the current state of resting places of soldiers killed between 1914 and 1915 in the area of Bolimów commune and a reflection on the links between the past and the present. Based on the critical analysis of the information available, we argue that archaeology can play the role of a common ground for the actions undertaken in relation to the difficult heritage of the not-so-distant past that we encounter in the case of material remnants of the Rawka and the Bzura rivers after the First World War. In our opinion, this example shows that the work of an archaeologist may constitute a unique and valuable field for socially engaged transdisciplinary research. It can also become the basis for reflecting on how far the war, cultural reevaluations and direct and indirect consequences of military actions affect the current state and constant transformation of the entangled anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic entities of the complex landscapes of the former battlefield as well as the landscape of remembrance of the Great War.

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For several years, regular archaeological excavations have been conducted in the Forest of Lucmierz near Zgierz in Central Poland. They focused on searching for the collective graves of hundreds Poles executed by Nazi Germans in Zgierz in 1942, and the location and exhumation of the contents of burial graves from 1939–1940, in which the remains of victims of the German Inteligenzaktion were originally hidden. In both cases, the main difficulty for the researchers was the fact that the Germans carried out actions to erase the traces of the crime, consisting in the cremation of the remains of the victims extracted from the grave. Unclear information regarding exhumations, which was provided by the new Polish administration in the spring of 1045, did not facilitate the research either. The archival inquiry and archaeological research did not answer all the questions. Therefore, in 2014, some ethnographic interviews with the residents of the towns located around the Forest of Lucmierz were carried out. The article cites extensive fragments of the interlocutors’ statements, which have been commented on from the point of view of the needs of the archaeological research.

The paper presents the proposal for an interdisciplinary, humanistically oriented analysis of extinct settlements on the example of the results of the author’s research project realized on the territory of the Pisz county in the Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodship. The project, embedded in the current research trend on the transformations of the contemporary landscape, was focused on the analysis of the relics of the 20th century extinct settlement structures and their material heritage. The research topic was based on the compilation of theoretical assumptions of historical geography (e.g. Koter 1994; Figlus 2016) and fieldwork methodology developed through historical archeology, including contemporary archeology (e.g. Vareka et al. 2008). The results of the study were published in the article on the case study of the disappearing village – Sokoly Górskie. The research results presented both in the form of cartographic synthesis and field surveying studies conducted within landscape structures show the large quantitative and qualitative dimension of transformations that were taking place as a result of violent socioeconomic changes of the 20th century (e.g. rapid depopulation), which were the effect of global armed conflicts.