The Archaeology of Communist Political Repression in Romania: A Critique
The Archaeology of Communist Political Repression in Romania: A Critique

Summary/Abstract: In Romania, the archaeology of communist political repression is a new field of research that was born in the early 2000s, as part of a broader process of critical assessment of the country’s recent past. Dedicated mainly to research of the places where the victims of the political repression in the 1948–1964 period were buried, the archaeological excavations have enjoyed attention and appreciation, both in academia, and in public space and the media. In contrast to this image, in this paper, based on a critical analysis of the socio-political context in which the new subdiscipline was born and of the published excavation reports, I will show that the archaeology of the victims of communist repression is deeply problematic from a political, epistemological, and ethical perspective.

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