Archeologia w dobie nacjonalizmów i totalitaryzmów europejskich
Archeology in the Age of European Nationalisms and Totalitarianisms

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the links between archeology and the totalitarian systems of fascism and communism. It shows how, on the orders of Nazi ideologues, the conquest of Polish lands was justified as the lands formerly inhabited by Germans and much later occupied by Poles. Nazi archaeologists were also to discover or even fabricate the discoveries of pro-German places of worship, which would then serve new rituals. Italian fascists, by conquering North Africa, posed as descendants of the Romans legally rebuilding the Roman Empire. After the war, the Stalinist authorities in Poland tried to legitimise their rule as continuators of the Piast rulers, and to instil in the displaced Poles the idea that they had lived in the Recovered Territories. The authorities of the Soviet Union treated the annexed countries as their colonies and plundered everything, including archaeological sites. The communists ruling Romania pretended to be the successors of the Dak kings, heroic defenders against the Romans. The presented examples show that Nazi and Communist ideologues willingly made use of service-minded archaeologists who provided them with the ordered research results.

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