Political circumstances reflected in post-war Polish archaeology

Abstract

The. abrupt change of political course in post-war Poland did not result in any substantial change of archaeological interpretation, even with politically sensitive problems like ethnic identification of sites, continuity of cultural legacy or historiosophy of the cultural process. Although that period today is vigorously criticised by the younger generation, free to express their opinions after the communist regime was overturned in 1989, dispassionate analysis shows that Polish archaeology survived the harsh Stalinist period without shameful political concessions. The reason was a highly specific convergence of Polish national traditions in archaeological research with the political expectations of the new hegemonic Power: the Soviet Union. Thus the tensions were minor in character and did not undermine the high status of archaeology, a status which developed much more rapidly than the actual post-war situation of the country would normally have allowed.