Something out of the ordinary? Interpreting the diversity in the uniformity of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik in Central and Western Europe

52 Remembering and forgetting lie at the heart of Marek E. Jasinski‘s research into the Norwegian PoW experience (Revenge of memories – Nazi construction plants and PoW camps in Norway). As on Alderney, the role of the slave workers is hidden behind the massive surviving concrete structures they lost their lives in building. The Nazi legacy stands firm, but the injustices behind it are forgotten and need to be re-told and the sites interpreted appropriately. The definition of others‘ based on race and religion allowed the Nazi exploitation of the slave workers, and similar definitions of other‘ fuel extremist views in Norway to this day. Archaeologists exposing the past can help to create tolerant environments in the present. Creating closure in the present is the ambition of Andrzej Ossowski, Krzysztof Szwagrzyk and Piotr Brzezinski in their work locating, exhuming and identifying victims of Communist imprisonment and execution (Contemporary totalitarian systems‟ victims‟ identification possibilities). Using innovative field methods and DNA testing, descendants can be linked to the remains of those found in illicit graves. This ongoing research has successfully made possible some identifications, but many more are anticipated, with the methods being applicable in other contexts. Dealing with war crimes, not through science but through theoretically and ethically informed artefact analysis and displays, was the subject of the final paper in the session provided by Anna Zalewska ((Un)representable War crime. The presence and the roles of material relics of Katyn mass murder in public space). Here the artefacts recovered during the exhumation of the human remains confront and challenge the Soviet interpretation of the massacre, allowing the exhibition viewers the chance to link back to those executed, and the event itself. The objects allow an engagement with the victims that is both powerful yet potentially problematic, and requires careful contextualisation in public display. The session, sponsored by the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, has revealed the vibrant research activity within PoW archaeology, and how only through the analysis of material culture can past actions and experiences of those oppressed be brought forcefully into the present. The PoW heritage is often fragile, yet rarely claimed or even acknowledged within national histories, and so has rarely been offered legal heritage protection. Only through fieldwork campaigns, the raising of local and national popular interest, and through the publicizing of this important strand of the recent past, can this heritage be safeguarded. Its research future is one of dynamic, socially engaged interaction with communities today as these difficult pasts are understood and, where possible, reconciliation achieved.