Abstract

This paper is a case study of the trams now kept at Depot No. 5 at Legnicka 65 in Wroc?aw, Poland. The site provides a context for exploring two core issues around archaeological approaches to the contemporary past. The first is how materiality and immateriality are deeply interwoven in the context of modern heritage sites, with the overlap providing the grounds for discussion on the material theology of modern ruins. The second is the consequences of seeing modern ruins as heritage sites worth preserving for future generations. The conclusion of this paper is that if heritage is to be saved, it should be saved first of all from its saviours.

Abstract

Many sites related to the First World War are forgotten and neglected in today's Poland. This paper shortly presents the ways of practicing Bconflict archaeology^in Poland and it discusses results of the non-invasive archaeological survey conducted in Tuchola and Czersk, places where during the First World War Germans built and run prisoners of war camps. In the article the material remains of the camps that have survived in the local landscapes till the present are analyzed. Both sites are at the same time remembered and forgotten by local communities. This paper tries to account for oblivion as an inherent part of local landscapes that adds a unique value to them.

No abstract