Another article out of the Lapland’s Dark Heritage research! Suzie Thomas has recently published an article reflecting on experiences in both Finnish Lapland and Scotland, which appears in the Italian European Journal of Post Classical Archaeologies. The article builds on a presentation Suzie made at a workshop in 2018 in the beautiful Lake Garda region of Italy, which was organized by the University of Padua.

Suzie has permission to share her article: Doing public participatory archaeology with “difficult” conflict heritage: experiences from Finnish Lapland and the Scottish Highlands 

The abstract is as follows:

Public participatory archaeology can take many forms, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to engaging with communities and non-professional enthusiasts. Similarly, not all archaeological heritage is the same, and some comes with the label of ‘difficult’, ‘contested’ or ‘dark’ heritage. Particularly, in this article I explore how archaeological heritage that is connected with periods of conflict, namely the Second World War, fares in the sphere of public archaeology. My case studies from Scotland and Finland also illustrate very different community heritage models, and I reflect on the role of the public archaeologist in these scenarios.

Keywords: Participatory research; public archaeology; dark heritage; Finland; Scotland

Full reference:

Thomas, S. 2019. Doing public participatory archaeology with “difficult” conflict heritage: Experiences from Finnish Lapland and the Scottish Highlands. Post Classical Archaeologies 9: 147-167.