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Zeitgeist archaeology: conflict, identity and ideology at Prague Castle, 1918–2018

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2019

Nicholas J. Saunders ,
Jan Frolík  and
Volker Heyd
Nicholas J. Saunders*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK
Jan Frolík
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, Letenská Street 4, 118 01, Czech Republic
Volker Heyd
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Archaeology, Department of Cultures, P.O. Box 59, Unionkatu 38, 00014, Finland
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: nicholas.saunders@bristol.ac.uk)
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Abstract

The discovery of a tenth-century AD high-status burial at Prague Castle in 1928 led to multiple identifications in the context of two world wars and the Cold War. Recognised variously as both a Viking and Slavonic warrior according to Nazi and Soviet ideologies, interpretation of the interred individual and associated material culture were also entangled with the story of the burial's excavator, the remains and commemorative monuments of two Czech Unknown Soldiers and the creation of the Czechoslovak state. This epic narrative reflects the circumstances of Czechoslovakia and Central Europe across the twentieth century.

Keywords

PragueSlavicVikingNaziideologyidentity
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 370 , August 2019 , pp. 1009 - 1025
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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