The limestone cliff face overlooking the coastline of Ritidian, on Guam, has revealed several caves with evidence of human activities. Since 2011, archaeological survey and excavation have exposed how use of the caves had changed over time, and that they were the focus of special behaviours, with quite distinct archaeology to that of nearby residential sites. To understand the significance of these caves fully, they must be contextualised within the broader framework of contemporary open-air sites. The result highlights the use of the caves for unique purposes at different times, including as water sources, venues for various art traditions and particular burial customs.

This article analyzes the early stage of the Ukrainian “sixtiers” movement as a semi-autonomous space of cultural expression that was tolerated by the authorities and defined, developed, and inhabited by young Ukrainian intellectuals. In contrast to present-day Ukrainian representations of the sixtiers as a force acting in opposition to the Soviet regime, the spatial angle employed here reveals an ambiguous relationship with official institutions. The Ukrainian Komsomol organization in particular appears to be both a controlling and an enabling agent that, together with the Writers' Union, provided meeting venues for the sixtiers until the mid-1960s. This complex symbiotic relationship continued even after some creative youth pioneered the first attempts to claim public space for cultural events without the authorities' permission. The cultural terrain inhabited by young Ukrainian intellectuals was not fully separate from mainstream Soviet Ukrainian culture or in opposition to it, although their vibrant cultural space also reached into a world of non-conformist culture unregulated by the state. A series of government crackdowns beginning in the mid-1960s dramatically shrank this open, ambivalent space of semi-free cultural expression, imposing firm boundaries and forcing intellectuals to make political choices.