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Tree memories of the Second World War: a case study of common beeches from Chycina, Poland

Part of: Conflict Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Dawid Kobiałka ,
Maksymilian Frąckowiak  and
Kornelia Kajda
Dawid Kobiałka
Affiliation:
Independent researcher, Rzepakowa 10/26, Chojnice 89–600, Poland
Maksymilian Frąckowiak
Affiliation:
Independent researcher, Matejki 5/11, Poznań 60–766, Poland
Kornelia Kajda
Affiliation:
Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Św. Marcin 78, Poznań 61–809, Poland
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Abstract

During the final stages of the Second World War, a trench was dug in woodland near a small Polish village, probably by prisoners of war. There are no eye witness accounts and very few artefacts survive. The only way the story of these prisoners can be told is through the material memory held by the woodland. This paper aims to broaden the concept of material culture by considering the archaeological record that is retained in the bark of living trees. The focus is on the beech trees of Chycina that may hold the only record of the construction of a small section of the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen in western Poland in 1944.

Keywords

PolandSecond World Warmaterialitytreesmemoryprisoners of war
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 345 , June 2015 , pp. 683 - 696
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

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