This book discusses the archaeology and heritage of the German military presence in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War, framing this northern, overlooked WWII material legacy from the nearly forgotten Arctic front as dark heritage' - a concrete reminder of Finns siding with the Nazis, often seen as polluting war junk' that ruins the pristine natural beauty' of Lapland's wilderness. The scholarship herein provides fresh perspectives to contemporary discussions on heritage perception and ownership, indigenous rights, community empowerment, relational ontologies and also the ongoing worldwide refugee crisis.
Following a recent worldwide boom in the democratization of knowledge, crowdsourcing and Participatory GIS, heritage practice increasingly draws on crowdsourced geographical data. In this paper, I discuss a public crowdsourcing of twentieth century conflict heritage in Finland, launched by state-owned broadcasting company Yleisradio. Here emphasis is on analysing the user behaviour and incentives, which can inform analogous future initiatives. Many of the public entries mirror local perspectives on conflict heritage: pride of personally important loci and self-satisfaction appear to be important incentives for taking part. Finally, I summarize themes that other heritage crowdsourcing organizers could apply to their work. ; Peer reviewed
Open access airborne laser scanning (ALS) data have been available in Finland for over a decade and have been actively applied by the Finnish archaeologists in that time. The low resolution of this laser scanning 2008-2019 dataset (0.5 points/m(2)), however, has hindered its usability for archaeological prospection. In the summer of 2020, the situation changed markedly, when the Finnish National Land Survey started a new countrywide ALS survey with a higher resolution of 5 points/m(2). In this paper we present the first results of applying this newly available ALS material for archaeological studies. Finnish LIDARK consortium has initiated the development of semi-automated approaches for visualizing, detecting, and analyzing archaeological features with this new dataset. Our first case studies are situated in the Alpine tundra environment of Sapmi in northern Finland, and the assessed archaeological features range from prehistoric sites to indigenous Sami reindeer herding features and Second Word War-era German military structures. Already the initial analyses of the new ALS-5p data show their huge potential for locating, mapping, and assessing archaeological material. These results also suggest an imminent burst in the number of known archaeological sites, especially in the poorly accessible and little studied northern wilderness areas, when more data become available. ; Peer reviewed
In this paper we discuss the heritage of the WWII evacuation and the so-called burning of Lapland' within a Sami reindeer herding community, and assess how these wartime experiences have moulded, and continue to mould, the ways people memorialise and engage with the WWII material remains. Our focus is on the village of Vuotso, which is home to the southernmost Sami community in Finland. The Nazi German troops established a large military base there in 1941, and the Germans and the villagers lived as close neighbours for several years. In 1944 the villagers were evacuated before the outbreak of the Finno-German Lapland War' of 1944-1945, in which the German troops annihilated their military installations and the civilian infrastructure. Today the ruins of demolished German military installations persist around the village as vivid reminders, and act for the villagers as important active agents in memorising this vital phase in Lapland's recent past. They also appear to facilitate nostalgia for the more independent days before traditional Sami lifeways were ruptured by stronger Finnish State intervention in the post-war decades. ; Peer reviewed
In this paper we discuss the heritage of the WWII evacuation and the so-called 'burning of Lapland' within a Sámi reindeer herding community, and assess how these wartime experiences have moulded, and continue to mould, the ways people memorialise and engage with the WWII material remains. Our focus is on the village of Vuotso, which is home to the southernmost Sámi community in Finland. The Nazi German troops established a large military base there in 1941, and the Germans and the villagers lived as close neighbours for several years. In 1944 the villagers were evacuated before the outbreak of the Finno-German 'Lapland War' of 1944–1945, in which the German troops annihilated their military installations and the civilian infrastructure. Today the ruins of demolished German military installations persist around the village as vivid reminders, and act for the villagers as important active agents in memorising this vital phase in Lapland's recent past. They also appear to facilitate nostalgia for the more independent days before traditional Sámi lifeways were ruptured by stronger Finnish State intervention in the post-war decades. ; peerReviewed
Research project Lapland's Dark Heritage organized a one-week public excavation in Inari, Finnish Lapland, at a Second World War (WWII) German military hospital site in August 2016. #InariDig took place with the help of international experts and pre-registered volunteers. In this field report, two of the archaeologists leading the excavations and an ethnographer who took part in documenting this community archaeology experiment introduce the excavation sites and activities reflecting on the engagements with volunteers and local community. ; peerReviewed
This article discusses military mobilities and encampment, and associated themes such as dislocation and displacement of people, through the case of a Second World War German military camp in Finnish Lapland. The article describes the camp and its archaeological research and discusses various aspects of the camp and camp life in its particular subarctic 'wilderness' setting, framing the discussion within the themes of mobilities and dislocations, and especially their multiple impacts on the German troops and their multinational prisoners-ofwar based in the camp. A particular emphasis is put on how mobilities and dislocation – in effect 'being stuck' in a northern wilderness – were intertwined and how the inhabitants of the camp coped with the situation, as well as how this is reflected in the different features of the camp itself and the archaeological material that the fieldwork produced. ; This article discusses military mobilities and encampment, and associated themes such as dislocation and displacement of people, through the case of a Second World War German military camp in Finnish Lapland. The article describes the camp and its archaeological research and discusses various aspects of the camp and camp life in its particular subarctic 'wilderness' setting, framing the discussion within the themes of mobilities and dislocations, and especially their multiple impacts on the German troops and their multinational prisoners-of-war based in the camp. A particular emphasis is put on how mobilities and dislocation – in effect 'being stuck' in a northern wilderness – were intertwined and how the inhabitants of the camp coped with the situation, as well as how this is reflected in the different features of the camp itself and the archaeological material that the fieldwork produced. Keywords: Conflict archaeology, Second World War, mobility, German, Prisoner of War, Lapland, Finland ; Peer reviewed
