Researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology and the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology have located a military cemetery containing the remains of soldiers killed during battles in the Carpathian Mountains between 1914 and 1915. The discovery began when the…
When Anita Lasker came to Britain in March 1946, 80 years ago, having survived Auschwitz and having been liberated at death’s door from Belsen, she found that no one wanted to hear about her terrible experiences in the camps. Britons wanted to move on from the horrors of the past and look to the promise of the future.
Four well-preserved spears have been discovered during underwater investigations in Lake Lednica, west-central Poland. These discoveries are the latest additions to what may be the largest collection of European early medieval weaponry discovered at single site, comprising almost 300 military…
Vampires and zombies are not just the fictional creation of 19th-century novelists, nor modern film directors and creators of computer games – John Blair’s new book, Killing the Dead, shows that there is a long history of belief in the ability of the dead to leave their graves and cause harm to the living. Making sure this cannot happen results in extraordinary burial practices, as Chris Catling reports.
A wooden beam decorated with a lifelike human face has been discovered in Lake Lednica, Poland. Systematic underwater archaeological research in Lake Lednica has been taking place since the 1980s and has uncovered a wealth of material. Among the finds…
REVIEW BY DAVID PORTER In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful operation that was intended to go all the way to Berlin. The Vistula–Oder Offensive, as it was known, is the subject of this new book by Prit…
A trove of helmets dating from the First and Second World Wars has been discovered by archaeologists in Poland. Road-construction workers found more than 50 helmets lying just beneath the surface on Koszarowa Street in the city of Wrocław. The…
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND This latest book from biographer Clare Mulley goes way beyond the astonishing life story of Elżbieta Zawacka. For it also provides an important overview of 20th-century Poland, as well as a reminder of the horrors of…
Ritual practices in prehistoric Poland A considerable number of large Bronze Age and early Iron Age artefacts have been unearthed by archaeologists in a dried-up lakebed at the site of Papowo Biskupie in north-central Poland. It is believed that members…
Archaeologists in Poland have discovered hundreds of metal objects deposited in a lake by a Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age community. The site of Papowo Biskupie is located in north-central Poland, in an area that was once home…
Recent excavations in southeastern Poland have uncovered a wealth of late medieval finds including arrowheads, pottery, and silver denarii
Fragments of ceramic vessels, cooking utensils, and bones of pigs and oxen with cut marks have also been found, offering a glimpse of the feasting that went on.
According to Slavic folklore, sharp instruments such as sickles could be used to decapitate the deceased should it try to leave its grave.
REVIEW BY DAVID PORTER. This is a highly detailed (936 pages!) study of resistance across Europe during the Second World War, from its tentative beginnings in 1939 to the large-scale partisan warfare of 1944-1945. Indeed, the author’s coverage of the…
Many researchers dealing with prehistoric and historic rock art tend to remain firmly entrenched within their respective comfort zones. Throughout much of the contemporary world, the application and use of rock art is a fundamental part of society; moreover, it…
Around 168 victims were exhumed shortly after the war, but it was long known that many other graves remained uncovered.
New research has uncovered evidence of the first large-scale atrocity committed in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Around 30-35,000 people were murdered in the country’s Pomeranian province in the first months of the conflict. One area saw so…
The 17th- to 18th-century graves contain features designed to stop the deceased returning after death, such as a sickle across the neck or body, and a stone beneath the chin.