Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore anthropological archaeologies of contemporary political imprisonment at Long Kesh/Maze prison, Northern Ireland. In particular will focus on how adapted anthropological approaches can assist in creating creative and multi-vocal narratives of experience of time and place.

Paper long abstract:

Long Kesh/Maze in Northern Ireland swiftly became a celebrated if infamous place of incarceration almost as soon as it was utilised as a prison site in the early 1970s. This heightened status remains in place despite the prison facility closing in September 2000. Remaining synonymous with the recent civil conflict that afflicted the province, colloquially known as ‘the Troubles’, its continued contentious and highly political nature ensures that methodological and theoretical stances need to be carefully considered before conducting any study.

Archaeologies of the recent past differ from traditional archaeologies in that whilst there is often an overwhelming supply of physical remains to study the need to incorporate memory, forms of remembrance and the politics of the past cannot be sidestepped. By necessity, I believe, these archaeologies should be anthropological in approach due to the need to critically assess and include living memory as well as sensitively explore such loaded sites.

This paper will discuss the issues surrounding the use of anthropological techniques in order to enhance the archaeological study of the recent past. It will argue that whilst archaeologists have much to learn from anthropology there is a need to be distinctly archaeological in our approaches rather than uncritically incorporate interdisciplinary approaches. Examples of the anthropologically archaeology of Long Kesh/Maze will be utilised to explore this contention and additional insights provided by such approaches will be discussed in detail.