Research Uniting People

Cultural heritage and Dynamic changes

Society as a process
The society is a process, bigger and smaller changes, sometimes as jumps, sometimes slower
By plans or conscious measures
By unforeseen nature forces, aggressive activities
Strong economy, week economic conditions, makes changes in different way
Strong historic interest in Swedish society of today- part of a global trend
Heritage as a society value

Consequences
Mostly looked upon as negatives
Heritage disappears, physical or intangible
Some positives – strengthen resources

Reactions and mobilization
Changes lead often to a reaction, a mobilization
Protection, acts and laws, restrictions
Concrete measures, plans, conservation efforts

Some well known phases
Gotland -300 years of depression
The Industrialisation – double effect, lost values, creation of new heritage sites, heritage movements, museums
50-60 th – economic boom strong modernization efforts, great destruction of the Swedish cities centres
70 th - the physical planning, inventories, mapping of physical values, local authority activities
80 th - development of comprehensive view, the aggregated heritage, growing respect, concrete preservation activities, policies how to take care, heritage as asset or obstacle
90 th - links to the tourism, local development, heritage as infrastructure or asset, peak period
20 th - internationalization, integration with other society values, looked upon as an asset in local development

The character of the Swedish heritage sector
Decentralized structure, political ambitions since 70 th
Strong links to voluntary efforts and units
Widespread interest
Decisions and operational efforts on regional level as well as relevant competences (state)
Local authorities (municipalities) high competences, close to locals,
Central level – policies, coordination, distribution of economic resources

What is happening today?
Always difficult to understand the contemporary movements
In Sweden – the commercialization a new challenge, heritage as business value, profit thinking

The Panorama Project
Challenge, cross border exchange, studies in local history, mutual historic roots?
Growing relations

Introduction

A proposition in six steps of how the mutual interest in a common past can work to reduce tensions and create understanding between neighbouring peoples belonging to different political systems – in this case the Oblast of Vitebsk, the Region of Daugavpils, and the Lan of Gotland. The idea is drawn from several successful Swedish projects in which professional and voluntary researchers have come together in broad, interdisciplinary ‘read the history in the landscape' studies (e.g. Frojel Discovery Programme 1998-2005; Styresholmsprojektet 1983-2005), combining various geographical and historical approaches with archaeological field work. Preliminary contacts between regional and communal authorities, scholars from Gotland University, University of Daugavpils, as well as State University of Neopolotsk and some non-governmental organisations (NGO) have given clear evidence of an existing, mutual fascination in the intense contacts between the three regions during the Viking and Hanseatic period (broadly speaking 750-1500 AD).

The proposition contains the following elements:

•  A trilateral operation to document the state of research (scientific base, kunskapsoversikt ) on the trading system Gotland – Daugava – Polotsk in the Viking and Hanseatic periods, lead by NB in cooperation with other project members.

•  A trilateral field research effort in the shape of an open university summer course with the participation of professional and voluntary researchers, prepared and lead by DC in cooperation with other project members

•  Initiating a broader academic cooperation between Gotland University , University of Daugavpils , and State University of Neopolotsk (NB, DC)

•  Mediation activities, involving governmental and communal authorities, tourism organisations and university personnel, together with NGOs (LE)

•  Possible reciprocal publication (joint venture of all participants)

An overview of the project ( revision )

Due to internal difficulties in the planning of the project, the original time table has been delayed with more than four months. However we still believe that Research Uniting People can be carried out in a condensed way that will be meaningful.

Step 1. Planning, meant to be carried out in the autumn of 2006. Project meeting in Daugapils and Polotsk with discussions about organisation, aim and content, decision of direction of the project. Delayed and carried out in April 2007 .

Step 2. Work-over of the plan according to opinions aired during the contact meeting and the making of a definite project plan, which will be circulated to Polotsk/Disna and Daugavpils for comment. Mutual confirmation of a definite plan and launching of the organisation. Carried out at the Daugavpils festival, May 26, 2007 .

Step 3. Developing phase, meant to be carried out in spring 2007 (trilateral documentation of scientific base, planning of courses, workshop meetings and activities). Will be carried out during the following summer and autumn with the aim of obtaining a rough draft by March 1, 2008. A mid-term meeting of the scientific-base team is scheduled to take place in connection with the conference Cultural Heritage and Dynamic Change held in Visby , September 26-28 2007 .

Step 4. A spring meeting with the scientific-base and field-course teams on the documented material, definite decision of the field course approach. A parallel discussion will survey the potential for further academic cooperation between the three universities concerned. To be held in Polotsk or Disna, April 2008 .

Step 5. Carrying out an open university field course, corresponding to 5 pts (7.5 ects), during the summer of 2008.

Step 6. Evaluating the results, possible publication, decisions whether to continue and if so under which forms, autumn 2008 – airing of the potential for further research? the launching of popular and tourism activities? continuation of the RUP project in some form? Possible conclusion of agreement of cooperation between the three universities.

Organisation

During the initial phase of the project, the Gotland group assumes leadership functions of the work, with the aim to distribute project responsibility between the partners more evenly in the following phases, and in that way create a well functioning cooperation between partners. The following organisation plan is to be seen as a suggestion, leaning on the two main groups of cooperation activities, (1) research and teaching, and (2) Cultural Heritage Management, with an impact on history tourism and mediation activities.

Nils Blomkvist and Dan Carlsson
Gotland University

Attachment 1:

Contacts between Gotland , the Daugava line and Polotsk during the Viking and Hanseatic period (750-1500 AD) – the historical fundament for popular research and culture tourism.

1. The first major step in Research Uniting People is the mutual conquest of a stock of basic knowledge and a shared set of scholarly problems to depart from, all in the combined study area of Gotland and the Dvina/Daugava-valley. A survey must be made of the current state of research, pointing out lacunas in our common knowledge of the subject. We suggest that the approach undertakes the special challenge that each subproblem will be defined out of still visible components in the landscape, which will simplify unification of focus, and make our material easy to adapt in cultural tourism. Priority will be given to the regions of Daugavpils and Polotsk – what will be done with regard to Gotland will depend on the level that is reached in the two other regions. Such a survey takes the joint efforts of a tripartite committee consisting of professional research coordinators, and collective voluntary research groups (amateurs, students, teachers, professional scholars). Nils Blomkvist will be responsible for the coordination of the material brought forward by the tripartite committee of professional researchers, monitoring voluntary researchers in each region. The aim is to present and discuss a rough draft at a spring meeting in 2008 (in Polotsk or Disna?), in order to be able to launch a field expedition (University summer course) in the summer of 2008. The field expedition should be directed towards research problems defined in the survey of research.

2. The concentration on the Viking and Hanse periods has emerged spontaneously in all three participating regions, but there is also much in favour of it from a scientific point of view. During this epoch – and between 800 and 1250 in particular – important contacts were established between the three regions, which were later to be broken by the emerging culture border between East and West. It is natural for a project with an aim to widen reciprocal understanding on an international level to focus on a period with rich cultural exchange. The subproblems will focus on roads, nodes, and cultural encounters during the period between ca. 750 and 1500 AD, in other words on the physical traces and adjacent cognitive narratives of peaceful coexistence in the Viking and Hanse Ages. Departing from the aggregated material, problems will be formulated for three field expeditions, one in each of the participating regions. The field expeditions will not only consist of archaeological excavations in chosen trade settlements, but also include landscape reading, archival research and popular presentation (see attachment 2).

3. The intended study focuses on the period when the people whom today we call White Russians to some extent defined itself as a political unit, which was to continue under different fates – and by all means also was to be ‘reconstructed' – as the basis for the state of our times. This was also the time period when Gotland played a leading role in Baltic Sea trade, and when Latgale was conquered by the Teutonic Order and drawn into a western European context. The Research Uniting Peoples project focuses on our mutual history at the level of ordinary people, and on border crossing activities between White Russians, Balts and Gotlanders. The preliminary work plan includes two macro-historical aspects, the aims of which are to put our joint study area in a broader context:

•  the Varangian routes towards Bysantium and the efforts to establish political entities alongside it (Viking Age macro-history);

•  the discovery of the Baltic by western Europeans in the 12th and 13th century (Hanse period macro-history, and the problem of the emerging culture border between East and West).

These will be followed up by at least five detailed topics, with the aim of establishing compatibility between regions:

•  Arkeo-etnography: the Gutar (Gotlanders), Livs, Semigalians, Selonians, Latgalians, Krivicians, Polovcanes, Dregovicians; what do we know specifically about their way of living, demography, settlement patterns and political systems? How can we apply the knowledge we do possess in comparative studies?

•  Harbours, sailing routes, portages and other infrastructure; let us map them; how were they used? Which was their societal impact?

•  The Dvina-Dnepr association of the 1100s and 1200s; an embryo of the much later White Russian state? Its impact on the Daugava valley and contacts with Gotland ? The encounter with German Livonia?

•  Cultural intercourse between the Dvina/Daugava valley and Gotland ; survey of traces (names, linguistic leftovers, physical monuments and preserved historical sources);

•  The Hanseates on Gotland and in the Dvina/Daugava valley.

Nils Blomkvist

Attachment 2:

University Field Course - Our common History

Background and aim

Gotland , Latvia and Belarussia have much in common when it comes to the Viking Period and Middle Ages, clearly seen in the material found in excavations in the different regions, but also known from written sources. The connecting point is Sea travel and trading , and the river of Daugava/Dvina is the physical link in this eastern connection, connecting the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea . With this background in our common history, the aim is to develop a cooperation between the 3 regions in the form of a summer field course, carried out in the three regions simultaneously with the same aim and goal.

Goal

The over all goal with this common summer field course, as a part of the project Research Uniting People , is to create an understanding of our common history, but also to create a foundation for an extensive contact and exchange between teachers as well as students in these three regions. The goal is also to connect the regions with a wider world by having the field courses open for international participants. A point of discussion would be if the courses should be open to amateurs as well as university students, in order to reach a broader audience.

Carrying out and timetable

The idea is to carry out parallel research and archaeological excavations in the three different regions with a common theme, concerning the Viking and Middle Ages history. The field course, aiming at students and teachers from all over the world, starts with a common introductory seminary week at one of the sites. After that week, the participants will be divided into three groups, carrying out fieldwork for 3 weeks in each region. A final week brings all the participants together again, for discussions and comparisons of the results, by that getting a better view of equalities and differences between the regions in Viking Age – Middle Ages. In all, the field course is by this suggested to cover a period of 5 weeks, equalling 5 points according to the Swedish University system, or 7,5 European points.

The weeks of seminars that starts and ends the field course should be carried out according to a rotating schedule between the three regions on a yearly basis.

Planning

The timetable is that the first of these field courses will be carried out in summer 2008. In order to be able to do that, the actual planning of the course should start no later then spring 2007, in connection to the workshop planned for that period of the main project Research Uniting People .

Dan Carlsson