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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
border. Although I find none of these pictures from my study area they
appear at times in the archive materials of other parts as I sift through the
documents. Their bodies sprawled across the ground or stuck in a fence,
arms and legs in awkward angles, dead eyes staring into nothing. The
pictures are taken in all directions to make sure not to leave any clues out.
These pictures of dead accompanied by detailed maps and descriptions of
the persons movement across the landscape in order to upgrade and
improve security in the apparently weak points these files were then circulated
and eventually ended up in this archive. I have not included any of
these pictures as I do not think they would add anything to the study and
therefore I do not consider it to be ethically correct. Here I think there is a
difference to how we instinctively approach a material that is more recent
rather than if we were to excavate or use pictures of an older skeleton where
one can question if it is at all unethical to publish photographs of the dead.
With prehistoric skeletons it is simply easier to distance oneself (Nordström
2007:20). That we have a complicated relationship with death becomes clear
in archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson’s example of two news stories
published on the same day (24 th May 1991): “One is from the Guardian, a
national newspaper, about the discovery of a 1200–1500-year old skeleton
in Southwark in south London, found during archaeological excavations in
advance of development. Alongside a close-up photograph of a trepanned
skull, the article enthuses about the discovery and what may be learned
from it. The other report is from the local North Norfold News about 500-
1000-year old human bones from a ruined medieval churchyard eroding
out of the sea cliff at Eccles. There appears to have been no archaeological
involvement but some of the bones had been taken by souvenir hunters.
The manager of a nearby holiday camp is quoted to have said that people
who took the bones ‘must be sick’” (Parker Pearson 2003:183–184). This
demonstrates the difficulty we have in our approach to death. The added
complication of portraying death in more recent times is the issue of the
possibility of friends or relatives of the deceased that can recognise and take
offence to the publication of the picture. My approach has, therefore, been
to think if a picture would add something imperative to the discussion and
on this occasion I found that it would not. This does not mean they did not
affect me and the way I looked at my research. The stories of those who did
not make it over the border are as important as any other stories that have
arisen out of this material. Occasionally, however, I came across a report
where a person had actually got through the fine-tuned safety net of the
Iron Curtain. The reports contained long descriptions and maps demon-
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