ΑN EXPATRIATED ‘COLLECTION’ OF MESOLITHIC NORWEGIAN LITHICS AT HERAKLION ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM AND WORLD WAR II LEGACIES

Abstract

SummaryThe paper presents a previously undocumented group of 22 lithics held at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which were recently identified as provenanced from the Mesolithic site of Smelroren in Norway. Their provenance is attested by a handwritten paper label that accompanied the assemblage, and further substantiated by three of these pieces presented in the 1936 publication of Smelroren. Archival testimonies allow one to tentatively formulate the hypothesis that these artefacts were possibly expatriated from Norway under unknown circumstances and transferred to Crete in 1941 by the Austrian archaeologist August Schörgendorfer, who was assigned with the safekeeping of cultural heritage in the occupied island. The main aim of the paper is to explore the historical background of this orphaned collection, as this is so far the only known case whereby an officer of the ‘Art Protection’ unit (Kunstschutz) of the Wehrmacht introduced foreign archaeological objects into a Greek archaeological instituition. Moreover, I examine the shifting agency of this Smelroren collection as a result of its mobility, after Schörgendorfer donated the lithics to Heraklion Museum. The discussion is framed by consideration of the changing meanings regarding another displaced collection of Cretan pottery sherds, which the archaeologist loaned to the University of Graz. It is suggested that the two collections be ultimately perceived as assemblages of affective memory objects, with the intent to engage public opinion on the interaction between archaeology and politics as well as to contribute to memory negotiation of World War II microhistories in the twenty‐first century.