The Archaeological Legacy of the Lignite Boom in Upper Lusatia

Abstract

At the beginning of the 19th century, nobody in the landscape of the heaths and ponds of Lusatia, a small region in the German-Polish border area, would have suspected the lasting effects of the lignite mining boom on the economy, landscape, and the local communities there. The initially small underground mines soon developed into large open-pit mines. 'Industrial cathedrals' were established, new cities were raised out of the heathland, long-distance transport networks were expanded, and industrial centres emerged that gained importance throughout Europe. The local population and culture changed through migration, adaptation and assimilation, the landscape through the huge earth movements caused by lignite mining. This enormous transformation of an entire region has an impact on identity even today, and still influences political processes. It is now the task of archaeology and heritage management organisations to document this recent past as well and to preserve its cultural value.