ARCHAEOLOGY IN COMMUNIST AND POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIA

In this article we maintain that the apathy of Romanian archaeology stems from the reluctance to embark upon critical debates referring to its theoretical basis rooted in the positivist paradigm. We interpret this situation as a strategy echoing the strongly hierarchical and authoritarian centralised academic system of the communist period. Unlike some texts written during the post-communist period, ours shifts the core of the issue from the repression inflicted by the state to the responsibility of the archaeologists in rendering legitimacy to it. We attempt to grasp the length to which they went in developing a range of ideologically relevant discourses. We regard Romanian archaeological practice as reflecting and blending three types of discourse: 1. a national discourse; 2. a Marxist-Leninist discourse and 3. a positivist (culture-historical) discourse. Through building these types of discourse, Romanian archaeologists are among the main providers of symbolic capital for the country's various political regimes, including the communist one.