Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment
 |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The project "Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment" (No VPP-LETONIKA-2021/1-0008) is implemented within the framework of the National Research Programme "Letonika – Fostering Latvian and European Society".
Project No: VPP-LETONIKA-2021/1-0008
Project implementation period: 20.12.2021–19.12.2024
Project funding: 1 068 000 EUR
Project funding authority: Latvian Council of Science of the Ministry of Education and Science
Project partners : Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of of Latvia (leading partner), Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Liepaja University, Latvian Academy of Culture, Art Academy of Latvia
Project leader: Ieva Garda-Rozenberga
Projectcoordinator (LAC): Ieva Vītola
Project research group (project participants from a partner institution): Lolita Ozoliņa, Rūta Muktupāvela, Ieva Vītola, Juris Urtāns, Jānis Meinerts, Lote Katrīna Cērpa
Contact information: ieva.vitola@lka.edu.lv (LAC), ideum@lulfmi.lv (LU LFMI)
Summary: The IDEUM project proposes a fundamental study of the history of Latvia, identity of Latvians and ethnic minorities that will be carried out on the basis of an interdisciplinary research environment in the humanities (environmental, digital, and arts) and citizen science, thus developing fundamentally and applied innovative solutions. Thereby, in accordance with the overarching aim of the programme which is to establish an inclusive Latvian and European knowledge society in Latvia, based on democratic values, the Latvian language and culture, the IDEUM will be implemented in three different ways:
- fundamentally by developing innovative, cross-disciplinary research, outreach and collaboration with academia in Latvia and respective international organizations;
- collaboratively by focusing on the citizen science and the involvement of society in collaborative online activities and interacting with humanities data;
- educationally by integrating the knowledge and project results into the Latvian higher education (study programmes and courses will be developed or improved, as well as master and doctoral thesis elaborated).
Within the framework of the project, the working group of the Latvian Academy of Culture will explore the landscape of hillforts, its significance, and changes, conducting research projects mainly in Northern Latgale, Baltinava surroundings, where two hillforts are known so far (Puncuļeva or Obeļeva and Alotāju hillfort), but in the last few years two new hillforts were discovered (Svātiunes Zvonu and Puncuļeva hilffort II). During the research, using an approach based on landscape archaeology and regional research practices, the archaeological landscape of Baltinava hillforts will be reconstructed and analysed. The aim of the study is to understand the spatial structure of the region in its prehistory, i.e., how the geographical space was used on the farm, what cultural meanings were given to it, how it reflected the social structures of the society that inhabited it and how the space itself influenced the society that inhabited it. One of the main tasks of the research is to gain an understanding of the place of hillforts in the landscape from the time of their active use to the present day.
LAC TEAM
Ieva Vītola (Project coordinator, lead project participant)
Juris Urtāns (Lead project participant)
Rūta Muktupāvela (Project participant)
Jānis Meinerts (Project participant)
Lolita Ozoliņa (Student project participant)
Lote Katrīna Cērpa (Student project participant)
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
December 2024
On December 5 and 6, 2024, the final conference of the National Research Programme Letonika – Fostering Latvian and European Society project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment took place at the Art Academy of Latvia.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/konference_identitasu_ainavas_2024
On December 18, 2024, at the open meeting of the Promotion Council of the Latvian Academy of Culture, Lolita Ozoliņa defended her doctoral dissertation The Role of Intangible Cultural Heritage Communities in the Construction and Representation of Place Identity: The Case of the Historical Land of Sēlija, and was awarded a Ph.D. in Humanities and Arts.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/promocijas-darbu-aizstaves-lolita-ozolina
November 2024
On November 19, 2024, an online reading seminar was held, discussing the concept/theme of borders as a means of expressing and interpreting both community and place identity through the works of Finnish geographer Anssi Paasi. The seminar was led by Lolita Ozoliņa, a Ph.D. candidate at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a research assistant at the Institute of Culture and Arts, and an implementer of the National Research Programme IDEUM. Researchers from the IDEUM project at the Latvian Academy of Culture participated in the discussion, linking Paasi’s theses to local examples observed during their research in Northern Latgale and Sēlija.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/lasisanas-seminars-par-robezu-konceptu
September 2024
Juris Urtāns, leading researcher at the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture, principal investigator of the National Research Programme project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture and Environment/IDEUM, archaeologist, has prepared a new book Latgale Mounds and Their Folklore. The book archaeologically describes a total of 180 known Latgale hillforts. The available folklore evidence – tales and legends – about each of the hillforts has also been collected and published. In total, the book collects and compiles around 400 folklore texts on Latgale's hillforts, which are quite diverse in size. At the beginning of the book, there is a lengthy monographic introduction by Juris Urtāns, which analyses and describes such topics as the characteristics and verifications of hillforts, the discovery and identification of hillforts in Latvia and Latgale, and the folklore of Latgale hillforts. The dataset of Latgalian hillfort tales has been published respecting the uniqueness of the Latgalian language and dialects. The publication on Latgale hillforts and their folklore provides new, interdisciplinary knowledge about hillforts, which are the most visually significant type of archaeological monuments in Latvia. "Hillforts are not only of key scientific importance as archaeological research objects, but also play a role in the study of the cultural landscape, the formation of local identity, belonging to a place and national self-confidence, its development and strengthening," says Juris Urtāns.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/iznakusi_gramata_par_latgales_pilskalniem_un_to_folkloru
August 2024
The 30th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists took place in Rome at the end of August 2024. The micro-region of Baltinava hillforts (Latvia): landscape, space and connections was presented by Jānis Meinerts, researcher at the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture, who presented the results of his research in Baltinava during the IDEUM project.
June 2024
Rūta Muktupāvela, Ieva Vītola and Juris Urtāns, researchers at the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture, participated in the 19th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR), which took place in Riga from June 17 to 21.
On Tuesday, 18 June, Juris Urtāns spoke about the folklore of the hillforts of Latgale (paper: Folklore of the Hillforts of Latgale. The Search for the Departed) in the congress session Changing Environment. Rūta Muktupāvela and Ieva Vītola analysed the historical, symbolic and scenic aspects of Latvian Hillforts in Folk Narratives (paper: Historical, Symbolic and Scenic Aspects of Latvian Hillforts in Folk Narratives: From Legends to Modern Stories).
Both presentations were prepared within the framework of the National Research Programme project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment/IDEUM (No. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/1-0008) @IDEUM
On June 14, 2024, at the opening celebration of the Baltinava Museum, Ieva Vītola, Juris Urtāns, Jānis Meinerts, and Lote Katrīna Cērpa presented research findings to the local community on the study of hillforts and the landscape in the Baltinava area.
From June 13 to 16, 2024, Lolita Ozoliņa was in the United States, where she participated in the conference The Baltic Way: Unity and Giving Aid, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. At the conference, Lolita Ozoliņa presented a paper titled The Emergence of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Community in the Context of Place Identity Construction, which is related to her upcoming doctoral dissertation, The Role of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Community in the Construction and Representation of Place Identity: The Case of the Historical Land of Sēlija.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/lka_petnieki_ar_priekslasijumiem_uzstasies_baltinava_un_asv
April 2024
On April 10, 2024, researchers from the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture, archaeologists Juris Urtāns and Jānis Meinerts, will participate in the 82nd International Scientific Conference of the University of Latvia. In the section Burial Traditions in the Landscape, they will present the results of the IDEUM study on the archaeological landscape of Baltinava with the presentation Baltinava: Hillforts and Ancient Burial Sites.
January 2024
The January 2024 issue of the magazine Ilustrētā Pasaules Vēsture features a comprehensive article by researchers from the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture, archaeologists Juris Urtāns and Jānis Meinerts, titled New Conclusions about Ancient Latgalian Hillforts.
The article discusses the research conducted at four hillforts in the Baltinava area—Alotāji Hillfort, Svātiune Hillfort, Puncuļova Hillfort, and Puncuļova Hillfort II—detailing the findings and evidence uncovered. These discoveries provide initial insights into what the cultural landscape of ancient Baltinava hillfort settlements might have been like.
The publication also includes folktales and legends about the hillforts of the Baltinava region, as well as several photographs taken during the research process.
https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/publicets-raksts-jauni-secinajumi-par-seno-latgalu-pilskalniem
November 2023
At the 2023 Cultural Crossroads conference, in the section Cultural Heritage: Recent Discoveries and Newly Recognized Relevance, researchers shared their experiences and presented studies—three papers on Baltinava conducted within the IDEUM project:
Lote Katrīna Cērpa, Lolita Ozoliņa, Ieva Vītola – Vasali Baltinavā! Results of an Online Survey on the Contemporary Landscape of Baltinava
Juris Urtāns, Jānis Meinerts – Baltinava Hillforts in the 2023 Research
Juris Urtāns – The Folklore of Baltinava Hillforts
The theses are available here: https://www.ideum-project.eu/post/kulturas-krustpunkti-2023
Summer 2023
In the summer and autumn of 2023, the researchers of the Culture and Arts Institute of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA) repeatedly worked in the Baltinava Parish of the Balvi District, where archaeological research was conducted as part of the national research program Letonika – Fostering Latvian and European Society in the project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment (IDEUM). The results of the research will provide important information for the understanding of Baltinava's ancient landscape.
Autumn 2022
As part of the project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment (IDEUM), an international scientific conference Hillforts in the Landscape: From the Past to the Present was held on November 3, 2022. The event was organized by the Latvian Academy of Culture in cooperation with the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (Germany), University of Potsdam (Germany), University of Lodz (Poland), Lithuanian Institute of History (Lithuania), Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Latvia (Latvia), and the Latvian Language Institute (Latvia).
At the conference, the project implementers from IDEUM presented the following papers:
Jānis Meinerts: Archaeological Sites Around the Baltinava Hillforts: Towards an Understanding of the Archaeological Landscape
Juris Urtāns: Folklore of Baltinava Svātiune Hillfort: Why Did Churches Sink in Latgale Hillforts?
Lolita Ozoliņa, Ieva Vītola: Research Approach on Defining the Significance of Hillforts in the Landscape of Baltinava
Theses are available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-1-uWzu84nlq11AjBao46_kxFLXJv3X1/view
An exhibition titled New Hillforts in the Clouds of Points and Reflections is currently on display at the Latvian Academy of Culture
24.05.2022
From May 24, 2022, an exhibition titled New Hillforts in the Clouds of Points and Reflections has been on display at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA) in the 2nd-floor gallery. The exhibition showcases models of ten Latvian hillforts (nine of which are newly discovered), created by archaeologist Jānis Meinerts using spatial relief models made from point clouds. The images of the hillforts are accompanied by brief notes written by archaeologist Juris Urtāns, offering "small-scale scientific reflections" that sketch thoughts, memories, feelings, and experiences from his first visits to these newly discovered hillforts.
(More)
On the platform On the Way, there was a discussion about the researchers' plan to reconstruct the archaeological landscape of Baltinava
13.05.2022
On May 13, 2022, at 5:00 PM, the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA) invites you to join the season's final discussion on the platform On the Way, which will be streamed on its Facebook page and YouTube channel. The session will feature Lolita Ozoliņa, Ieva Vītola, Juris Urtāns, and Jānis Meinerts – researchers from the Latvian Academy of Culture who have just started working on the project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment, which is being implemented under the National Research Program Letonika – Fostering Latvian and European Society.
(More)
Researchers will attempt to reconstruct the archaeological landscape of Baltinava
12.05.2022
In 2022, work began on the project Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment, which is part of the National Research Programme Letonika – Fostering Latvian and European Society. The project is being implemented by the Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art at the University of Latvia (leading partner), Rezekne University of Applied Sciences, Liepaja University, the Art Academy of Latvia, and the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA). By bringing together researchers from various fields of the humanities, culture, social sciences, and environmental studies, a multidimensional interdisciplinary research project will be carried out over three years, exploring the relationships between identity, history, culture, and the environment in both historical and contemporary contexts.
(More)