What Remains? Anti-Communism, Forensic Archaeology, and the Retelling of the National Past in Lithuania and Romania*.

The article presents an exploration into the adoption of forensic archaeology practices in the early 1990s by post-Communist governments to redefine histories of artifacts and persons in a new anti-Communist national identity. The case examples of the Museum of Genocide Victims of Lithuania and the Sighet Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance of Romania, both established in 1992, are cited and analyzed in turn. Discussion is given describing the methodology and ideologies behind the move, including comments on the flaws and shortcomings of the methodology.