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JĀNIS APALS on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday
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Today, September 17 2020, marks the birthday of Jānis Apals. He would have turned 90 today, but unfortunately passed away in 2011. My name is Roeland Paardekooper, and on behalf of EXARC, I like to share a few memories.
Jānis Apals was a Latvian historian and archaeologist. In the 1950s, he combined diving and archaeology. He followed up on legends about castles that submerged into Latvian lakes. He found archaeological settlement remains in ten of them.
Apals then concentrated on Āraiši Lake Fortress which he excavated and studied almost completely. This was a settlement dating to the 9th – 10th century AD.
Dr Apals then took another step, which was unique for Latvia: he set up a reconstruction project, not just for one single house as an experiment, but reconstructed a large part of the original settlement in situ.
In the very early stages of the start of EXARC, in 2001, a group of colleagues convened in Oerlinghausen, Germany. We had 15 people from 6 countries, including Sweden, Germany, Hungary and also Latvia. The reputation of Dr Apals and his team had led to an invitation to join what can be called the birth of EXARC. Present were his wife, Zigrīda Apala, and the museum manager, Anda Vilka.
Dr Apals and his colleagues were instrumental in the early years of EXARC. In 2002, the first EXARC Conference took place in Latvia, under the coordination of Janis and his team. We were just a handful coming from abroad to a conference of 80 people. We had very good discussions on the philosophy of experimentation and everything seemed to be possible.
In the years 2004-5, Āraiši was part of the first EU project under EXARCs banner, Delphi. This was designed to collect and answer questions from the public of our open-air museums across Europe; Power to the People, so to say.
International cooperation continued when Āraiši Lake Fortress worked with 7 other open-air museums across Europe in the EU project liveARCH. Over the years 2006-2009 we worked on getting these museums more professional, looking into each other’s kitchen.
I personally learned to know the 8 museums of liveARCH better, also Āraiši Lake Fortress, as during the project, these were the 8 museums where I did my field work for my PhD, answering the question why these places are useful. I was pleased an impressed by Janis’ perseverance and experience.
Over the first decade of EXARC, Janis was our nestor. When he died in 2011, EXARC already had about 100 members – only 10 years later we are at 350 members in 40 countries.
Also, Āraiši Lake Fortress was already well established in 2011. Janis’ wife Zigrīda and the team managed to continue with the museum and nowadays, Araisi is still a founding member of EXARC with reputation.
The pioneer he was, I remember Jānis Apals as an energetic archaeologist, standing strong for his ideas. I think Janis would be happy if he saw how things developed over the past decade.
#EXARC #ExperimentalArchaeology #documentary
Jānis Apals was a Latvian historian and archaeologist. In the 1950s, he combined diving and archaeology. He followed up on legends about castles that submerged into Latvian lakes. He found archaeological settlement remains in ten of them.
Apals then concentrated on Āraiši Lake Fortress which he excavated and studied almost completely. This was a settlement dating to the 9th – 10th century AD.
Dr Apals then took another step, which was unique for Latvia: he set up a reconstruction project, not just for one single house as an experiment, but reconstructed a large part of the original settlement in situ.
In the very early stages of the start of EXARC, in 2001, a group of colleagues convened in Oerlinghausen, Germany. We had 15 people from 6 countries, including Sweden, Germany, Hungary and also Latvia. The reputation of Dr Apals and his team had led to an invitation to join what can be called the birth of EXARC. Present were his wife, Zigrīda Apala, and the museum manager, Anda Vilka.
Dr Apals and his colleagues were instrumental in the early years of EXARC. In 2002, the first EXARC Conference took place in Latvia, under the coordination of Janis and his team. We were just a handful coming from abroad to a conference of 80 people. We had very good discussions on the philosophy of experimentation and everything seemed to be possible.
In the years 2004-5, Āraiši was part of the first EU project under EXARCs banner, Delphi. This was designed to collect and answer questions from the public of our open-air museums across Europe; Power to the People, so to say.
International cooperation continued when Āraiši Lake Fortress worked with 7 other open-air museums across Europe in the EU project liveARCH. Over the years 2006-2009 we worked on getting these museums more professional, looking into each other’s kitchen.
I personally learned to know the 8 museums of liveARCH better, also Āraiši Lake Fortress, as during the project, these were the 8 museums where I did my field work for my PhD, answering the question why these places are useful. I was pleased an impressed by Janis’ perseverance and experience.
Over the first decade of EXARC, Janis was our nestor. When he died in 2011, EXARC already had about 100 members – only 10 years later we are at 350 members in 40 countries.
Also, Āraiši Lake Fortress was already well established in 2011. Janis’ wife Zigrīda and the team managed to continue with the museum and nowadays, Araisi is still a founding member of EXARC with reputation.
The pioneer he was, I remember Jānis Apals as an energetic archaeologist, standing strong for his ideas. I think Janis would be happy if he saw how things developed over the past decade.
#EXARC #ExperimentalArchaeology #documentary
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