Author: Adam Cieśliński

In paragraph 1 of its statute, the Commission for the Research of Collections of Archaeological Finds and Documents from Northeast Central Europe (KAFU) is described as “a special commission at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in association with the Romano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute.” According to the preamble of the statute, it coordinates the necessary activities concerning collections containing materials relevant to KAFU’s work and supports their scholarly analysis.

Already at the inaugural meeting on June 22, 2001, there were considerations to include an institution in Warsaw as a third “player.” In fact, important impulses for establishing the KAFU Commission came from Warsaw, through the involvement of Anna Bitner-Wróblewska and Wojciech Nowakowski. The significance of Warsaw and its institutions for KAFU is demonstrated by the number of members from Poland’s capital and by the fact that two conferences have already been held there over the past 25 years. Researchers and students from Warsaw are regularly present at the German Archaeological Institute, the Romano-Germanic Commission, and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. Over time, scientific collaborations have also developed into friendships.

At the Commission meeting on July 1, 2025, in Berlin, the idea of a permanent institutional involvement of Warsaw in KAFU was taken up once again. It was decided to include the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, represented by Adam Cieśliński, as the third supporting institution. One of the Faculty’s first tasks will be to establish and maintain the KAFU website.

The new book is devoted to the publication and analysis of materials from barrow cemeteries in the North-Western Belarus, stored in the collection of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. It is published in two languages, Polish and Belarusian, and includes an extensive summary in English.

The State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw was one of the largest institutions collecting artefacts and information on archaeological sites of the eastern borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. Based on the circumstances of their discovery, the artefacts from the barrow cemeteries of contemporary north-western Belarus in the PMA collection can be grouped as follows: material obtained during planned archaeological excavations; items found by accident or during formally unsanctioned “excavations”; assemblages discovered under unknown circumstances or with questionable information on their origin.

Continue reading “The new book: Archaeological Materials from Medieval Barrow Cemeteries of North-Western Belarus in the Collections of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw”

The commission meeting, held every two years in Berlin, took place in 2025 at the newly opened PETRI Berlin. Before the session, Matthias Wemhoff guided the members through the building, which in a previously unique way makes the workshops, storerooms, and project areas of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History as well as the Berlin State Monuments Office accessible to visitors, enabling them to directly take part in current discoveries and research.

Continue reading “KAFU Meeting on 11 July 2025 at PETRI Berlin”

At the meeting of the Prussia, Society for the History, Archaeology and Regional Studies of Old Prussia, East and West Prussia e. V. on 5 July 2025 in Duisburg, the KAFU members Heino Neumayer and Wojciech Nowakowski were elected as the new President and Vice-President.