In the autumn of 1944, around 70,000 people fled Estonia in the face of the Red Army's advance; most of them believed the Soviet occupation would be short-lived and they would soon be able to return home. A comprehensive study of a common yet neglected phenomenon, this book tells the stories of the hoards of valuable belongings hidden by these Estonian escapees. The sheer variety of objects, including those that remain buried, those that vanished, and those that were recovered, touches upon all levels of history, from personal memories to high politics. In essence, this work of contemporary archaeology not only reflects upon the intimate relationship between material culture and memory, but also demonstrates how events on the world stage can shape the fate of individual families across generations.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• CHAPTER 1 - Hidden in the ground
• CHAPTER 2 - Artefactual memory
  • Contemporary archaeology
  • Things to remember
  • Memory and history
• CHAPTER 3 - Historical background
  • Estonia seized by the Soviet Union, 1940
  • German occupation, 1941 – 1944
  • Soviet reoccupation and mass exodus, 1944
  • Continued Soviet occupation, 1944 – 1991
  • Estonian independence, 1991
• CHAPTER 4 - Stories
  • Searching for stories
  • Stories about buried family treasure
  • Other voices
• CHAPTER 5 - The land as memory bank
  • Recurring narrative themes
  • Why hide things by burying them?
  • Looking beyond Estonia
  • Archaeological reflections
• Notes
• References
• About the author