Building one’s own prison
Mudbrick production and embodied prisoner labour in Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era Gulags
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24018983 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine M Erdman (0009-0004-9661-2606, Nazarbayev University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00438243.2026.2703677 |
| OpenAlex | W7172259873 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
One of the Soviet Gulag’s largest camp systems was Karlag, located in central Kazakhstan. The project, Central Asia’s Gulags, is the first to explore this expansive forced labour system from an archaeological perspective. Recent satellite and pedestrian surveys have identified annular pit features common to multiple camps. This study presents preliminary survey results from the site of Aktailak, a camp point within Karlag, with a focus on camp areas dense with annular pits. Data gathered from the targeted excavations of two barracks are used to calculate and humanize prisoner labour involved in mudbrick construction by focusing on embodied practices. Additionally, as unique features, annular pits have the potential to help identify unknown prison camps in the vast Kazakh Steppe.
Capitalism · Embodied cognition · Identity (music) · Prisoner's dilemma · Production (economics) · Social production · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Soviet and Russian History
Motive Matters
Preservation and heritage protection of the archaeological remains of prison and forced labour camps from the period of Nazi occupation and the Communist era in West Bohemia
The Rediscovery of a Labour Camp on the Construction Site of the Stalin Monument in Prague
Field Methods for the Analysis of Mud Brick Architecture
Microhistories of Technology
Impact of Skilled and Unskilled Labor on Project Performance Using Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Beyond identification
| Highly cited | No |
|---|