Jānis Apals was born in Riga on 17 September 1930 – an archaeologist who knew how to see Latvia’s ancient past not only in the ground, but also under water. His name is most closely attached to the Āraiši lake dwelling: he studied the site, became co-author and scientific director of its open-air reconstruction, and as early as 1966 proposed that the ancient settlement should be restored as an educational object. The sources call him a pioneer of underwater and experimental archaeology in Latvia.

Apals’s work belongs to a period when archaeology in Latvia increasingly became a language of experiment, reconstruction, and public history. The Āraiši lake dwelling is now one of the clearest examples of how scholarly research can become a place where the past is seen in physical space.