David Lowenthal has characterised public interest in the past as limited to
'death and treasure'. Maybe this rather pessimistic view is nevertheless
true?
John Carman
--On 06 February 2001, 15:43 +0100 "geoff carver" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> just outside my window there's an advertising pillar of the type quite
common
> here in europe - it just stands there, waiting for someone to change the
posters
> glued onto it -
> right now it's advertising an exhibition called "treasures from X"
(not
> going to bother with the country, it's not important) being shown at our
local
> state museum of archaeology -
> am i alone in getting annoyed when all the work we do is reduced
to
> "treasure hunting" even by the people who should know better? the museum
here is
> tied in with the state archaeological service (excavation is a state
monopoly,
> with all that that entails); which has no standing exhibits (partly
because of
> want of a permanent venue), and tends otherwise to glamourise the whole
thing
> into a fairly empty bunch of superlatives: the oldest this, the earliest
that...
> i was also annoyed about 2 years ago when some of my finds were
> described on a poster as "treasures from a latrine" -
> is this a general archaeological problem (assumption that all the
> [assumed] stupid public wants to see is/are treasures), laziness on the
part of
> curators, a general unwillingness to communicate with the public...?
> i'm not going to suggest that the public really likes this kind of
stuff
> because they flock to erich von daniken readings but for the most part
stay
> away from serious museum exhibits...
> any ideas/comments?
>
>
> geoff carver
> http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
> [log in to unmask]
Dr John Carman
co-Director, "Bloody Meadows" Project and
Affiliated Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1223 333323
Fax: +44 (0)1223 333503
Email: [log in to unmask]
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