Museums and Archaeology brings together a wide, but carefully chosen, selection of literature from around the world that connects museums and archaeology. Part of the successful Leicester Readers in Museum Studies series, it provides a combination of issue- and practice-based perspectives. As such, it is a volume not only for students and researchers from a range of disciplines interested in museum, gallery and heritage studies, including public archaeology and cultural resource management (CRM), but also the wide range of professionals and volunteers in the museum and heritage sector who work with archaeological collections.
The volume’s balance of theory and practice and its thematic and geographical breadth is explored and explained in an extended introduction, which situates the readings in the context of the extensive literature on museum archaeology, highlighting the many tensions that exist between idealistic ‘principles’ and real-life ‘practice’ and the debates that surround these. In addition to this, section introductions and the seminal pieces themselves provide a comprehensive and contextualised resource on the interplay of museums and archaeology.
Author(s): Robin Skeates
Series: Leicester Readers in Museum Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 684
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Series preface
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Museums and archaeology: principles, practice, and debates
Part I Archaeological Collections
Introduction to Part I
Part I, Section 1 Curation of Archaeological Remains: Responses to Crisis
2 Managing curated collections: the basics
3 Archaeological curation in the twenty-first century. Or, making sure the roof doesn’t blow off
Part I, Section 2 Archaeological Archives: Selection, Retention, Use and Disposal
4 Primal fear: deaccessioning collections
5 Archaeological archives: serving the public interest?
6 Archaeological archives in Britain and the development of the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre
Part I, Section 3 Documentation, Identification, and Authentication of Archaeological Collections
7 Inventory and global management in archaeology: the example of the Neuchâtel Museum
Part I, Section 4 Museum Care, Conservation, and Restoration of Archaeological Objects
8 Issues in practice: conservation procedures
9 Caring for an Egyptian mummy and coffin
Part I, Section 5 Archaeology Collections Research
10 Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined
11 History and surface condition of the Lewis Chessmen in the collection of the National Museums Scotland (Hebrides, late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries)
Part II Archaeology, Ethics, and the Law
Introduction to Part II
Part II, Section 1 Legal and Ethical Dimensions of Archaeological Museum Collecting and Collections
12 From museum to mantelpiece: the antiquities trade in the United Kingdom
13 The revolution in US museums concerning the ethics of acquiring antiquities
Part II, Section 2 Repatriation and Reburial of Archaeological Museum Collections
14 Repatriation: Australian perspectives
15 The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in its first decade
Part II, Section 3 Museums and the Care and Display of Ancient Human Remains
16 Policy and practice in the treatment of archaeological human remains in North American museums and public agency collections
17 Covering up the mummies
Part III Interpreting the Archaeological Past
Introduction to Part III
Part III, Section 1 Critical and Political Perspectives on Museum Representations of the Archaeological Past and of Archaeology
18 Presenting the past: towards a redemptive aesthetic for the museum
19 Speaking for the past in the present: text, authority, and learning in archaeology museums
20 Towards presenting scientific research in archaeology museums
21 Prehistory, identity, and archaeological representation in Nordic museums
22 Is it enough to make the main characters female? An intersectional and social semiotic reading of the exhibition Prehistories 1 at the National Historical Museum in Stockholm, Sweden
Part III, Section 2 Archaeological Site Museums
23 The Jorvik Viking Centre: an experiment in archaeological site interpretation
24 The new Museum of Altamira: finding solutions to tourism pressure
25 Archaeological site museums in Latin America
Part III, Section 3 New Archaeology Museum Architecture
26 The new Acropolis Museum: where the visual feast trumps education
27 Development and utilization of underground space for the protection of relics in the Yang Emperor Mausoleum of the Han Dynasty
Part III, Section 4 Designing Archaeology Displays
28 The Port Royal Project: a case study in the use of VR technology for the recontextualization of archaeological artifacts and building remains in a museum setting
Part III, Section 5 Teaching and Learning Through Museum Archaeology
29 Teaching the past in museums
30 Interaction or tokenism? The role of ‘hands-on activities’ in museum archaeology displays
31 The redisplay of the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, and the National Curriculum in England
32 Roman boxes for London’s schools: an outreach service by the Museum of London
33 Translating archaeology for the public: empowering and engaging museum goers with the past
Part III, Section 6 Public Engagement in, and Perceptions of, Museum Archaeology
34 Involving the public in museum archaeology
35 Public archaeology and museums in Japan
36 Uncovering ancient Egypt: the Petrie Museum and its public
37 Re-imagining Egypt: artefacts, contemporary art, and community engagement in the museum
38 Working towards greater equity and understanding: examples of collaborative archaeology and museum initiatives with Indigenous peoples in North America
39 Conversations about the production of archaeological knowledge and community museums at Chunchucmil and Kochol, Yucatán, México
40 Us and them: who benefits from experimental exhibition making?
Index
