1st Edition

Museums and Archaeology

Edited By Robin Skeates Copyright 2017
    684 Pages 45 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    684 Pages 45 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    1. Museums and archaeology: principles, practice and debates
    ROBIN SKEATES

    PART ONE: ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS

    Introduction to Part One
    ROBIN SKEATES

    2. Managing curated collections: the basics
    LYNNE P. SULLIVAN AND S. TERRY CHILDS

    3. Archaeological curation in the 21st century. Or, making sure the roof doesn’t blow off
    WENDY BUSTARD

    4. Primal fear: deaccessioning collections
    ROBERT C. SONDERMAN

    5. Archaeological archives: serving the public interest?
    NICK MERRIMAN AND HEDLEY SWAIN

    6. Archaeological archives in Britain and the development of the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre
    HEDLEY SWAIN

    7. Inventory and global management in archaeology: the example of the Neuchâtel Museum
    MARIE-ODILE VAUDOU

    8. Issues in practice: conservation procedures
    ELIZABETH PYE

    9. Caring for an Egyptian mummy and coffin
    LAURA S. PHILLIPS AND LINDA ROUNDHILL

    10. Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined
    NIGEL MELTON, JANET MONTGOMERY, CHRISTOPHER J. KNÜSEL, CATHY BATT, STUART NEEDHAM, MIKE PARKER PEARSON, ALISON SHERIDAN, CARL HERON, TIM HORSLEY, ARMIN SCHMIDT, ADRIAN EVANS, ELIZABETH CARTER, HOWELL EDWARDS, MICHAEL HARGREAVES, ROB JANAWAY, NIELS LYNNERUP, PETER NORTHOVER, SONIA O'CONNOR, ALAN OGDEN, TIMOTHY TAYLOR, VAUGHAN WASTLING AND ANDREW WILSON

    11. History and surface condition of the Lewis Chessmen in the collection of the National Museums Scotland (Hebrides, late 12th–early 13th centuries)
    JIM TATE, INA REICHE, FLAVIA PINZARI, JANE CLARK AND DAVID CALDWELL

    PART TWO: ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHICS AND THE LAW

    Introduction to Part Two
    ROBIN SKEATES

    12. From museum to mantelpiece: the antiquities trade in the United Kingdom
     KATHRYN WALKER TUBB AND NEIL BRODIE

    13. The revolution in U.S. museums concerning the ethics of acquiring antiquities
    JENNIFER ANGLIM KREDER

    14. Repatriation: Australian perspectives
    MICHAEL GREEN AND PHIL GORDON

    15. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in its first decade
    JAMES A.R. NAFZIGER AND REBECCA J. DOBKINS

    16. Policy and practice in the treatment of archaeological human remains in North American museum and public agency collections
    FRANCIS P. MCMANAMON

    17. Covering up the mummies
    TIFFANY JENKINS

    PART THREE:  INTERPRETING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAST

    Introduction to Part Three
    ROBIN SKEATES

    18. Presenting the past: towards a redemptive aesthetic for the museum
    MICHAEL SHANKS AND CHRISTOPHER TILLEY

    19. Speaking for the past in the present: text, authority and learning in archaeology museums
    ROBIN SKEATES

    20. Towards presenting scientific research in archaeology museums
     MARK S. COPLEY

    21. Prehistory, identity, and archaeological representation in Nordic museums
    JANET E. LEVY

    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
    ANNIKA BÜNZ

    23. The Jorvik Viking Centre: an experiment in archaeological site interpretation
    PETER ADDYMAN AND ANTHONY GAYNOR

    24. The new Museum of Altamira: finding solutions to tourism pressure
    JOSÉ ANTONIO LASHERAS CORRUCHAGA AND PILAR FATÁS MONFORTE

    25. Archaeological site museums in Latin America
    HELAINE SILVERMAN

    26. The new Acropolis Museum: where the visual feast trumps education
    KATIE RASK

    27. Development and utilization of underground space for the protection of relics in the Yang Emperor Mausoleum of the Han Dynasty
    ZHILONG CHEN, PING ZHANG AND JUXI LI

    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
    HARRY HELLING, CHARLIE STEINMETZ, ERIC SOLOMON AND BERNARD FRISCHER

    29. Teaching the past in museums
    JOANNE LEA

    30. Interaction or tokenism? The role of hands-on activities in museum archaeology displays
    JANET OWEN

    31. The re-display of the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, and the National Curriculum in England
    PETER G. STONE

    32. Roman boxes for London's schools: an outreach service by the Museum of London
    JENNY HALL AND HEDLEY SWAIN

    33. Translating archaeology for the public: empowering and engaging museum goers with the past
    ALEXANDRA A. CHAN

    34. Involving the public in museum archaeology
    NICK MERRIMAN

    35. Public archaeology and museums in Japan
    DEVENA HAGGIS

    36. Uncovering ancient Egypt: the Petrie Museum and its public
    SALLY MACDONALD AND CATHERINE SHAW

    37. Re-imagining Egypt: artefacts, contemporary art and community engagement in the museum
    GEMMA TULLY

    38. Working towards greater equity and understanding: examples of collaborative archaeology and museum initiatives with Indigenous peoples in North America
    SARAH CARR-LOCKE AND GEORGE NICHOLAS

    39. Conversations about the production of archaeological knowledge and community museums at Chunchucmil and Kochol, Yucatán, México
    TRACI ARDREN

    40. Us and them: who benefits from experimental exhibition making?
    PETE BROWN

    Biography

    Robin Skeates is Professor in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University in the UK. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2005, and has served as General Editor of the European Journal of Archaeology since 2010.