In archaeology, context is everything. Objects allow us to reconstruct the past. Taking artifacts from a temple or an ancient private house is like emptying out a time capsule.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.
Just as a fossil is 'petrified time,' so is an ancient artifact or text.
As scientists, we keep an open mind, but we have to base our ideas about the past on archaeological evidence.
The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality.
Analysis of soil, grave goods and skeletons has been key to our understanding of archaeology and the migration of peoples, as well as their daily lives. But in mainstream history, we tend to stick to documents.
The itinerary of most antiquities from their source - tomb, temple, quarry - to the shelves of museums or private collectors is murky and often purposely concealed.
I want to bring back the human encounter into places where material things have a prime status. In a museum, you're supposed to look at things and not talk to other people.
Objects are what matter. Only they carry the evidence that throughout the centuries something really happened among human beings.
History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.
History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in museums, where they span everybody's own vacancy.