Unpacking the Packed. The Life and Future of Archaeological Collections
Keywords:
archaeology,
custodian crisis in archaeology,
archaeological heritage,
collection management,
museums,
disposal of objects
Abstract
Due to the strong influence of heritological concepts and the concern for the future of heritage, an ever increasing accumulation of the past is taking place, as well as the unconrolled influx of cultural goods into museums. Consequently, an increasing number of museums expresses anxiety for the future of the collections stored in the already overcrowded depots.
Concerning the large quantity of material, the archaeological collections form a special category, differing in the ways of collecting and the dynamics of growth of the number of objects in the museum funds. The existing approches to the collecting of archaeological record include the unpredictable annual increase and in itself present an untenable concept of long-term management of archaeological heritage. The consequence is the neglect towards the already collected material in the post-excavation phases, as the vital part of the “life” of archaeological objects. At the same time, the huge amount of inaccesible material points to the professional horror vacui, fear that a certain proof or trace will be lost from the process of understanding the past, or to the tendency to safeguard the imperative of preserving the heritage for the future generations. Due to the poorly regulated processing of archaeological remains the issue arises of how the traditions of collecting and organizing of artefacts influence the value assessment of archaeological record and formation of the images of the past. Bearing this in mind, the paper presents a critical assessment of the problem of long-term management of archaeological material and museum collections. The possible paths of changes in the practice of usage and redefinition of value of the “unpacked” archaeological heritage are also discussed.
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References
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Gavrilović, Ljiljana. 2006. Muzeologija u vakumu. Etnoantropološki problemi 1(2): 45–58.
– – – . 2008. „Muzeji i geografije (nacionalne) moći“. U Muzeji u Srbiji: započeto putovanje.
Gavrilović, Ljiljana i Marko Stojanović (ur.), 33–45. Beograd: Muzejsko društvo Srbije.
– – – . 2009. Muzeologija i antropologija: Ukrštanje puteva. Antropologija 9: 29–39.
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Harrison, Rodney. 2013. Forgetting to remember, remembering to forget: late modern heritage practices, sustainability and the ‘crisis’ of accumulation of the past. International Journal of Heritage Studies19 (6): 579–595.
Högberg, Anders, Cornelius Holtorf, Sarah May & Gustav Wollentz. 2018. No Future in Archaeological Heritage Management? World Archaeology 49: 1–9.
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2014. “Preservation Paradigm in Heritage Management.” In The Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by C. Smith, 6128–6131. New York: Springer.
– – – . 2018. Conservation and heritage as future-making. ICOMOS University Forum. pp. 1–13. http://openarchive.icomos.org/1857/1/6_Holtorf.pdf , pristupljeno 2. 8. 2018.
Holtorf, Cornelius and Anders Högberg. 2013. “Heritage futures and the Future of Heritage”. In Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen. eds. S. Bergerbrant and S. Sabatini, 739–746. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Karl, Raimund. 2015. “Every sherd is sacred: Compulsive hoarding in archaeology”. In
Managing the Archaeological Heritage: Public archaeology in Europe 3, eds. Ghattas J. Sayej, Donald Henson and Yvonne F. Williumsen, 24-37. Kristiansand: Vest-Agder-Museet.
Knell, Simon (ed.) 2007. Museums in the Material World. London: Routledge.
Kopitoff, Igor. 1986. “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process”. In The Social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective,ed. Arjun Appadurai, 64–93, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lucas, Gavin. 2001. Critical Approaches to Fieldwork: Contemporary and Historical Archaeological Practice. London: Routledge.
– – – . 2002. Disposability and Dispossession in the Twentieth Century. Journal of material culture 7(1): 5–22
Marquardt, William, Antaa Montet-White, and Sandra C. Scholtz. 1982. Resolving the Crisis in Archaeological Collections Curation. American Antiquity. 47(2): 409–418.
Meijer-van Mensch, Léontine & Peter van Mensch. 2010. “From disciplinary control to co-creation – Collecting and the development of museums as praxis in the nineteenth and twentieth century” In. Encouraging Collections Mobility – A Way Forward for Museums in Europe, ed. by Susanna Pettersson, Monika Hagedorn-Saupe, Teijamari Jyrkkiö, Astrid Weij, 34–57. http://www.lending-for-europe.eu/fileadmin/CM/public/handbook/Encouraging_Collections_Mobility_A4.pdf, pristupljeno 21. 3. 2015.
Miller, Mark E.1999. Key Issues in Archaeological Collections Management. Museum Anthropology 23(2): 6–8.
Miller, Steven. 2006. Museum Storage: Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Museum News 85(1): 57–59.
Mrđić, Nemanja, Vesna Bikić, Dragana Antonović, Milica Radišić, Slaviša Perić. 2017. „Arheološka istraživanja u Đerdapu“. U Mnemosynon Firmitatis. Sedamdeset godina Arheološkog instituta, ur. Vesna Bikić i Josip Šarić, 67–84. Beograd: Arheološki institut.
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Olsen, Bjørnar. 2002. Od predmeta do teksta. Teorijske perspektive arheoloških istraživanja. Beograd: Geopoetika.
Olsen, Bjørnar, Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore. 2012. Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Palavestra, Aleksandar. 2011. Kulturni konteksti arheologije. Beograd: Filozofski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu.
Palavestra, Aleksandar i Monika Milosavljević. 2015. Delo Jovana Cvijića i Vladimira Dvornikovića kroz prizmu srpske arheologije. Etnoantropološki problemi 10(3): 619–649.
Richmond, Alison and Alison Bracker (eds). 2009. Conservation, Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Smith, Laurejane. 2006. The Uses of heritage. New York: Routledge.
Swain, Hedley. 2007. An Introduction to Museum Archaeology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thomson, Karen. 2014. “Handling the ’Curation Crisis:’ Database Management for Archaeological Collections”. Master thesis; Seton Hall University.
Thompson, Michael 1979. Rubbish Theory: the Creation and Destruction of Value. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ucko, Peter J. 1995. “Archaeological Interpretation in a World Context“. In Theory in Archaeology. World Perspective, ed. Peter J. Ucko, 1–27. London: Routledge.
Voss, Barbara. 2012. Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections. Archaeological Dialogues 19 (2):145–169.
Vasić, Rastko. 2017. „Arheološki institut i arheologija u Srbiji“. U Mnemosynon Firmitatis. Sedamdeset godina Arheološkog instituta. ur. Vesna Bikić i Josip Šarić, 8–14. Beograd: Arheološki institut.
Viñas, Muñoz Salvador. 2005. Contemporary theory of conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Zetterström-Sharp, Johanna. 2015. Heritage as Future-Making: Aspiration and Common Destiny in Sierra Leone. International Journal of Heritage Studies 21(6): 609–627.
Anon. 2011. https://www.iccrom.org/sites/default/files/ICCROM-UNESCO%20International%20Storage%20Survey%202011_en.pdf, pristupljeno 12. 3. 2018.
Avrami E. et. al. 2000. „Report on Research“. In Values and Heritage Conservation. ed. Erica
Avrami, Randall Mason, Marta de la Torre, 3–11. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute.
Bošković, Đurđe. 1983. „Razvoj arheološke nauke posle oslobođenja“. U Spomenica Srpskog arheološkog društa, 1883–1983, ur. Nikola Tasić, 41–75. Beograd: Srpsko arheološko društvo.
Ber, Vivijen. 2001. Uvod u socijalni konstrukcionizam. Beograd: Zepter Book World.
Babić, Staša. 2011. Čemu još istorija arheologije? Etnoantropološki problemi 6(3): 565–577.
Brown, Duncan. 2007. Archaeological Archives. A guide to best practice in creation, compilation, transfer and curation. http://www.archaeologyuk.org/archives/Archives_Best_Practice.pdf , pristupljeno 15. 5. 2018.
Carman, John. 2010. “Promotion to heritage: How museum objects are made”. In. Encouraging Collections Mobility – A Way Forward for Museums in Europe Susanna Pettersson, Monika Hagedorn-Saupe, Teijamari Jyrkkiö, Astrid Weij (ed.), 74–85. http://www.lending-for-europe.eu/fileadmin/CM/public/handbook/Encouraging_Collections_Mobility_A4.pdf, pristupljeno 21. 3. 2015.
Childs, Terry S. 1995 Curation Crisis—What's Being Done? Federal Archeology 7 (4):11–15
– – – . 2006 “Archaeological Collections: Valuing and Managing an Emerging Frontier”. In Of the Past, for the Future: Integrating Archaeology and Conservation, edited by Agnew, Neville and Bridgland, Janet, 204–210. Los Angeles: .Getty Conservation Institute.
Cvjetićanin, Tatjana. 2014. Predmeti ili narativi. Arheološke postavke u Srbiji: utemeljenje muzejske arheologije. Etnoantropološki problemi 9(3): 577–596.
– – – . 2015a. Predmeti ili narativi. Arheološke postavke u Srbiji: doba artefakata. Etnoantropološki problemi 10(3): 557–593.
– – – . 2015b. Dunavski limes u Srbiji: Uloga muzeja u interpretaciji i promociji granica Rimskog carstva. Zbornik Narodnog muzeja XXII-1: 363–383.
Daglas, Meri. 2001. Kako institucije misle. Beograd: Fabrika knjiga.
Garašanin, Milutin. 1983. „Srpsko arheološko društvo od 1883–1983“. U Spomenca Srpskog arheološkog društva 1883-1983, ur. Nikola Tasić, 9–16. Beograd: Srpsko arheološko društvo
Gavrilović, Ljiljana. 2006. Muzeologija u vakumu. Etnoantropološki problemi 1(2): 45–58.
– – – . 2008. „Muzeji i geografije (nacionalne) moći“. U Muzeji u Srbiji: započeto putovanje.
Gavrilović, Ljiljana i Marko Stojanović (ur.), 33–45. Beograd: Muzejsko društvo Srbije.
– – – . 2009. Muzeologija i antropologija: Ukrštanje puteva. Antropologija 9: 29–39.
Grin, Kevin. 2003. Uvod u arheologiju. Beograd: Clio.
Edgeworth, Matt. 2011. Excavation as a ground of archaeological knowledge. Archaeological Dialogues 18 (1): 44–46.
Ellis, Linda. 2004. “Museum Studies”. In. A Companion to Archaeology, ed. John Bintliff, 454–472. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fagan, B., 1995. Archaeology’s dirty secret. Archaeology 48: 14–17.
Harrison, Rodney. 2013. Forgetting to remember, remembering to forget: late modern heritage practices, sustainability and the ‘crisis’ of accumulation of the past. International Journal of Heritage Studies19 (6): 579–595.
Högberg, Anders, Cornelius Holtorf, Sarah May & Gustav Wollentz. 2018. No Future in Archaeological Heritage Management? World Archaeology 49: 1–9.
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2014. “Preservation Paradigm in Heritage Management.” In The Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by C. Smith, 6128–6131. New York: Springer.
– – – . 2018. Conservation and heritage as future-making. ICOMOS University Forum. pp. 1–13. http://openarchive.icomos.org/1857/1/6_Holtorf.pdf , pristupljeno 2. 8. 2018.
Holtorf, Cornelius and Anders Högberg. 2013. “Heritage futures and the Future of Heritage”. In Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen. eds. S. Bergerbrant and S. Sabatini, 739–746. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Karl, Raimund. 2015. “Every sherd is sacred: Compulsive hoarding in archaeology”. In
Managing the Archaeological Heritage: Public archaeology in Europe 3, eds. Ghattas J. Sayej, Donald Henson and Yvonne F. Williumsen, 24-37. Kristiansand: Vest-Agder-Museet.
Knell, Simon (ed.) 2007. Museums in the Material World. London: Routledge.
Kopitoff, Igor. 1986. “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process”. In The Social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective,ed. Arjun Appadurai, 64–93, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lucas, Gavin. 2001. Critical Approaches to Fieldwork: Contemporary and Historical Archaeological Practice. London: Routledge.
– – – . 2002. Disposability and Dispossession in the Twentieth Century. Journal of material culture 7(1): 5–22
Marquardt, William, Antaa Montet-White, and Sandra C. Scholtz. 1982. Resolving the Crisis in Archaeological Collections Curation. American Antiquity. 47(2): 409–418.
Meijer-van Mensch, Léontine & Peter van Mensch. 2010. “From disciplinary control to co-creation – Collecting and the development of museums as praxis in the nineteenth and twentieth century” In. Encouraging Collections Mobility – A Way Forward for Museums in Europe, ed. by Susanna Pettersson, Monika Hagedorn-Saupe, Teijamari Jyrkkiö, Astrid Weij, 34–57. http://www.lending-for-europe.eu/fileadmin/CM/public/handbook/Encouraging_Collections_Mobility_A4.pdf, pristupljeno 21. 3. 2015.
Miller, Mark E.1999. Key Issues in Archaeological Collections Management. Museum Anthropology 23(2): 6–8.
Miller, Steven. 2006. Museum Storage: Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Museum News 85(1): 57–59.
Mrđić, Nemanja, Vesna Bikić, Dragana Antonović, Milica Radišić, Slaviša Perić. 2017. „Arheološka istraživanja u Đerdapu“. U Mnemosynon Firmitatis. Sedamdeset godina Arheološkog instituta, ur. Vesna Bikić i Josip Šarić, 67–84. Beograd: Arheološki institut.
Novaković, Predrag. 2011. “Archaeology in the New Countries of Southeastern Europe: A Historical Perspective”. In Comparative Archaeologies: A Sociological View of the Science of the Past, ed. Ludomir R. Lozny, 339–461. New York: Springer
Olsen, Bjørnar. 2002. Od predmeta do teksta. Teorijske perspektive arheoloških istraživanja. Beograd: Geopoetika.
Olsen, Bjørnar, Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore. 2012. Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Palavestra, Aleksandar. 2011. Kulturni konteksti arheologije. Beograd: Filozofski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu.
Palavestra, Aleksandar i Monika Milosavljević. 2015. Delo Jovana Cvijića i Vladimira Dvornikovića kroz prizmu srpske arheologije. Etnoantropološki problemi 10(3): 619–649.
Richmond, Alison and Alison Bracker (eds). 2009. Conservation, Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Smith, Laurejane. 2006. The Uses of heritage. New York: Routledge.
Swain, Hedley. 2007. An Introduction to Museum Archaeology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thomson, Karen. 2014. “Handling the ’Curation Crisis:’ Database Management for Archaeological Collections”. Master thesis; Seton Hall University.
Thompson, Michael 1979. Rubbish Theory: the Creation and Destruction of Value. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ucko, Peter J. 1995. “Archaeological Interpretation in a World Context“. In Theory in Archaeology. World Perspective, ed. Peter J. Ucko, 1–27. London: Routledge.
Voss, Barbara. 2012. Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections. Archaeological Dialogues 19 (2):145–169.
Vasić, Rastko. 2017. „Arheološki institut i arheologija u Srbiji“. U Mnemosynon Firmitatis. Sedamdeset godina Arheološkog instituta. ur. Vesna Bikić i Josip Šarić, 8–14. Beograd: Arheološki institut.
Viñas, Muñoz Salvador. 2005. Contemporary theory of conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Zetterström-Sharp, Johanna. 2015. Heritage as Future-Making: Aspiration and Common Destiny in Sierra Leone. International Journal of Heritage Studies 21(6): 609–627.
Published
2018-10-31
How to Cite
Ćosić, Natalija. 2018. “Unpacking the Packed. The Life and Future of Archaeological Collections”. Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 13 (3), 595–615. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v13i3.2.
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