At University of Wales Lampeter we found that almost half of our undergraduates had chosen to study archaeology because of their fascination with fantasy worlds of the likes of Tolkien’s. I went to see the latest in the movie trilogy again tonight – to try to get a handle on this. (And because I can’t…
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Issues of cultural property – the usual tensions
Two articles this weekend about the Parthenon marbles. The Guardian reports a video making a case for the return of the marbles sent to 1000 members of Parliament in the UK. The New York Times yesterday ran an article about the guilt instilled by a new museum on the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens,…
Vermeer’s archaeological interiors
Gorgeous. The movie. “Girl with a pearl earring”. At the heart – the simulacrum – the exact copy of an original that never existed. The PR and website for the movie are all about a delicate understated relationship, implicit in a finely crafted painting, a love story (the publicity stills show the main characters staring…
types of object
Barry Katz and I started a new course this quarter for Stanford Continuing Studies. Design – ten things: ten conversations sixteen kinds of object – just some thoughts made – comforting – evocative – signifying alienated – original – useful – everyday iconic – itself – mine – subversive mute – found (accidentally or deliberately)…
Archaeologists with attitude
Colin Renfrew in Stanford. Here to join me and Bill Rathje in a conversation about archaeology, for our book Archaeologists with Attitude. Gave a fascinating talk this evening – “The Sapient Paradox: cognitive archaeology from institutional facts to material realities”. He sketched out his interest in what he called material engagements – how people get…
obsessions with origins
BBC Science/Nature has picked up on the occurrence of red ochre dating back 90k years at Qafzeh cave, Israel (after a recent article in Current Anthropology). Associated with burials, the pigment is taken to indicate symbolic and ritual thought (red=dead). The typical argument then goes that this is a momentous leap in human evolution. And…
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