Theme:
7. Archaeology of Sustainability through World Crises, Climate Change and War
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Making the Most of What We?ve Got: Activating Museum Collections, Monuments and Built Heritage
Content:
The archaeological record is a non-renewable resource. Material cultural heritage in public or private ownership, be it artefacts and ecofacts in museum collections or historic buildings and monuments, represents a huge archive of source material with enormous potential for improving our understanding of the past. However, these archives are often preserved as inactive matter rather than being actively incorporated into research programs. In the face of the so-called “curation crisis” and widespread funding cuts within the heritage sector, it is vital that we demonstrate the continuing research value of material cultural heritage and its relevance in the modern world. At the same time, a drive to conduct “sustainable archaeology”, avoiding excavation unless a site is threatened by development or by environmental change, means that there is an increasing need to consider how new techniques and novel approaches can derive new information from existing collections.
In this session, we invite case studies using museum collection material, historic monuments and built heritage to explore traces of past human activity at all scales, from biomolecules to artworks, buildings and cultural landscapes. We also welcome papers exploring how archaeology as a discipline can better integrate studies of archived material and built heritage, especially so-called orphaned or legacy collections. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives, especially those that bridge the humanities and sciences, and the material and the theoretical, as well as studies that demonstrate how knowledge of the past can contribute to current societal issues.
Keywords:
museum collections, monuments, built heritage, interdisciplinary studies, sustainable archaeology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Bettina Ebert (Norway) 1
Co-organisers:
Dawn Mooney (Norway) 1
Hege Hollund (Norway) 1
Joe Walser (Iceland) 2
Marianne Mödlinger (Italy) 3
Affiliations:
1. Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger
2. National Museum of Iceland
3. Universitá degli Studi di Genova
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