Polished axes: object biographies and the writing of world prehistories
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Department of Archaeology
Abstract
Research context
The idea that objects have biographies has recently received widespread recognition in 'A History of the World in 100 objects (HoW)'. This collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum (BM) http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow/all shows how the power of objects as historical sources lies in their biographical details that arise from their context of manufacture, use, recycling and deposition as well as when and how they were collected. All of these aspects are well illustrated by jade axes that are among the most distinctive artefacts in the museum. The BM has 109 of these objects collected from Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, the Pacific and China. They attract attention because of their aesthetic qualities and their complex biographies; as shown by Object 14 in HoW, a Neolithic jade axe from Canterbury. Their biographies have been revealed through the history behind their collection, their archaeological and ethnographic context and most recently the application of science to determine their provenance.
But Jade axes are only a small sub-set of a much larger collection of 4500 polished stone axes held in the BM. These are made on many different raw materials reflecting the geology of the regions where they were collected. The act of polishing was regarded as significant by antiquaries such as John Lubbock who, in 1865, used them as the defining artefact of his Neolithic stage. Subsequently the Neolithic became a worldwide stage in the mental, technological and economic evolution of human societies. The polished axe was, and remains, a symbol of progress from hunting to farming and from a peripatetic existence to a settled life. In short the axe became an iconic artefact for the beginning of the modern world.
Aims and objectives
There are two main aims to this PhD. i) Through a series of case studies the student will examine the networks of artefacts and collectors that drew these polished axes into the BM from across the globe. These biographies will address issues of geographical location and the production of knowledge about the past in a world museum. The student will examine the interplay between earlier ideas of 'living prehistory' and the acceptance of a deep past based on artefacts from areas without a stone age ethnography such as Europe. Of particular interest is the pattern of collecting as revealed by region, date of accession and the collector, and the influence of ethnographic observation on the acceptance of a pre-historic past. ii) The student will then trace how these objects were used to write world prehistories of technology and society such as those by Lubbock (1865), Evans (1872) and Morgan (1877) and much later the works of Peake and Fleure (1927), Smith (1933) and Childe (1951), culminating in Clark's seminal World Prehistory of 1961.
The wider research community
The BM is a world museum. It seeks, through research, to find new ways to inform and engage a variety of audiences both national and international with its collections and the opportunity they afford for understanding world cultures and their history. This PhD will contribute to this research mission by its inter-disciplinary approach that examines a single category of artefact collected by four departments of the BM. By collaborating with RHUL's expertise in geography and archaeology the outcomes of the PhD will contribute to the AHRC's international strategy where the aim is to promote the UK as a world centre for research. Tracing the networks of collectors and axes across the world in the 250 years since the BM was founded will provide a tangible example of the inter-connectedness of people, places and things and their translation into shared knowledge. The beneficiaries of the research will be UK heritage research generally as well as the specific disciplines and collaborations identified in t
The idea that objects have biographies has recently received widespread recognition in 'A History of the World in 100 objects (HoW)'. This collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum (BM) http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow/all shows how the power of objects as historical sources lies in their biographical details that arise from their context of manufacture, use, recycling and deposition as well as when and how they were collected. All of these aspects are well illustrated by jade axes that are among the most distinctive artefacts in the museum. The BM has 109 of these objects collected from Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, the Pacific and China. They attract attention because of their aesthetic qualities and their complex biographies; as shown by Object 14 in HoW, a Neolithic jade axe from Canterbury. Their biographies have been revealed through the history behind their collection, their archaeological and ethnographic context and most recently the application of science to determine their provenance.
But Jade axes are only a small sub-set of a much larger collection of 4500 polished stone axes held in the BM. These are made on many different raw materials reflecting the geology of the regions where they were collected. The act of polishing was regarded as significant by antiquaries such as John Lubbock who, in 1865, used them as the defining artefact of his Neolithic stage. Subsequently the Neolithic became a worldwide stage in the mental, technological and economic evolution of human societies. The polished axe was, and remains, a symbol of progress from hunting to farming and from a peripatetic existence to a settled life. In short the axe became an iconic artefact for the beginning of the modern world.
Aims and objectives
There are two main aims to this PhD. i) Through a series of case studies the student will examine the networks of artefacts and collectors that drew these polished axes into the BM from across the globe. These biographies will address issues of geographical location and the production of knowledge about the past in a world museum. The student will examine the interplay between earlier ideas of 'living prehistory' and the acceptance of a deep past based on artefacts from areas without a stone age ethnography such as Europe. Of particular interest is the pattern of collecting as revealed by region, date of accession and the collector, and the influence of ethnographic observation on the acceptance of a pre-historic past. ii) The student will then trace how these objects were used to write world prehistories of technology and society such as those by Lubbock (1865), Evans (1872) and Morgan (1877) and much later the works of Peake and Fleure (1927), Smith (1933) and Childe (1951), culminating in Clark's seminal World Prehistory of 1961.
The wider research community
The BM is a world museum. It seeks, through research, to find new ways to inform and engage a variety of audiences both national and international with its collections and the opportunity they afford for understanding world cultures and their history. This PhD will contribute to this research mission by its inter-disciplinary approach that examines a single category of artefact collected by four departments of the BM. By collaborating with RHUL's expertise in geography and archaeology the outcomes of the PhD will contribute to the AHRC's international strategy where the aim is to promote the UK as a world centre for research. Tracing the networks of collectors and axes across the world in the 250 years since the BM was founded will provide a tangible example of the inter-connectedness of people, places and things and their translation into shared knowledge. The beneficiaries of the research will be UK heritage research generally as well as the specific disciplines and collaborations identified in t
Planned Impact
Four potential beneficiaries have been identified and potential impact assessed for each
1. The British Museum; The PhD will impact on one of the BM's key objectives (British Museum Strategy to 2012) which is to manage and research the collection more effectively. As a world museum the BM seeks ways to use research into its collections to forge new connections. This will be achieved through
i. Public engagement; the PhD project will contribute to the BM's forward research strategy for their artefact collections and through this to an enhanced engagement with the public, both national and international
ii. Display and outreach; As shown by the 'History of the World in 100 objects' artefact biography is a potent form of outreach. By focusing on a single class of artefacts the PhD will build on this success to draw fresh connections and historical narratives based on the richness of objects as revealed both by their archaeological context and the history behind their acquisition
iii. Curation; the inter-departmental nature of the PhD project will contribute to the development of synergies across research groupings in the BM
iv. Research; to collaborate with a leading Geography department whose research successfully combines approaches from the humanities and sciences and thereby engage in a wider research culture outside the cultural heritage sector
2. The Student; involvement in a collaboration will impact on the PhD student
i. By providing the opportunity to work in two contrasted but complementary research environments
ii. Through the choice of topic that will bring them into contact with the Departmental research culture of the BM and so add to experience and training
iii. By acquiring specific skills in data and collections management and retrieval as well as working with web-based resources for public outreach
iv. Through an enhanced training environment that is only available in a collaborative project and which is a source of potential benefit to the student's future employment prospects
3. The impacts on the Department of Geography at RHUL from the collaborative partnership will be the opportunities
i. To collaborate with the leading cultural attraction in the UK (6 million visitors) and through the project to share and reflect on best practice as applied to interdisciplinary research conducted in institutions with complementary core values for research
ii. To participate in the design and delivery of materials for public engagement
iii. To consider, through consultation, how best to identify the beneficiaries of RHUL research and raise its impact in the areas of object based archaeological and geographical enquiry
iv. To enhance the writing of geographical narratives that address themes appropriate to a world museum and achieved through objects drawn from deep history at a world scale
4. More broadly, Research UK will derive the following impacts from this collaboration
i. It will contribute to the AHRC s International Strategy (2009-2012) through the stated aim of promoting the UK as a world centre for research and innovation.
ii. It will build on the existing high profile of UK heritage research and its emergence as the leading global brand, demonstrated most recently through the BBC/BM collaboration on 'The History of the World in 100 objects', and where a biographical approach to objects has received huge public approval and 10 million podcast downloads, half of them from outside the UK
iii. It will deepen the understanding of how a class of objects, axes, has and continues to contribute to the writing of common narratives through the medium of a global pre-history
iv. It will add to the recognition of the value of museum collections, when underpinned by research, for policy initiatives that involve cultural exchange and dissemination of knowledge; the 'soft power' of cultural dip
1. The British Museum; The PhD will impact on one of the BM's key objectives (British Museum Strategy to 2012) which is to manage and research the collection more effectively. As a world museum the BM seeks ways to use research into its collections to forge new connections. This will be achieved through
i. Public engagement; the PhD project will contribute to the BM's forward research strategy for their artefact collections and through this to an enhanced engagement with the public, both national and international
ii. Display and outreach; As shown by the 'History of the World in 100 objects' artefact biography is a potent form of outreach. By focusing on a single class of artefacts the PhD will build on this success to draw fresh connections and historical narratives based on the richness of objects as revealed both by their archaeological context and the history behind their acquisition
iii. Curation; the inter-departmental nature of the PhD project will contribute to the development of synergies across research groupings in the BM
iv. Research; to collaborate with a leading Geography department whose research successfully combines approaches from the humanities and sciences and thereby engage in a wider research culture outside the cultural heritage sector
2. The Student; involvement in a collaboration will impact on the PhD student
i. By providing the opportunity to work in two contrasted but complementary research environments
ii. Through the choice of topic that will bring them into contact with the Departmental research culture of the BM and so add to experience and training
iii. By acquiring specific skills in data and collections management and retrieval as well as working with web-based resources for public outreach
iv. Through an enhanced training environment that is only available in a collaborative project and which is a source of potential benefit to the student's future employment prospects
3. The impacts on the Department of Geography at RHUL from the collaborative partnership will be the opportunities
i. To collaborate with the leading cultural attraction in the UK (6 million visitors) and through the project to share and reflect on best practice as applied to interdisciplinary research conducted in institutions with complementary core values for research
ii. To participate in the design and delivery of materials for public engagement
iii. To consider, through consultation, how best to identify the beneficiaries of RHUL research and raise its impact in the areas of object based archaeological and geographical enquiry
iv. To enhance the writing of geographical narratives that address themes appropriate to a world museum and achieved through objects drawn from deep history at a world scale
4. More broadly, Research UK will derive the following impacts from this collaboration
i. It will contribute to the AHRC s International Strategy (2009-2012) through the stated aim of promoting the UK as a world centre for research and innovation.
ii. It will build on the existing high profile of UK heritage research and its emergence as the leading global brand, demonstrated most recently through the BBC/BM collaboration on 'The History of the World in 100 objects', and where a biographical approach to objects has received huge public approval and 10 million podcast downloads, half of them from outside the UK
iii. It will deepen the understanding of how a class of objects, axes, has and continues to contribute to the writing of common narratives through the medium of a global pre-history
iv. It will add to the recognition of the value of museum collections, when underpinned by research, for policy initiatives that involve cultural exchange and dissemination of knowledge; the 'soft power' of cultural dip
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Clive Gamble (Principal Investigator) |