Icons in Context: Rethinking Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge

This project's starting point is a series of objects that are traditionally assumed to be the 'finest' and 'most important' artefacts from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age in Britain (c.3000-800 BC). They include the intricately embossed gold cape from Mold, the mixture of local and exotic finery from barrows around Stonehenge, and the enigmatic chalk 'drums' buried with a child at Folkton in North Yorkshire. The ways in which objects such as these have taken on iconic status within archaeological accounts is important for understanding the role of museum collections in the narratives told about prehistoric Britain.

Objects like these are traditionally presented as proxies for, or 'exemplars' of, society, culture and religion during the period: representative of people, cultures, connectivity and changes over - often very long - time periods. They have generally been characterised as 'symbols of power', buried with (or by) important or wealthy people who notionally 'controlled' trade and exchange and thus gained status and wealth. This concept leant its name to the 1985 National Museum of Scotland exhibition 'Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge', and has become a successful (if tired) trope of prehistoric galleries and exhibitions ever since. Interestingly, and significantly, in academic accounts of the period, these supposedly iconic objects often serve a passive role on book covers and as token illustrations, rather than being active objects incorporated into narratives of the period in their own right. The appeal to power politics has also removed these objects from more engaging, egalitarian and emotional accounts of the past.

This project will make the most of the opportunities afforded by a major exhibition entitled 'World of Stonehenge' (WoS), to be staged at the British Museum from June-October 2021, in order to rethink and represent the period. The project will ensure that the research potential generated by staging the exhibition can be fully exploited. Too often this valuable resource and opportunity is lost. We will challenge, evaluate and research the concept that effective museum objects have to be singular, iconic 'masterpieces'. The processes by which objects become empowered and 'iconic' are essential for museums and galleries in light of their need to communicate and engage their visitors within restricted timeframes, budgets and space. This project does not seek to replace iconic objects in general. Rather, we will critique the essentialism that informs current attitudes to 'icons' and introduce new approaches to exhibiting and thinking through important objects (in the form of textual content/context, display techniques and design principles). In this way we will develop new 'iconic objects' that are more reflective of what we know of the period today. Some will be single artefacts but other icons will be assemblages from sites and landscapes.

We will address the lack of connection between exemplar objects - shown as 'precious jewels' in our museums - and the relatively unloved contents of archaeological storehouses. We will develop new ways of linking the quantitative significance of storehouse assemblages and the qualitative significance of exhibition exemplars. This approach will re-route the traditional top-down approach of cherry-picking 'special' finds for publication and display by showing the potential of more modest but emotive finds to communicate more personal and representative aspects of prehistoric life. It will bring to fruition the notion of museum exhibitions as research processes, through which ideas, concepts and engagements with material culture can be evaluated, critiqued and re-thought. The project will result in three major peer-reviewed articles that will build on a major British Museum exhibition. We seek to establish a new agenda for displaying prehistoric objects in north European museums, and to rethink the status of iconic objects more generally.

We expect the following groups to benefit from the outcomes of this project in ways not normally possible through museum exhibition practice:

1. Museum professionals
A key outcome of the project is a new approach to the objects selected to represent the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, and a new set of compelling narratives to tell about the period. It will also provide an example of how museum professions can challenge and refresh the 'iconic' status of objects in order to introduce new priorities, voices and narratives into exhibitions and public discourses. It will benefit the planned redisplay of other major prehistoric collections, including national and regional museums.

2. The British Museum
The project is explicitly intended to ensure that the work and intellectual engagement required to make an exhibition can lead to other 'academic outcomes'. Our evaluation of the WoS exhibition will inform the choice, display and interpretation of objects for future BM exhibitions and will therefore contribute to maintaining and attracting visitors to the Museum. The BM has long been focused on developing object centred approaches for display and engagement (e.g. A History of the World in 100 Objects). This project will provide an opportunity to think deeply about the consequences of these approaches and will directly feed into the planned redevelopment of the Museum's permanent displays - including the display of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe - through the leading role ECR PI Wilkin can play in that initiative.

3. Families, teachers and school children
We will host a series of family events at the BM during the summer holidays, coinciding with the summer solstice and the Council for British Archaeology's 'Festival of Archaeology' 2021. Families will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on, craft-based activities that promote the project's findings and focus in terms of contextualising high status, exemplar objects through the 'everyday', and questioning what is important or 'iconic' about ancient objects. We will also work closely with the BM's schools team to develop a set of guidelines to help teachers find fresh ways of teaching the Neolithic and Bronze Age as part of the new curriculum.

4. Future visitors to museums - exhibitions and gallery redisplays
The project will develop new ways of displaying prehistoric material. Our research will inform and improve future displays, as well as the way objects are made icons in many different museum displays. Most displays of prehistoric material in British museums lag behind current thinking and do not achieve their potential in terms of what is possible to communicate through exhibitions. This is to the detriment of both researchers and the public. The project therefore has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the public's experience and understanding of prehistoric objects in museums across Britain and beyond for years to come.

5. Interfaith and craft community groups
The aims and objectives of the project - especially to question 'iconic' objects - are suited to community group participation. We will work closely with the BM's community partnership team in order to work collaboratively with two community groups to co-explore and co-curate parts of the exhibition: an interfaith group whose belief systems are deeply connected to the land, cosmos and/or nature and a group of craft-people; those with experience of working with materials found in the exhibition (e.g. stonemasons, metal workers, and goldsmiths). Our participants will guide the exact outputs of these workshops but we will advocate for creative responses (new works), audio or written responses to 'iconic' prehistoric objects, and interventions in BM exhibition and display spaces. This type of community partnership represents an important new direction for the BM and is designed to break new ground and have a long-term impact on exhibition making.