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Object stories : artifacts and archaeologists

documentary heritage
  • Description

    "Archaeologists are synonymous with artifacts. With artifacts we construct stories concerning past lives and livelihoods, yet we rarely write of deeply personal encounters or of the way the lives of objects and our lives become enmeshed. In this volume, 23 archaeologists each tell an intimate story of their experience and entanglement with an evocative artifact.

    Artifacts range from a New Britain obsidian tool to an abandoned Viking toy boat, the marble finger of a classical Greek statue and ordinary pottery fragments from Roman England and Polynesia. Other tales cover contemporary objects, including a toothpick, bell, door, and the blueprint for a 1970s motorcar. These creative stories are self-consciously personal; they derive from real world encounter viewed through the peculiarities and material intimacy of archaeological practice. This text can be used in undergraduate and graduate courses focused on archaeological interpretation and theory, as well as on material culture and story-telling"--Provided by publisher.

  • Place
    Walnut Creek, California, United States
  • Other Id

    CC75.7 OBJ (Library of Congress Call Number)

    89476 (Cat ID)

    89309 (Presto content ID)

  • Department

    Publications

Images and documents

Catalogue

  • Object Type

    book

  • Name/Title
    Object stories : artifacts and archaeologists
  • Primary Maker

    Anne Clarke (Editor)

    Steve Brown (Editor)

    Ursula Frederick (Editor)

  • Contributor/Publisher
    Left Coast Press
  • Place
    Walnut Creek, California, United States
  • Date
    2015
  • Physical Description

    246 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

  • ISBN/ISSN
    9781611323832
    9781611323849
    9781611323856
    9781611327397
  • Level of Current Record
    Bib record
  • Member Object

    1 item in this collection. View all items.

  • Subject Category

    Archaeology--Methodology/Library of Congress subject headings

    Archaeologists--Biography/Library of Congress subject headings

    Material culture--Social aspects

  • Content
    1. Introduction: Narrating intimacy, affect and things / Steve Brown, Ursula Frederick and Anne Clarke -- 2. What this awl means / Janet Spector -- 3. On toothpicks and elephants / Alexandra Kelly -- 4. Walking straight through places and times : finding an Acheulian hand ax / Allison Mickel -- 5. Marooned! The old people, a dolphin and a model canoe / Anne Clarke -- 6. Shalimar / Denis Byrne -- 7. TBC / Emma Waterton -- 8. Tradition and inventiveness : decolonising an "Indian" bell / Giovanna Vitelli -- 9. A voyage of discovery : biography and identity in early Medieval Dublin and today / Harold Mytum -- 10. A steely gaze : my captivation with the American tintype / Heather Law Pezzarossi -- 11. A cake of spinifex resin / Heidi T. Pitman -- 2. Can, door, heritage : a conflict to post-conflict object narrative / John Giblin -- 13. Pointing to the past / Lesley A. Beaumont -- 14. The reality of whales : reflections from a follower of whales / Lynette Russell -- 15. The Salt Pan Creek boondi / Paul Irish -- 16. Transformative material, transformative object : the impact of a bronze axe / Rachel Crellin -- 17. The prosaic platter / Ralph Mills -- 18. The claw : a song of electrons / Robert Maxwell -- 19. Reflections and connections / Robin Torrence -- 20. Dido and the basket : fragments towards a non-linear history / Ruth Tringham -- 21. A Neolithic house with two hearths at Osanni, South Korea / Sarah Milledge Nelson -- 22. Naughtiness on the mission / Steve Brown -- 23. The materiality of Polynesian plainware pottery / Tom Sapienza -- 24. Man with hat and pipe : inscribing convict identities in time and place / Tracy Ireland -- 25. Sandman / Ursula Frederick -- 26. Afterword: The resonance of a trowel / Jane Lydon.
  • Public Access Text

    [Keywords: Archaeology--Psychological aspects; Archaeology--Social aspects; Material culture--Psychological aspects; Antiquities--Collection and preservation--Psychological aspects]

    Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-228) and index.

  • Collection Type
    Reading Room
  • Copyright
    All rights reserved
  • Last Update
    19 Dec 2023
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