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

这个项目的起点是一系列传统上被认为是英国新石器时代晚期和青铜时代（公元前3000 -800年）“最好”和“最重要”的文物。它们包括来自莫尔德的错综复杂的浮雕金斗篷，巨石阵周围手推车上当地和异国情调的服饰的混合物，以及与一个孩子一起埋葬在北约克郡福克顿的神秘粉笔“鼓”。这些物品在考古学中具有标志性地位的方式对于理解博物馆藏品在讲述史前英国的故事中的作用非常重要。像这样的物体传统上被视为这一时期社会、文化和宗教的代表或“典范”：代表着人们、文化、连通性和变化--往往是很长一段时间。它们通常被描述为“权力的象征”，与重要或富有的人一起埋葬（或由他们埋葬），这些人名义上“控制”贸易和交换，从而获得地位和财富。这个概念的名字来源于1985年苏格兰国家博物馆的展览“巨石阵时代的权力象征”，并从那时起成为史前画廊和展览的成功（如果累了）比喻。有趣而重要的是，在对这一时期的学术描述中，这些被认为是标志性的物品往往在书籍封面和象征性的插图中扮演被动角色，而不是以自己的名义被纳入这一时期的叙述中。对强权政治的呼吁也使这些物品从对过去的更吸引人、平等主义和情感化的描述中消失。该项目将充分利用将于2021年6月至10月在大英博物馆举办的名为“巨石阵世界”（WoS）的大型展览所提供的机会，以重新思考和代表这一时期。该项目将确保举办展览所产生的研究潜力得到充分利用。这一宝贵的资源和机会往往被浪费。我们将挑战，评估和研究的概念，有效的博物馆对象必须是单一的，标志性的“杰作”。博物馆和画廊需要在有限的时间、预算和空间内与游客进行交流和互动，因此，让物品变得有力量和“标志性”的过程对博物馆和画廊至关重要。这个项目并不寻求取代一般的标志性物体。相反，我们将批判告知当前对“图标”的态度的本质主义，并引入新的方法来展示和思考重要的对象（以文本内容/上下文，显示技术和设计原则的形式）。通过这种方式，我们将开发新的“标志性对象”，更能反映我们今天所知道的时期。有些将是单一的人工制品，但其他图标将是从网站和景观的组合。我们将解决样本对象之间缺乏联系-在我们的博物馆中显示为“珍贵的珠宝”-和考古仓库中相对不受欢迎的内容。我们将开发新的方法，将仓库集合的定量意义和展览样本的定性意义联系起来。这种方法将改变传统的自上而下的方法，即通过展示更温和但更情绪化的发现来传达史前生活的更多个人和代表性方面的潜力，来挑选“特殊”发现进行出版和展示。它将实现博物馆展览作为研究过程的概念，通过它可以评估，批评和重新思考物质文化的想法，概念和参与。该项目将产生三篇主要的同行评议文章，这些文章将建立在大英博物馆的一个主要展览上。我们寻求建立一个新的议程，在北欧博物馆展示史前物体，并重新思考更普遍的标志性物体的地位。

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.