Polished axes: object biographies and the writing of world prehistories

研究背景物品有传记的观点最近在《100件物品的世界史（如何）》中得到了广泛的认可。BBC和大英博物馆（BM） http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow/all的这次合作展示了物品作为历史来源的力量在于它们的传记细节，这些细节源于它们的制造、使用、回收和沉积的背景，以及它们被收集的时间和方式。所有这些方面都很好地体现在玉斧上，这是博物馆中最具特色的文物之一。大英博物馆收藏了来自欧洲、中东、美洲、太平洋和中国的109件文物。他们吸引人的原因是他们的审美品质和复杂的传记；如HoW中的14号物品所示，这是一柄来自坎特伯雷的新石器时代的玉器斧。通过藏品背后的历史、考古和人种学背景，以及最近确定其来源的科学应用，他们的传记得以揭示。但玉斧只是大英博物馆收藏的4500个抛光石斧的一小部分。它们是由许多不同的原料制成的，反映了它们被收集地区的地质情况。像约翰·拉伯克（John Lubbock）这样的古物学家认为，抛光这一行为意义重大，他在1865年将其作为新石器时代的标志性人工制品。随后，新石器时代成为人类社会精神、技术和经济进化的一个世界性阶段。这把抛光过的斧头过去和现在都是人类从狩猎到农耕、从流浪到定居的象征。简而言之，这把斧头成为现代世界开始时的标志性人工制品。目的和目标攻读博士学位有两个主要目的。i)通过一系列的案例研究，学生将研究文物和收藏家的网络，他们将这些抛光的斧头从全球各地引入大英博物馆。这些传记将解决地理位置和生产有关过去的知识在世界博物馆的问题。学生将研究早期的“史前生活”观念与接受来自没有石器时代人种学的地区（如欧洲）的人工制品的深刻过去之间的相互作用。特别令人感兴趣的是按地区、加入日期和收集者所揭示的收集模式，以及人种学观察对接受史前过去的影响。ii)然后，学生将追溯这些物品是如何被用来撰写技术和社会的世界史前史的，如Lubbock（1865）、Evans（1872）和Morgan（1877）的作品，以及后来Peake和Fleure（1927）、Smith（1933）和Childe（1951）的作品，最后是Clark在1961年开创性的《世界史前史》。更广泛的研究团体大英博物馆是一个世界博物馆。通过研究，它寻求找到新的方法，让国内外的各种观众了解它的藏品，并让他们有机会了解世界文化和历史。该博士将通过其跨学科的方法来研究大英博物馆四个部门收集的单一类别的人工制品，从而为这项研究任务做出贡献。通过与RHUL在地理和考古方面的专业知识合作，博士学位的成果将有助于AHRC的国际战略，其目标是促进英国成为世界研究中心。自大英博物馆成立以来的250年里，追踪世界各地的收藏家和轴线网络，将为人们、地点和事物的相互联系以及它们转化为共享知识提供一个切实的例子。这项研究的受益者将是英国遗产研究，以及其中确定的特定学科和合作

Research contextThe 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 objectivesThere 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 communityThe 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