The Cultural Life of Images: Visual Representation in Archaeology

293 Pages·1997·19.99 MB·English

by  Brian Leigh Molyneaux

THE CULTURAL LIFE
OF IMAGES
THEORETICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
GROUP (TAG)
In this series:
The Archaeology of Human Ancestry
Power, Sex and Tradition
edited by James Steele and Stephen Shennan
The Archaeology of Iberia
The Dynamics of Change
edited by Margarita Diaz-Andreu and Simon Keay
Cultural Identity and Archaeology
The Construction of European Communities
edited by Paul Graves-Brown, Sian Jones and Clive Gamble
Managing Archaeology
edited by Malcolm A. Cooper, Antony Firth, John Carman
and David Wheatley
Theory in Archaeology
A World Perspective
edited by Peter J. Ucko
Time, Tradition and Society in Greek Archaeology
Bridging the 'Great Divide'
edited by Nigel Spencer
THE CULTURAL LIFE OF
IMAGES
Visual Representation in Archaeology
Edited by
Brian Leigh Molyneaux
Q
m &
m m
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire 0X14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
First issued in paperback 2011
© 1997 Selection and editorial matter,
Brian Leigh Molyneaux
© lindividual chapters the contributors
Typeset in Bembo by Florencetype Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
The cultural life of images: visual representation in archaeology /
edited by Brian Leigh Molyneaux.
p. cm.
'Theoretical Archaeology Group."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Imaging systems in archaeology. I. Molyneaux, Brian.
II. Theoretical Archaeology Group (England)
CC79. I44C85 1997
930-dc20
ISBN13: 978-0-415-10675-7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-51344-9 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-1-134-54623-7 (ebk)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original
may be apparent
CONTENTS
List of illustrations x
List of tables xiii
List of contributors xiv
General editor's preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction: the cultural life of images 1
Brian Leigh Molyneoux
Pictures and words 1
The situation of production 5
The inertia of pictures 5
Seeing and reading 7
References 8
1 Art, landscape, and the past: an artist's view 11
Carolyn Trant
References 21
2 Drawing inferences: visual reconstructions in theory
and practice 22
Simon James
Introduction 22
'But is it Ar/?' Aims, aesthetics, and mechanics 23
Participants and interactions 24
Academic attitudes 24
Rules and guidelines 25
Aims, processes, and limitations 26
Reconstruction as an archaeological research tool 27
Reconstructing the Roman saddle 27
Reconstructing complex timber buildings.
Cowdery's Down 29
Reconstructing social relations 33
Reconstruction as a medium of communication with
the public(s) 34
vi Contents
Iron Age nobles. A reconstruction for the general public 35
Producing a drawing 39
Boxgrove 40
Building on experience. Vices into virtues 46
Acknowledgements 47
References 47
3 Things, and things like them 49
Alan Costall
The place of pictures in perceptual theory 50
The window theory of pictures 50
The information theory of pictures 51
The evidence for resemblance theory 54
Doing things with pictures 56
Children's (mis)understandings of pictures 56
The social life of pictures 58
References 59
4 'To see is to have seen': craft traditions in British field
archaeology 62
Richard Bradley
On learning to see 62
Craft traditions in field archaeology 64
Styles of illustration 68
Conclusion: 'To see is to have seen' 70
Note 71
References 71
5 Photography and archaeology 73
Michael Shanks
Introduction 73
The photograph as record and witness 74
Photographs as notes 76
Genres of photography 78
Realism and naturalism 78
The rhetoric of the image 80
The rhetoric of discourse 81
Text and the photograph 83
Photowork and the working of illustrative discourse 83
Further workings of a photograph 85
Temporality of the photograph 86
Actuality 86
Melancholy and ruin 89
New technologies 91
Hypermedia 92
Contents vii
Experience and the photograph 99
Varieties of experience: towards embodiment 100
Visualization as a research tool and archaeologies of
the ineffable 100
The potential of photography 101
A radical imaging/writing 102
Notes 102
References 104
6 Representation and reality in private tombs of the late
eighteenth dynasty, Egypt: an approach to the study of
the shape of meaning 108
Brian Leigh Molyneaux
Representation and reality 108
The Akhenaten problem 114
The social landscape of the representations 116
Visibility and compositional devices 117
Metric analysis 121
The analysis of height relations 122
Conclusion 125
References 127
7 Some Greek images of others 130
Brian A. Sparkes
Introduction 130
The dynamic text 132
Images of others 133
The others 137
The Skythians 137
The Thracians 139
The Persians 142
The Africans (Ethiopians and Egyptians) 144
Conclusion 154
References 155
8 The art and archaeology of Custer's last battle 159
Richard A. Fox, Jr
Introduction 159
Objectives 160
'Custer's last stand' 161
Plains Indian art 163
Indian drawings, archaeology, and combat behaviour 171
Conclusions 179
Acknowledgements 181
Notes 182
References 182
viii Contents
9 Revolutionary images: the iconic vocabulary for
representing human antiquity 184
Stephanie Moser and Clive Gamble
Introduction 184
Archaeology and visual representation 185
The visual reconstruction 186
The icons of human antiquity 188
Three windows onto the past 190
The Romantic tradition 191
The archaeological tradition 194
The comic tradition 204
Locating the origins of archaeology's iconic vocabulary 205
Ancestors and cultural origins 206
Apes, savages, and evolution 207
Landscape 208
Authenticity and the demise of the Romantic vision
of the past 209
Acknowledgements 210
Note 210
References 211
10 The power of the picture: the image of the ancient Gaul 213
Timothy Champion
Introduction 213
Representation of the barbarian Gauls 214
Guizot's Histoire and its images 216
The projection of the image 223
The legacy 226
References 229
11 Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of
Aboriginal Australia in museums 230
Lynette Russell
Introduction 230
Inventing the other 231
Museum texts and displays, past and present 233
An Aboriginal-designed museum exhibition 240
Corporate symbolism: Aborigines represent themselves 243
Conclusion 245
Acknowledgements 246
References 246
Contents ix
12 The painter and prehistoric people: a 'hypothesis on canvas7 249
Wiktor Stoczkowski
Notes 262
References 262
Index 263