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An exhibit is the outcome of multiple rounds of curation -- which items are preserved through history, which are acquired by museums, which are retained, which
by djur 4y ago
An exhibit is the outcome of multiple rounds of curation -- which items are preserved through history, which are acquired by museums, which are retained, which are displayed, and the prominence with which they are displayed. This curation is always going to involve some kind of agenda, benign or otherwise. In a sense you are correct that the exhibit you viewed is fake in the sense of being a fabricated version of reality. But that doesn't mean it was fake in the sense of being fraudulent.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoOh I don't know. They had a convenient mug with the Etruscan alphabet and the Greek alphabet inscribed around the top. What do you know! The letters were one-to-one. And it was perfectly preserved. Not a chip. The various jugs and jars had insults and humorous comments painted haphazardly across them. Almost as if to entertain the audience who would 'dig them up.' Just looking at it all my overwhelming impression was, it was just the same sort of stuff my high school class had buried in our Archaeology unit, so our classmates could collect them. I remember (which is no evidence at all, I know) in my youth, barrows that were investigated int the 1800s and marked 'empty' as suddenly showing up years later packed with handy Etruscan artifacts of just the sort a museum would want.
- djur 4y agoThe Etruscan alphabet was derived from the Greek alphabet, so I'm not sure why that would be suspicious. Etruscan dropped a few letters but otherwise it's very similar.