The Cultural Life of Images: Visual Representation in Archaeology

by Molyneaux,Brian Leigh

• ISBN13: 9780415106757
• ISBN10: 0415106753
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

With subjects ranging from prehistoric artworks to excavation drawings, scientific illustrations, and artists impressions of ancient sites and contemporary landscapes,The Cultural Life of Imagesexplores how pictures and representations of the past shape our perceptions and our expectations of that past. This volume is not concerned with the accuracy of pictures from the past or directly about the past itself, but is interested instead as to why certain subjects are selected, why they are depicted the way they are, and what effects such images have on our idea of the past. This collection constitutes a ground-breaking study in historiography which radically reassesses the ways in which history can be written.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x	(3)
List of tables	xiii	(1)
List of contributors	xiv	(1)
General editor's preface	xv	(2)
Acknowledgements	xvii
Introduction: the cultural life of images	1	(10)
Brain Leigh Molyneaux
Pictures and words	1	(4)
The situation of production	5	(1)
The inertia of pictures	5	(2)
Seeing and reading	7	(1)
References	8	(3)
1 Art, Landscape, and the past: an artist's view	11	(11)
Carolyn Trant
References	21	(1)
2 Drawing inferences: visual reconstructions in theory and practice	22	(27)
Simon James
Introduction	22	(1)
`But is it Art?' Aims, aesthetics, and mechanics	23	(1)
Participants and interactions	24	(1)
Academic attitudes	24	(1)
Rules and guidelines	25	(1)
Aims, processes, and limitations	26	(1)
Reconstruction as an archaeological research tool	27	(6)
Reconstructing the Roman saddle	27	(2)
Reconstructing complex timber buildings. Cowdery's Down	29	(4)
Reconstructing social relations	33	(1)
Reconstruction as a medium of communication with the public(s)	34	(5)
Iron Age nobles. A reconstruction for the general public	35	(4)
Producing a drawing	39	(1)
Boxgrove	40	(6)
Building on experience. Vices into virtues	46	(1)
Acknowledgements	47	(1)
References	47	(2)
3 Things, and things like them	49	(13)
Alan Costall
The place of pictures in perceptual theory	50	(12)
The window theory of pictures	50	(1)
The information theory of pictures	51	(3)
The evidence for resemblance theory	54	(2)
Doing things with pictures	56	(1)
Children's (mis)understandings of pictures	56	(2)
The social life of pictures	58	(1)
References	59	(3)
4 `To see is to have seen': craft traditions in British field archaeology	62	(11)
Richard Bradley
On learning to see	62	(2)
Craft traditions in field archaeology	64	(4)
Styles of illustration	68	(2)
Conclusion: 'To see is to have seen'	70	(1)
Note	71	(1)
References	71	(2)
5 Photography and archeology	73	(35)
Michael Shanks
Introduction	73	(1)
The photograph as record and witness	74	(2)
Photographs as notes	76	(2)
Genres of photography	78	(1)
Realism and naturalism	78	(2)
The rhetoric of the image	80	(1)
The rhetoric of discourse	81	(2)
Text and the photograph	83	(1)
Photowork and the working of illustrative discourse	83	(2)
10 The power of the picture: the image of the ancient Gaul	213	(17)
Timothy Champion
Introduction	213	(17)
Representation of the barbarian Gauls	214	(2)
Guizot's Histoire and its images	216	(7)
The projection of the image	223	(3)
The legacy	226	(3)
References	229	(1)
11 Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of Aboriginal Australia in museums	230	(19)
Lynette Russell
Introduction	230	(1)
Inventing the other	231	(1)
Museum texts and displays, past and present	233	(7)
An Aboriginal-designed museum exhibition	240	(3)
Corporate symbolism: Aborigines represent themselves	243	(2)
Conclusion	245	(1)
Acknowledgements	246	(1)
References	246	(3)
12 The painter and prehistoric people: a 'hypothesis on canvas	249	(14)
Wiktor Stoczkowski
Notes	262	(1)
References	262	(1)
Index	263	(1)
Further workings of a photograph	85	(1)
Temporality of the photograph	86	(1)
Actuality	86	(3)
Melancholy and ruin	89	(2)
New technologies	91	(1)
Hypermedia	92	(7)
Experience and the photograph	99	(1)
Varieties of experience: towards embodiment	100	(1)
Visualization as a research too and archaeologies of the ineffable	100	(1)
The potential of photography	101	(1)
A radical imaging/writing	102	(1)
Notes	102	(2)
References	104	(4)
6 Representation and reality in private tombs of the late eighteenth dynasty, Egypt: an approach to the study of the shape of meaning	108	(22)
Brain Leigh Molyneaux
Representation and reality	108	(6)
The Akhenaten problem	114	(2)
The social landscape of the representations	116	(1)
Visibility and compositional devices	117	(4)
Metric analysis	121	(1)
The analysis of height relations	122	(3)
Conclusion	125	(2)
References	127	(3)
7 Some Greek images of others	130	(29)
Brian A. Sparkes
Introduction	130	(2)
The dynamic text	132	(1)
Images of others	133	(4)
The others	137	(17)
The Skythians	137	(2)
The Thracians	139	(3)
The Persians	142	(2)
The Africans (Ethiopians and Egyptians)	144	(10)
Conclusion	154	(1)
References	155	(4)
8 The art and archaeology of Custer's last battle	159	(25)
Richard A. Fox, Jr
Introduction	159	(1)
Objectives	160	(1)
"Custer's last stand'	161	(2)
Plains Indian art	163	(8)
Indian drawings, archaeology, and combat behaviour	171	(8)
Conclusions	179	(2)
Acknowledgements	181	(1)
Notes	182	(1)
References	182	(2)
9 Revolutionary images: the iconic vocabulary for representing human antiquity	184	(29)
Stephanie Moser
Clive Gamble
Introduction	184	(1)
Archaeology and visual representation	185	(1)
The visual reconstruction	186	(4)
The icons of human antiquity	188	(2)
Three windows onto the past	190	(15)
The Romantic tradition	192	(3)
The archaeological tradition	194	(10)
The comic tradition	204	(1)
Locating the origins of archaeology's iconic vocabulary	205	(4)
Ancestors and cultural origins	206	(1)
Apes, savages, and evolution	207	(1)
Landscape	208	(1)
Authenticity and the demise of the Romantic vision of the past	209	(1)
Acknowledgements	210	(1)
Note	210	(1)
References	211	(2)
List of illustrations	x	(3)
List of tables	xiii	(1)
List of contributors	xiv	(1)
General editor's preface	xv	(2)
Acknowledgements	xvii
Introduction: the cultural life of images	1	(10)
Brain Leigh Molyneaux
Pictures and words	1	(4)
The situation of production	5	(1)
The inertia of pictures	5	(2)
Seeing and reading	7	(1)
References	8	(3)
1 Art, Landscape, and the past: an artist's view	11	(11)
Carolyn Trant
References	21	(1)
2 Drawing inferences: visual reconstructions in theory and practice	22	(27)
Simon James
Introduction	22	(1)
`But is it Art?' Aims, aesthetics, and mechanics	23	(1)
Participants and interactions	24	(1)
Academic attitudes	24	(1)
Rules and guidelines	25	(1)
Aims, processes, and limitations	26	(1)
Reconstruction as an archaeological research tool	27	(6)
Reconstructing the Roman saddle	27	(2)
Reconstructing complex timber buildings. Cowdery's Down	29	(4)
Reconstructing social relations	33	(1)
Reconstruction as a medium of communication with the public(s)	34	(5)
Iron Age nobles. A reconstruction for the general public	35	(4)
Producing a drawing	39	(1)
Boxgrove	40	(6)
Building on experience. Vices into virtues	46	(1)
Acknowledgements	47	(1)
References	47	(2)
3 Things, and things like them	49	(13)
Alan Costall
The place of pictures in perceptual theory	50	(12)
The window theory of pictures	50	(1)
The information theory of pictures	51	(3)
The evidence for resemblance theory	54	(2)
Doing things with pictures	56	(1)
Children's (mis)understandings of pictures	56	(2)
The social life of pictures	58	(1)
References	59	(3)
4 `To see is to have seen': craft traditions in British field archaeology	62	(11)
Richard Bradley
On learning to see	62	(2)
Craft traditions in field archaeology	64	(4)
Styles of illustration	68	(2)
Conclusion: 'To see is to have seen'	70	(1)
Note	71	(1)
References	71	(2)
5 Photography and archeology	73	(35)
Michael Shanks
Introduction	73	(1)
The photograph as record and witness	74	(2)
Photographs as notes	76	(2)
Genres of photography	78	(1)
Realism and naturalism	78	(2)
The rhetoric of the image	80	(1)
The rhetoric of discourse	81	(2)
Text and the photograph	83	(1)
Photowork and the working of illustrative discourse	83	(2)
10 The power of the picture: the image of the ancient Gaul	213	(17)
Timothy Champion
Introduction	213	(17)
Representation of the barbarian Gauls	214	(2)
Guizot's Histoire and its images	216	(7)
The projection of the image	223	(3)
The legacy	226	(3)
References	229	(1)
11 Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of Aboriginal Australia in museums	230	(19)
Lynette Russell
Introduction	230	(1)
Inventing the other	231	(1)
Museum texts and displays, past and present	233	(7)
An Aboriginal-designed museum exhibition	240	(3)
Corporate symbolism: Aborigines represent themselves	243	(2)
Conclusion	245	(1)
Acknowledgements	246	(1)
References	246	(3)
12 The painter and prehistoric people: a 'hypothesis on canvas	249	(14)
Wiktor Stoczkowski
Notes	262	(1)
References	262	(1)
Index	263	(1)