古物

古物指与考古学、历史学、古生物学及其他文化有关之物,其范围广、种类多,其保存价值以其时代、数量及其所具备的科学、历史和艺术价值为标准。我国的古物收藏,起自殷商,历经各代,在宋清两朝尤其兴盛,至西方学说传入后,古物被视为公有而供公众观赏。收藏古物,要重视其科学价值,不可收藏的古物应就地保存,可收藏的古物要遵循科学的方法。要认识古物的价值,用近代的方法研究、保存。     

Excavations at Bishop's Street Without: 17th Century Conflict Archaeology in Derry City

Abstract

Excavations on this site, undertaken by Paul Logue for EHS: Built Heritage DOE: NI, produced evidence for at least two phases of occupation outside Bishop's Gate, Londonderry during the 17th century. This occupation came to an end with a phase of activity dated to the commencement of the Jacobite siege in A.D. 1689. Further evidence of that siege was uncovered in the form of a ravelin ditch 2.8 m wide and 0.57 m in depth, constructed in early 1689 to front Bishop's Gate. The extant remains of a sally port interrupted the ditch. A nearby larger ditch, scarped from the sloping ground outside Double Bastion, measured a maximum of 8.4 m in width and 1.4 m in depth. This larger ditch may have been part of efforts to improve the City defences in the wake of the 1641 rebellion. Further evidence of conflict archaeology was recovered in the form of lead shot, weapon furniture and flint gunspalls.     

古器物纹饰传拓中的“看”与“做”

在现代文物展览、文物类图书出版中,对古器物纹饰部分进行拓片制作日益受到重视。本文是作者在多年的文物传拓实践中,对如何用传拓的手段来表现器物纹饰美感的理论认识。本文的观点是:传拓古器物纹饰,必须要深入把握古器物的纹饰内容和雕(铸)造层次,并通过对墨色浓淡变化的自觉控制,才能达到“传神”地再现古器物纹饰神韵的目的。     

The problem with looting: An alternative perspective on antiquities trafficking in Southeast Asia

The 1950s and 1960s constitute a key “moment” in the history of the looting of archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. The emergence in the region at that time of a commodity market for antiquities such as pottery triggered a wave of illicit excavation of archaeological sites. Simultaneous with the trafficking of antiquities out of the Philippines and Thailand into the hands of private collectors and museums in the West during this period and subsequent decades a thriving domestic antiquities market developed. It is argued here that the valorization of antiquities as national heritage, rather than inhibiting acquisition by citizen collectors, facilitated a process wherein collecting became a form of cultural capital accumulation. It is inaccurate to categorize Thailand and the Philippines simply as “source” or “supply” nodes in the global antiquities trade. This paper aims for a more nuanced approach to the geoeconomics of antiquities consumption.     

Museum salvage: A case study of Mesoamerican artifacts in museum collections and on the antiquities market

Abstract

Museum salvage refers to critical studies of museum collections with little or no provenience information that seek to glean useful archaeological information from these artifacts and examine the nature of their origins and possible connections to the illicit antiquities trade and the art market. Our case study focuses on artifacts from Mesoamerica and objects from the ancient capital of Teotihuacan in particular. We take a multi-scalar approach, including a quantitative analysis of Sotheby’s auction records for Mesoamerican items from 1966 to 2010, a survey of Teotihuacan attributed items in U.S. museums, and a more detailed examination of Teotihuacan-style artifacts in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science collections. The study tracks and attempts to explain diachronic patterns in the Mesoamerican antiquities trade, connections to museum collecting practices, and looting behavior. The study illustrates the potential benefits of museum salvage, while also revealing the clear limitations of research on poorly documented archaeological material.     

The ethics, politics, and realities of maritime archaeology in Southeast Asia

There is a constant battle between maritime archaeologists and commercial salvors throughout the world. In many developed countries, the arguments of archaeologists are valid, and their actions fully justify their stance. This is not so in Southeast Asia. In this region, archaeological information is being lost on a massive scale. Co-operation between the two groups, and with regional governments, is essential to prevent more irreparable damage.     

The Illegal Excavation and Trade of Syrian Cultural Objects: A View from the Ground

The illegal excavation and trade of cultural objects from Syrian archaeological sites worsened markedly after the outbreak of civil disturbance and conflict in 2011. Since then, the damage to archaeological heritage has been well documented, and the issue of terrorist funding explored, but hardly any research has been conducted into the organization and operation of theft and trafficking of cultural objects inside Syria. As a first step in that direction, this paper presents texts of interviews with seven people resident in Syria who have first-hand knowledge of the trade, and uses information they provided to suggest a model of socioeconomic organization of the Syrian war economy regarding the trafficking of cultural objects. It highlights the importance of coins and other small objects for trade, and concludes by considering what lessons might be drawn from this model to improve presently established public policy.     

Identifying sites at risk from illicit metal detecting: from CRAVED to HOPPER

Archaeological sites are at risk from acquisitive crime: this paper focuses in particular on illicit metal detecting. The effects of theft in this context are not merely financial, but have devastating impact on our knowledge and understanding of the site. Even where items are later recovered, we lose the vital clues about the precise context of an object. We therefore need to reduce the risk of theft occurring in the first place.

This paper draws on case studies from England and presents a new methodology to assess which archaeological sites may be at risk from illicit metal detecting: ‘HOPPER’ identifies the characteristics of sites likely to be targeted by offenders looking for antiquities. In brief: History (a history of finds at the site); Open (the site has physical public access, and/or is documented in the public domain); Protection (protected status can act as a beacon for offenders); Publicity (site is known about or receiving new attention); Evasion (there are known ways to escape apprehension); and Repeat victimisation (The site has been a target before). The impact of HOPPER will be its use in the field to develop a pragmatic risk assessment applicable both in a local and international context.     

Skeletal analysis and mortuary practice in an Early Roman chamber tomb at Kenchreai,Greece

Recent exploration of the site of Kenchreai, the eastern port of Corinth in southern Greece, has focussed on a cemetery of subterranean chamber tombs dating chiefly to the Early Roman period (middle‐late 1st to 3rd centuries AD). The copious but fragmentary human bones and teeth found in Tomb 10 have been disturbed since burial by natural processes, including bedrock erosion and the infiltration of moisture, roots and basic sediment, and by destructive looters. Nonetheless, the remains furnish considerable information about the mortuary practices of wealthy residents. Analysis of the remains in their archaeological and taphonomic contexts reveals that Tomb 10 contained at least 23 individuals, 15 inhumed in loculi and 8 cremated and placed in niches, sometimes in urns. The identification of males, females and subadults among the burned and unburned bones and teeth suggests that spouses, parents and children probably from several generations of the same lineage or household were buried here. The nature of the cremated fragments reflects a laborious process during which mourners burned bodies on substantial pyres at extremely high temperatures for a long time. Then they carefully extracted a representative sample of small fragments from throughout the reduced skeleton for burial at the tomb. This study contributes to a better understanding of mortuary practices in the Roman East, particularly the Greek world, where the chamber tomb was a common sepulchral type. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Floating culture: the unrecorded antiquities of England and Wales

In England and Wales there exists a corpus of unprovenanced and unrecorded antiquities; a corpus adrift from archaeological context and now ebbing and flowing across the antiquities market and which could be described as ‘floating culture’. This corpus includes illicit antiquities and also antiquities found legitimately but not recorded and subsequently sold with or without the landowner’s knowledge. The definition of floating culture as ‘traces of the human past not fixed on one position, place or level’ presents a way of conceptualising what is, in essence, a transnational issue. This paper explores floating culture and suggests that the impact of non-reporting of antiquities remains a significant ethical and legal challenge both for heritage protection policy and the antiquities market in the U.K. and beyond. Attention is given to the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales, and to the landowner-finder search agreement as potential ways of mitigating the flow of unrecorded antiquities of uncertain legal status. While neither document is enforceable, both have potential to improve the protection of the archaeological record. Many of the themes conceptualised by ‘floating culture’ are relevant to the wider discussion on heritage protection and the global trade in illicit antiquities.