just outside my window there's an advertising pillar of the type quite common
here in europe - it just stands there, waiting for someone to change the posters
glued onto it -
        right now it's advertising an exhibition called "treasures from X" (not
going to bother with the country, it's not important) being shown at our local
state museum of archaeology -
        am i alone in getting annoyed when all the work we do is reduced to
"treasure hunting" even by the people who should know better? the museum here is
tied in with the state archaeological service (excavation is a state monopoly,
with all that that entails); which has no standing exhibits (partly because of
want of a permanent venue), and tends otherwise to glamourise the whole thing
into a fairly empty bunch of superlatives: the oldest this, the earliest that...
        i was also annoyed about 2 years ago when some of my finds were
described on a poster as "treasures from a latrine" -
        is this a general archaeological problem (assumption that all the
[assumed] stupid public wants to see is/are treasures), laziness on the part of
curators, a general unwillingness to communicate with the public...?
        i'm not going to suggest that the public really likes this kind of stuff
because they flock to erich von daniken readings but for the most part stay
away from serious museum exhibits...
        any ideas/comments?


geoff carver
http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
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