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Can a museum explain imperialism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

N. James
N. James*
Affiliation:
*Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
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Extract

Empires produced some of the ancient world's grandest monuments. No doubt that helps to account for successive major exhibitions recently mounted at the British Museum. The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army closed in April 2008, having drawn more visitors than any other since Treasures of Tutankhamun in 1972 (British Museum 2008: 66). There followed, from July to October, impressive and intriguing pieces on Hadrian, the Roman Emperor of the second century AD. The attention to large political systems is timely (James 2008: 201). Twenty-five years ago, Donald Horne (1984: 252) went so far as to declare that 'in the popularisations … of the huge storehouse of … artifacts … that are such an extraordinary feature of our age. … we may find the only real potential for giving substance to human liberation'. Is this feasible in practice; and, if so, is a state museum with business sponsorship a likely place to find such enlightenment? Studying the archaeology in Hadrian, with The First Emperor as a foil, enabled us to assess these questions.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 318 , December 2008 , pp. 1104 - 1110
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

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