Understanding Artefacts

Question 1

Answer 1

Chaîne opératoire - Origin, production, burial, usage and analysis. But also combines the utilitarian, social and ideological aspects of a group.

Question 2

Answer 2

The Uluburun Shipwreck, Turkey. Late 14th C BCE. Included oxhide ingots.

Question 3

Answer 3

Parthenon Frieze

• Panathenaic (Greek festival where Athena gets a new gown) procession or the myth of King Erechtheus (legendary king and probably also a divinity of Athens)?

Question 4

Answer 4

Ceramic distribution at Çaltılar Höyük, Turkey. Only surface collection done but thousands of sherds found.

Question 5

Answer 5

Ceramic analysis: X-ray flourescence (XRF) (chemical)

Question 6

Answer 6

Ceramic analysis: petrography (mineral). Can be used to see the make up of the ceramics, the materials available to the civilisation of a particular time period and location, and what temper has been used.

Question 7

Answer 7

Residue analysis: gas chromatography. Can analyse residue inside ceramics to see what it was being used to hold.

Question 8

Answer 8

The Parthenon, Athens

• 447-432 BCE
• Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates
• Pentelic marble
• Peripteral Doric temple
• Contained a chyrselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias

Question 9

Answer 9

Elgin marbles/ Parthenon sculptures. 1801-1812:

Lord Elgin removes many of the sculptures, with permission from the Ottoman government. But some without permission. A number are now in the British Museum

• 1930s: unauthorised cleaning of BM Parthenon sculptures using wire brushes and chemicals.
• 1983: Greek government begins campaign to return the sculptures to Greece
• 2014: UNESCO offers to mediate between Greece and UK. UK declines.