Making Early Histories in Museums (Making Histories in Museums)

Making Early Histories in Museums is the first book devoted to the debate about interpretation and making history in the context of archaeological museums. The reliance of those working on the early periods of the past on the fragmentary information provided by archaeology, as well as an imperfect documentary record, brings its own interpretative challenges. While much has been written in the context of archaeological theory about the partiality and subjectivity of archaeologists' interpretations of the past, little has been written about the implications of this for the interpretation of archaeology to a non-specialist audience in museums. As a result, most archaeological museums have tended to present a traditional and uncritical model of the past. This book challenges the traditional approach by combining some of the excitement and debate that characterizes modern archaeology and musealogy into a more critical approach to the interpretation of the early past in museums.