ethics and ancient history
To be honest, it always amazes me that I get a new class of senior ancient history students every year. I know that seems an odd thing for a passionate teacher to say, but given the vast subject choices on offer, I always expect ancient history to loose its way, especially amongst the techy subjects. But it doesn’t. Every year I get at least 15 students who are nerdy dead keen to get stuck in to the old stuff.
The first unit in the two year course is Digging Up the Past. This unit lays the foundation for the concepts of archaeology, analysing sources, understanding the nature of sources and getting one’s head around the complexities and fascinations of ancient history.
This year, I started my unit by looking at ethical issues in archaeology and museum curation. This is usually the last thing we look at in class and it is always rushed. I felt that students never really got the chance to delve into the rich offerings of this topic. So this year, I started with it, and boom! I have budding Interpol officers, budding repatriation lawyers and looting investigators. Best of all, most of my students have really grappled with the ethics of walking into museums that are holding artefacts that do not belong there, or supporting exhibitions containing human remains. The discussions and debates have been brilliant and I finally feel as though the students are getting a chance to consider these issues in depth, rather than a last minute fill in.
Today we entered the murky would of the antiquities black market and looked at cases where museums have been caught out (intentionally and unintentionally) over issues of provenance. That there was an Australian case in 2014 shocked them. What I have found is that starting with these issues has given students pause to think about the absolute importance of cultural heritage but also the damage that is done by withholding or removing that heritage - the Parthenon Marbles is always an excellent case to analyse.
Next week, we turn our attention to archaeological processes and representations. We start source analysis and critical evaluation of evidence. All very exciting in its own right. I’m keen to see if starting with ethics better informs their understanding about the archaeological processes. Stay tuned.
If you are keen to look at the various ethical issues in archaeology and curation, I’ve added some resources that you might find useful:
Mummifying Alan - a modern day mummification that also highlights the ethics surrounding the experiment. There is also a documentary about this and my students were fascinated. They have been able to draw upon the issues in the documentary to better inform their understanding about other ethical issues. Mind you, the documentary is confronting.
FutureLearn MOOC - Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime, Dr Donna Yates (@DrDonnaYates)
National Geographic article on Parthenon Marbles debate
ethical issues of recent mummy ‘voice’
Antiquity 1 textbook is also a fabulous resource for all things ethics and repatriation.
I look forward to hearing how your class goes.
Go forth and conquer!
