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ritualpurposes · 3 years

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Archaeology in the UK is under attack

Three Universities in the last two months ( Leicester, Chester and Sheffield) have anounced major cuts to their departments, and in Sheffield’s case proposed completely closing the department. Sheffield’s department in particular is a very well renowned department, and the research conducted there has very much changed the face of archaeology. My own reasearch would not be possible without methodologies pioneeered there. Meanwhile the government is trying to scrap the current planning laws which mean archaeological survey must be carried out as part of the development process. Without these laws it will be perfectly legal to destroy the enviroment (historic and otherwise). The cynic in me notes this is all happening while there is a push againt historical research that contradicts the narrative of British Greatness, I.E the idea that colonisation and the Empire are things to be proud of (instead of you know, really horrible things that fucked up large portions of the world). History is political, and the Tories have stated many a time that any heritage reasearch that doesn’t tow the party line is ‘rewriting history’ and ‘ disloyal to the nation’.

Control of information is an important part of controling the national narative. The past is messy and complicated and diverse, and a far cry from the uniform white supremecist paradice the far right like to pretend it is. Archaeology is one of the best ways of getting at the truth of the matter and disproving the false nationalist narratives these people like to spin. Don’t let archaeology be a casualty of the Torries destructive agenda. Ways to fight back (Copied from the BAJR page) Letter template to the Sheffield University Executive Board regarding the Department of Archaeology

Ensuring the protection of archaeology for future generations within Planning for the Future

Petitions: Save Archaeology & Heritage at the University of Chester!

Save Sheffield’s Archaeology Department

#Archaeology #Archeology #CRM #commerical archaeology #History #britain #Ancient Britain #UK #united kingdom #Academia #bajr

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archeaologies · 7 years

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this is a stupid question but what jobs can u get by having archeology as ur course?? and what job are u taking by the course u taken?

hey there! it’s not a stupid question at all! archaeology is a large and complex field so it’s quite easy to feel overwhelmed by it all! a quick disclaimer: my advice is from a british (specifically scottish) perspective, so some of things i say might apply to different countries but i can’t guarantee they will. if anyone from other countries want to contribute to this post with their own advice about archaeological jobs in their country then feel free to do so! this went really long because i wanted to try and be as helpful as possible but there is a quick summary at the bottom labelled ‘tltr’ along with a little bit of advice. i hope this helps! feel free to send me more questions if you have any. :)

the majority of archaeologists work commercially. commercial archaeology depends mostly on development and construction projects: developers must have the place they which to develop surveyed by archaeologists: if there’s something there then the company usually pays for a dig and depending on the significance of the site, either everything is recorded and then the development happens, or the development must find somewhere else to build. this is kind of handy because people are always building new houses and things, so there will always be some sort of work for archaeologists. if you work commercially you tend to work under a company who will be responsible for the excavation of a site. within a firm are different jobs going from basic field work to site manager or post excavation or find work or perhaps being a specialist for the firm in a specific area. its worth keeping in mind that the pay is fairly low, and that the work might not always be as satisfying as a research dig due to deadlines and the commercial aspect of it - there’s only so much money available. that being said, most people work commercially and its a good way to develop skills, gain experience, meet new people and go new places, and get paid to do what you love.

a lot of people continue with their education and choose to stay in the education sector, achieving masters or phd’s and becoming a lecturer. its also common that lecturers have worked commercially at some point and perhaps mix lecturing with free lance work (one of my lecturers specialises in archaeobotany which doesnt tend be a permanent position within commercial firms, so they sub-contract to specialists like him) or do research projects.

another lane to go down could be museum work (if excavation isn’t for you but you like handling finds then this could be awesome for you!) museums work differently in scotland is different from england (if you want to read more look up ‘treasure trove’) but when museum’s get collections, it is their ethical duty to look after these artifacts for future generations. the things you see on display in a museum is usually a small percentage of the collection its from. a lot of work in museums is done behind the scenes: acquiring new collections for display or preservation; going through years of old collections that need properly documenting or digitising the data. in order to go into this specific line of work, its worth while also looking at different courses specific to museum work and gaining that qualification. i havent had the chance myself to look into the different courses available but i’m sure you could google it easy enough.

job security within this field (archaeology) is hard, and a lot of people jump from job to job. another thing to keep in mind is that the pay tends to be low, especially in commerical archaeology as firms try to undercut prices so that people will use them instead of a rival. in the uk, in the next few years there’s going to be an increased need for commercial archaeologists with that new trainline coming in, so according to my lecturers it’s probably the best time to go into this field as archaeology firms are going to be understaffed to deal with this scale of project and will be recruiting. i want to reiterate though that working within this kind of field is not profitable and you’re not going to earn lots of money from it. it’s the kind of job you do because you love it.

tltr; the main jobs you could do with a degree in archaeology (in my opinion) is commercial archaeology, lecturing in universities, research (writing articles for journals etc), museum work, working for companies like historic scotland or english heritage etc

i hope this helped! it’s a fairly broad explanation of a few of the main things i could think of, but there are more things out there too. if you have anymore questions though or are any of these things sound specifically interesting and you want to know a little bit more, don’t hesitate to send me another ask! and like i said before, if anyone else in different countries want to contribute to this post then go for it!

#whoops this got really long - hopefully it helps some people out though!#im open to any questions and i'll try and answer them to the best of my ability!#archaeology #archaeologist #archaeology student #commercial archaeology #owl replies #my posts

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odalisquexxx · 6 years

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In 1869, Jean-Léon Gérôme exhibited two Orientalist works at the annual Paris Salon to great critical acclaim. The first of these was a harem scene (Excursion [Promenade] of the Harem, Chrysler Museum of Art) – a genre for which the artist was fast becoming renowned – and the second, the present work, was a nearly photographic representation of Egyptian daily life. Gérôme had only recently returned from a twelve-week tour of the Middle East, during which time he had visited Cairo and other locales in Egypt. There, in the winding streets and amidst the colorful bazaars, he added to the collections of textiles, weaponry, and other decorative handicrafts and architectural elements that he had begun to assemble a decade earlier. (Gérôme’s first trip to Egypt had been in 1856 and he would return to that country seven times during the course of his long and prolific career.) In addition to these souvenirs of travel, Gérôme created a virtual library of ethnographic figure studies and architectural sketches that would repeatedly find their way into the compositions he created in his renowned Paris studio months and even years later.

Marchand ambulant au Caire features many of Gérôme’s favorite possessions, as well as a subject that would prove to be one of the artist’s most profitable and commerical. Indeed, immediately upon its exhibition at the Salon, the prestigious art dealership Goupil & Cie. purchased the work in order to engrave and reproduce it in a vast array of formats and mediums, and at varying prices. (These included: “Photographic Gallery,” “Carte de visite,” “Goupil Museum,” and as a photogravure in the firm’s own publication, produced from 1878 until after 1909, Selected Works by J.-L. Gérôme, pl. 49.) The painting itself was no less lucrative for Goupil – repurchased and resold in a whirlwind of international transactions, its price escalated with each new sale, often in as little as a few weeks’ time.

Early owners of Gérôme’s work were predominantly American manufacturers and industrialists, with a penchant for fine art. (The enthusiasm of Alexander Turney Stewart, in fact, a New York dry goods merchant, may be credited with forever cementing the name of Gérôme in America: at least five works by the artist were exhibited in the massive skylit picture gallery built at his West 34th Street home.) The large collections of these prominent society figures often featured paintings that reflected – at times ironically – their own values, aspirations, and lives. Their exacting work ethic and a love of high gloss and slick detail directed them toward the archaeological reconstructions and ethnographic compositions of the classically-trained Academic painter Gérôme, while the artist’s scenes of Middle Eastern bazaars and merchants held an unexpected sense of familiarity – here was the marketplace, the pursuit of profit, the bargaining crowd, and the working man. (Gérôme’s harem scenes of course held a different sort of appeal – as a two-dimensional outlet for Gilded Age fantasies, they offered a safe exploration of male desires.)

Critical praise for Marchand ambulant au Caire, both in America and abroad, was fervent as well. The great critic Théophile Gautier, upon seeing the work at the Paris Salon, wrote the following accolade: “Le Marchand ambulant au Caire, tout en vendant son bric-à-brac oriental, conserve une rare majesté; on en ferait aisément un patriarche, Abraham ou Jacob, dans un tableau biblique.” Edward Strahan echoed these sentiments years later, in his widely acclaimed account of The Art Treasures of America:

. . . finished, minute, inexorably perfect, a photograph with the addition of color. You can almost hear the monotonous cry that proceeds from the fellow’s jaws, set in a mechanical state of expansion, like a machine kept open with a spring and a peg. Our western collectors of bric-à-brac will fall in love with the adorable gun, the celestial silk gown, and the seductive Saracen helmet with chain cape, exposed by this purveyor in the vulgar lanes of Cairo, seemingly with no sense of their virtuosité; the artist will more greatly admire the statuesque solidity of the figure, the vibrating walk, with head doddering from side to side, the solid bronze mask of the face . . . he is all there, every atom of him . . . (pp. 77-8)

Subtle references to others of the artist’s most profitable series, and to Egypt’s transition from past to present, were also included in this composition, to the delight of astute observers: the musket, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, is here but an ornament and a means to a sale, emphasizing the new impotence of both the Bashi-Bazouk, or Mamluk guard, and the once fearsome Arnaut soldier in modern Cairo. Gérôme repeatedly depicted these figures in his art, at times with dignity, but more often with sarcasm and wit. (Interestingly, in the Bashi-Bazouk (fig. 1) [The Metropolitan Museum of Art], also painted in 1869, the soldier wears the same distinctive pink satin as featured in the present work, and exhibits the same meticulous attention to texture and light.) Similarly, the Mamluk (or possibly Persian) helmet with its elaborate metal chasing and formidable spike is comparable to that nonchalantly held by the striking Pelt Merchant of Cairo (Private Collection), another of Gérôme’s “merchant series” painted in 1869. (The Brooklyn Museum’s The Carpet Merchant of Cairo, fig. 2, with a similar, albeit reversed, composition to Marchand ambulant au Caire and again dating from 1869, may also be included in this group.) Finally, the long vista through a crowded street, the mashrabiyya balconies and overhanging eaves of recently whitewashed buildings, with one of Cairo’s characteristic minarets and a dome in the distance, silhouetted against a blue sky, align Gérôme’s work with the deeply meditative prayer scenes that collectors and critics would hail throughout the 1860s, ‘70’s, and beyond. Criss-crossing these painted surfaces, such details create intriguing dialogues between works and among series, and emphasize Gérôme’s inimitable, and deeply personal, Orientalist style.

This catalogue note was written by Dr. Emily M. Weeks.

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