Drawn from memory: The archaeology of aesthetics and the aesthetics of archaeology in Earlier Bronze Age Britain and the present

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the visual discourse of archaeological illustration tends to present a specific perspective of the relationship between aesthetics and memory and that this determines how we conceptualize these issues in relation to archaeological artefacts. I examine the historical background of this discourse and offer an alternative conceptualization of the relationship between aesthetics and memory by drawing on the twin concepts of citation and oeuvre . As a means of examining the relationship between contemporary practices and those of the past I discuss the similarities and differences between the production of archaeological illustrations and their dissemination in the archaeological corpus and the production and deposition of a series of artefacts from Earlier Bronze Age Scotland.