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Archaeology and the Powerhouse Museum – an ancient association

Picture of Irmah

Irmah

Archaeology display at the Powerhouse Museum
Archaeology display at the Powerhouse Museum, outside the Coles Theatre (between levels 1 and 2 of the Museum), from October 2013. End date not set. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM
Archaeology and museums both rely on objects (also known as artefacts or examples of material culture) to understand people and societies better. By examining and researching material culture, we enrich human knowledge about people, cultures, societies and history. We can learn about societal and technological developments and use this knowledge to help more wisely chart our own course into the future.

Powerhouse Museum curator and archaeologist, Paul Donnelly (and my Powerhouse parter in the Zagora Archaeological Project), arranged for a display (pictured at right) at the Powerhouse Museum to introduce visitors to the Zagora project and to raise awareness about the particularly close association of the Powerhouse with archaeology.

The Powerhouse Museum is part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. We present exhibitions and programs about the applied arts and sciences, that is, the objects produced through the application of arts and/or sciences, or, you could say, design and/or technology, and their influence on people and societies in the past, now and into the future. By understanding the objects – who invented, created, designed and used them, and when, how and why design and production techniques and technologies developed, we learn about how societies were shaped – just as archaeologists learn from the artefacts (pots, tools, etc.) and building structures they excavate.

Attic red figure earthenware lekythos (oil jug) and c. 480BCE, and Cypriot ceramic bowl c. 2050BCE
From left: [A5809] Attic red figure earthenware lekythos (oil jug), and c. 480BCE, and [A6431] Cypriot ceramic bowl c. 2050BCE. The scene on the lekythos – a woman putting something on a stool – gives us the kind of information rarely excavated on archaeological sites because so many materials, such as textiles or wood, do not survive. Of the whole scene on the lekythos, the only things that would survive to be excavated are the little alabastron (a small pottery or glass vessel for holding oil) hanging above and the bracelet (which would probably survive only under special conditions). So images on ancient pottery can be immensely useful in helping us picture how house interiors may have been furnished and what people may have worn at the time the pottery was decorated. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM

Click the links in the captions to learn more about the objects in the display.

[A4378] Attic black figure amphora, c. 520BCE
[A4378] Attic black figure amphora, c. 520BCE. The figures with the tails are Greek mythological creatures called satyrs. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM
Detail of lion and boar from [A4378] Attic black figure amphora, c. 520BCE
Detail of lion and boar from [A4378] Attic black figure amphora, c. 520BCE. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM

Powerhouse Museum exhibitions which have featured archaeological artefacts have included 1000 years of the Olympic Games: treasures of ancient Greece and Greek treasures from the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Stone blade, c. 4000BCE, excavated from Teleilat Ghassul, on the shore of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan
[H9296] Stone blade, flint, c. 4000BCE, excavated from Teleilat Ghassul, on the shore of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan. Chipped and ground stone industries are best known in pre-historic times (such as at Teleilat Ghassul). One of the things that makes Zagora of great interest is the evidence that stone tools, eg obsidian, were used there in the Iron Age. This was one of a group of tools given to the Powerhouse Museum by the Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1976. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM
Elevated view of the archaeology display at the Powerhouse Museum
An elevated view of the archaeology display at the Powerhouse Museum. The object at lower right that looks like a log of wood is actually [A3213], a water pipe from Roman Britain, part of a gift from the Guildhall Museum, London, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet. The images at the back of the display case are a design detail from an artefact found at Zagora, and a view of the land- and seascape from Zagora. Photo by Irma Havlicek; © PHM

You see, archaeology and museums actually have a lot in common.

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