Is (still) history of archaeology useful?


Martedi 10 e 11 settembre 2019 – École francaise de Rome, piazza Navona 62 e Museo delle Civiltà.

Today it’s “up-to-date” to integrate archaeological reports with more or less long paragraphs on the “history of researches”. In this way the archaeologist demonstrates to be informed and conscious on the activity of his predecessors in the site he explores.
This activity, very similar to the “medical history” that each doctor asks to his patients in order to better calibrate his cares, is often heavily discredited from many colleagues that consider it a sort of boring duty .
As a matter of fact archaeologists were always interested to the history of their discipline (see for example Pigorini ‘s articles on the first years of Italian prehistory at the end of XIX century), also if only after the Second World War some pioneers began to explore all the significant social, cultural and political links of our activity (e.g. Daniel) or to describe in an attracting way, also for the public, the “epic” of the great archaeological discoveries (e.g. Bibby or a non-archaeologist like Ceram).
Alongside we must remember the old tradition of Classical archaeologists studies on the history of collections and collectors, an important branch of the history of ancient art.
The seminar aims to discuss these problems examining and comparing the development of the history of archaeology and its influence on the discipline in various countries.

Contatti: École française de Rome
Nicolas Laubry Directeur des études pour l’Antiquité
Rachel George Assistante scientifique pour l’Antiquité
Piazza Farnese, 67 – 00186 Roma – Italia
T. +39 06 68 60 12 32 – secrant@efrome.it