Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:57:16.904Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Presenting the Romans – Issues and Approaches to Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2013

Nigel Mills
Affiliation:
Director, World Heritage and Access, The Hadrian's Wall Trust
Get access

Summary

Purpose and Discussion

The aim of this book is to explore and address a number of perceived issues in the public presentation of the archaeology of Hadrian's Wall and of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. It is relevant also to wider issues of public presentation of the roman world in Britain and elsewhere and to the application of principles of good interpretation to periods of the past in which archaeology is a major source of evidence. The issues can be summarised as follows:

  1. Public presentation is generally very academic, focusing on the imparting of knowledge from academics and professionals to visitors rather than responding to the interests and questions of the visitors (and potential visitors) themselves.

  2. Public presentation has tended to focus on the display of objects for their own sake, avoiding and excluding approaches which seek to use objects to illustrate themes and narratives.

  3. Academic and professional archaeologists are often very conservative in their understanding of how archaeological evidence might be used for public presentation.

  4. There is generally a poor understanding of the basic principles of good interpretation in the academic and museums world, with a perception that anything beyond straightforward presentation of objects and well-authenticated reconstruction implies ‘Disneyfication’, ‘dumbing down’ or ‘marketing’. Use of the word storytelling by interpreters tends to equate with the word fairytales in the minds of many academic and professional archaeologists and curators.

  5. Public presentation of the Roman Frontiers has a tendency to focus on the Roman army and its military infrastructure and to avoid broader political, economic and social issues.

  6. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Presenting the Romans
Interpreting the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×