Making early histories in museums - Nick Merriman

This text examines the debate about interpretation and making history in the context of archaeological museums. the reliance of those working on the early periods of the past on the fragmentary information provided by archaeology, as well as an imperfect documentary record, brings its own interpretative challenges. While much has been written in the context of archaeological theory about the partiality and subjectivity of archaeologists' interpretations of the past, less has been written about the implications of this for the interpretations of archaeology by a non-specialist audience in museums. As a result, the past presented in archaeological museums has tended to follow a traditional and uncritical model.;This book challenges the traditional approach by combining some of the debate about the interpretation of the past that characterizes modern archaeology and museology with a critical approach to the interpretation of the early past in museums.