Public-domain ebook
by British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Language: en1,203 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - Ancient·Archaeology & Anthropology
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #52081.
The guide is a museum catalogue that explains how the British Museum’s Greek and Roman Antiquities department has arranged its exhibition of ancient life. It opens with a candid preface acknowledging that the objects on display were not originally chosen for a single systematic display, so the resulting narrative is necessarily selective. The author, A. H. Smith, details the collaborative effort behind the 1920 edition, noting revisions, new acquisitions, and the use of casts to fill gaps. A thorough table of contents follows, dividing the material into thematic sections, from political inscriptions and slavery to dress, domestic arts, and burial practices, each linked to numbered objects in the galleries. The introductory text then describes the exhibition’s layout, with public‑life artifacts on the west side and domestic items on the east, and explains how the numbered references correspond to the museum’s catalogues.
Written in a formal, scholarly voice typical of early‑20th‑century museum publications, the guide combines concise descriptive prose with occasional explanatory asides. Its style is factual rather than narrative, aiming to inform rather than entertain. Readers with an interest in classical archaeology, museum studies, or the history of curatorial practice will find it especially rewarding, as will students and scholars seeking a structured overview of the artifacts that illustrate everyday and civic aspects of Greek and Roman societies.
The opening · free to read
The materials forming the basis of this scheme are, primarily, objects which already formed part of the Museum collections: for this reason it has not been possible always to preserve that proportion in the relation of the sections to the whole which would have been studied if the objects had been selected for acquisition with this purpose in view. Further, it is necessary to warn visitors that they must not expect to find the subject in any sense exhaustively treated here: the complete illustration of every detail of ancient life would be impossible for any museum as at present constituted. All that can here be done is to shape the available material into a system which may at least present a fairly intelligible, if limited, view of ancient life. Several new acquisitions, made since the appearance of the first edition of this Guide, have strengthened the exhibition in directions in which it was deficient, and it is hoped that this process will be continued. Meanwhile, some of the gaps have been filled by means of casts and reproductions of objects belonging to other categories in this Museum, or preserved elsewhere.
The preparation of the first edition of this Guide (1908) was entrusted to different members of the Departmental Staff. Mr. Yeames prepared a great deal of the necessary preliminary work: Mr. Walters wrote the sections on Athletics, the Circus, Gladiators, and Agriculture: Mr. Forsdyke those on Coins, Arms and Armour, Dress and the Toilet. The remaining sections were mainly the work of Mr. Marshall.
In the present edition the section on Arms and Armour has been re-written by Mr. Forsdyke, and the remainder has been mainly revised by myself. The proofs have been read by Mr. Walters and Mr. Forsdyke.
A. H. SMITH.
BRITISH MUSEUM, March, 1920.
CONTENTS.
The references in brackets are to the numbers of the Figures.
Treaties, etc. (1); Proxenia Decrees (2-3); Dikasts' Tickets and Ostraka (4-6); Votive Arms (7-8); Military Diploma (9_a_, 9_b_); Corn Largesse (10); Slaves (11).
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