BC or not BC? Is that the question?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-12-12

Since the introduction of prehistory into the school syllabus at KS2, museums have been evaluating and developing the resources they have to assist in the teaching of that subject. This paper focusses on one aspect of that subject; how prehistoric periods are represented in museum galleries. This is based on the speaker’s personal experience as curator at Southampton and the development there of the first full exhibition of the town’s prehistoric collection. The talk will outline the themes that were considered, rejected and chosen, together with the processes of planning and construction that led to the creation of the exhibition that we titled ‘BC’. This will be followed by a review of galleries in other museums, with the aim of revealing any deeper trends in how prehistory is conceived of and presented. The questions to be considered might include the following. What does prehistory mean? How are the themes link museum collections with the school curriculum portrayed and explored? How easy is it, in a gallery, to balance a learning experience with enjoyment of objects and the subject as a whole?



Duncan Brown, Historic England


Speaker biography
Duncan Brown is Head of Archaeological Archives at Historic England and Chair of the Society for Museum Archaeology. He represents HE at the Archaeological Archives Forum and also sits on the CIDOC Archaeology Group. Duncan has also held the positions of President of the Medieval Pottery Research Group, Chair of the CIfA Finds Group, founding Chair of the CIfA Archaeological Archives Group, English representative to the European Archaeological Consilium Working Group for Archaeological Archives and is currently a Council member for the Society of Antiquaries of London. Between 1982 and 2009 Duncan worked for Southampton City Museums, initially as a medieval pottery researcher, then Curator of Archaeology. In 2002 he published the monograph ‘Pottery in Medieval Southampton’ and has also produced many articles and papers on medieval pottery, museum archaeology and archaeological archives. He continues to study post-Roman ceramics and is a co-author of the recently published ‘Standards for Pottery Studies in Archaeology’.