Objects of the Past in the Past - Investigating the Significance of Earlier Artefacts in Later Contexts

How did past
communities view, understand and communicate their pasts? And how can we, as
archaeologists, understand this? In recent years these questions have been
approached through studies of the extended occupation and use of landscapes,
monuments and artefacts to explore concepts of time and memory. But what of
objects that were already old in the past?

Interpretations for
these items have ranged from the discard of scrap to objects of veneration.
Evidence from a range of periods would suggest objects of the past were an
important part of many later societies that encountered them, either as
heirlooms with remembered histories or rediscovered curiosities from a more
distant past.

For the first time,
this volume brings together a range of case studies in which objects of the
past were encountered and reappropriated. It follows a conference session at
the Theoretical Archaeological Group in Cardiff 2017, in which historians,
archaeologists, heritage professionals and commercial archaeologists gathered
to discuss this topic on a broad (pre)historical scale, highlighting
similarities and contrast in depositional practices and reactions to relics of
the past in different periods. Through case studies spanning the Bronze Age
through to the 18th century AD, this volume presents new research demonstrating
that the reappropriation of these already old objects was not anomalous, but
instead represents a practice that recurs throughout (pre)history.