Antiquities

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Antiquities (disambiguation).
Lapith on a metope from the Parthenon, in the British Museum (London), part of the Elgin Marbles
An Assyrian lamassu in the Louvre
Chinese ritual wine server (guang
), circa 1100 BC

Antiquities are objects from

Olmec civilization are found reburied in significant sites of later cultures up to the Spanish Conquest.[1]

A person who studies antiquities, as opposed to just collecting them, is often called an antiquarian.

Definition

The definition of the term is not always precise, and institutional definitions such as museum "Departments of Antiquities" often cover later periods, but in normal usage Gothic objects, for example, would not now be described as antiquities, though in 1700 they might well have been, as the cut-off date for antiquities has tended to retreat since the word was first found in English in 1513. Non-artistic artifacts are now less likely to be called antiquities than in earlier periods. Francis Bacon wrote in 1605: "Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time".

The art trade reflects modern usage of the term; Christie's "Department of Antiquities" covers objects "from the dawn of civilization to the Dark Ages, ranging from Western Europe to the Caspian Sea, embracing the cultures of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Near East."[2] Bonhams use a similar definition: "...4000 B.C to the 12th Century A.D. Geographically they originate from Egypt, the Near East and Europe ..."[3] Official cut-off dates are often later, being unconcerned with precise divisions of art history, and using the term for all historical periods they wish to protect: in Jordan it is 1750,[4] in Hong Kong 1800, and so on.

The term is no longer much used in formal academic discussion, because of this imprecision. However, a recent attempt to standardise this and other terms has been carried out.

antiques
, which covers objects, not generally discovered as a result of archaeology, at most about three hundred years old, and usually far less.

History

Allegories of five literatures of antiquity, relief at Cardiff Castle, by Thomas Nicholls circa 1870

The sense of antiquitates, the idea that a civilization could be recovered by a systematic exploration of its

Late Antique manuscripts: the Utrecht Psalter attempts to recreate such a Late Antique original, both in its handwriting and its illustrations.[9]

Many museums hold these artifacts and keep them safe so that we have access to the knowledge they hold about the past. On September 2 the National Museum of Brazil was engulfed in flames. This event caused many artifacts to be lost forever.[10]

Trading

Main article: Antiquities trade

Trading of antiquities can be legal or illegal. The looting of archaeological sites or museums to supply the black market in antiquities poses a grave threat to the world's cultural heritage. Irreplaceable archaeological information may be lost.

See also

Collecting
Terms
Topics

References

  1. ^ http://artworld.uea.ac.uk/cms/index.php?q=node/873. Retrieved August 10, 2012. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  2. ^ [1] Archived August 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Antiquities". Bonhams. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
  4. ^ [2] Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ HORTOLÀ, Policarp (1 December 2017). "From antiquities to memorabilia: a standardised terminology for ancestral artefacts according to manufacture date". Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica. 23 (2). Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  6. ^ Roberto Weiss, 1969. The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, p. 2ff.
  7. ^ The "Cup of the Ptolemies" was set in Carolingian precious mounting and preserved in the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
  8. ^ Robert Weiss notes (1969:8) that Ionic columns from the Baths of Caracalla were used in Innocent II's rebuilding of Santa Maria in Trastevere, 1139
  9. ^ Noted in this context by Roberto Weiss 1969:4.
  10. ^ "Lessons from the destruction of the National Museum of Brazil". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
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