James Gillray, A cognocenti contemplating ye beauties of ye antique, 1801

London, British Museum, 1851,0901.1045: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0901-1045

The modern academic science of archaeology has some less-than-respectable origins. Museums all over the western world are currently trying to come to terms with just how and why certain artefacts entered their collections. Several have begun the process of 'de-colonisation'. Their moral queasiness would certainly have mystified some - though by no means all - of the early antiquarians, adventurers and straightforward tomb robbers who bequeathed them the fruits of their labours!

We shall begin with the earliest collectors of the Renaissance, and work our way through three centuries of changing attitudes to the material remains of earlier human history. We shall see how the motivation behind the digging and delving changed over time. Some, like Belzoni, came for loot; some, like Sir Arthur Evans, were determined to discover a lost civilisation; others, such as Pitt Rivers, worked scientifically to establish the antiquity of man so that their evidence would 'stand up in a court of law'; and eventually countless others would labour tirelessly for nothing more than knowledge of the human past. For the latter, the “buried treasure” was information.

Our journey will take us to the Valley of the Kings, the ruins of Nineveh, and the gates of Babylon - encountering, en route, some deuced ungentlemanly gentlemen!

7 weeks, Friday 27 January - Friday 17 March (incl., with half-term break on 17 February).

RJW F222325

Registration: £85 per person