Authenticity challenged? The ‘plastic house’ at Çatalhöyük

Pye, Elizabeth

doi:10.1179/146551806793155770

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Accordingly, Scotland’s Historic Environment Policy (SHEP) (Historic Scotland, 2009) also takes it to be a central principle, which informs the work of all those involved in the conservation of monuments in HS’s care. Yet while retention of evidence and authenticity is emphasized, policies must balance this overriding ideal with recognition that some changes may be unavoidable or even desirable (Muñoz Viñas, 2011; Pye, 2006). Thus SHEP acknowledges that conservation of ‘historic character’ has to be balanced against recognition that ‘everything changes, matures and decays’ (Historic Scotland, 2009: 5).…”

Section: Assessing Condition Defining Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regardless of these subtle differences, much is therefore at stake in any physical intervention involving the removal and replacement of material fabric. The issue for practitioners is how to retain the past that is embodied by buildings and monuments, while interventions necessary for their preservation require material change in the present (Philippot, 1996: 270; also Muñoz Viñas, 2011; Pye, 2006). In practice, as Pye (2006) discusses, unremitting choices must be made about what can be changed or lost and what must stay ‘the same’.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The issue for practitioners is how to retain the past that is embodied by buildings and monuments, while interventions necessary for their preservation require material change in the present (Philippot, 1996: 270; also Muñoz Viñas, 2011; Pye, 2006). In practice, as Pye (2006) discusses, unremitting choices must be made about what can be changed or lost and what must stay ‘the same’. Yet while conservation policies offer a set of universal framing principles, the values they contain radically underdetermine the specific interventions that may emerge in response to any given situation (Yarrow, 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last decade, conservation professionals have responded, engaging in their own exploration of the subjective, contingent and historically situated nature of conservation, but at the same time highlighting the complex range of processes involved (e.g. Bracker and Richmond, 2011; Clavir, 2002; Muñoz Viñas, 2011; Pye, 2006; Villers, 2004). Some, like Brajer (2011), explore the complexity of practices relating to key concepts like authenticity in specific areas, such as the conservation of wall paintings.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice

Jones

Yarrow

2013

Journal of Material Culture

102

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This paper explores how authenticity is produced through different forms of expertise and skill, as they are negotiated and aligned in the daily practices of conservation. Focusing on the traditional craft practices of stonemasons, we trace out their relations to the broader nexus of experts responsible for conserving Glasgow Cathedral. We show that authenticity is a distributed property of distinct forms of expert practice, as they intersect with one another, and, crucially, with the material conditions of specific heritage sites. It is argued that, in the context of conservation practice, authenticity is neither a subjective, discursive construction, nor a latent property of historic monuments waiting to be preserved. Rather it is a property that emerges through specific interactions between people and things.

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Section: Assessing Condition Defining Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice

Jones

Yarrow

2013

Journal of Material Culture

102

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“…2). 6 now that the large North shelter covers it and adjacent archaeology, it is beginning to be affected by the adverse conditions created by the large shelters. Although very successful, its long-term preservation has involved extensive, routine use of synthetic polymers which are expensive and may compromise further excavation, so we have started to test modified approaches, drawing on the traditional local techniques for caring for mud-brick buildings.…”

Section: Conservation Of Buildings and Installationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserving Ҫatalhӧyük, a Neolithic site in Anatolia

Pye¹,

Cleere²

2008

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In the last issue of Archaeology International, Louse Martin and Shahina Farid provided a brief introduction to the contributions of Institute of Archaeology research teams to the Çatalhöyük Research Project. Here Elizabeth Pye and Duygu Camurcuoğlu Cleere describe in more detail the work of the Conservation team, which deals with the conservation of buildings, wall paintings and other art, as well as human bones and artefacts. They describe their methods and their adoption of holistic approach to conservation that involves working with other specialists, but also with students and the local community, in a wider study of the site as a whole

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Disruptive Conservation: Challenging Conservation Orthodoxy

Sweetnam

Henderson

2021

Studies in Conservation

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This paper takes the position that our current treatments that involve infilling with a neutral rather than matched colour are deceptive to the viewer and that such deliberate mediation through the act of conservation can deny the viewer an authentic understanding of the heritage object. Governing guidelines and documents describe authenticity as the alignment of the object and its story but for some practitioners, the concept remains tied to originality. Authenticity could be considered a fluid concept as it is built via the individual relationship between object and viewer. Many of the default approaches to conservation fail to address the fluidity embodied in the object and its representation of the passage of time. A lack of examination into the inherent biases of our work defends the status quo within our museums under a cloak of neutrality. Disruptive conservation is proposed as a challenge, exemplified by a jarring visible mend. It is an approach designed to disturb complacency. It calls upon analysis of our biases and challenges the consequences of freezing the meanings of our conserved objects. Placing the process of disruptive conservation into treatment dialogues enables conservators to account for the object's journey in how their intervention is portrayed. It stops the object from existing simply as a representation of the past and allows it to continue its evolution. The question 'Why don't I make this fill in hot pink?' is offered as a catalyst for an appraisal of an object's place and context without assuming or imposing a fake neutrality.

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Authenticity challenged? The ‘plastic house’ at Çatalhöyük

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice

Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice

Conserving Ҫatalhӧyük, a Neolithic site in Anatolia

Disruptive Conservation: Challenging Conservation Orthodoxy

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