Antiquities are objects from Ancient history, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Mesolithic, and other civilizations from Asia and elsewhere may also be covered by the term. The phenomenon of giving a high value to ancient artifacts is found in other cultures, notably China, where Chinese ritual bronzes, three to two thousand years old, have been avidly collected and imitated for centuries, and the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, where in particular the artifacts of the earliest Olmec civilization are found reburied in significant sites of later cultures up to the Spanish Conquest.
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 art 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."[[1] ] Bonhams use a similar definition: "...4000 B.C to the 12th Century A.D. Geographically they originate from Egypt, the Near East and Europe ..."[[2] ] 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.
History
The sense of
antiquitates, the idea that a civilization could be recovered by a systematic exploration of its
and
material culture, in the sense used by
Varro and reflected in
Josephus'
Antiquities of the Jews was lost during the
Middle Ages, when ancient objects were collected with other appeals, the rarity or strangeness of their materials or simply because they were thought to be endowed with magical or
Miracle powers.
[Roberto Weiss, 1969. The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, p. 2ff.] Precious cameos and other antique
might be preserved when incorporated into crowns and diadems and liturgical objects,
[The "Cup of the Ptolemies" was set in Carolingian precious mounting and preserved in the Basilica of Saint-Denis.] consular ivory
by being used as gospel covers. Roman columns could be re-erected in churches.
[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] Sarcophagus could receive new occupants and cinerary
could function as holy water
. Sculptural representations of the human form, feared and reviled as "
Cult image" could be rehabilitated by reidentifying their subjects: the equestrian bronze Marcus Aurelius of the Campidoglio was respected as a representation of the Christian emperor
Constantine I, and in Pavia the
Regisole acquired a civic role that preserved it. In Rome the Roman bronze
Spinario was admired for itself by the guidebook writer Magister Gregorius. The classicism of the Carolingian Renaissance was in part inspired by appreciation of
Late Antiquity manuscripts: the
Utrecht Psalter attempts to recreate such a Late Antique original, both in its handwriting and its illustrations.
[Noted in this context by Roberto Weiss 1969:4.]
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.
Trading
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
