Ancient objects with modern meanings: museums, volunteers, and the Anglo-Saxon ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ as a marker of 21st-century regional identity
Marc Scully
Morn D.T. Capper
2134/19557
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Ancient_objects_with_modern_meanings_museums_volunteers_and_the_Anglo-Saxon_Staffordshire_Hoard_as_a_marker_of_21st-century_regional_identity/9474470
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On
display from soon after its discovery in 2009 during fundraising to secure it for the region,
the Hoard has become a source of local pride in Staffordshire, receiving over a million
visitors. This article explores the Hoard as a marker of identity, both in the past and in the
present and evaluates how the ‘treasure process’, museums and museum volunteers are
shaping public identification with the Anglo-Saxon past of the Mercian kingdom. Drawing on
focus group data, we argue that aspects of the naming and display of the Hoard have
encouraged its inclusion in existing narratives of belonging and ‘authenticity’ in
Staffordshire. Such archaeological discoveries have the potential to provide points of continuity between the post-industrial present and the distant past, and stimulate a
reconsideration of the present status of the region in contemporary cultural and political
discourse.
2015-11-20 13:41:45
Staffordshire Hoard
Material culture
Anglo-Saxon Archaeology
Regional identity
Museum volunteers
Heritage
Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified