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Modernism/modernity 11.1 (2004) 173-177



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Archaeological Theses

Eduard Gerhard


[Originally published in Denkmäler, Forschungen und Berichte als Fortsetzung der Archäologischen Zeitung, ed. Eduard Gerhard (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1850), 203-5 (see pp. 176-7).]

1. By archaeology we mean the branch of classical philology based on the monumental works and traces of ancient engineering, rather than on literary sources and objects. This includes works of architecture and the plastic arts, as well as the study of sites and inscriptions.

2. The main topics of archaeological study are the study of monuments, art history, and artistic artifacts; art instruction, art criticism, and the explication of art are also available to it as tools, just as Grammatics, together with literary criticism and hermeneutics, supplements philology in the narrower sense.

3. The task of archaeology is to present not just a selection of art monuments, but the entirety of the monumental material, both for its own sake and in its consequences for literary, religious, and individual relics; the entirety of all philological research and the total world view of ancient life.

4. Research on monuments of classical antiquity must take as its starting point the literary knowledge on which so-called philology in the narrower sense is based; the archaeologist treats antiquity's monumental aspect on a philological basis. To this end antiquarians of all sorts supply him with material, while artists judge and examine it for him.

5. This dependence of the archaeologist on antiquarians and artists, which has often incorrectly led to the extension of the [End Page 173] term to include antiquarian dilettantes of all kinds, makes the archaeologist's procurement and assessment of material all the more difficult, as material of varying artistic value is constantly accumulating from very different places.

6. We gratefully acknowledge educated travelers, as well as resident researchers at classical sites, among the antiquarians who bring the cache of classical monuments to the knowledge of the archaeologist.

7. The archaeologist must learn about the rules and models of art from architects and plastic artists in order to cultivate his own feeling for drawing and artistic style by viewing and comparing numerous artworks of different genres.

8. The archaeologist must treat this material consistently with the form and limits of philology, so that his work will resemble and reciprocally supplement the philologist's: his explication of art standing beside the criticism and explanation of philological texts; his art history standing beside the literary history of antiquity; his other research, especially on religious and individual relics, standing beside the real representation of ancient life.

9. German archaeology only arrived at this understanding of its task in the last decades. Earlier it was impeded by the one-sidedness of the aesthetic point of view, on the one hand, and on the other hand, by the lack of substantial observation of ancient monuments of all different types.

10. In order for archaeology to advance in this philological sense, its method must not so much adjust to the needs of the antiquarians or the artists—although it is also recommendable for it to encroach on these—but must rather be grounded in strict relation to overall philological instruction.

11. Even in primary education, the art world of the ancients should only be introduced in connection with reading the ancients; moreover, a feeling for ancient art can be developed as part of the acquirement of technical skills.

12. Archaeological studies will first thrive in the universities when, during the usual course of study, it is taught in closer relationship to philological education, both in its subjects as well as in its practical exercises, than was possible according to study programs up to now. Young men who turn towards archaeology without thorough philological training or particular artistic capability should be deterred rather than encouraged.

13. When philologists, distrusting their aesthetic feeling, avoid the art world of the ancients, they forget that ancient monuments are indispensable to them not simply for their own sake but also as sources of antiquarian knowledge. When others encounter the difficulties of archaeological resources, they do not...

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