[WORK IN PROGRESS]
Modern Ruins and Archaeology
editThe archaeological study of modern ruins is most commonly associated with contemporary, urban, and industrial archaeology. The processes and goals involved in the archaeological study of modern ruins is very similar to that of other branches of archaeology that primarily focus on studying sites of earlier time periods. Particular field methods used include meticulous surveying, excavation, and record keeping, all of which are generally similar to archaeology concerning older, buried sites. However, it has been argued that the archaeological approach to modern ruins should be more embodied and visually well rounded, rather than simply communicating information by conventional site descriptions and reports.[1] Photography, for example, is often used as a medium to communicate discoveries made in modern ruins, like contemporary archaeological sites in general, since most of the artifacts are found above ground level.[1] Shaun O'Boyle, a prolific photographer of ruins, notes that his work often involves "mapping unknown territories," not regarding his photographs as a form of explicit documentary, so much as interpretation.[2]
Modern ruins are often considered to be representative of accelerated rate of change, not only of their material and structural makeup or past purpose, but also in many cases of society as a whole.[1] For example, Pyramiden, a former Soviet mining town located in the High Arctic, has frequently been subject of archaeological study. Having over 1,000 inhabitants during its peak, Pyramiden was abandoned in 1998. Today, devoid of all humans, Pyramiden exists as a Soviet-era ghost town with the buildings and their contents remaining largely as they did when the town was inhabited. Elin Andreassen, Hein B. Bjerck, and Bjørnar Olsen, archaeologists who have studied Pyramiden, have written, “as a site of remembrance-or rather unforgetting-the memories it holds become inseparable from its materiality and from things’ unique ability to bring forth these memories.”[3]
Archaeologists who study modern ruins focus on several key questions in order to understand why a particular structure was abandoned and interpret the archaeological material found on-site. For example, archaeologists attempt to answer whether the materials found on-site were part of the assemblage and context in question, or if later occupants added to what was found.[4]
Modern Ruins in the Arts
editLionel Johnson, an English poet active largely in the late 19th century, often conveys images of ruins in his work. Scholars write that Johnson's expressions of ruins "involve both the natural cycle and what [Peter] Fritzsche terms the historical cycle."[5] Even regarding poetry, the subject of modern ruins seems to be one in resistance to explicit documentary, preferring to explore the complex relationship between the past and present interpretatively. Johnson's poem, "Dawn of Revolution" (1888), particularly captures an imagery of modern desolation, whether due to "natural cycles of degeneration and regeneration or human destruction in social, economic, or political catastrophes":[6]
Palaces tremble down, or reel
To ruin, while the stars in dread
Fade far into their quiet deeps,
Before the deep destroying roar:
Heavenward the costliest incense leaps,
And madness falls from Heaven the more.[7]
- ^ a b c Harrison, Rodney; Schofield, John (2010). After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. pp. 67–70. ISBN 978-019-954808-8..
- ^ O'Boyle, Shaun; Manaugh, Geoff (2010). Modern Ruins: Portraits of Place in the Mid-Atlantic Region. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 102–104. ISBN 978-0271036847.
- ^ Andreassen, Elin; Bjerck, Hein; Olsen, Bjørnar (2010). Persistent Memories: An Archaeology of a Soviet Mining Town in the High Arctic. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press..
- ^ de Brestian, Scott. "Modern Ruins". blogspot.com. Retrieved 10 April 2012..
- ^ Lovatt, Gabriel (2014). "Lionel Johnson's Modern Ruins". Victorian Poetry. 52: 679–698 – via Project Muse.
- ^ Fritzsche, Peter (2004). Stranded in the Present: Modern Time and the Melancholy of History. USA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674045873.
- ^ Johnson, Lionel (1897). Ireland: With Other Poems. London: Chiswick Press. p. 20.