ABSTRACT
Archaeology museum curators act as persons authorized to mediate between the material remains of past societies and contemporary audiences. They do so in particular through their display of selected classes of silent antiquities, together with texts and images that seek to explain those objects and their original owners. They have become closely associated with important debates concerning the nature of curatorial authority and public education in museums. This chapter examines the development of these debates, with particular reference to texts forming part of five of the most recent and innovative museum displays of prehistoric archaeology in England and Scotland. Archaeology museum curators have used text labels extensively in this way, as aids to education and communication. Research on museum visitors suggests that traditional texts contribute to people finding museum exhibitions difficult to concentrate on and understand. In response to these criticisms, museum theorists and practitioners have begun to develop a new ‘cultural approach’ to museum texts.
