ABSTRACT
This essay introduces ‘material culture’ from an anthropological perspective and argues that ‘material culture’ is not about things in isolation or wriĴen accounts of things, but encompasses the processes by which things and people interact. This approach to material culture is demonstrated by the challenges of preserving garments that have been deliberately concealed within buildings. The material form of these garments and the significance aĴributed to them changes with their concealment, discovery and preservation. This essay demonstrates how material culture studies can inform both history-making and the theory and practice of conservation.1
