Reply To: Myth Becomes History

[Miranda Jackovich]

Sir Arthur Evans and Heinrich Schliemann were not the only ones to generalize certain cultural styles. Generalization was very commonly used in early archaeology methods and practices. These archaeologist would often ignore context, including time and space. Making it easier to fill in their thoughts and ideas with the evidence found. One example of generalization is of Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of “The Mask of Agamemnon’. Instead of finding evidence that leads to the conclusion of the mask representing the king, he came to the conclusion first that it’s Agamemnon and then fit the evidence to the theory. Schliemann even went to the lengths of altering the mask to fit his 19th century theory. As for Sir Arthur Evans he didn’t alter his discovery of the “Snake Goddesses’, but instead added new pieces of what he thought it would look like by generalization of other similar looking figures. Both these men have altered the appearances of cultural material, making it harder for new archaeologist to explore other possibilities. Regardless they have contributed to paving the way for archaeology, that continues to improve everyday by incorporating better methods and practices.