Museums act as a window into the lives of objects and the people who have produced them through time. Functioning as this opening in time provides an audience with a view into the materials, artistic styles, and creative processes from the past. This is especially true for objects from the ancient world, providing a space that highlights material culture and creates a connection between the past and the present. Objects are available to us in these spaces through the processes of archaeological excavations, unearthing material culture and allowing us to engage in the present while creating an afterlife for objects. However, archaeology can also be quite invasive and destructive to valuable information in the process which can not be undone. Archaeologists today document their process as much as possible, ensuring that they have the best understanding of a site before furthering excavation. The same can not be said for archaeology in the 15th-20th centuries, when many excavations brought forth what makes up a large portion of museum collections today.
My interest in the afterlife of ancient objects stems from my archaeological background and excavation experience, as well as from an interest to understand as much as we can about the past through material culture. As a student studying archaeology, I have had the opportunity to interact first-hand with objects as they come out of the ground. However, excavation is only the beginning of an object’s afterlife, and I am interested in interacting with and acknowledging material heritage outside of its excavation context. This summer I have been able to further develop that interest as a Mellon Intern in the Registration department.
Each day I have engaged with objects in their afterlife. I learned how objects are acquired, cataloged, inventoried, and housed. Moreover, I also learned how to use the museum’s digital database. The database provided me access to the entire collection. Through this access I was able to follow my interests in the afterlife of ancient materials, working my way backwards through files and archives to trace an object from the collection back to its original context. Using the records from the ancient collection, including the original accession cards and archival documents belonging to each item, I have researched provenance, specifically excavation history and transactions between archaeologists, art dealers, and museums in the early 20th century, following the journey from excavation to exhibition. My research led me to three objects from the museum’s permanent collection with a unique afterlife, all uncovered through excavation and eventually finding a home in RISD’s collection.
In 1932, an article in the New York Times announced that Princeton University in collaboration with the Musées Nationaux of France, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Worcester Art Museum would be excavating Antioch, one of the four great centers of the ancient world.1 Established by Charles R. Morey, art historian and chair of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, this excavation ran for four seasons spanning from 1933 to 1936, and was granted a six year renewal with the last season of excavation taking place in 1939.2
According to Morey, the mosaic fragment given the object number 40.195 in RISD’s collection would have been part of a dining room floor. This fragment is not the only one known to us, as its counterparts have been distributed to other museum collections. The central panel representing the Judgment of Paris lives in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The two dancing figures of Satyr and a Bacchante live in the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. Lastly, the fragment depicting Bacchus was initially housed by one of the original collaborators of the excavation, the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts.3 However, in 1939 the RISD Museum acquired the fragment through an exchange with the Worcester Museum, as described on the original accession card. An additional mosaic depicting Silenus from the same floor was also part of this exchange. This exchange meant that the RISD Museum would acquire the mosaics and the Worcester Art Museum would acquire a painting from RISD’s collection. The painting in this exchange is now known as object number 1939.60 in the Worcester Art Museum.
Separated from a majority of its counterparts and original function as a floor, the fragments of Bacchus and Silenus are currently on view on a wall in the Ancient Roman and Greek Galleries.
In 1928, classical archaeologist David Moore Robinson, along with a team of archaeologists and nearly 200 workmen began excavations at Olynthus in collaboration with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens under the permission of the Greek Government.4
In 1929, the American Journal of Archaeology published a preliminary report on the excavations at Olynthus. In this report, Robinson describes a hoard of 89 silver coins, with five of them being silver tetradrachms that depict the head of Apollo on the obverse, and a lyre with an inscription on the reverse — matching the silver coin known as object number 40.015.34 in RISD’s collection.5
The site underwent four seasons of excavation spread across a decade, with the last being in 1938. The collection of coins brought forth through excavations expanded through each season, with 1,187 coins found in 1929, 1,226 coins in 1931, and 2,004 coins found in 1934.6 According to a report regarding the third season of excavation published by the American Journal of Archaeology in 1935, the coins at Olynthus bring conclusive proof that Olynthus was part of the Chalcidian League, which would have been considered a federal state, and coin mint.7
The RISD Museum acquired this coin, along with 385 others, through purchase from Henry A. Greene in 1940, and is currently on view in the Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries. Two additional coins are considered to have come from Olynthus as well, object numbers 40.015.86 and 40.015.202, but these objects are not currently on view.
The original accession card for object number 38.058.2C references a “Boston version” referring to an identical wall segment known as object number 25.45 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston collection. According to the MFA, Boston, their version of this Roman wall fragment was excavated in 1901/1902 by Gennaro Matrone. The Italian State granted ownership of the fresco fragment to Matrone. In 1924, Professor U. Marcellini sold the fresco to Brummer Gallery, New York. In 1925, Brummer Gallery sold the fresco to the MFA Boston.
A similar history can be understood for the identical fresco fragment known as object number 38.058.2C in the RISD Museum’s collection. Painting patterns were often repeated across multiple walls in Roman houses, explaining the similarity between the fragments at RISD and the MFA Boston. According to object inventory card P2577b from The Met Watson Library Digital Collections, Joseph Brummer from Brummer Gallery sold the fresco fragment to the RISD Museum in 1938. The obverse of this card also mentions that the fresco was purchased from Prof. U. Marcellini, following the same trajectory of the Boston version previously mentioned. However, the transaction between archaeologist Gennaro Matrone and art dealer Professor U. Marcellini is unknown.
This fragment is currently on view in the Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries at the RISD Museum. The identical fragment or object number 25.45 remains in the collection of the MFA Boston, disconnected from its twin fragment.
The afterlife of an ancient object can progress in many different ways. There is no straightforward path that an object takes. By displacing and separating these objects from their original contexts, functions, and counterparts, we depart from details that would be necessary to best understand them. Mosaic floors, coins, and wall painting fragments all divided from wholeness and distributed to different museums worldwide, bringing us insight into the world they came from while losing some of that valuable information in the process.
Olivia Massey was the 2024 Mellon Summer Intern in Registration. She is a senior at Brown University studying Archaeology and the Ancient World and History of Art and Architecture.