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The aesthetics of depositional practice

Bibliographic Data

ID3919027
AuthorsJ Pollard (0000-0002-8429-2009, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume33
Issue2
Pages315-333
Publication date2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438240120079316
OpenAlexW2003072383
LanguageEN
Citations received87
References cited30

An archaeology of aesthetics can be more than a study of past artistic evaluation. It can be extended to encompass an understanding of styles of action considered proper and efficacious, and which drew in a knowledgeable and skilful fashion on specific understandings of the world and the order of things. Through the detail of selected depositional contexts in the British Neolithic, it is shown how the deliberate burial of artefacts and other materials was undertaken with such forms of aesthetic value in mind. In an 'aesthetics of deposition', a perception of effectiveness was intimately related to the effort and care expended upon the appropriate selection, arrangement and burial of things. While individual objects may not in themselves have been ascribed an aesthetic quality, their bringing together and arrangement in burial did serve to create aesthetic effects. In a post-Duchampian tradition they could even be seen as artworks

Action (physics · Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Everyday Aesthetics · Order (exchange · Perception · Quality (philosophy · Sedimentary depositional environment · Style (visual arts · Value (mathematics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Geology · History · Paleontology · Philosophy

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Unique citing works79
Citations per year3,95
Citation span2004 - 2026 (23)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 87
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