February 27, 2024Open Access

'All this in their ignorance they called civilisation': Analysing the Relationship between Nationalism and the Display of Roman Archaeology in Britain's National Museums

Key Points

The analysis reveals how nationalist narratives shape the display of roman artefacts in museums, impacting public perception.
Key insights include a comparative assessment of British Museum and National Museum of Scotland based on their divergent narrative approaches.
Assessment of museum displays involved examining spatial arrangements, collection composition, and signage for nationalism indicators. The findings highlight how cultural institutions may reinforce or challenge nationalist ideologies through their exhibition strategies.

Abstract

This article evaluates how nationalist narratives affect the display of Roman artefacts in national museums. The unique nature of national museums as 'cultural constitutions' and arbiters of the 'Authorised Heritage Discourse' is discussed. This article builds upon previous work by demonstrating how nationalist influence affects the display of Roman artefacts, specifically through the use of two case studies: the British Museum in London and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Museum displays are assessed for indications of nationalist influence through consideration of the use of space and collection composition as well as textual analysis of gallery signage and artefact descriptions. The two museums' divergent approaches to national narrative are then compared.

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