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Showerthought: museums keep calling every bronze thing a ritual object and it bugs me
I was at the Field Museum in Chicago two weeks ago and counted 6 labels in one room that said "ritual purpose" for plain bronze bowls and axe heads. Most of those items were probably just someone's kitchen gear or a toolbox, the same way a future dig would call my crockpot a sacred vessel. How do you all decide when "ritual" is a real finding versus a lazy filler word on a placard?
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the_ben1mo ago
My crockpot is gonna be the crown jewel of some future museum's sacred cooking exhibit, complete with a little placard about its ritual function in the Sunday chili rites. I bet half these bronze bowls got labeled "ritual" because the curator had no clue what else to write and the deadline was Friday. Same energy as me calling any weird kitchen gadget "for entertaining" when I actually just bought it drunk online at 2am. For real though, there's probably a legit way to tell, like wear patterns or residue, but nobody wants to run tests on 400 bowls when "ritual" fits on the card and sounds mysterious.
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