New exhibition tracks artefacts from digs to museum

A new exhibition has opened in Sharjah illustrating the journey of ancient objectsfrom the excavation site to the museum.Sharjah Museums Department (SMD) launched the exhibition at SharjahArchaeology Museum (SAM) on Wednesday.The exhibition, titled "From Site to Museum: The Journey of an ArchaeologicalArtefact”, will run until September 7.It will be presented in three main sections: The first will depict archaeologists'discovery of a find, and how the artefact is cleaned, processed, and carefullyprepared for transport from the excavation site.The second will follow its journey to the lab and introduce visitors to thetechnology used by experts to clean, restore, validate and date the artefact, as wellas research its original purpose in the context of the time and culture from which itwas first used.The last section will showcase how the artefact is placed in its final resting place aspart of the museum's permanent collection.In Sharjah, advances in archaeological technology have helped researchers todiscover artefacts proving that humans lived in the region as far back as 125,000years ago.SMD claims this serves as the oldest proof of human life within the UAE's borders.Multiple sites have been discovered in the emirate over the last four decades. SAMcurrently houses around 90,000 rare artefacts, including currency, weaponry,jewellery, agricultural tools, and crockery.SMD Director-General Manal Ataya said: "Much of what we know about our pastthrough material culture is owed to the dedicated work of archaeologists.Archaeology is the only field of study that covers all time periods and allgeographic regions inhabited by humans.This exhibition takes visitors behind the scenes of an archaeological site — fromthe excitement of finding an artefact, to the detailed process of restoration, up tothe moment an artefact is interpreted and displayed on view to the public.”She added: "Sharjah is rich in archaeological sites and we at [SMD] certainly hopethat this exhibition will inspire some of our emirate's students to pursue futurestudy of history and archaeology.” Source: Gulf News