Draft:Site museum
Site Museums
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main article: Museum
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 2 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 4,257 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
A Site Museum is located at, or directly adjacent to, an archaeological site as "a museum conceived and set up in order to protect natural or cultural property, movable and immovable, on its original site".[1] This is distinct from related concepts, including an outdoor or Open-air museum, Historic house, and Heritage park, as site museums focus primarily on In situ preservation.[2]
A site museum is therefore one where:
- A physical structure or Feature is primarily preserved in situ.
- The site is of particular historical or natural significance, and that significance is presented in a curation fashion to visitors.
- The site is contextualized within the "complete environment of the place"[2] such that its significance is co-determined with the surrounding context.
History
The first use of the term 'site museum' resulted from a mistranslation of the American expression 'trail-side museum' into French as le musée de site and then back into English as 'site museum' (the literal English translation of the French term).[3] The first site museums, as rigorously defined, were in the Mediterranean and the Near East, building off the older concept of the open-air museum. One example, the Delphi museum opened in 1903 next to the archaeological site, which was also preserved with constructed visitor pathways designed to minimize the effect of foot traffic.[4] The establishment of more site museums increased with the rise of cultural tourism and state-led heritage programs in the mid-20th Century, as well as the growing movement in curation to contextualize and democratize heritage.[5]
Function and purposes
Interpretation and education
Site museums serve a primary function of education and interpretation, utilizing tools such as reconstruction, signage, digital media, and guided tours to engage visitors[2]. By maintaining the complete environment of the place, these institutions allow for a variety of approaches to presenting sensitive sites or objects by providing broader historical and environmental contexts.
Tourism and economic development
The establishment of site museums is often linked to state-led heritage programs and the expansion of cultural tourism. They play a crucial role in local and national tourism economies. To accommodate economic interest, site museums develop infrastructure for visitor management, such as safe visitor pathways and fences to prevent individuals from straying off paths. These are also interventions designed to minimize the effects of foot traffic on the archaeological material itself.
Community engagement
An important topic in the dialogue surrounding site museums, and even museums in general, is that of ownership and representation. Who interprets/preserves the site, and for whom? Modern curatorial practices in site museums have shifted toward community-based and conservation-focused models.
An example may be the Maya archaeological site of Copán in Honduras, where the townspeople hold a vital role in the site's preservation and economy.[6] Local residents were instrumental in, for example, the construction of the Sculpture Museum of Copán.
Additionally, one of the key issues that troubles museums today is their colonial legacies. Community engagement can help address such legacies and counter extractive narratives that persisted in early practices of cultural heritage management.[7]
Types of site museums
Site museums vary in form. Two factors that may be taken into consideration here are: 1) their relationship to the surrounding environment, and 2) the scale of preservation. Open-air site museums, such as Pompeii, preserve ruins in their original outdoor context (note: this is distinct from relocated open-air museums). There are also architectural site museums, where protective buildings are constructed directly around excavated structures. Landscape-integrated museums like Mesa Verde National Park, present archaeological remains as part of a broader cultural-ecological landscape. On a smaller scale, in situ displays preserve specific features, such as mosaics, burials, or rock art panels at sites like the Cave of El Castillo and Lascaux, in their original place of discovery for public viewing.