Archaeologist's Reqium

An intimate and multi-layered nostalgic approach to the cigar box tradition of the 1880s, combining the artist's career as an Archaeologist and traveller during her research in the Middle East. The oil painting on the lid depicts the pyramids of Giza as they would have appeared to travellers in the early days of exploration during the wet season, inspired by the artists time in Egypt. The ancient pottery sherds in the base of the box are from a different period of history to the pyramids of Giza, dating to the Iron Age ca. 1200-600 BCE, some three thousand years ago. The pottery comes from the Philistine site of Tell es-Safi/Gath, known from the Old Testament as the hometown of biblical Goliath. The pottery is the artist's own teaching supplies, obtained with permission from the excavation to be used in university courses. The individual ink drawings on the tags depict what vessel each sherd may have come from- using artistic and academic inference to tie together a meaningful box of memories, old and new. Disclaimer: these pottery sherds are 'non-diagnostic' meaning they hold little significance in the understanding of the archaeological site.