Professional paper
Signage of Archaeological Sites in Salona at the Time of Frane Bulić
Jagoda Mardešić
; Arheološki muzej u Slitu
Abstract
A mayor part of each museum curator's work is turned "outwards", that is, towards the museum or site visitors. The exhibits are to be treated and displayed properly, whether in the museum's permanent layouts or temporary exhibitions. Presently, increasingly ways are sought to involve the visitors, in order to make them at least partly participants rather than passive viewers. Museological standards also require explanations of the purposes that particular exhibits served and a clear story on particular periods or events. In doing this one is always to be aware of the risk of the accompanying materials "swallowing" or "swamping" the very exhibits. Curators dealing with archaeological sites encounter similar but also some specific tasks, because activities on archaeological sites do differ to an extent. Museum exhibits are placed in show cases or elsewhere on the museum premises or, for example, in museum lapidaries, where there is always some sort of protection against intentional damaging.
The 80th anniversary of the death of Father Frane Bulić is a proper moment to recall the way in which he provided information and explanations on Salona and its particular monuments. The large work that was to be done in organisation of the First International Paleo-Christian Archaeology Congress, that took place in Solin and Split on 20 - 22 August 1894, included also preparation of the accompanying materials that was to be handed out to the Congress participants. As a part of the Congress preparations, all significant and by then researched localities in Salona were provided with stone plates presenting the locality names. According to Bulić, they were placed to made visitors their visits easier. These are moulded plates with chiselled names. In doing this, he tried making visitors sure which names are genuine, Roman (where such names were established), and which are imitations of Roman names introduced by Lanza and Carrara, and which, again, are the names given by the local people. Today we are trying to display such plates as a memento of the history of caring for the locations and communications with the Salona's visitors.
Keywords
Salona; Frane Bulić; information panels
Hrčak ID:
128483
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2014.
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