Jacob Gwiazdzinski
Jacob Gwiazdzinski is a Masters of Research student at Macquarie University, with an interest in the Egyptian Predynastic period. Through a Bachelor’s and Graduate Diploma in Archaeology from Flinders University, he has developed particular expertise in applying technical methods to answering spatial questions of archaeological sites. He is working as a PACE intern on the ARC Discovery Project, Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri. As objects are fundamental to the way we articulate our relationships to other people and the world we inhabit, Jacob’s principle research interests concern understanding the ways that societies dynamically interact with objects. To identify the traces of this subtle dynamic his research uses archaeometric and technological methods to determining micro-scale patterns of human behaviour as a way of informing how societies operate and evolve.
Our reliance on objects for making social contracts tangible and affirming our presence is worth particular scrutiny in contemporary society where mass production and disposable culture serve an ever growing population. In this context, the place of objects in the construction, perpetuation and destruction of cultures illustrates their significance. The multiple lives of ancient objects, from the context of their creation to their reception in the museum and markets, speak to the ways in which natural and constructed objects are used to express intangible or implicit sociocultural ideas.
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