Affiche de l’exposition Des Choses. Stefania Scartazinni, Laténium, Hauterive.

The exhibition “Des choses”  focuses on archaeological finds, whose singularity often confines them to the register of anecdotal or “miscellaneous” : a small batch of white sand brought back 3000 years ago from a journey to the mountains and discovered in a lake-dwelling village, a yew stick roughly cut by a child to play with a bow 5000 years ago, a collection of fossil sea urchins whose shapes inspired the ornamentation of prehistoric artifacts.

These cases bring us back to the daily life of our predecessors. As a matter of fact, the evocative potential of these objects obliges archaeologists to confront the limits of their scientific approach, and to approach the finds through other analytical grids, such as the emotional, the sensitive, the poetic and other facets of daily life.