24th November 2011, 02:38 PM
BAJR Wrote:http://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/news-a...ohn-lydon/
I will hold my hand up to the words "So could Denmark Street be Punk’s Lascaux?" because this is an opinion. Fortunately we (at Past Horizons) do not compare Lascaux directly to these images - the comparison is one for punks to decide. a place of mystery or historical mythical relevance.
The concept is one where we record the walls of Lascaux and now we record Denmark Street... is it bad? is it good? will we wish we had in 100 years time? What is contemporary archaeology? :face-thinks:
One thing it did was make people react... think and either disagree or not... but at the end of it... there as a reaction.
Hmm, so who has been responsible for turning this into Cappuccino?
If it was graffitti left by soliders in a WWII bunker would it be considered of historical significance?
If it was graffitti left by a prisoner in Belsen would it be more or less important?
What if it was prehistoric graffitti, or medieval?
Bog standard 1970s graffitti probably wouldn't be very interesting but this example certainly is, I would have thought. More important than these Beatles recordings? Is that just a Punks v Hippies argument? The only difference is that are still punks about to give an opinion (albeit probably iased), there is no-one from the Palaeolithic.
It's the over inflated notion that this is art (great or otherwise) and an important archaeological site that is causing the problems. Why couldn't they have just kept it simple as it is surely too early to make that sort of judgement?