Description:
<jats:p>This paper is about a few objects in two museums I know. One - my last place of work - was what might be called a social history or community history museum in Croydon just outside London. The other - where I have worked for the last six months - is a museum of Egyptian archaeology in a university in central London. In most parts of Britain, archaeology and social history (in the museum context at any rate) are distinct disciplines with their own specialist groups, networks and methods. I am still trying to come to terms with very different types of objects, terminologies and ways of thinking and to work out whether there are approaches I can bring from one environment to the other. I find it challenging to juxtapose objects from the two museums- some of them separated by nearly 5 000 years - and to think about the questions and issues they raise for me now. </jats:p>