Definition of the concept “archaeological collection”

Abstract

The article considers the issue of defining the term «archaeological collection». Despite its wide use in the museum and archaeological fields, the lack of a unified understanding of this term creates difficulties in defining the semantic and functional limits of the concept. This in turn leads to problems in solving practical issues of keeping and recording archaeological collections. Analysis of a number of definitions of «archaeological collection» and related concepts, such as «museum holdings», «set of archaeological finds», appearing in scientific papers, reference literature and legislative documents of the Russian Federation, allowed to highlight a set of characteristic features for each of them. The difference in the understanding of the term «archaeological collection» for archaeological and museum fields was revealed, arising from the difference in approaches to this collection in its practical application. It is a value and information approaches, the contradiction between which can be resolved by recognizing the dual nature of an archaeological collection, which simultaneously contains both value-based and information-based components. The possibility of obtaining new knowledge and/or the fixation of a principle or object that unites a given collection is put forward as a fundamental factor determining the unity of objects in a collection.