Key Pages:

Home
~
Resources
~
Course Requirements
~
Writing Assignments
~
Glossary

---

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

---

 

 

Social memory signifies a society's beliefs that have been derived over generations through verbal, written or other forms of communication. Its existence relies on the transmission of information over time, from one group to another; behaviors as well as attitudes can be affected by this passing. For example the perception of the Romans as greedy and destructive according to Jewish individuals was affected by the Arch of Titus, which represents Judea's clear defeat in Jewish War in the first century A.D. This social memory, this belief that the Romans were making an effort to come across as superior was passed over generations while at the same time, in the Roman Empire following the war and for centuries later, the treatment of the Jewish population as inferior was ever increasing until a climax, which can be defined by the Holocaust of the 20th century. A large Jewish population in 1948, acted on this social memory by conducting a march directed out of the Roman Forum through the Arch of Titus, representing the reversal of this social memory, marking Israel's new independence.

--Asia Del Bonis

Social memory is the construction of a collective notion about the way things were in the past, sustained through conscious efforts and institutions of groups. It is an assembly of images and ideas of the world and shared memories of the past. Although it is not private remembrance, a single person can still have an incredible influence on social memory. The discovery and excavation of the Minoan Palace of Knossos demonstrates this theory. The archaeological site derives part of its mystique from its alleged connection to the Greek heroic legend, Theseus and the Minotaur. Initially, this association was fostered by Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist who discovered the buried ruins in 1900 CE. Driven by a passion for mythology, Evans identified the complex as the “Palace of Minos” and insisted that the building belonged to the “Minoan” civilization. Many archaeologists have recently brought to light Evans’ misguided interpretations, arguing that he invented the past in order to appeal to popular imagination; truth aside, he still managed to change the way in which people perceived the ruins, and this fabricated history became a part of our social memory.

--Charlotte Oldsman