Death Info Discussion & Task A Deadly Challenge

Discuss Death

Take a close look at the depictions of death scenes in the platter of Louis XV1 and the Joseph Wright of Derby picture The Dead Soldier. Both show scenes containing corpses and violent death.

Though death is still a part of life today, have we become much less comfortable about pictures showing death? Would you display the Louis XV1 plate or the painting The Dead Soldier in your home for friends, family and visitors to see? Today we might feel that it was more acceptable for pictures of dead and dying to be shown on the television news or in a newspaper rather than on a piece of art.

Tell us what you think!
Write down your thoughts about depictions of death on 'the board'...

In the case of the coverage of the death of Princess Diana there was considerable controversy over pictures which showed her in the car following the crash. Would you print such pictures if you were a newspaper editor? Would you be more or less likely to buy a newspaper that had such images in it?

Tell us what you think!
Write down your thoughts about the media and death 'the board'...

Your Task

Tombs and burial sites (for example the Egyptian Pyramids) are time-capsules: enabling archeologists and historians to re-construct many aspects of life in an ancient time from what is buried. Imagine that an archaeologist from thousands of years in the future was to discover a tomb from Britain in 2008, in which the person had chosen what was to be buried with them. Which objects would tell someone hundreds of years from today, with no detailed knowledge of our lives, how we lived and what was important to us. Choose a strictly limited number of objects (for example 10) that are to be buried with you and then swap your list with a partner. How does your partner think someone from thousands of years in the future would interpret you? For example, if you have a picture of David Tennant and it is found next to your skeleton, an archaeologist may think that you were him.