I propose to talk about such a rather delicate topic as “blunders” in museum information stands and erroneous attribution of objects. After all, state museums are a source of serious information. People write scientific papers based on museum exhibits and specialized literature in the field of history and archeology.
The photo was taken on May 15, 2015 by one of the visitors to the Primorsky State United Museum named after V.K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia) by Alexander Rechev.
It’s one thing if these are just typos or spelling errors on information boards in museums. Which is also surprising, of course, but does not explode the indignant consciousness of visitors so much. Although it still remains a mystery to me how museum employees, being at their workplace every day and conducting excursions for visitors, can not notice such mistakes…
Photo from the archaeological report dated October 16, 2017 after the completion of archaeological exploration of the site of the Battle of Molodi in 1572 (Moscow region, Russia).
But when archaeologists (in the Moscow region after completing archaeological exploration of the site of the Battle of Molodi in 1572 in October 2017) in their reports attribute the find as a “decorative piece of clothing or harness” instead of the usual grip on the lid of a samovar, this already raises great concerns! After all, this archaeological object will then go to the collections of some state museum. What they’ll call him later is a big question! Whether any specialist will notice this error, one can only guess…
The photo was taken on December 30, 2016 by one of the visitors to the local history museum of the city of Alushta (Crimea, Russia) Elvira Nissen.
In the end, all this results in some paradoxes. For example, in the exhibition of the State Museum of Local Lore in the city of Alushta (Crimea, Russia), ordinary elements of horse harness (in common parlance “horse meat”) are seriously demonstrated and passed off (just think about it!) as Turkish uniform buttons of the 18th-20th centuries. Apparently, according to the museum staff, Turks have been wandering all over Russian soil for centuries and losing huge numbers of their uniform buttons in every field!) And even in Siberia and the Far East!))) And the funniest thing is seeing this crazy stand one day in the museum, one of the gullible visitors will subsequently think that this is historically correct information, and on occasion will foam at the mouth to prove that he is right, exposing himself as a complete idiot!))) By the way, it should be noted that most museum workers position themselves as highly educated and historically literate specialists. After such pearls, this statement is at least called into question…
What kind of mistakes have you encountered in your museums? Maybe there is something to add? Send a photo – we'll publish it!
Author: Denis Shibaev