Photography

Artifact photography in archaeology is a very specific genre. It aims to record archaeological material with a high degree of accuracy within a very specific set of representational standards. Objects are displayed against a white or black background, with a scale (and sometimes a color scale), and in a very specific orientation (arrowheads point up, for example). While this rigid standardization is beginning to be challenged, it still remains the standard means of presenting archaeological material in museum catalogs, academic papers, and online content.