Vuurstenen bijlen before 1869

Curator: This image, titled "Vuurstenen bijlen" or "Flint Axes," is dated before 1869. It’s a print, a photographic engraving depicting prehistoric stone tools. Editor: They look incredibly basic. So rough hewn and utilitarian, yet this image documents them. How should we interpret this? Curator: From a materialist perspective, we should think about the labor embedded within those axes, and within the image itself. Flint axes represent a specific mode of production, reflecting the resourcefulness of early humans, and their immediate engagement with their environment. Consider the act of *making*. Editor: I see… It’s not just about what the axes *are* but also about the *doing*, the physical work that shaped them and subsequently this representation of them. Curator: Exactly. The act of engraving itself mimics the removal of material – from stone and from the printing plate. Think also about who commissioned and consumed this image. Were they archaeologists, antiquarians, or members of a burgeoning middle class fascinated by material evidence of the past? Editor: That's a good point. The consumption of this image reflects the collector’s interests and social status, documenting, classifying, and laying claim to our origins perhaps? Curator: Precisely! These axes weren't made to be pretty; they were made to *work*. Similarly, this engraving wasn't designed for aesthetic pleasure in the traditional sense, but to *show*, to instruct, and maybe even to impress. Editor: I’m starting to appreciate the layers here - it really expands beyond just a picture of some old tools. Curator: It highlights the intrinsic value of labor, of materials transformed by human agency, both then and now. Think of it as the raw material that makes civilisation itself! Editor: That makes you think about our modern tools of survival. It helps us appreciate art history, but also human evolution.