‘How is current knowledge shaped by its historical development.’

At the exhibition there was the single Roman Coin, that once uncovered as part of the hoard changed the story of the entire excavation. Once uncovered, the coin, dating back to the Roman Invasion of Gaul, changed archaeologist’s theory in when the hoard was buried. This is an example of how current knowledge is shaped by Historical development as the estimate for the hoard’s age has been changed due to one single piece of history being discovered.

‘How do we know when something new is created?’

Here is a purse similar to the one from the hoard. It is very easy for people to buy a new Chanel, Prada or Gucci purse now- but does this count as new? Say, if I found a purse even older than the one from the hoard, would that mean that this purse wasn’t a new invention for its wearers. I believe the way that this can be concluded, is whether its new to the user.

‘What is the relationship between Knowledge and Culture?’

Being portrayed as a Male warrior within the exhibition; the iron age sword and shield is an example where culture shapes knowledge. Within our society it is very usual for Men to be portrayed as warriors, not women. This exhibit followed the trend, where there was most likely little evidence to point out the user was a Male. It is clear from Iron Age warriors like Boudicca that women were often seen fighting alongside men.

This is an image of Bilbao, Basque Country in Spain. I was given the opportunity to visit in 2022. The region is distinctly Basque, and not Spanish and they even have their own language. The relationship between knowledge and culture is demonstrated here as we can see how knowledge allows this culture to thrive, despite the hundreds of years of oppression of the Basque people.

The Basque language is believed to be the oldest in Europe, if not, the world, and the fact it has survived Gothic, Latin, Arabic and modern lingual invasions for over 1000 years. We can see that its survival, and the knowledge of it today among Basque people allows the culture to stand and survive as it does today.

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go to Barbados for a holiday. I made a few friends, did quite a few things and got to experience a non-European culture. My point here is, Barbados has a mixed reputation internationally- government corruption, crime, violence and cost of living being highlighted. On the other hand, there’s my experience of Barbados: the people I met, the things I did and the places I went. In short, facts versus personal experience.

Barbados is on the whole a poorer country than many, with 14% of the population living underneath the poverty line. As well as this the crime rate lies also at 14% , and there is a 4x higher likelihood children die at childbirth. The facts show that people generally live a worse standard of living compared to the UK.

However, taking in my own experiences from Barbados I can see the other side of these facts shown. While people generally had less, smaller houses or more basic meals, people were happy to make do with what they had. My friend Green makes the effort every Friday to take his daughters to the beach in Holetown. Also, though the crime rate was high, I never felt unsafe at any point in Barbados, and Andy always told me it was the ‘gangstas’ who you’d get in trouble with, and only if you looked for trouble besides. Overall, from my experience people- despite having less- were happy with what they had, even on the bus people smiled and even sung songs with one another: you wouldn’t see that on the tube?

To conclude, I believe the relationship between knowledge and personal experiences is that they can further the depth of one another, and provide greater insight into the true outlook on knowledge.

Are some things unknowable? Maybe. Here is a photograph of my Dad I found at my Grandma’s house tucked away, his name is Matt; and this photograph was taken in 1995 when he graduated college in Worthing, West Sussex. At this time, he was half-way through the 90s, about 23 years old. Will I know all about his life during this time? I can ask him, and he can give me infinite detail: for example, he’s told me the story of living in Islington in London during this time, when his neighbour’s flat was firebombed. As well, I can ask about his friends and who they were, what their jobs were and how they were to him. Like Tom Tang, who owned a Chinese Takeaway. Take his other friend Matt, they both robbed a laundrette when they were 18 and my dad has told me how he died suspiciously in Hong Kong in 97′. Given the stories he’s told me, I can get a good understanding of how his life was back then, but can I truly know all of it?

I can say for certain that I will never know everything he lived through during the 90s, not every day to detail. How he felt, what he saw- what he doesn’t want me to know. I won’t ever know. Say he’s forgotten about some events; he can’t talk about them and therefore it is unknowable. Even this photograph, can I ever know who took it? My Dad doesn’t remember, nobody in the photograph does. Sure, I could check archived CCTV footage, interview masses of people who may have witnessed it- but at least in one case alone, nobody will have documented or remembered it. I can hear about and know a lot about the life he led during that decade, but I won’t hear about the other half of that time. The stories I do hear however, could be false. The majority of sources are memories of other people, which are often false or exacerbated. I can’t take this as truth then. So, given the fact that some details no longer exist, and that many of the other details can be fallible due to the nature of these sources: therefore, yes, some things are unknowable.

So hypothetically, let’s say you’ve just had a bad cut on your knee after falling over during a walk. In this situation, would it be useful if I told you ‘Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo on the 18th of June, 1815’? No. It would be more useful for me to tell you that I had plasters or dressing.

What I’m trying to say here is that knowledge is useful all-around, it is the context that specifies how useful that knowledge is, in another situation you could be taking a history paper with a napoleon question and the example of waterloo I gave earlier would be more useful then.

This can be applied universally, and even clickbait articles like ’12 facts that are completely useless’, can in some contexts have equal use as knowledge as any other. Even stories that are distorted, such as the Sun newspaper’s reporting on the Hillsborough disaster, can have use as knowledge.

In brief, a football stadium in Hillsborough was overcrowded and people were crushed as the game went on; trying to escape, people jumped over the barriers onto the pitch where the police overlooking to game beat them with their batons thinking the intention was malicious.

The Sun newspaper reported that it was entirely the football fans from Liverpool’s fault, and that they were ‘football hooligans’. This resulted in the Sun being frowned upon in the city, and the Sun newspaper even lost a few legal battles over the controversy. The knowledge of the distorted facts from the Sun’s reporting can be useful as it shows how Media can manipulate and audience, and it’s effect on whole communities of people.

In conclusion, this all shows that all knowledge can be useful no matter what, and it all depends on the context when it comes to what knowledge is more useful than the last.