{"id":3658,"date":"2021-06-30T07:45:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T07:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/?p=3658"},"modified":"2021-11-15T12:30:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T12:30:35","slug":"object-knowledge-during-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/object-knowledge-during-documentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Object knowledge during documentation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"174\" src=\"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1-300x174.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1-600x349.png 600w, https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1-1024x595.png 1024w, https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1-768x447.png 768w, https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-1080x628-1.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Jan van den Bos, curator, military collection, DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History <\/strong><em>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;18px&#8221;]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The purpose of museums is to collect objects with artistic, cultural and scientific value and preserve, research, interpret and present these objects through exhibitions, publications and special programmes.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to accumulate as much information as possible when acquiring an object. Museum professionals have the necessary training to interpret new acquisitions as efficient as possible. Cataloguing is one of the important documentation procedures to add value to an object. A brief description of the object is essential.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let us take an example from the cut and thrust objects in the DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History\u2019s collection. To be able to describe swords and rapiers one needs to identify the different parts. You need to know the difference between a sword and a rapier. A sword has a fairly broad straight blade, is sharpened on both edges with a point that is in line with the centre of the blade. A sword has a grip, pommel and a simple cross-guard which is usually straight. The foot soldier or infantryman was equipped with a shorter blade, which was suited for man to man combat. The horse riding soldier has a longer blade suitable for combat on horseback. [vc_empty_space height=&#8221;18px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3460\" src=\"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1-2-300x157-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Figure 1:<\/strong> Example of a sword in the collection of DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History (HG 21709).<\/em> [vc_empty_space height=&#8221;18px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>rapier<\/strong> was more of a thrust than a cutting weapon (e.g. a sword). It has a long but much narrower blade. The blade is often in the form of a flattened hexagon, triangular or quadrangular with a groove or two grooves in the centre.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3461 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2-3-300x157-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Figure 2:<\/strong> A rapier in the collection of DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History (HG 6004-2). [vc_empty_space height=&#8221;18px&#8221;]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The purpose of museums is to collect objects with artistic, cultural and scientific value and present these objects through exhibitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[116,109,26,108,137],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cultural","tag-ditsong","tag-history","tag-museum","tag-object-knowledge","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 19:58:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}