Pulling down statues Part 2. Understanding crowds. Following the protests of 2020 and the continual reassessment and pulling down of historical statues this video attempts to explain why such events have occurred.

In this video I present some theories from social psychology to explain why crowds emerge and what motivates their actions. The aim is to understand what lies behind the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that occurred from June 2020 onwards. This video is Part Two of a series focusing on the implications of iconoclasm for archaeology and the museums field.

In Part One I discuss the history of iconoclasm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zyx4o_GGFc
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ER2CYMwzb16T/

In Part Two I discuss the psychology of crowds.

Part Three asks the experts their opinions on puling down statues.

Part Four examines the impact that such iconoclasm has on the museums field.

In this video I look at Thucydides description of The Plague of Athens and try to understand what impact it had on life in the city in the 5th century BC.

Death, disease, ancient viruses, war, refugees and social unrest. 2020? No! Athens in the 5th century BC.

In this video I introduce the first case study on the Plague of Classical Athens, as part of my series on the Archaeology of Death and Disease. This first case study concerns the Plague of Athens as reported by the historian Thucydides. We begin first with an introduction to the historical context of the period. The second part of this case study will be an examination of Thucydides' account and further videos examine the archaeological evidence for the plague itself. This video series is hopefully of interest to anyone studying archaeology, especially ancient Greece, but also to anyone who is interested in ancient diseases.

Pulling down statues Part 1. The Right side of history? Pulling down historical statues has become a fashion, especially following the protests of June 2020. What impact does the act of toppling statues have on archaeology and museums?

In this video I discuss the recent re-evaluation of history that is taking place in Europe, America and many other countries as a result of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests from June 2020 onwards. This process of re-evaluation has included pulling down statues, which can be interpreted as acts of iconoclasm or falling under the term "damnatio memoriae", both of which are discussed in this video. I provide an historical overview of past acts of pulling down statues and a description of what caused them. This video is Part One of a series focusing on what the implications of these acts of iconoclasm are for archaeology and the museums field.

In Part One I discuss the history of iconoclasm.

In Part Two I discuss the psychology of crowds.

Part Three asks the experts their opinions on puling down statues.

Part Four examines the impact that such iconoclasm has on the museums field.

What is Armchair archaeology? The Armchair Archaeologist is a channel that aims to inspire people to study more about our shared world history. As an archaeologist who is passionate about human history and the material culture that survives from that past, I hope to inspire others to learn more about the world and how we got to where we are today.

On this channel I mainly discuss ancient history, classical archaeology, Greece and Rome, Roman Britain and also the rather complex subject of archaeological theory.

This is a welcome video to introduce the channel, to explain what it is all about and what I will be uploading on a regular basis on the subject of archaeology.

In this video I set the scene for the series of case studies that are to follow. I discuss the current problems facing the world in 2020, the spread of a virus that has brought all modern life to a standstill. In this series I hope to show that this is not the first nor will it be the last time that humanity has faced such a situation. The case studies presented here will focus on the archaeology of past pandemics and epidemics. Understanding how such situations were handled in the past can give us hope for how we can deal with current problems and try and return to normality.