Illustrating scientific archaeology in the late 18th century

Carl Fredrik Fredenheim’s excavation in the Roman Forum in 1788−1789, which paved the way for the discovery of the Basilica Giulia in 1848, has been acknowledged as the first modern archaeological work in Rome. Although his findings had been published by 1795 in an essay by the Alsatian scholar Jérémie-Jacques Oberlin, the project’s innovative methods were only recognized and appreciated in the 20th century. This article questions why this is so by exploring the way in which Fredenheim’s project was printed and illustrated. It concludes that the impact of the publication as originally planned was compromised because of the effects of the French Revolution on the lives of the three men involved: Fredenheim himself in Stockholm, the printmaker Francesco Piranesi in Rome, and Oberlin in Strasbourg. As a result, not only were the publications difficult to access, but some were without illustrations. This article argues that these illustrations were seminal in making Fredenheim’s science-based archaeological process visible. They utilize novel graphic conventions that indicate the process of measured digging and the position of the most valuable or useful artifacts.