Robert Goldwater Library blog

Four Maya sites featured on new web site

Originally spotted on ARLiSNAP:

An visually exciting and comprehensive web site on four Maya archaeological sites has just been posted by Charles Rhyne, professor emeritus of art history, and his colleagues at Reed College. [Kudos to Prof. Rhyne, who was my academic advisor at Reed.]

Architecture, Restoration and Imaging of the Maya Cities of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Labná "includes over 1000 photographs ... taken on site, with descriptive captions, including architectural and sculptural details, paint remains, and interior spaces, not previously published. In addition, there are over 250 19th century drawings, prints and photographs and another 300 by early 20th century scholars, many previously unpublished, showing the appearance of these four cities before the extensive restoration campaigns of the twentieth century." While the site was produced by Reed College primarily for the use of its faculty and students, the site will certainly be of interest to a wider audience of specialists and non-specialists alike.

Of particular note to the library research-minded are the extensive scans culled from published works including Waldeck's Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dan la province d'Yucatan (1838), the several works by Stephens and Catherwood from the 1840s, as well as Charnay's Cités et Ruines Américaines (1862-63) and Anciennes  Villes du Nouveau Monde (1885), photographs by Le Plongeon, and Seler's monograph on the ruins at Uxmal.

An extensive bibliography is included, sorted into four separate pdf files by subject, author, title and date.

The intersection of art and anthropology museums

The most recent issue (no. 52, autumn 2007) of Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics is dedicated to the theme "Museums -- Crossing Boundaries." The articles were originally presented at a conference held at Harvard University in April 2006, hosted by the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

•  Find RES in WATSONLINE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In the opening editorial Ivan Gaskell and Jeffrey Quilter set up the questions that the papers propose to answer:

We consider the things people make -- artifacts -- according to various disciplinary conventions, including those of anthropology, archaeology, art history, history, philosophy, and sociology. What are the relationships among these disciplines in respect of museums, the scholarly institutions that research and present artifacts? The various types of museums -- of art, anthropology, history, natural history, and science -- have largely operated in separate spheres. Increasingly, the rationale for their institutional boundaries is coming under conceptual pressure. In particular, changing ideas about class, race, ethnicity, and culture, in part generated within museums themselves, challenge the boundary between art and anthropology museums. How might art and anthropology museums, while sustaining their disciplinary commitments, find ways of sharing not only ideas but their collections?

CONTENTS:

Editorial / Ivan Gaskell and Jeffrey Quilter

The Museum of Art-thropology: Twenty-first Century Imbroglios / Ruth Phillips

The Common Path: Possible Futures for Art and Anthropology Museums / Thomas Lentz

Boundaries Crossed: The Interplay of Anthropology, Art, and Textual Studies at Harvard's Peabody Museum / William Fash

Whose Muse? Searching for Roles for Contemporary Museums / Jeffrey Quilter

Fusion Museums: On the Importance of Preserving an Embarrassing Genealogy / Michael Herzfeld

Art Matters in Museums: Whence Objects and for Whom? / Suzanne Blier

Museums are Good to Think / Anne D'Alleva

Crossing Cultures: Redefining a University Museum / Henry Kim

Zeitgeist and Early Ethnographic Collecting in Berlin: Implications and Perspectives for the Future / Viola König

Sharing, Crossing, and Subsuming Museum Boundaries: Current Directions / Richard Kurin

Working from Objects: Andean Studies, Museums, and Research / Natalia Majluf

Art and Artifact: Challenging Categories / Mary Malloy

Museums, Modernity, and Mythology: A Semioptic Review / Moyo Okediji

Aluka 2.0

via Aluka Blog:

Flickr, Facebook, and 2.0: Aluka Takes the Plunge
November 29th, 2007 by Michael Gallagher, User Support

Aluka now has a presence on both Flickr and Facebook!

Aluka has uploaded images to Flickr from both the African Plants, Cultural Heritage and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa content areas. From African Plants, we have a collection of specimens, drawings, and photographs that will be sure to entice any botanist or lover of plants.

For Cultural Heritage, we have amazing images taken by Dr. Heinz Ruther from such World Heritage Sites as Lalibela, Kilwa Kisiwani, Elmina Castle, Great Zimbabwe, and Timbuktu. The image included in this post is Bet Giorgis at Lalibela.

For Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa, we have  covers from some important texts from and about the countries in the region, including Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.

Come and take a look; feel free to add us as a Contact as well so we can build a network! To view Aluka’s Flickr slideshow, simply go to http://flickr.com/photos/15721258@N06/.

On Facebook (www.facebook.com), we have created a group called Aluka (catchy, isn't it?). To join our group, search in Facebook for Aluka and click Join Group. We have information about Aluka, contact information, and some representative images from the digital library. Please come and join, ask a few questions, maybe even make some comments; it goes a long way towards developing the Aluka community!

Archaeology in Mexico (article alert)

An Aztec stone slab found at Templo Mayor in Mexico City depicts Tlaltecuhtli, god of the earth, as a squatting clawed figure that drinks blood. AP (Source:    Anthropology and Archaeology)

The Practice of Archaeology in Mexico: Institutional Obligations and Scientific Results
Edited by Nelly M. Robles García

SAA Archaeological Record, vol. 7, no. 5 (November 2007), pp. 9-43. (Note: The most recent issues of this title are not freely available electronically.)

CONTENTS:

• The Practice of Archaeology in Mexico: Institutional Obligations and Scientific Results
• Good Colleagues, Good Neighbors
• Law and the Practice of Archaeology in Mexico
• The State Control on Archaeology in Mexico
• The Archaeological Registry in Mexico
• Salvage and Rescue Archaeology in Mexico
• Management and Conservation of Archaeological Sites
• The Relevance of Ethics in the Archaeology of Mexico as Pertaining to its Northern Neighbors
• Archaeological Curatorship and Material Analysis at INAH
• Directing Archaeological Projects in Mexico: Experiences over Three Decades

Gauguin's Teeth

[replica of "Maison de Jouir" in Atuona; image via]

via The Arts Newspaper [additional links/images courtesy of RGL]:

Gauguin's teeth found in well
Bovril jar, perfume and morphine also discovered
Martin Bailey | 29.11.07 | Issue 186

LONDON. An archaeological dig on the remote Marquesan island of Hiva Oa has uncovered the secrets of the water well used by Paul Gauguin. The buried objects range from a New Zealand beer bottle to four human teeth.

[image via]

Gauguin lived in the village of Atuona from 1901 until his death two years later. He built his own Maori-style hut, “la Maison du Jouir” (house of pleasure), and dug a well just outside. The Marquesans did not use wells, but springs, and after Gauguin died it was filled with rubbish from his home.

The results of the excavation are revealed in the inaugural issue of Van Gogh Studies, an annual scholarly review from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, out this month. The essay, by Gauguin specialist Caroline Boyle-Turner, is the first report in English on the 2000 dig (a few other details emerged earlier in specialist publications).

Objects from Gauguin’s time were found around 2.7 metres below ground level. There was a Bovril jar from England, and various liquor bottles. Five broken pieces of hand-decorated plate made in Quimper presumably date from when Gauguin was painting in Brittany.

Broken perfume bottles were found, embossed “France”. Dr Boyle-Turner notes that “a way to please women in Polynesia was to offer them perfume”.

Artistic materials found included three chunks of orange and ochre minerals, still smelling of linseed oil, suggesting that Gauguin made his own paint. A broken coconut shell with pigments was probably used as a palette.

Gauguin is likely to have suffered from syphilis, and had serious eczema. A buried syringe and two ampoules which had contained morphine were presumably for pain relief. The four teeth show signs of severe decay, suggesting they are European (the Marquesans did not eat sugar). They are likely to be Gauguin’s, and he may have had them extracted and then saved them.

The finds from the well now belong to the municipality of Atuona, which bought the site and erected a replica of Gauguin’s Maison du Jouir in 2003.