Archaeology Magazine - December 1951 - 56

Epi graphie Congress
The secondInternational Congressof
Greek and Latin Epigraphywill be held
at the Collège de France, Paris, from
April 15 to 19, 1952, under the presidency of Louis Robert of the Collège
de France.Enrollmentsand requests for
information may be addressed as follows:
M. Louis Robert,
31, Avenuedu Parc Montsouris,
Paris (XIVe), France.
The first congress was held in Amsterdam in 1938.
Life in a Rain Forest
Described by its creators as a landmark in the progressof museumdisplay
techniques, the American Museum of
Natural History's exhibition of "Men
of the Montana; a story of life in the
Peruvian rain-forest," was opened on
November 28, 1951.
In this first major showing in the
United States of ethnological material
from the Amazon, full use is made of
lighting,color, sound, and careful selection and arrangement of the materials,
to enhance the effect of the culture of
the area. The nucleus of the exhibition
is the collection, numbering several
thousand items, assembledby Raul de
los Rios during a twenty-five-yearresidence on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and obtained for the museum by
the late Francis Adams Truslow.
Among the unusual techniques employed are the use of free-standingfigures placed in open jungle settings created of actual liana vines brought from
Peru. At one end of the hall a fisherman
on the beach at the edge of the jungle
mends his net, while among the tangled
vines and tropical foliage of the other
jungle setting a warrior, bow and arrow
in hand, stalks his enemy.
Headhunting, fishing,farming, hunting, weaving, and the ceremonial rites
of the Indians who inhabit this inaccessiblearea on the upper Amazon are
depicted against a stylized simulation
of the Montana. Figures, designed in
the manner of fashion mannequins,represent the activities peculiar to these
natives. A Yagua man shoots a blowgun, while a Conibo man and woman,
both dressedin full ceremonialcostume,
are shown ladling beer from a large
earthenware pot into a drinking gourd.
248

The use of sound as a display technique is unique in that this is the first
time the sounds of a region have been
represented naturally. Peepers and tree
frogs, giant frogs and howler monkeys
announce the impending rain in a wild
cacophony.Soundsof other animals are
heard in a minor key while it is raining
very hard. When the rain recedes, the
visitor hears the thunderous crash of
falling branches which startle the animals and provoke the screaming of
monkeys and squawking of macaws.
The plaintive cry of the bell-bird, the
melodic coloratura of the toucans, the
conversational calls of the crested
guans, and the eerie wail of the howler
monkeys are part of the fusion of
sounds that pervade the hall.
With the co-operation of Moses
Asch of Ethnic FolkwaysRecords,two
different records were prepared especially for the exhibition, one with a
background of falling rain, communicating the different phases of a rainstorm, the other a condensationof the
sounds one would hear on a sunny day.
They are played continuously from
speakers located at various points in
the hall.
Under the general directionof Harry
L. Shapiro, chairman of the museum's
Department of Anthropology, the exhibition was designed by Katherine
Beneker and documented under the
supervisionof Harry Tschopik, Jr.
Aelurolaters
The prehistoric inhabitants of Peru's
northern coast, whose religion and art
centeredin the great cat god whom they
worshiped, are described by Raphael
Larco Hoyle, director of the Museum
of Archaeologyat Trujillo, Peru, in a
handbook in the Smithsonian Institution's serieson South AmericanIndians.
Most advanced of these people, probably vaguely related to the Indians who
developed the Inca civilization in the
Andes, were the Mochicas.
Presumably this cat god started as a
local deity, but among the Mochicashe
was elevated into a supreme divinity.
He is shown in Mochica art as a man
with great fangs, a wrinkled face, and
catlike whiskers spreading from the
nose.
This supreme god, Dr. Larco says,
apparently was consideredas ruling the
destiniesof the world, but he lived like

people and could reveal himself both as
a man and as a god. Numerous pottery
vessels show him receiving sacrificed
human beings who are being thrown
from a high cliff. He sits at the foot of
the cliff, receivingthe blood of the victim as a precious offering.
He is shown in other pottery designs
as a farmer shellingcorn, as a fisherman
in a small balsa boat, as a doctor, and
as a musician and a hunter. He is pictured also holding up the rainbowin the
form of a two-headed serpent, and as
a god of war whose interventionis necessary for victory.An anthropomorphic
lizard is his servant and a dog his faithful friend. A cormorant attends him
while fishing,propellingthe balsa boat.
A sea eagle, appearing like a human
figure,is the messengerwho brings him
the blood of the sacrificed.As a personificationof good, he fights demons,pictured as vampire bats in the form of
men, sea demons,a two-headeddragon
with one head set in his tail, and a
serpent with ears. When he returns
wounded from his contest with the demons, he is attended by buzzards and
falcons.
The great number of pottery vessels
depictingreligiousscenesor beings,according to Dr. Larco, indicate that the
life of the Mochicapeople was strongly
interwovenwith nature worship.
Perhaps the most remarkable development of the Mochica culture, as depicted in their pottery designs, was in
surgery. They knew a good deal about
amputation, and used circular knives
for the removal of tumors. In amputating arms and legs they used great
care and precision, cutting the bone
above the fleshincisionin order to yield
a healed stump. A femur and ulna have
been found which show a perfectly
healed fracture, indicating that these
Indians knew how to set broken bones.
Jerusalem School
The AmericanSchoolof Oriental Research in Jerusalem has as director for
1951-52 Professor William L. Reed
of Texas Christian University, Fort
Worth, Texas, and as annual professor
Dr. A. Douglas Tushingham. Professor Sirarpie Der Nersessian of Dumbarton Oaks is Honorary Visiting Lecturer.
The director of the Baghdad school
ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology Magazine - December 1951

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1951