Archaeology Magazine - December 1955 - 68

AND

COINS

MEDALS

from the beginning of coinage till about 1800 A.D.
Our carefully prepared and illustrated catalogues
and price lists are free for the asking.
CLASSICAL

JEWELRY

an important collection of some eighty pieces is for
sale, also individual pieces. Correspondence invited.
NUMISMATIC FINE ARTS
EDWARD GANS
10 RockLane
Berkeley 8, California

source for the specifically Mesopotamian elementsfound in India and western Asia, since none of the Indian examples can be regarded as directly derived from Mesopotamianantecedents.
The dating of the Indus culture is based
on seals of Indian type found at Mesopotamian sites in Sargonid and postSargonidlevels of 2500 to 1500 B.c. Sir
Mortimer, pointing to Vedic references
to the storming of strongholds by Aryan warriors,leansto the theorythat the
end of the citiesof the Indusculture came
with the Aryan invasion ca. 1500 B.c.
In connectionwith the small sculptures from Mohenjo-daro, which in
certain respects are comparable to
Mesopotamiantypes, it is pertinent to
mention a number of unpublished
figurinesthat appeared in India before
the last war from unauthorized diggings in Sind. These statuettes correspond so closely to images of the well
known Gudea type that they postulate
an even closer relationship with Mesopotamian art than is suggested by any
of the finds at Mohenjo-daroitself.
The prophecies of later Indian art
consistlargely of suggestionsof Saivite
iconographyin some of the seals and a
sandstone dancing figure from Mohenjo-daro. Although its dating is still
open to question, the well known male
torso from Harappa embodiesthe plastic qualities of Indian sculpture of the
historicalperiods. In his chapter on the
Indus religion Sir Mortimer suggests
that the terra-cotta statuettes of a
"Mother-goddess" type found at all
284

the Indus sites represent an underlying
stratum of folk religion apart from any
official cult: the same position is occupied by the modern clay figurines,
some of them strikingly reminiscentof
their prototypes from Mohenjo-daro,
that represent the survival of sakti
worship in the Indian village today.
This book is extremelyvaluable, not
only as a clarifying summary of the
exhaustivereports on the excavationsat
Mohenjo-daro,Harappa, and Chanhudaro, but also because it brings these
publicationsup to date with an account
of the important excavations resumed
in the Indus Valley after World War
II. Most noteworthy in these digs was
the discoveryof citadels suggestingthe
ziggurat of Mesopotamiantradition.
Benjamin Rowland, Jr.
Harvard University

tive of only quite simple monochrome
pottery and textiles, are important because they belong in an early developmental, or formative,stage of Peruvian
culture, about which relatively little is
known, including its origins. It is clear
that these sites are related to the widespread Chavin culture, although they
lack specialized religious structures
typical of Chavin itself and of several
sites farther north on the coast.
Whether this is to be explained on
the basis of their distance from Chavin
centers of greater size and complexity
or on chronological grounds is not
clear.
The writers dug test pits in the
middens, one almost nine meters deep.
They found at Ancón that the earliest
pottery, like that of Viru and Chicama
Valleys, farther north on the coast, was
undecorated. Later wares, still monochrome, bear incised, brushed and
punctate designs remarkably similar to
those found at the highland site of
Chavin itself. Chavin design was also
found in textile fragments. Early Supe
was shown to be contemporaneouswith
the latter part of Early Ancón,but both
were clearly establishedas parts of the
Chavin horizon.
The work is a technical contribution
of the highest order, but unlike many
such specializedbooks, it contains useful and readable comparative sections
for the non-specialistand teacher and a
fine reconstruction of Early AncónSupe culture.
Alfred Kidder II
UniversityMuseum
Universityof Pennsylvania

Anthropologist* s Story
The Track of Man: Adventuresof an I
Anthropologist,by Henry Field. 448 ,
pages, 28 illustrations, 2 end maps.
Peruvian Coastal Sites
Doubleday & Co., New York 1953
Early Ancón and Early Supe Culture. $5.95
Chavin Horizon Sites of the Central
Henry Field's interest in the study
PeruvianCoast,by Gordon R. Willey
of man and his characteristiczeal and
and John M. Corbett. xxii, 180pages, enthusiasm showed themselves early.
29 figures, 5 maps, 17 tables, 31 plates. His
was spent in England in
Columbia University Press, New York the boyhoodcountry of Leicestershire,
hunting
1954 (Columbia Studies in Archae- where relics and traditions of the earology and Ethnology, Volume III)
lier inhabitants abound. For his twelfth
$5.00
birthday*the budding archaeologist's
most prized gift was a day's work by
This is a record of excavationsand a
meticulous analysis of finds made at "the two best posthole diggers" on his
two long known but little understood stepfather's estate. The results- the
sites on the coast of Peru north of
discovery of a flaked flint, a coin, a
Lima. The sites, although consisting bead and some animal teeth, and the
largely of midden deposits and produc- tracing out of a cobbledpavement and

Archaeology Magazine - December 1955

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1955