Archaeology Magazine - June 1964 - 60

NEWS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Archaeology at the Fair
Archaeology is featured, sometimes even starred, at several pavilions of the New York World's
Fair. For the benefitof those of our
readers who may be planning a
trip to the Fair, we list the countries
whose exhibits include archaeological material.
China (Taiwan) gives an entire
floor to antiquities. The most remarkable of these is a famous
Shang marble sculpture of a tiger.
Yin oracle bones from Anyang,
Chou bronzes and jades, fragments
of the Spring-Autumn annals from
the later Han period and reproductions of seventh-century A.D.cave
murals from Tun Huang are also
included.
India is exhibiting a fifth-century
A.D.Buddha from Sarnath, a series
of handsome South Indian bronzes
of the eleventh century and seventeenth-century relief sculpture in
wood.
Jordan's pavilion has a column
from Jerash standing outside it, and
replicas of Petra tombs along its
walls. Inside may be found a detailed survey of Nabataean pottery,
Nabataean, Moabite and Roman
sculpture, excellent color slides of
excavations- Petra, Jericho, Jerash,
the Madaba mosaics- and of course
fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls,
with some of the jars in which they
were found and photographs of the
setting.
Lebanon exhibits a mosaic of
Europa and the bull, fragments of
a frieze from Baalbek, column capitals, a garlanded sarcophagus,
funerary jars from Byblos and a
replica of the sarcophagus of King
Ahiram. One exhibit traces the developmentof the alphabet, the great
contributionof the Phoenicians.
Mexico's enameled copper tile
murals depict the history of the
country from prehistoric times. Archaeological exhibits include rep132

licas of an Aztec warrior from
Tula, the great calendar from Mexico City and the Tajin pyramid as
well as an Olmec jade head of the
third century B.c. and a Mixtee
turquoise mosaic mask from Tilantongo.
Pakistan, like China, has brought
to America major archaeological
treasures, especially of the Indus
Valley civilization.Among these are
the unique Priest-King from Mohenjo-Daro and a vivid copper figure of a dancer as well as toys and
figurines and some of the undeciphered seals. Palaeolithic stone
tools are also shown, and a representative group of Graeco-Buddhist
reliefs.
Spain hangs the sword of El Cid
in a dramatically stark setting.
The Sudan gives a special room
to the fresco of the Virgin and
Child from Faras (see Archaeology 15 [1962] 112-120 and 16
[1963] 59) and other Nubian
antiquities.
The United Arab Republic reserves a hall for antiquities ranging
from early Pharaonic to Islamic,
each piece a good representative of
its period. The miniature jewelencrusted gold effigy-sarcophagus
of Tut-Ankh-Amen is particularly
handsome.
The Vatican pavilion is exhibiting, as everyone knows, Michelangelo's Pietà, but few realize that
a rare example of late Roman
sculpture, a quarter-life-size Good
Shepherd of the third century A.D.,
stands at the entrance to the chapel.
The heart of the excavationsunderneath St. Peter's is also shown in
replica.
Art Collection at Columbia
Other exhibits which will interest
visitors to New York this summer
are on view at ColumbiaUniversity.
They are open 11-5Mondaythrough

Saturday during the summer.
A fresh approach to exhibiting
archaeologicalobjects may be seen
in the Low Library, at Broadway,
and 116th Street. Here a collection
of Iranian pottery, bronzes and
jewelry dating from the fourth to
the first millennium B.c. has been
made available for exhibit and for
study through the kindness of Dr.
Arthur M. Sackler. In the exhibit
an attempt is made to provide a
framework for the developmentof
the types of objects and to show
how they were used. For example,
pins were important at a time when
garments were wrapped around the
body, not tailored; pins of this sort
in the collection are fastened into
the fabric of the exhibition case.
Decorated mace-heads are set into
handles, ready to use, and roundbottomed vessels which probably
hung from hooks are suspended in
the case. At the same time, the
aestheticqualities of the objects are
brought out by special placement
and lighting.
The other exhibit is a group of
beautiful objects of Chinese art,
dating from Neolithic times to the
Sung period, from the same collection, and is on view in the Faculty
Room of the Low Library.
Exhibit of Iranian Art
Through the efforts of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service,a magnificentselection
of works of art from Iran is to be
shown in various museumsthroughout the United States in 1964 and
1965.The exhibit will include many
of the treasures which were on view
as "7,000 Years of Iranian Art" in
Paris and other European capitals.
In our next issue we hope to have a
comprehensive article on the exhibit by an outstanding scholar.
The exhibition will be at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington June 7-July 19. As worked

Archaeology Magazine - June 1964

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1964