Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2001 - 8

viding traditional amulets and canopic
jars! Far better for an anatomic gift to
have fallen into their hands than, for
instance, to end up (usefully, no doubt)
furthering forensic science in the study
of unburied decomposition; yet either
alternative is preferable to the American
mortuary custom of being expensively
embalmed, beautified, and locked in a
cement vault. The deceased in the
mummy project was no doubt surprised
and delighted to awaken before Osiris.
Mildred Downey Broxon
Seattle, WA
Brushstrokes
Make the Man?
Regarding the gender of the artist
who painted the image of a bison in
Altamira cave ("Who Were The Artists
of Altamira?" March/April, p. 74): I am a
female artist who often has been told
that I paint like a man because I use
bold brushstrokes. I have an artist friend
who is also a woman just under five feet
tall who paints 12-by-18-foot canvases
also characterized by bold, broad brushstrokes. It is my experience that such
brushstrokes are much less indicative of
gender than of the confidence of the
artist. The publication of the unqualified
statement that such a technique is characteristic of male artists implies the
acceptance of an assumption which in
fact is simply a projection of the present
imposed onto the deep past.
Davida Schulman
Northbrook , IL
In the Kingdom of the Blind
A FINEANDIMPRESSIVE
publicaWHAT
tion you create. I enjoy it very much.
I must take issue, however, with
Kristin Romey's reference to Taliban
leader Mullah Omar as the "one-eyed
cleric" in the news article "Cultural
Terrorism," and accompanying article
"Intolerance in Antiquity" (May/June).
Though you may disagree with Mullah
Omar today, it seems to me that references to physical characteristics, in
making one's case, have no place in
such a learned journal as yours.
As you strive to build bridges to the
past, I suggest you not burn those
bridges to your contemporaries. Should
Mullah Omar overlook these juvenile
slights and one day be persuaded to sit
with archaeologists, I hope Ms. Romey
will not be present.
8

Should you wish to respond, I have
thinning hair, asthma, and myopia.
Robert Whitehill
Montclair, N]
Kristin M. Romey responds: Throughout
history, soothsayers,spiritual leaders, and
seers have often been distinguished by a
visual disability that, while restricting
observation of the material world, gives
them a particular insight into realms
beyond. Omar shares company with
Homer s seer Teiresias; Odin, who relinquished an eyeball in return for knowledge; and the blind cleric Sheikh Abdel
Rahman. In such a context, I see no
problem in referring to the mullah's
visual impairment; that sentiment is
shared by many publications, including
the Washington Post, New York Times,
Times of London, Independent, Boston
Globe, and Newsweek. Reference to
halitosis, dandruff, etc., in making my
case would have been a different matter.
Rhymes with...
his absorbing article "Secrets of the
IN
Rain Forest" (May/June 2001), Benjamin Ryer Howe points out that
Darien stretches from Panama City to
the Colombian Andes. But nowhere in

the article does Howe refer to the celebrated poem by John Keats called "On
First Looking into Chapman's Homer":
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle
eyes/Hestared at the Pacific- and all his
men/Looked at each other with a wild
surmise- / Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Kenneth Larson
Los Angeles, CA
Fan Mail
our public library, they have a
At"grab-table" where people place their
old magazines. Thanks to the grace of
some gods, I arrived on the scene minutes after a large stack of Archaeology
was contributed. As soon as I pawn my
television, I'm filling out a subscription
card. Had I come across this magazine
earlier, I'm convinced I'd be here today
with trowel in hand, not pen.
Vince Moravek
Helena, MT

"
Correction: The article Rescuing Techno
Trash" (May/June) included an incorrect
web addressfor the VintageComputer Festival.The correctaddressiswww.vintage.org.

"He reminds her of her late husband !"
Archaeology * July/August 2001

http://www.vintage.org

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2001

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