Week 8: Famous Archaeologists and a Peru Festival

Wednesday 7/25
On Wednesday, I started off the day as normal entering more data from the physical anthropology ledger. I started on record number 454, which continued with the Tibia bones from the site in Southern California. I finally got through all 200 records that were from the same site and moved on to specimens from different sites!

The majority of the human remains collection was received by Mark Raymond Harrington. He was a famous pioneer of Native American archaeology and traveled all over the United States and Cuba. Some of the sites he excavated were from the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Arizona. Harrington also did research on Native Americans for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York. Mentioned in the ledger was one of his expeditions in Tennessee with Clarence B. Moore. Moore was also an archaeologist who studied and excavated Native American sites in the Southeastern U.S.

Here are a few sites with bios on both Harrington and Moore:

Harrington Bio

Moore Bio

Clarence B. Moore courtesy of Lighthouse Books

I also learned new word terms which were used to describe the condition of the skeleton: plagiocephaly and rachitic. Plagiocephaly literally means flathead syndrome. It is the asymmetrical flattening of one side of the skull often found at birth. Rachitic is used to describe a skeleton which appears to have been affected by rickets, the softening and weakening of bones caused by a lack in certain nutrients.

Thursday 7/26
On Thursday, I spent the morning entering more data into the records. I made it up to record number 500! Not too much more to go until I have completed all 717 entries. In the afternoon, I went with a few conservators at the CRC to check out the Kaypi Peru Festival at NMAI on the mall. When we arrived there was a music and dance performance that was starting. I watched the performance and also perused the vendors who were selling textiles, iconography, jewelry, pottery, clothing, and more. Check out the link above to learn more about it.

Peruvian Mask used in the Diablada punena dance

Village scene from part of a retablo or devotional painting

Colorful textiles

Friday 7/27
On Friday, I did the usual data entering. There were a few sites this week that needed clarification as to the proper site name so I made a list and sent it to Pat the Site Master. I also grouped the completed records for the week, which concluded with record number 553. At this point in the ledger a few entries I noticed also mentioned some not-so-famous archaeologists/collectors.

The first one was a man by the name of DeMoss Bowers, son of Stephen Bowers a famous California archaeologist. He made several expeditions to the Southern California Channel Islands for the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (SW Museum), now the Autry National Center. The Channel Islands were historically inhabited by the Chumash people. (Here linked is information on the Channel Islands and the history of the Chumash people)

Second, William Herman Golisch was another California archaeologist. He also led an expedition to the Southern California Channel Islands for the SW Museum.

Lastly, Ralph Glidden was an archaeologist who conducted research for the Heye Foundation in New York. I guess you can tell the trend by now... He also conducted research on the Channel Islands off the coast of California. Here is a link to a Missouri newspaper article from 1929, which talks briefly  about Glidden's research into the origins of the American Indian and "his collection of skulls."

Well, looks like I have two more weeks left at the internship! Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

Week 7: Crania and beyond

Wednesday 7/18
Well this was week was quite uneventful. I did the usual: sat in my medium sized cubicle and cataloged ledger records. Not so exciting. In order to pass the time, I listened to music on Pandora and occasionally browsed the internet for fun and amusing facts on whatever topic I am cataloging. On Wednesday, most of the records I cataloged were Crania or Calvaria. Calvarium/calvaria is a Latin word used to describe a skull that is missing the lower jaw or mandible. The records for the next 200 or so entries were pretty much from the same place, Channel Islands of Southern California. Seems as though all of the skeletal materials from this place were arranged in the ledger by part. I finished up the day by completing 43 records and moved onto the Mandibles.

Thursday 7/19 and Friday 7/20
On Thursday, I started on the Mandibles or Mandibula (Latin word form) records. There weren't too many Mandibles. I also cataloged the other bones such as the Humerus, Scapula, Clavicle, Unla, Radius, and Os coxae (pelvic bone). The individual bone entries were rather short so I was able to complete up to record 400!

On Friday, I cataloged Femur and Tibia bones. I completed 53 more entries, which left me at record number 453! I was also able to leave work early to go see The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX at the National Museum of Natural History!

Week 6: Cave or Village? The Cuba Site Problem

Jumping right into this last week...

Wednesday 7/11
Started off the day by organizing my notes and questions to go over with Kara. While I was waiting for her to get around to talking with me, I did a little research on the problem sites in Cuba. In the ledger there were two sites with related NMAI numbers that did not have the same sites. The ledger sites stated the locality was at a village site and the NMAI record stated the locality was in a cave. I asked Pat the Site Master for help and she recommended I look into Mark R. Harrington's publication "Cuba Before Columbus."

After I looked through the book and the descriptions of the location of each site, I could not find anything that specified whether the specimens from Cuba were from a village or a cave. Instead, I left each locality as they were and noted the discrepancy between the conflicting information. I also had another problem with another site in Cuba and the Goat Island site in Jamaica from a few weeks ago. These sites were dealt with in the same way as the cave v. village site.

Next, I updated the records with the new sites that I had sent to Pat from the previous week. I finally got to meet with Kara after lunch to go over my notes that I had taken when she was gone. We went through each and updated the records as we went down the list. I finished up the day by entering 12 records.

Thursday 7/12 and Friday 7/13

On Thursday I entered the usual 40 records for the day. I also learned a new word: trephination or trephining as it was in the ledger. This word was used to described cut marks and a hole in the skull. The word is used to describe pre-modern or ancient surgery. Wikipedia describes it as the following: making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created through other body surfaces, including nail beds. It is often used to relieve pressure beneath a surface. A trephine is an instrument used for cutting out a round piece of skull bone.

I left work around 3:30pm on Thursday to go to one of the NMNH's SIMA program lecture series in Museum Anthropology. The lecture was by Dr. Marit Munson of Trent University. Her lecture was titled “Art & Artifact: Archaeological Approaches to Material Culture.” Here is the details of the lecture:
        In anthropological collections, the divide between art and artifact is idiosyncratic and subjective, with a few select objects 'elevated' to the status of art-- and most relegated to mere artifact.  This act of naming goes beyond philosophical debates, as it has practical consequences for the ways that we view, handle, and ask questions of objects.  Drawing on examples from the US Southwest, I demonstrate how ideas of art vs. artifact have pushed research on rock art and kiva murals toward questions of iconography, symbolism, and meaning.  By casting these objects as art, archaeologists have neglected the more material questions routinely asked of other artifacts, such as raw material sources, production sequences, and labor investment.  I illustrate the differing insights that come from each line of inquiry, arguing that researchers need to consider objects' potential as artifacts and as art if we wish to more fully understand the past.

Friday was pretty low-key. I entered another 40 or so records and am now at record number 300!

Week 5: Halfway There!

This week I worked only on Thursday and Friday because the 4th of July was on Wednesday. Monday I got a free lunch at the Folklife festival for the Smithsonian staff picnic. I also bought Mayan made earrings and a Tibetan skull bracelet for only $6!

Wednesday I went to the Folklife festival with Derek (my boyfriend). For more information go here: http://www.festival.si.edu/ . It was a great event but it was so hot outside! I saw the AIDS quilt and the many booths/tents set up by colleges and universities across the U.S. They displayed a variety of topics from green houses and sustainability, traditional medicines, dairy farming, and fossils, to robotic technology, digitization, and aerial mapping. Then we went to see the concert and fireworks at the Capital.

Thursday and Friday 7/5 and 7/6
I started out Thursday by updating the sites from last week. Some of the sites for a few records needed a little more research since there was a discrepancy in the database as to where the specimens were actually found. I also completed over my usual number of records for the day. I got around 40 records completed on Thursday! Charging through this stuff at light speed....haha, I wish.

Friday, I completed a little over 40 records. I sent a very long list of site questions to Pat the Site Master for more explanation or just asking for recommendations on the best site to use. I also added the completed records to the group I created on the database to be checked later. This marks the halfway point in the internship!