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Eugène Boban began life in humble circumstances in Paris, traveled to the California Gold Rush, and later became a recognized authority on pre-Columbian cultures. He also invented an entire category of archaeological artifact: the Aztec crystal skull. By his own admission, he successfully “palmed off” a number of these crystal skulls on the curators of Europe’s leading museums. How could that happen, and who was this man? Detailed are the travels, self-education, and archaeological explorations of Eugène Boban; this book also explores the circumstances that allowed him to sell fakes to museums that would remain undetected for over a century.
The astonishing true story of a young sailor's ordeal during the golden age of piracy
In Ornamental Nationalism: Archaeology and Antiquities in Mexico, 1876-1911, Seonaid Valiant examines the Porfirian government’s reworking of indigenous, particularly Aztec, images to create national symbols. She focuses in particular on the career of Mexico's first national archaeologist, Inspector General Leopoldo Batres. He was a controversial figure who was accused of selling artifacts and damaging sites through professional incompetence by his enemies, but who also played a crucial role in establishing Mexican control over the nation's archaeological heritage. Exploring debates between Batres and his rivals such as the anthropologists Zelia Nuttall and Marshall Saville, Valiant reveals how Porfirian politicians reinscribed the political meaning of artifacts while social scientists, both domestic and international, struggled to establish standards for Mexican archaeology that would undermine such endeavors.
Crystal is one of the most fascinating substances in nature. The crystalline structure lends itself uniquely to various adaptations, including information storage, and crystal technologies are at the cutting edge of advancements in nanotechnology and computing. Crystal skulls are one of the most intriguing enigmas in history, archeology and metaphysical science. Does the fact that they are carved from crystal enable them to store information and interact with human thought waves? There is a lot of evidence to suggest this is so. Rogue archeologist and explorer David Hatcher Childress introduces the technology and lore of crystals, and then plunges into a full-on search for the source of the ...
Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss were consummate collectors and patrons. The illustrated essays in this volume reveal how the Blisses' wide-ranging interests in art, music, gardens, architecture, and interior design resulted in the creation of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection--what they came to call their "home of the humanities."
In The Native Ground, Kathleen DuVal argues that it was Indians rather than European would-be colonizers who were more often able to determine the form and content of the relations between the two groups. Along the banks of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, far from Paris, Madrid, and London, European colonialism met neither accommodation nor resistance but incorporation. Rather than being colonized, Indians drew European empires into local patterns of land and resource allocation, sustenance, goods exchange, gender relations, diplomacy, and warfare. Placing Indians at the center of the story, DuVal shows both their diversity and our contemporary tendency to exaggerate the influence of Eu...
In twelve essays on such diverse Smithsonian Institution holdings as the Hope Diamond, the Wright Flyer, wooden Zuni carvings, and the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth lunch counter that became a symbol of the Civil Rights movement, Exhibiting Dilemmas explores a wide range of social, political, and ethical questions faced by museum curators in their roles as custodians of culture. Focusing on the challenges posed by the transformation of exhibitions from object-driven “cabinets of curiosities” to idea-driven sources of education and entertainment, the contributors—all Smithsonian staff members—provide a lively and sometimes provocative discussion of the increasingly complex enterprise of acquiring and displaying objects in a museum setting.
Only two years after Coronado’s expedition to what is now New Mexico, Spanish officials conducted an inquiry into the effects of the expedition on the native people Coronado encountered. The documents that record that investigation are at the heart of this book. These depositions are as fresh as today’s news. Published both in the original Spanish and in English translation, they provide an unparalleled wealth of information about the Indians’ responses to the Europeans and the attitudes of the Europeans toward the native peoples.
The companion volume to the most comprehensive of the Smithsonian's Quincentenary programs, the National Museum of Natural History's' "Seeds of Change" exhibition (October 1991 through April 1993). Informed, accessible, and beautifully illustrated, the volume traces the sometimes deliberate, sometimes unintentional exchanges of plants, animals, culture, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds over the course of 500 years since Columbus' voyages, focusing on five "seeds"--sugar, corn, the potato, disease, and the horse. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Humans -- creators in training -- have a purpose and destiny so heartwarmingly, profoundly glorious that it is almost unbelievable from our present dimensional perspective. Humans are great lightbeings from beyond this creation, gaining experience in dense physicality by slowing down the creative process in order to feel the results and consequences of their decisions and actions. This truth about the great human genetic experiment of the Explorer Race and the mechanics of creation is being revealed for the first time by Zoosh and his friends as humanity begins to awaken to its true nature. Zoosh and a great assortment of beings who have never spoken to the physical plane before -- from particles to All That Is -- speak vibrantly through superchannel Robert Shapiro. Each personality has its own knowing, perception and expertise as it shares its history, its present focus and the awesome truth about humanity's mission. The books read like adventure stories as we follow the clues from