The History Blog

In the comments on yesterday’s entry about the museum raids, I noted that it was virtually impossible for a substantial collection in the United States to be built quickly out of provenanced antiquities because the demand far outstrips legitimate supply. Clutch asked:

So, are all the graduates of curating/gallery studies/museum studies doomed to careers of self-deception or outright fraud? Do you think anything can be done? If the legal/moral supply really is too small, and the demand is large, it strikes me that a “War on Drugs” approach of occasional prosecutions will work no better than… well, the War on Drugs. Do you see a practical course of action that could help?

Assuming the curator wants to work in the North America, there are two approaches I can think of which could help de-loot the system: 1) buy local, and 2) pursue long-term loans and travelling exhibits.

The lust for classical or exotic fureign antiquities seems to me a vestige of the Gilded Age parvenue attitude that prestige and class can be bought. Nowadays, there are all kinds of museums with a more narrow focus on local history.

There’s still a huge traffic in looted local antiquities, mind you, especially Native American and Civil War, but it would be easier to trace the provenance on such pieces and most importantly, to team up with legitimate archaeological excavations and arrange the display of their finds.

The money, though, is in long-term loans and travelling exhibits. This would work both with local antiquities under the control of government agencies (national parks, for instance) and tribal governments, and with other countries’ antiquities.

There are already established loan mechanisms between museums, and many countries with a surfeit of antiquities would doubtless be glad to negotiate long-term loans of stuff they have in storage or can ill-afford to preserve.

First there needs to be a serious culture shift, however. As things stand, curators and the collector class who populate museum boards have been more than content to rationalize their wallowing in the loot trade sty. The froo-froo talk about antiquities “belonging to the world” or worse, the patronizing “we can take care of it better than they can” excuses for trafficking in goods stolen at massive cost in site destruction and even human life, have to stop.

Here’s some unusual WWI photography. It’s thousands of soldiers forming a well-known image photographed from a tower.

During World War I, photographers Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas traveled from one military camp to another taking photos of soldiers forming patriotic symbols as a part of planned promotional campaign to sell war bonds.[...]

Mole and Thomas spent days preparing formations which were photographed from a 70 to 80 foot tower with an 11 by 14 inch camera.

Pretty nifty as war bonds campaigns go.

A terracotta image of Mallinath, the nineteenth Jain Tirthankar of the present age, has been discovered by archaeologists in Jessore, Bangladesh, and she’s all woman.

In the ancient religion of Jainism, Tirthankars are ascetics who have achieved enlightenment (aka nirvana) and are therefore no longer bound by karma to the circle of reincarnation.

There are two main sects of Jainism: Shvetambar and Digambara. Shvetambars hold that Mallinath was a woman and the only female Tirthankar of the present age. According to the Digambara, women (in the present age, at least) cannot achieve enlightenment.

The Khulna Archaeology Department kept this discovery on the down low “for security reasons”. I’m curious as to what the concern might have been exactly, but I bet it has something to do with the controversy over Mallinath’s gender.

A little Australian smartassery to warm your cockles this fine Christmas Day, written by Leslie George Rub on the Western Front in 1916.

Christmas Day On The Somme

’Twas Christmas Day on the Somme
The men stood on parade,
The snow laid six feet on the ground
’Twas twenty in the shade.

Up spoke the Captain ‘gallant man’,
“Just hear what I’ve to say,
You may not have remembered that
Today is Christmas Day.”

“The General has expressed a wish
This day may be observed,
Today you will only work eight hours,
A rest that’s well deserved.

I hope you’ll keep yourselves quite clean
And smart and spruce and nice,
The stream is frozen hard
But a pick will break the ice.”

“All men will get two biscuits each,
I’m sure you’re tired of bread,
I’m sorry there’s no turkey
but there’s Bully Beef instead.

The puddings plum have not arrived
But they are on their way,
I’ll guarantee they’ll be in time
To eat next Christmas Day.”

“You’re parcels would have been in time
But I regret to say
The vessel which conveyed them was
Torpedoed on the way.

The Quartermaster’s got your rum
But you may get some yet,
Each man will be presented with
A Woodbine Cigarette.”

“The Huns have caught us in the rear
And painted France all red,
Pray do not let that trouble you,
Tomorrow you’ll be dead.

Now ere you go I wish you all
This season of good cheer,
A very happy Christmas and
A prosperous New Year.”

Archaeology magazine has compiled its top 10 finds of the year. I’m delighted to see that chickens made the list. Chickens: is there anything they can’t do?

Scholars have long assumed the Spaniards first introduced chickens to the New World along with horses, pigs, and cattle. But now radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis of a chicken bone excavated from a site in Chile suggest Polynesians in oceangoing canoes brought chickens to the west coast of South America well before Europe’s “Age of Discovery.”

By “it’s” I mean me. Sorry for the long lapse. I shall attempt to get back on the proverbial horse starting immediately.

So I was sifting through reams of Google News Alerts, slightly miffed that there wasn’t some nice, handy blog that had already done all the sifting for me, when it struck me like the proverbial bolt of lightning that non-laziness is an actual option. Hell, if I’m doing it for myself, why not post the products for all my brothers and sisters in history nerddom?

My interests are primarily European ancient and medieval, but I’m quite undiscriminating when it comes to history, so I’ll pretty much blather about anything that catches my eye. I also intend to make a note of all the topically relevant books I read, and a list of all the topically relevant books sitting in a pile glaring at me.

I shall endeavor not to suck. That is all.