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UNIVERSITY OF 

ILLINOIC LIBRARY 

AT U.nLJAimA champaign 

NAT. HIST. SURV. 



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DELD Museum of Natural History Bulletin 



^ January 1981 




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Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



January 1981 
Vol. 52, No. 1 



Editor Dcbi^ncr: David M. Walsten 
Production: Martha Poulter 
Calcjidar: Marv Cassai 
Staff Plioto;^raplier: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1843 

Prc:fidciit: E. Leland Webber 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

cinuiman 
Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O. Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O.C. Davis 

William R. Dickinson, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphv Jr. 
James J. O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert Fl.'strotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B. Wilkinj. 
Blaine J. Yarrington 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr. 
William V. Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



CONTENTS 

3 Field Briefs 

6 A Curatorial Legacy: 226 Years' Dedication to 

Field Museum by Alan Solcfu, curator of inverte- 
brates 

15 Venetians and Minoans: A Voyage of Discovery 

1980 Tour to "Tlie Classical Lands" 
by Donald Whitcomb, assistant curator of Middle East- 
ern archeology and ctlmology 

20 Field Museum Tours to Kenya and the Seychelles, 

Papua New Guinea, Peru, and the Holy Land 

24 Behind the Scenes 

26 West African Art: Power and Spirit 

Learning Museum Program 

by Anthony Pfeiffer, project coordinator 

30 Our Environment 

32 Latin American Neighbors Day 

33 Index to Volume 51 (1980) 

35 January and February at Field Museum 

Calendar of Coming Events 

COVER 

An optical illusion by Mother Nature. Not a worm hole in some peculiar 
corrugation , nor an abandoned bird's nest in the clay, but a series of 
umve-formed ridges in the sand of a barrier beach, Stone Harbor, New 
jersey, loith an egg-shaped clay fragment in their midst. Similar clay balls 
have been reported on the coast of Delaumre and on beaches in Scotland and 
Trinidad. This specimen luas radiocarbon dated at 20,000-24,000 years 
old. Such clay balls on the Stone Harbor beach are probably fragments of a 
late Pleistocene silh/ clay layer which occurs widely over the continental 
shelf. They ivere eroded and redepositcd on the beach under storm 
conditions. Photo by Michael Meza. 



Fklit Miifciim of Naliini: Hiflonj Biillelm (USt'S 898-940) is published monthly, i-xcept 
combined luly'August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at 
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 60605. Subscriptions; S6 00 annually, S3. 00 for schools. 
Museum membership includes B(///cfrji subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are 
their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manu- 
scripts are welcome. Museum phone: (.312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send form .3579 
to Field Museum of Natural I listorv, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II. 
6061)5. ISSN: 0015-0703. Second class postage paid at Chicago, II. 



FIELD BRIEFS 



Raup Named Dean of Science 

David M. Raup, chairman of the Depart- 
ment of Geology since July, 1978, has 
been named dean of science, a newly 
created position. The new post includes 
responsibility for the four curatorial de- 
partments (anthropology, botany, geol- 
ogy, and zoology), the Library, Advanced 
Technology Laboratories, and the Center 
for Advanced Studies. 

The post supersedes, in part, the po- 
sition of assistant director, science and 
education, which additionally encom- 
passed the departments of education and 
exhibition. Bertram G. Woodland, cura- 
tor of petrology, has been named acting 
chairman of the Department of Geology. 



Robert K. Johnson Zoology Chairman 

Robert K. Johnson, associate curator of 
fishes and head of the Division of Fishes, 
has been named chairman of the Depart- 
ment of Zoology, as of January 1, succeed- 
ing Melvin Traylor, curator of birds, who 
had held the chairmanship for two years. 
Traylor has retired and is now curator 
emeritus. (For more on Traylor's years at 
Field Museum see page 11.) 

Johnson, who holds a doctorate from 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 
came to Field Museum in 1972 as assistant 
curator, was named associate curator in 
1975 and head of the Division of Fishes 
in September, 1978. Assistant Curator 
Donald J. Stewart, who joined the Muse- 
um staff in 1979, succeeds Johnson as 
division head. 



China Bronzes Drew Record Crowds 

The Great Bronze Age of China: An Ex- 
hibition from the People's Republic of 
China, on view at Field Museum August 
20 through October 29 of last year, drew 
the largest number of viewers of any spe- 
cial exhibit since "Peru's Golden Trea- 
sures" was here in 1978. 

According to Head Cashier David 
Sadowski, a total of 258,713 viewers were 
recorded during the exhibit's ten-week 
stay. In the closing week, attendance 
daily exceeded 5,000 and included from 
70 to 80 percent of the total visitors to the 
Museum during that time. 

In addition to the Museum staff, a 
volunteer force of 105 was enlisted to as- 
sist in providing admission tickets for the 
exhibit viewers and in other exhibit- 
related activities. A reception was held on 
November 5 to honor the China Bronze 




Robert K. johtison 



volunteers, who contributed, collectively, 
4,000 hours. 

After leaving Field Museum the 
China Bronze exhibit opened at the Kim- 
bell Art Museum, Dallas/Fort Worth, on 
December 10 and will remain there until 
February 18. It will then travel to the Los 
Angeles County Museum of Art (April 
1-June 10) and to the Museum of Fine 
Arts, Boston (July 22-September 30), be- 
fore returning to China. 



Symposium Honors Henry S. Dybas 

Tri-State University, Angola, IN, hosted a 
November 21 symposium in honor of 
Henry S. Dybas, curator emeritus of in- 
sects. Guest speakers at the symposium 
included entomologists from Indiana 
University, The University of Michigan, 
the University of Chicago, the University 
of North Carolina, and the University of 
Hawaii at Manoa. 

Dybas, who was also awarded an 



honorary D.Sc. at Tri-State's November 
commencement exercises, was cited for 
his outstanding contributions to en- 
tomology, notably in his studies of the 
periodical cicada ("17-year locust") and 
the Ptiliidae, or featherwing beetles, the 
smallest of the Coleoptera. Dybas joined 
the Field Museum staff in 1941 and retired 
August 1, 1980. (For more on Dybas's 
years at Field Museum see page 9.) 



NSF Grant to Division of Birds 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) 
has awarded the Museum a grant of 
$54,756 in support of the project entitled 
"Support for the Systematic Collections 
in Ornithology," under the direcHon of 
John W. Fitzpatrick, associate curator of 
birds. The effective period of the grant is 
April 1, 1981 through September 30, 1982. 
This represents the first in a series of five 
annual awards. Each will be made con- 
tingent on the availability of funds and 
the progress of the project. 3 



FIELD BRIEFS 





A likaiesi' of Field Mu<.eum founder Marshall Field I, cari'ed 
m Russian beryl, a semiprecious gemstone, is presented to Field 
Museum by ge/n engraver Ute Bernhardt, caiter. Receiving thegift 
are Field Museum Director Lorin I. Nci'ling, Jr. (left) and David 
M. Raup, neivly appointed dean of science. The gemstone, part of 
the Museum's permanent collection, was loaned to Bernhardt, of 
Oak Park, Illinois, for the carving of Field's image. 





Helen Hayes, first lady of the American stage, is also in her oum class as a the newly installed Japanese lacquerware exhibit, in Hall 32 . With her are 

faithful Field Museum visitor. Above, left, she poses with daughter Mary Mrs. C. Corson Ellis and Field Museum President E. Leland Webber. At 

by the Museum's north portico, about 1939. Next, in 1969, with Hoshien lower right she is accompanied by Mr. John C. Murphy, of Chicago, in 

Tchen, consultant, East Asian collection. Below, left, she views in 1979 October, 1980, prior to viewing the Great Bronze Age of China exhibit. 





George D Olson 



A Curatorial Legacy 

Six Zoologists Dedicate 226 Years' Service 
To the Field Museum of Natural History 



BY Alan Solem 

Curator of Invertebrates 



Departmen t of Zoologx/ 

staff, 1972, induding 

the SIX principals of this 

article: (front row) V. 

Reaves, R. Schoknecht, 

M. Prokop. H. Palmer, 

N. Whitt: (on chairs) P 

lohnson, N. Kozlou'ski; 

(standing) Philip 

Hershkovitz, K. Liem, 

Loren P. Woods, 

Emmet R. Blake. 

Rupert L. Wenzel, 

Hairy S. Dybas, L. de 

la Torre, Melvin A. 

Traylor; (on platform) 

B. Winter, B. Brown, 

D. Derda, V. Canty, 

M. Belka, C. Evers, R. 

Laubach, ]. Kethley; 

6 (on ladder) H. Marx 



December 31, 1980, marks the end of an era 
for the Department of Zoology in Field 
Museum of Natural History. Melvin A. Travlor, 
chairman, and curator of birds, joins in retire- 
ment Emmet R. Blake, Philip Hershkovitz, 
Henry S. Dybas, and Rupert L. Wenzel. These 
five distinguished scientists, together with the 
late Loren P. Woods, former curator of fishes 
who died in Mav, 1979, collectively were 
associated with Field Museum of Natural 
History for 226 years prior to retirement. 
Although their terms were interrupted by 
military service during World War II or by 
occasional stints as visiting curators at other 
institutions, this is possibly an unparalleled 
record of participation. 



These six were in large part respons- 
ible for the expansion of our collections into 
world-class size, completing comprehensive 
library facilities, planning the building reno- 
vation of Zoology office and storage areas 
in the 1970's and living through the chaos of 
that period. Since they constituted half the cu- 
ratorial staff in the Department of Zoology, their 
retirements over the last few years have brought 
in a new generation of curators, who inherit the 
tools needed to be productive and innovative 
in research — collections, library, equipment, 
space, and examples to follow. 

All five retirees are now gleefully busy 
pushing major research projects to completion, 
happily ignoring meetings, paperwork, reports. 



and .ill the uthfr aspects of dail\' work routine. 
Formal individual appreciations and reviews of 
their endeavors have heen or will be published, 
but it seems appropriate to share with \ou the 
special features of this era and to emphasize the 
value of their collective contribution to Field 
Museum. First as a student volunteer in the 
mid-iy40s, then as a colleague since 1956, I've 
been privileged to be part of this era and watch 
their accomplishments grow and change. 

Today, new assistant curators in major 
museums are highly trained, publishing 
research scientists. The Ph.D. represents a 
"union card" needed before an application for 
employment will be considered. In the 1930s, a 
different tradition existed. A person with deep 
interest and enthusiasm, but lacking either an 
M.S. or a Ph.D., could join the staff of a major 
museum, leani on the job, and gradually 
develop into a world authoritx'. Similarly, the 
goal of an eventual monumental publication 
requiring from one to three decades of 
concentrated effort was much more feasible. 
The concept of one person synthesizing a half 
century of work in a field of science was much 
more practical, since neither the scientific 
literature explosion of the 1950s through 1970s 
nor the increasing dependence of financing 
research on short-term grants from outside 
sources had yet occurred. The nature of 
zoological research in museums also has 
changed, from the comparatively simple quar- 
tet of mind, specimens, library, and habitat, 
to at least an octet of data from sophisticated 
instrumentation for study of ultrastructure, 
biochemistrv, karyology (the study of cell 
nuclei), and computer analysis. While most 
museum research still is based on specimens 
and observations, the type and amount of data 
used in research has become much greater and 
more varied. 

All six new staff members arrived with 
B.A. or B.S. degrees, but only Hershkovitz and 
Blake had an M.S. Rupert Wenzel completed 
work on his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago 
in 1962. Emmet Blake was aw^arded an honorary 
D.Sc. in 1966 from Presbyterian College of South 
Carolina, and Henry S. Dybas has just been 
awarded an honorary D.Sc. from Tri-State 
University, Angola, Indiana. Their work, rather 
than their degrees, stands as their current 
credentials. 

A critical feature of Field Museum's 
Department of Zoology was the presence of 
an inspiring leader, the late Karl P. Schmidt 
(1890-1957), a distinguished herpetologist. He 
possessed the unique gift of being able to launch 
a career during a brief conversation, and literally 
several hundred biologists decided to earn 




Ph.D.'s because of his enthusiasm and influ- 
ence. A major part of my own education as a 
biologist was obtained not in college or graduate 
school, but during "brown bag" summer noon 
hours. The Field Museum "lunch club" was 
presided over by K. P. Schmidt and populated 
by many of the scientific staff talking over cups 
of tea. 

A final ingredient was the view that the 
world was the proper focus of Field Museum. 
Instead of being tied to a single regional focus, 
the staff attempted to build collections and 
librarv facilities on a worldwide basis, recog- 
nizing that manv types of comparative 
studies could be made only where worldwide 
resources were available. The fact that today all 
major collections in the Department of Zoology 
have a world focus results directly from this 
view bv the staff and from strong continued 
support by the administration and the Board 
of Trustees. 

Thus, the Department of Zoology 
provided an opportunity for personal 
development, an inspiring leader, and full 
administrative support for amassing library and 
collection resources. It was into this milieu that 
our six scientists entered and flourished, each 
in his different way. In looking at the history 
of a particular collection in a long established 
museum, often one can detect an alternation 
of generations between curators whose pri- 7 



kaii l\ Siiimidt, 1954 



mcir\ impact has been in building of collections 
and curators who primariK- ha\e made use of 
collections through research publications. An 
attempt to seek balance between these extremes 
during a career still is one of constant struggle. 
Participation in major exhibition work, 
educational activities, graduate student 
supervision, public relations, fund raising, 
national and international scientific societies, 
editing professional journals — all are activities 
in which curators are involved. (Space does not 
permit chronicling these aspects. Here I only 
review Department of Zoology activities.) 
Although Rupert L. Wenzel was a 
volunteer in insects in 1934 and 1935, and a 
part-time book shop and cloakroom attendant 
in the late 1930s, his formal association with the 
Department of Zoology began on May 1, 1940, as 
assistant curator of insects. He completed 4OV2 
years of service on October 31, 1980, having 
served as curator of insects, chairman of 
zoologv from 1970 to 1977, and in a multiplicity 
of capacities on museum committees. Deeply 
involved in civic affairs in his community,- 
always called on by organizations for help, 
author of numerous encyclopedia articles, and 
perpetually available for council and advice, 
Rupe Wenzel has been a mainstav of the 
Museum in many ways. Couple this with his 
building of the insect collection and library into 
premier status, and you have a remarkable 
career of service to Field Museum. 

One of Wenzel's classic stories involves 
his predecessor as curator of insects in the late 




Rupert L. Wenzel (rt.) shows case of beetles to William j. 
Gerhard, thm curator of insects, about 1950. 



Rupvrt L. Wetizel (left) ami Henry S. Dybas, about 1950 





1930s. When a visiting scientist asked where he 
could find the collection of exotic beetles, Cura- 
tor William Gerhard replied, "In the same Lx)x 
they were in 20 years ago." Today, the exotic 
beetle collection occupies thousands of boxes. 
The Division of Insects enjoys a world- 
wide reputation, expanded and renovated quar- 
ters, and one of the finest arthropod libraries 
jin the world. These results of Wenzel's efforts 
Btand as a permanent monument. Long 
j'ecognized as the world authoritv on bat flies as 
l^ell as histerid beetles, he has waiting Ix'fore 
liim collections that will provide data for many 
jnonographs still to be produced in his retire- 
nent years. These could, in time, crowd to a 
orner of a shelf his previous magnum opus, 
ctoparasites of Panama, an 861-page tome 
oedited with V. J. Tipton and recognized as a 
lodel study of parasites and their hosts. In 
ijcognition of this valuable work. President 



Robles of Panama awarded Wenzel the Order of Rupert L. Wenzel ivith 

Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Grade of Cabailero, in "f^'ftanl, 1963 

1967. Perhaps the best Field Museum example of 

a builder of research facilities, Rupert L. Wenzel 

now becomes a user of these same facilities, 

freed from administration and other routine 

duties. 

Henry S. D\bas began as a part-time 
assistant in the Division of Insects on March 1, 
1941, retiring as curator of insects on August 1, 
1980, after a career spanning 39 V2 years. An 
extremely widely read and thoughtful biologist, 
he has served as a sounding board and critic for 
people in manv disciplines. Students and staff 
alike have benefited and continue to benefit 
from discussing new ideas with him and 
receiving an appropriate nudge toward a 
different approach. A major part of this 
interchange takes place during the "D\bas 
salon," an informal lunch in his office on most 9 




Henry S. Dybas collecting fcathcrwing beetles in Panama, 
1959 

Early '50s scene of Museum staff as they view unpacking of 
insect collection. From left: William j. Gerhard, uniden- 
tified, Heitry S. Dybas, Karl P. Schmidt, Hymen Marx, 
Robert E. Bruce. 



Saturda\'s, when anthropologists, paleontolo- 
gists, zoologists, and botanists who have come 
in for a few hours of research effort without 
ringing telephones or staff interruptions as- 
semble for sandwiches and talk. His comment 
to me after an early lecture I gave at Field 
Museum that "land snails don't seem to have 
any biology," reflecting the lack of ecological 
content in mv presentation, is typical of these 
nudges. I remember it frequently as I grunt and 
sweat after snails in an Australian desert. Much 
of my own ecological emphasis came as a result 
of such discussions. 

In keeping with his breadth of interests, 
publications on the phenomenon of parthe- 
nogenesis and on the evolution of small size 
in insects extend his systematic work on the 
featherwing, or ptiliid, beetles, the world's 
smallest beetles. But undoubtedly his greatest 
scientific fame, as coauthor of what probably is 
the most cited technical work by a zoology staff 
member of Field Museum, rests on cooperative 
work bv Dvbas, Monte Llovd, and Dwight 
Davis (former curator of vertebrate anatomy), 
on the ecology and evolution of the periodical 
cicadas. Massive collections of soil litter 
arthropods resulted from his many field trips, 
and even more have come in from people whom 
he interested in undertaking such studies. 
Thus, a major legacy is the general collections 
Dybas accumulated in the course of his own 
research and of efforts by friends and students. 
His service as administrative head. Division of 
Insects, during the construction activities was a 
major contribution to Field Museum. The 
"Saturday salon" continues, as does work on 
featherwing beetles. 

Emmet R. Blake formally became 
assistant, Division of Birds, on July 1, 1935, 



10 




although botweon 1931 and 1934 he li.id 
participated in Field Museum expeditions to 
Venezuela and Guatemala sponsored b\' Leon 
Mandel. Such scientific endeavors occurred 
between periods as a prt)fessional boxer in a 
carni\al and as an athletics instructor in sum- 
mer camps. On retiring as curator of birds on 
November 30, 1973, Bob Blake left behind a 
reputation as one of the best field collectors in 
the history of Field Museum, fabled stories from 
a World War II period in the Arm\'s Counter 
Intelligence Corps and a solid reputation as both 
a builder of collections and a productive scien- 
tist. Most of his effort oxer these 38V2 vears was 
focused on the faunas of Mexico and South 
America. His handbook. Birds of Mexico, first 
issued b\' the Universit\' of Chicago Press in 
1953, entered its seventh printing in 1974. 
Leading ornithologists still consider it the 
standard reference on Mexican birds. 

Now in c]uite active retirement, he 
has achie\'ed the capstone of his career — his 
four-volume Xhviual of Nivtwpicnl Birds. Rave 
reviews accompanied the appearance of vol- 
ume I, a massive 674-page tome issued by the 
University of Chicago Press in 1977. One-third 
of all known species of birds live in South and 
Central America — the region covered bv the 
book. Attempting to svnthesize the great body 
of information involved is a formidable task. In 
the words of one reviewer, "One cannot fail 
to be awed b\ the uncommon order of dedica- 
tion and scholarship required to complete such 
an undertaking," while another called it the 
"most ambitious work on the avifauna of 
the net)tropics ever attempted . . . an indispens- 
able reference . . . marks the dawn of a new 
era of neotropical ornithology." 

Notes on Blake's field trips indicate an 
incredible productivity and amount of hard 
work coupled with meticulous planning: a 
35-day trip to Mt. Turumiquire, Venezuela, 
resulted in the collection and preservation of 803 
birds, 96 reptiles, and 37 mammals; in 1955, a 
14-week trip to Mexico covered 15,132 miles by 
truck— at a total cost of $793.21, including 1,065 
gallons of gasoline — an incredible financial 
exploit at its time, much less believable when 
viewed today after a quarter centurv of inflation! 
Seemingly quiet and modest. Bob remains a 
superb raconteur, when he can be distracted 
from the Mniiual of Neotropicnl Birds. 

As with Emmet Blake, it is difficult to say 
hen Melvin A. Traylor actuallv joined Field 
useum. In 1937, soon after graduation from 
arvard, he did ornitht)k)gical field work in 
ucatan, studied this material at Field Museum, 
|md then served consecutively as associate, 
Plvision of Birds, 1940-48, and research 




Emmet R. Blake diiriji^ Peru expedition, 1958 



Melvin A. Traylor, 1962 




Melvin A. Traylor, 
1956 



associate. Division of Birds, 1948-55. Through 
these vears, as an unpaid, but nearh' full-time 
worker, he compiled an enx'iable record of 
useful publications on birds of the New World. 
Upon joining the paid staff as assistant curator 
in 1956, he switched his research emphasis to 
Old World birds to better complement the 
activities of Curator Blake. Resulting from this 
period of work were a classic 250-page checklist 
of Angola birds in 1963 and an important report 
on birds from Szechwan, China, in 1967. 

From 1972 through the \'ears of 
construction and reconstruction, he served as 
chairman of the Space Committee, a vital link 
among staff, architects, contractors, and 
consultants, bringing a quiet keen competence 
and an awesome capacit\' for detail that greath- 
eased the trauma of facilities rehabilitation. In 
1973 he was promoted to curator, Division of 
Birds. 

Closing out his formal career on 
December 31, 1980, he has just completed a 
three-year term as chairman. Department of 
Zoology, during this period of massive staff 
transition. Recognized by his peers as an 
excellent ornithologist, he has worked most 
recently on the flycatchers and on ornitholog- 



ical gazeteers of South American countries in 
cooperation with Ravmond A. Pavnter, Jr. of 
Harvard Universit\'. 

Tra\lor's managerial and organizational 
skills have made a lasting impact upon Field 
Museum. For more than 40 \ears he has quietly, 
efficiently, and continualh' contributed to 
the Museum in a variet\' of wavs, often not 
associated with the role of a scientist. Retire- 
ment will bring an end to meetings and com- 
mittee work, result in more time for fishing, 
and provide full freedom to pursue research 
on birds, continuing the tradition of careful, 
detailed work established in his 1937 efforts. 

Loren P. Woods joined Field Museum 
June 6, 1938, as a guide-lecturer in the Depart- 
ment of Education, transferred to the Divi- 
sion of Fishes in Januarv, 1941, and retired as 
curator of fishes on August 31, 1978. In his 40V4 
vears at Field Museum, Woods became one of 
the two or three most knowledgeable ichthy- 
ologists in the world. He was a continued 
resource for information not onlv on fishes, but 
on all aspects of marine and fresh water biologv. 
His own research and routine work frequently 
took second, third, or fourth place to helping 
students, colleagues, or members of the public 



12 ^ 





Lonni P. Woods (left), 
fhoum ill 1968 with 
foniier ciiraton Kan-I F. 
Licm (cciilvr) and 
Robert H. Deiiisoii as 
they admire iieicly 
received coelaeanih 
specimen . 



with requests for information. 

Typical of the respect in which he was 
held by his colleagues, a 1978 symposium on 
damselfishes was dedicated to Loren Woods, 
"a man who spent many years quietly but 
effectively encouraging damselfish research." 
Over the years, Bulletin articles bv Woods on 
such diverse topics as coral reef fish and the 
alewife entertained and informed our members. 
Loren was an extremeh' effective field worker, 
and the fish collections of Field Museum grew 
dramatically from his activities in the Indian 
Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The tensions of life 
on oceanographic ships often become unbear- 
able. Several people have related to me how 
effective he was on shipboard in minimiz- 
ing frictions and facilitating the work of others. 
His major publication, a revision of the North 
Atlantic berycoid fishes, appeared in 1973, 
but his true legacy is in the collections he 
accumulated and the knowledge he shared 
unstintingly with tvv'o generations of 
ichthyologists. 

Philip Hershkovitz was the late-comer 
to Field Museum, starting March 10, 1947, as 
assistant curator of mammals after nearly five 
years of mammal collecting in South America. 
In the following years he became, successively, 
associate curator, curator, and finally research 
curator, the position he held at the time of his 
retirement on Sept. 30, 1974, 27V2 years after 
joining the staff. The only difference one could 
detect in his post-retirement activities was that 
each day he arrived earlier and worked later. A 



prolific writer on mammals and an excellent 
field collector, Hershy, as he is commonly 
known, has never shrunk from scientific 
controversy, challenging accepted ideas and 
interpretations. His views on zoogeograph\' 
of South and Central America, hair color in 
primates, and several other ideas will continue 
to be discussed and debated widely for many 
years. 

The position of research curator of 
mammals, which he held for 15 years prior to 
retirement, spared him trom many aspects of 
daily routine, and enabled him to concentrate 
upon gathering data toward a true magnum 
opus. Volume I of Living New World Monkeys 
(Platyrrliini), with an Introduction to Primates, was 
issued by the University of Chicago Press 
in 1977. totalling 1,117 pages with many 
illustrations, this has been recognized as "the 
last word on the subject," "a work of staggering 
proportions," and "an invaluable reference 
source for all primatologists." It is indeed so 
comprehensive that a curious feature of 
published reviews emerges: each reviewer 
focuses on only one or two small aspects of 
the book, as its truly encyclopedic nature 
overwhelms as a whole. Hershy continues 
writing the remaining volumes, interspersed 
with numerous publications on this and that 
of mammalogy. A legend in his time, Phil 
Hershkovitz consistently demanded perfection 
in work from assistants and co-workers, a 
situation appreciated more in retrospect than 
at the time of occurrence. A very private 



13 



individual, deeply interested in music, totalh' 
involved in research, Phil Hershkovitz, builder 
of collections and productive scientist, is a 
fitting close to this review of retirees. 

These brief surveys of careers, totalling 
226 working years, fail to do justice to the ex- 
tent and variety of their contributions to science 
and to Field Museum. Perhaps this article can 
convey a sense of the dedication and purpose 
shown by a group of diversely talented people 
in building and making use of unique scientific 
resources. Most certainly, I can emphasize some 
unusual features of work in systematic biolog}': 
that years of experience are required to make 
major contributions to knowledge of a biological 
group; that retirement years are frequently a 
time when major publications are completed; 
and how important intellectual atmosphere 
and working conditions are in furthering 
productivity. 

With half of the curators in the 
Department of Zoology retired to curator 
emeritus status in the last few years, a new era 
has started. Of the current staff. Curators R. F. 
Inger and H. Marx joined Field Museum in the 
late 1940s, Curator Alan Solem in the mid-1950s. 
Associate Curators John Kethley, Robert K. 
Johnson, and Harold Voris in the early 1970s, 



Loren P. Woods (left) 

with student, about 

14 1968. 





Philip Hershkovitz (left) with student, about 1968. 

Associate Curator John Fitzpatrick in 1978, 
Assistant Curator Donald Stewart in 1979 and 
Assistant Curators Larry Watrous and Robert 
Timm in 1980. To this core of career-oriented 
staff there soon will be two more assistant 
curators. They will form a new cohort of 
scientific staff, inheriting vastly greater resource 
bases than their predecessors, living in a world 
of short-term grant support, using much more 
complex scientific procedures, equipped with 
modern techniques and theories, and offered 
opportunities and challenges to match or exceed 
the tradition of collection-oriented research and 
building established by our curatores emeriti. 

The global environmental problems of 
today, the continued and growing interde- 
pendence of economies of all nations, the 
human altered basic ecology of the world — all 
increase the need for research units capable 
of taking a world view in study. Thanks to 
the endeavors of previous staff and strong 
administrative support for these efforts, the 
Department of Zoology at Field Museum of 
Natural History has the library and collection 
resources to make such contributions. 

It is the responsibility of both current and 
new staff to see that ways are found to make 
major use of these resources in the form of 
research publication, education, and exhibition 
— three basic functions of Field Museum of 
Natural History. We will be advised and helped 
by our distinguished curatores emeriti, who 
after 226 paid years at Field Museum, are 
spending many more years on the projects they 
were too busy to complete, or wanted to start, 
but couldn't, d 




U'/iirt 



Venetians and Minoans 

A Voyage of Discovery 

Field Museum's September 1980 Tour to "The Classical Lands" 



Text ami Photos By DONALD WHITCOMB 




The M.S. Stella Maris awaited our tour group in a 
most appropriate place: just outside the Arsenal, 
in Venice, for we were about to embark on a tour 
during which we would see and contrast the 
archeological remains of two important 
Mediterranean powers: medieval Venice and 
ancient Greece. Our visit toLrt Sereiiissima — "the 
most Serene Republic" — had been too brief, but 
long enough to gain a feeling for the center of 
this medieval empire of the sea; and now 
we embarked just where Venetian galleys 
had departed for so many centuries. 

In a way the arsenal was a foretaste of 
things to come: Directly outside its gates are 
three lions, one from the Greek island of Delos 
and two that once adorned the harbor of Piraeus 
and the sacred way leading from it to Athens. 
Lions would accompany us throughout our tour, 
from the numerous lions of St. Mark, which 
identified the extent of the Venetian commercial 



Donald Whitcomb, coleader of the tour, is assistant curator 
of Middle Eastern archeology and ethnology 



15 



Dubrovnik 




world, to the famous Lion Gate of Mycenae, 
which symbolized the far earlier world of the 
Mediterranean. 

We left Venice, the city of the sea, and 
retraced the route through which she had 
exerted her influence over the entire eastern 
Mediterranean. Visiting the small ports of Rab 
and Zadar, nestled among the numerous islands 
of the Yugoslav coast on the Adriatic, we could 
easily imagine the Illyrian pirates who troubled 
the Romans and, centuries later, similar piratic 
groups who harrassed the Venetians. But the 
competition which the Venetians encountered 
was also of a more legal variety at the commercial 
entrepot of Dubrovnik, or Ragusa, as it was 
known in medieval times. 

The galleys of Ragusa, called argosies, 
were very nearly as successful as those of Venice 
in the oriental trade. The well preserved old city 



Tour members visit 

the Minoan Palace, 

16 Knossos. 




gave us a vivid impression of the medieval milieu 
in which this trade grew, a trade which extended 
back at least to Roman times, but which 
flourished from the 13th century onwards as 
Europe was involved with the Near East via 
the crusades. If the transport of soldiers was 
profitable, the merchants of southern Europe 
soon discovered that the products of the more 
advanced oriental cultures, especially spices 
transshipped from even more distant lands, 
were even more profitable. 

The resort island of Corfu gave us our first 
view of the resources and energy expended by 
the Venetians to establish and maintain their 
commercial empire. This was an empire in the 
true sense of the word, where political, military, 
and, above all, bureaucratic subsystems were 
organized into an entity controlled by Venice. 
Henceforth, at almost every stop on our cruise 
around the Peloponnesos and through the Greek 
Islands, we would find preserved a fort attesting 
to the extensive defensive links required to 
control this empire. One of the most important of 
these forts was Naupactos (medieval Lepanto), 
site of the last decisive victory of the Venetians 
(AD. 1571) before losing their empire to the Turks. 
Here our tour set off to explore the earlier mari- 
time civilizations of Greece as we visited the 
ruins of Delphi. 

According to Greek legend, the mysteries 
of Delphi, with its renowned oracle, were intro- 
duced by Apollo, who arrived there "in the 
company of men from Knossos. " The men of our 



next stop, Nestor's beautiful palace on the hilltop 
at Pylos, were immortalized by Homer for their 
role in the earliest recorded battle of European 
and Eastern peoples — the "crusade" against 
Troy. 

It was on Crete that we found the first 
dramatic overlap of the two maritime empires we 
were following. Although our visits to the ports 
of Chania and Rethvmnon revealed that the 
omnipresent Italians had been active on Crete, it 
is the Minoan maritime civilization of the second 
millennium B C. for which this island is justly 
famous. The Minoans, who flourished about 
1500 B c, and their successors, the Mvcenaeans, 
based on the Creek mainland, conducted a lively 
commerce with the Levantine coast and Egypt 
and they wielded enormous power in the eastern 
Mediterranean. Minoan rule has been con- 
sidered nonviolent and termed a thalassocracy 
("supremacy on the seas"). We later flew back to 
Crete for a more detailed examination of Minoan 
archeology at Knossos, Phaistos, and several 
subsidiary centers, almost all of which are 
located on the sea. 

As we roamed around the palaces of the 
Cretan kings (called Mmos, perhaps a title like 
the Venetian title doge), we could imagine the 
ladies in fine dresses and the luxury of the 
court depicted in the frescoes, perhaps not too 
dissimilar from the decadent luxury of 16th- 
century Venice. Just as the persona of the doge 
was purposefully minimized by the laws of the 
Venetian republic, so too, the exploits and 
personal character of the Minos seem never to 
have been recorded. Indeed, one of the Minoan 




centers has recently been described as being 
"like a Minoan Venice," although comparing 
Venice's Piazza San Marco with a typical Minoan 
court and its surrounding palace, ritual center, 
and loggias, is somewhat forced. 

But both the Venetians and the Minoans 
did develop extended maritime empires in which 
commerce was the main purpose and political 
conquest by force a secondary means. Like 
Venice, the cities of Crete found protection in a 
strong fleet controlling the sea routes, harbors, 
and naval bases; neither the early Venetians nor 
the Minoans had specialized warships or war 
fleets. Though the role ot the militar\' in ancient 
Crete is currently debated, it is tempting to view 
the Minoans as nonwarlike traders and to see the 
Mycenaeans, wht) succeeded them, as heritors of 
this commercial system backed by more forceful 
means. It is tempting, too, to explain both 



Alhanaii Treasury, 
Delphi 




Palace of the Despots, 
Mistra 17 




A church at Kntsa, Crete 



Naupactiv harbor 



situations in terms of the "protection costs" 
identified by the American historian Frederick 
Lane, who explored what happens when 
governments, using military systems, interfere 
with commerce. 

We sailed from Crete to the nearby island 
of Sanforini, visiting the amazing ruins of Thera 
(Akroteri), buried by a volcanic eruption 3,500 
years ago. If the site of Lepanto may be consid- 
ered the denouement of Venetian civilization, 
the cataclysmic destruction of this Minoan town 
likewise represents the beginning of the end of 
this commercial empire. It was difficult not to be 
reminded of the violence of Mt. St. Helens, 
reflections made more vivid by a slight temblor 
during our last night in Crete. 

Our last stop on the way to Athens 
was the island of Naxos, which had been the 
Venetian duchy of Naxos. Our route recapit- 
ulated the story of Theseus and the labyrinth: 
According to Greek legend, Theseus had been 
sent to Crete as part of Athen's tribute to Minos; 
but Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped 
with the Princess Ariadne, whom he rather 
unchivalrously left at Naxos before continuing 
on to Athens. Theseus subsequently ruled 
Athens and laid the foundation for the power 
and prosperity of that city-state. It is suggested 
that the Greek legend refers to the violent 
breakup of the Minoan empire and the 
development of the early city-states on the Greek 
mainland. 

This transfer of power to the mainland 
gave rise first to the Mycenaean civilization. 



18 





Church frescoes, Mistra 



epitomized for us by the impressive fortified 
hilltop ruins of Mycenae and Tiryns, excavated 
by Heinrich Schliemann a century ago. Both 
the art and the artifacts of the Mycenaeans 
reflect the continuation of contacts with the 
East, especially with Egypt. Great numbers of 
Mycenaean artifacts have been found in Egypt, 
and actual depictions of Mycenaeans have been 
found in private tombs there, such as the tomb of 
the Vizier Rekhmire (ca. 1450 B.C.). As our fast 
cruise ship moved from port to historical port, 
we became aware of the achievements of the 
ancient and medieval sailing ships who tied 
these disparate lands into a great international 
network. 

Although the majority of stops on our tour 
illustrated the interactions of men — medieval as 
well as ancient — with the sea, we also had the 
chance to visit the high landlocked region of 
Mani in the middle finger of the Peloponnesian 
Peninsula, and to explore the ruins of the city of 
Mistra, the Sparta of medieval times. Perhaps 
significantly, this medieval site had been 
established by Prankish knights, becoming a 
remote kingdom and later a refuge for the 
Byzantine despots. 

The fortunes of this "second capital" were 



often tied with those of the port of Monembasia. 
The day we spent visiting these two well pre- 
served medieval towns, dating mainly to the 15th 
and 16th centuries, gave us a real feeling for the 
conditions of life at that time, even though they 
were revealed through archeological remains 
superficially similar to those of much earlier 
periods. 

A final highlight of our tour was a flight 
to Salonika, in northern Greece, where we 
visited Hellenistic Pella, the capital of Philip 
and Alexander of Macedon. In addition to the 
extensive, beautifully preserved remains of 
the ruins of the capital, we visited in the 
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki the 
newly opened exhibit "The Search for 
Alexander," which contains the remarkable 
objects from the tombs of the Macedonian 
royalty, including the presumed tomb of Philip 
the Great. Just as we had followed the history 
and archeology of the early commercial empires 
of the eastern Mediterranean, we were pleased 
to know that Alexander, that great empire 
builder, will, in a sense, return the compliment 
and follow us back to Chicago in a few months, 
when this exhibition will be mounted at the Art 
Institute. The Field Museum tour of Greece and 
the Adriatic gave an opportunity for museum 
members to study the context of these treasures 
and the cultures, both earlier and later, illus- 
trating the continuity of aspects of Mediter- 
ranean civilization. 




Temple at Cape Sounion ^ 9 



^ 



TOLKS 




Bciicli si'i'iir. Scuchclli 



Kenya and the Seychelles 



There Is Xow, as there has alvx-avs been, 
an aura ofmysten- surrounding Africa. 
Tropical islands and the coast, endless 
[lalni-fringed lieaches, snow-capped 
mountains on the equator, jungle 
primeval, savannah sun-baked plains. 
The\- are all a part of" East Africa, the 
home of one of our planets last great 
natural dramas. The wildlife. . .the 
-lately processions of giraffe — dark 
fiituries silhouetted on the African 
horizon. Prides of lion— stalking the 
plains and still lauded as the king of 
Ix-asts. The Ix-autiful and rare leopard, 
the elegant cheetah and surely one of the 
wonders of the world, the magnificent 
migration of wildebeeste and zebra. 
Siidly. time and ci\'ilization move 
inexorably onwards so we hope to 
welcome \ou to Kenya and the Se\chelles 
with Field Museum Tours in 1981. 

InvERARY: Sept. 12: Evening departure 
trom Chicago's OHare Airport \ia 
British ,-\inva\-s to London. 13: Morn- 
ing arrival in London with time to rest 
20 before evening departure for Nairobi. 



September 12 -October 3 
Tour Price: $3,750 

14: Morning arrival in Nairobi and trans- 
fer to Nairobi Hilton Hotel. Evening 
welcome party and lecture by member 
of the East Africa Wildlife Societ}'. 
15: Drive through Kiku\-u countn- for 
overnight stay at Mt. Lodge Tree Hotel, 
the newest of the well-known Tree 
Hotels, designed for optimum game 
\iewing from the comfort of vour 
balcony. 16: Drive north and cross the 
equator to the Samburu Game Reserve. 
Overnight at Samburu Game Lodge. 
17: Full day game \iewing at Samburu 
Game Reserve. 18: Drive south to spend 
the day at the foot of Mt. Kenva at the 
kuurious Ml. Kenya Safari Club. 
19: Journey to Lake Naivasha, a 
bird-watcher's paradise. Overnight at 
the Lake Hotel. 20: Drive through the 
Masai Mara Game Reserve for two da^'s 
of game \iewingby minibus in the Great 
Rift Valley. Overnight at the C^jvcrnor's 
Camp. 21: Full day at Masai Mara Game 
Reser\'e, including a game wa'k. 
22: Return to Nairobi and the Nairobi 
Hilton Hotel. 23. Journey to Amboseli 
National Park, dominated by the spec- 



tacular Mt. Kilimanjaro. 24: Morning 
lecture by research naturalist discus- 
sing studies of wildlife beha\ior. After- 
noon trip to Tsavo West. 0\ernight at 
Ngulia Lodge. 25: The safari continues 
through the plains of Tsavo to Taita Hills 
Lodge for lunch. Continue to the port 
cit}' of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. 
Overnight at the Leopard Beach Hotel. 
26: Morning visit to Shimba Hills 
Reser\'e. Afternoon free. 27: Morning 
departure for Mahe in the Seychelles 
Islands. Afternoon arrival at Reef Hotel. 

28-30: Three days in the Se\chelles 
includes a full day excursion by air to 
Praslin Island to visit Vallee de Mai 
and by boat to Cousin Island to visit 
the internationally renowned bird 
sanctuan-. Optional full dav e.xcursion 
by air to Bird Island. Oct. 1: Free day in 
Mahe. Evening flight to Nairobi, late 
night flight to London. 2: Morning 
arrival in London. Free dav to relax 
and explore on your own. Overnight at 
London Embassy Hotel. 3: Late morning 
flight to Chicago via British Airways. 



^ 



fmlFIELn 
ML'SHl'M 




For a brochure on this or 
any of our other tours 
please write or call the 
Tours office at Field Mu- 
seum. 322-8862. 



East meets West 



Papua New Guinea 



Papua New Guinea is unique on the face of 
the planet Earth. For millenia (or untold 
lime) a diversity- of contrasting cultures 
have flourished here within small areas 
because of the isolation imposed by 
rugged terrain of mountains and jungles, 
and because of hostilities between the 
many different peoples. Largeh- unknown 
to each other and to the outside world thev 
coexisted, each in a communal environ- 
ment sufficient unto it.self. Only since 
contact with modern industrial societ\' 
has this isolation been broken, making 
it possible for visitors to explore and ex- 
claim over the natural wonders of this 
Edenlike paradise. 

It is one of the most remarkable — 
and last — reservoirs of animal, reptile, 
insect, and bird life to be found an\'where. 
But most of all, Papua New Guinea pre- 
sents a variety of cultures and art of 
such freshness and color it holds a fasci- 
nation beyond all else. Each pirovince has 
its own charm, whether it be the all- 
green towering Eastern Highlands, or the 
expansive vistas of the Sepik water- 



May 1-17 
Tour Price: $4,461 

shed. To travel through the continuing 
contrasts of this ever-changing land is 
to experience a travel ad\'enture that 
broadens the mind as it enriches the soul. 
To go from the beginnings of the Space 
Age to the remnants of the Stone Age in 
the course of a couple of da\'s cannot fail 
to be an adventure of mind-bending 
proportions. 

The Sepik River is a monster 
waterwa\' draining a vast area of 
grassland, swamp, and jungle in its 
serpentine circuit. For five memorable 
days we will cruise the Sepik, reaching 
into the past in remote regions where the 
villagers still travel in traditional dugout 
canoes. Thev still reside in enormous tree 
houses though not for the long ago pur- 
pose of escaping head-hunting raiding 
parties. Thev still make and use fanciful 
owl-head j)ots and car\'e croco- 
diles and hornbills, symbols of fertility 
and life. They continue to keep their most 
treasured possessions hidden away or 
buried, only bringing them out on sjx'cial 
occasions. And thc\' still create some of 



the countn's most artistic artifacts. 

Our lecturer. Dr. Phillij) Lewis, 
curator, primitive art and Melanesia!! 
eth!iolog\', will escort the tour from 
Chicago, a!id share his knowledge of 
the varied arts and cultuies of Melane- 
sia, hi additio!!, oi!r Sepik director, Jeff 
I-e\'cisidge, a well-k!!own personalit\- 
on the Sepik a!!d R;imu Rivers, and verv- 
knowledgeable about the diverse cultures, 
arts, and customs of the Sejiik regio!is, 
will lectu!'e the gioiip durii!g the cruise 
and shore excursions. 

Acco!ii!iiodations on board the 
!!ewl\' !efurbisiied Mclanesian Explorer 
a!'e !iiodern a!id comforial)le. Pas,se!i- 
gers a!-e housed in air-comiiiioned twin- 
bunked cabiiis, each with j)rivate bath. 
Above the cabi!!s is a lovely di!!ing and 
lounge area, while the top deck, afl, is 
fitted with lounges a!id chairs so that 
passe!!gers i!!a\' watch the Sejiik water 
world go b\' i!i pleasurable ea.se. 

To ensure your reser\'atio!!, call or 
wi ile the Tours office now. 

21 




Machu Picchu 



Hermann Bowersox 



Peru £111(1 Bolivia: 1981 October W to November 1. Tour price: $3,100 



A nilTerent Exjx^ncnce: A IJitlerent VVorkll From the fabulous Incas, 
through Sp,-inish Colonial times to the modern cities of today — yet 
maintaining its Uitin charm. You"ll lo\e the green fertile valleys along 
the sandv desert coast of Peru; the highest railroad in the world: 
crossingTiticaca, the world's highest na\igal)le lake by hydrofoil; flv-ing 
oiTr the Nazca plains. Our tour includes the fascinating cities of Lima, 
Cuzco, Trujillo, Piino, a train trip to fabulous Machu Picchu, and four 
full da\'s in Ui Paz. 

Dr. Alan L. Kolata, visiting assistant curator of South American 



archeolog)' and ethnolog\', and project director, Field Museum Expedi- 
tions to Bolivia, will accompanv the tour members during the entire 
trip. Dr. Michael E. Moselev, associate curator of Middle and South 
American archeology' and ethnolog\', who for the past ten years has 
directed large-scale projects on the north coast of Peru, will join the 
group when we visit his area of research. We will also have an opportu- 
nitv to see and learn about Dr. Kolata's work at Tiahuanaco. For more 
information call or write Field Museum lours. Direct telephone line: 
322-8862. 



22 




China Tour 

May 17-June 5 

Five spaces remain on this extraordi- 
nan' tour. For detailed itinerary' and 
other information call Tours direct 
line: 322-8862. 



Journey to the Holy Land and the Red Sea 



A cruise on the Red Sea aboard the Stella Marls, 
follow ed b\ a sta\ in Cairo and Israel 



iMarch 12-26 




Petrii, Jordan 



You Ari; Ivvited to participate in an extraordinan' itineran' that affords a 
wealth of visual and intfllettual experiences unmatched in the world of 
travel: 

Following a transatlantic flight, participants will land at Cairo 
and transfer to the port of Suez to board the cruise ship^ Stella A/ari.s,and 
sail leisurely on a Red Sea cruise. Ports of call include several along the 
shores of this ancient sea. where c enturies have made little change. 
From each port, excursions will reveal sites of unforgettable beaut\- and 
grandeur. 

The overnight excursion to Luxor will recall the golden age of 
Eg\pt"s power when the u ealth of Thebes was showered upon the god 
Amon-Ra. A tour of ancient Petra in Jordan uill reveal a site in an 
incomparable setting, \\ith an opportunity to nsit the Monasteri' of St. 
Catherine, built in the fith centun' on Mt. Sinai. 

The cruise will be followed bv two nights in C^airo. Hotel ac- 
commodations will afford \iews of the pvramids of Giza. From Cairo, 
tours will be made to Memphis and Sakkara, the pvramids of Giza and 
the Sphinx, and the KgN'ptian Museum of Antiquities. Following the stav 
in Cairo, fly to Israel for a four-dav visit with accommodations at the 
Jerusalem Hilton. In Israel, the tour program includes \isits to Mount of 



Olives, the Old Cilv' and sites of Jerusalem, Masada. Bethlehem, and 
Jericho. 

Tour lecturer \\ill be Donald S. Whitcomb, a.ssistant curator of 
Middle Eastern archeologv. Dr. Whitcomb. who also led Field 
Museum's recent tour to Greece, has had tield exca\ation experience in 
Egjpl. Oman. Iran, and Sma. as well as museum and research experi- 
ence: as consultant in Islamic archeol(ig\ . Comprehensive Sunev of 
Saudi Arabia; and as research assistant for theComj)reheiisiveSur\'evof 
Saudi Arabia. l!)7(i. (Included in this tour's itineran- is the Red .Sea port 
of Quseir al-Qadim. a site where W'hiliomb is in charge of continuing 
excavarions.) 

The Stella Maris is a .ship of 4.()()(1 gross tons and 297 feel in 
length. Originally built in the early lIKiOs. it was completely rebuilt in 
196.') as a one-i la.ss elegant crui.se \achl. 

The price ot this tour depends upon the t\-pe of accommodation 
cho.sen: $.'5.(i2.T to $3.;)!).") based upon double occupancx'. A few large 
staterooms aboard thvSlilla Marts will accommodate a third person in 
an additional ujiper berth at a rate of $2.92.5. For a full bn-akdown of 
tour rales, ilinerarv. and other details, please call the lours office (322- 
88G2) or w rile for a brochure. 23 



BEHIND THE SCENES 




1 Ik- tgyptian Hall (Hall ]), one of the Museum's perennially 
popular exhibits, is the site of the action shown on these tivo pniges . 
Above, Donald Whitcomb, assistant curator of Middle Eastern 
archeology and ethnology, inspects the offertor]/ chapel of an 
Egyptian nobleman who lived a thousand years before King 
Tutankhamun. The chapel, along the west side of Hall j, has been 
vieioable only through windows since it was installed many years 



as^o. Work is now under way, howei^'r, to provide public Ui:i.c^^ into 
this chapel and a similar, adjacent one. 

The fascinating hieroglyphs and relief decorations of the two 
chapels have never been thoroughly analyzed. By means of care- 
fully rendered tracings (opposite) and the aid of specialists at 
Chicago's Oriental Institute, Whitcomb hopes to unravel the story 
behind these intriguing inscriptions of more than 4,000 years ago. 





E\^i/ptuin tomb project iirti^t 
Sarali Woodionrd and senior 
scientific illiistnitor Zbii^nicw 
Jastrzehski truce tomb art and 
inscriptions on prepared acetate 
film. Their copies are then to be 
studied by Egyptologists and 
deciphered. 



25 



Lkarninc; Ml'si:i'm rontimies witli: 



West African Art: Power and Spirit 



h\- Anthont Pfeiiter 
Project Coordinator 



M.ulc |H)ssiblc bv ;i grant from Tlic National EiidowmiMit 
foi' the Humanities, a liHlfial aaciicv. 



Early European Explorers found Africans to be 
hordes of Scn'ai;cs. Forgetting their own origins, 
Europeans had no frame of reterence for what 
thev saw as a "dark continent." They projected 
their own raw, untamed, and wild psyches onto 
the face of West Africa. Both the land and the 
people were viewed as Hteral examples of 
living prehistory, irredeemably backward and 
laughablv quaint. Polygyny, for example, 
was initially represented as an exotic marriage 
custom, de\-oid of political and economic 



A >tonc numumctit 

bt'ariiig the image of 

an ancient tribal 

chieftain, in the 

garden of the 

Nigerian National 

Museum. Oblii'ious 

to the grandeur of the 

past, and seeming to 

symbolize the passing 

of ancient traditions, 

a lizard strolls over 

26 the chieftain 's face. 




m 




significance. Since Africans were seen as sub- 
human — at best, barely human, it was easy to 
rationalize taking them as slaves. 

European settlers, however, came to 
realize a very different Africa. They reported 
sophisticated systems of worship, kinship, and 
kingship. A king's many wives were no longer 
seen as meaningless royal prerogatives, perhaps 
indicative of animalistic and superabundant 
sexual appetites. It was recognized that the king 
was bound, through his wives, to all important 
ancestral lineages throughout the tribes he ruled. 
His wide network of connections to both the 
living and the dead, in turn, legitimized his rule 
and specified the scope of his power over and 
obligations to his people. Still, Africa and 
Africans were consistently and stubbornly 
underestimated. 

Consider the famous bronzes of the Benin 
Kingdom in Nigeria, for example. The skill and 
craftsmanship that went into fashioning the 
heads could not be denied. What was denied, 
however, was that they were made by Africans. 
After all, how could such artistic achievement 
have emerged in such a primitive setting? The 
very idea was impossible. Yet eventually, the 
bronzes of Benin were accepted as authentic 
African art and today are among the most 
striking objects on view in Field Museum's 
African culture exhibits. 

Although it was finallv recognized that 



m 



NEH Learning Museum at Field Museum 

Tlie NEH Learning Museum program is a three-year 
sequence of learning opportunities focused on the 
Museum's outstanding exhibits and collections and de- 
signed to gii^e participants an opportunity to explore a 
subject in depth. Each unit of study consists of one or 
more special ei'ents, a lecture course, and a seminar for 
advanced work. Special events are lectures by renowned 
iiuthorities or intrepretive performances and demon- 
strations. Course members receive an annotated bibliog- 
raphy, a specially developed guide to pertinent museum 
exhibits, study notes for related special ei'ents, and access 
to select materials from Field Museutn's excellent re- 
search library. In-depth, small group seminars allow 
more direct contact with facult}/ and Museum collections. 




A uooileit iiiDsk- 
/icoi/i/ri'ss from 
Btihiviki, Cameroon. 
Acquired /'i/ Field 
Mi/S('»»i in 1925; 
cat. HO. 175596, 29 x 
69cmUV/2"\2T). 
Such adornments 
were prized xi'hen 
actually in use but 
had no function or 
value as static art 
objects. 



27 




Art n-taiiif. 
superficial traditions 
of form and style, hut 
much of today's ti'ork 
is fashioned for the 
tourist. Hereu'eseea 
Cameroon sculptor. 



28 



-0 



Benin bronzes were fine art of native manu- 
facture, they were defined as art strictly in the 
European sense. Form, style, and workman- 
ship were acknowledged and admired, but the 
objects had been torn from context, which in the 
broadest overview was the entire African con- 
tinent. More specifically, this context was West 
African and, in strict focus, was particular tribes 
and chiefdoms. 

Africa. A vast continent, it is at least three 
times the size of the United States. Largely in the 
tropics (the equator dissects it), Africa is a great 
plateau with an average elevation of 2,000 feet 
above sea level, and sc the popularized tropical 
climate is not corr.mo n . Only 5 to 7 percent of the 
continent is actually tropical forest. 

Africa . t\ en if archeologists lacked any 
other place to dig, the whole story of human- 
kind, from earliest p-ehistor}' to the origins and 
flourishing of agricul in re and cities, could be told 



within Africa's continental confines. Vast areas 
and low population densities led to more distinct 
peoples and cultures than in any other continent. 

Phoenician mariners were said to have 
"discovered" Africa in 600 B.C. It wasn't unril 
AD 700 that merchants from Carthage carried on 
the famous "silent trade" with peoples of the 
northu .^1 ctiast. Merchants left their goods 
in piles not far from the shore and returned, 
after a few days, to find them gone, replaced 
by mounds of indigenous products. Thus, ex- 
changes were made without barter or any form 
of person-to-person contact. 

Seven hundred years later, in A.D. 1400, 
Portuguese exploration of Africa began. Initial 
European contacts were primarily limited to 
coastal areas, and the map of Central Africa 
remained virtually blank until Livingston went 
on his fabled journeys (circa 1850). The well 
known depradations of slavery were in full force 
bv this time. Slaves faced terrible hardships en 
route to and in strange lands. 

Art, too, became distorted out of context, 
just as the persons removed from the lands in 
which their traditions were founded. It may be 
difficult for western cultures to comprehend 
art as part of daily spiritual, social, economic, 
and political life, but in traditional West Africa, 
art forms plaved many functional roles. Idols 
were impaled with hundreds of iron spikes 
to eliminate rivals and enemies — attempted 
"murder by remote control" as it was char- 
acterized in the April-May, 1943 Field Museum 
Neivs (former name of the Bulletin). Twins 
were sculpted to placate the angry spirits that 
caused the misfortune of multiple births. 

Lovely carved wands were used to figure 
out who or what caused problems and to divine 
the future. The togetherness of family and 
tribes was svmbolized and asserted in carvings, 
sculpture, and masks used in dances. Art was a 
medium through which all aspects of life were 
plaved. The meaning of art was in motion, 
context, and setHng. Art was so much a part of 
mainstream living that often no term or phrase 
identified it as a distinct entity. 

Artists were supported by chiefs, as were 
warriors, bureaucrats, and others essential to 
day-to-dav tribal life. Medicine men were often 
artists. The magic of their art and the art of their 
magic were one and in tune with the environ- 
ment. The bird whose call became insistent 
and shrill when rain was about to fall pleased 
the medicine man. As one medicine man in 
Portuguese West Africa put it: "I like to hear the 
call of the rain bird, for then I can safely perform 
my magic to make rain and the people will not 
be disappointed." 

This world of arrist, art, people, chiefs. 



and en\'ironment as one is largeh' gone now. The 
materialistic values of western societ\' are almost 
everywhere in Africa replacing traditional 
spiritual ones. A potter molds pots in the 
time-honored way, but glazes and fires them 
using modern technology. The poet writes in 
English or French, but sings poems as oral 
literature has alwa\s been sung. Chiefs and 
kings no longer support the artists, who instead 
seek patronage from markets, tourists, the state, 
and the middle class. The new art forms, while 
retaining some traditional influences, are no 
longer embedded in the fabric of tribal life. 

Traditional dance, for example, once 
emphasized hierarchies of age, status, and sex; 
acted out histor\' and legend; taught people their 
places and kept them there; and made for satire 
and the release of feelings. Now dance is theater. 
In performances for strangers, sacred parts are 
left out, while crowd-pleasing elements are 
amplified. The ecstacy induced b\- hours of 
seemingly monotonous, repetitious movements 
is gone because the build-up to it ignores the 
nonparticipant. 

West African Art: Pouvr tvid Spirit invites 
you to recreate art objects in their living con- 
texts; to see how figures and idols embodied the 
ultimate control of kings over their tribes; to 
discover how art personified the ancestral 
spirits, and how many artifacts were meaningful 
only in concert with ceremonial dance and 
music. Follow the development of West African 
art from traditional context to modern setHng. 
Ethnographic films are used to explore the 
dynamic aspects of traditional art. The course 
of study begins on February 5, and details are 
available in the Winter, 1981 Courses for Adults 
brochure. 

You are also invited to attend AFRO- 
BLUE, a related special event, on February 
28, 1981. AFRO-BLUE is a celebraHon of West 
African artistic heritage in American music, 
particularly jazz. The roots of jazz lie in the 
African musical experience. This strong musical 
tradition survived the desolate journey to the 
new world and slavery, blending with European 
influences to be transformed into a unique art 
form. Join important Chicago musicians in 
concert and see films representative of the 
African imprint on American music. See the 
February Calendar of Events for details. n 

Above: Takett duritij^ the F. H. Raivstm Field Museum Ethrwlo;^i- > 
cat Expeditioit of 1929-30, this photo gives the flavor of traditional 
art m Africa. An Angolan potter, holding hts wares, poses with 
four wives. Although chiefs might have dozens — ei'en hundreds — 
of wives, it is a measure of the potter's status and of his importance 
to the trihe that he, a mere artisan, has as many as four. 
Below: Although drums first come to mind in connection with 
African music, traditional performances included a great variety of 
instruments. Shown here is a portable xylophone, zvtth ox-horn 
resonators, made by the Bura people of northern Nigeria. 





OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Black Rhino Endangered 

Hunted oxtensiM'lv lur its wilued horn, 
the AtritMn black rhinoceros (Diceros 
biivnii>) h.is been determined by the U.S. 
Fish and Wildhte Service to be an en- 
dangered species. The service believes 
there may be fewer than 15,000 black 
rhinos remaining in the world. 

One of five species of rhinoceros oc- 
curring in Africa and Southeast Asia, the 
black rhino is the most numerous 
of the world's rhinos and yet appears 
dangerously threatened with extinction. 
In Kenya, probable losses over the last 
five to eight years have been figured at 95 
percent of the black rhino population in 
Tsavo National Park, 85 percent in Am- 
boseli, and over 90 percent of those that 
once survived in Meru National Park. 

These dramatic losses are due 
primarily to trade in the species' parts 
and products. East African statistics on 
the legal export of rhino horn, which are 
carved into dagger handles or used in 
powdered form for medicinal purposes or 
as an aphrodisiac, show that 1.56 tons 
were exported annually from 1950-71. 
From 1972-76, legal exports jumped to 4.2 
tons annually. In one instance, a single 
rhino horn reportedly sold for approxi- 
mately S15,(X)0. 

The biology of the black rhino may 
also be contributing to its demise. For a 
species that exists largely as solitary indi- 
viduals at a naturally low density, the se- 
vere declines cause further problems by 
reducing the probabilities of reproduc- 
tion. Also, the rhino is easy to stalk and 
those animals that are left show evidence 
of extreme disturbance in response to 
harassment. 

The proposal to list the black 
rhinoceros has drawn mainly supportive 
comments. The only nonsupporting 



comment came from Safari Club Interna- 
tional, which recommended threatened 
status for the species throughout most of 
its range except Kenya, where they agree 
the black rhino is endangered. According 
to the service, the black rhino is in danger 
of extinction throughout all or a signifi- 
cant portion of its range. 

Although the black rhinoceros is pro- 
tected under the Convention on Interna- 
tional Trade in Endangered Species of 
Wild Fauna and Flora, listing under the 
Endangered Species Act will provide ad- 
ditional prohibitions against importing 
the species or its parts and products into 
the U.S., as well as restricting transporta- 
tion or sale in interstate or foreign com- 
merce. Listing under the act will also 
allow the U.S. to provide, if requested, 
technical expertise for establishing man- 
agement and recovery programs and 
funds to assist in the implementation of 
such programs by appropriate foreign 
governments. 

Whole Dinosaur Eggs Found 



A Shell Oil seismic 
55 miles west of G 
has discovered the 
eggs ever found in 
eggs were found in a 
that is a mixture of 
stone laid down m 
years ago. 



party working about 
reat Falls, Montana, 
first whole dinosaur 
North America. The 
geological formation 
mudstone and lime- 
ore than 80 million 



Five of Ten Most Numerous Bird 
Species Found to Be Pests 

According to the National Wildlife Feder- 
ation, of the ten bird species most fre- 
quently sighted in the United States, five 
are considered by many to be pests. The 
national Wildlife's top ten include star- 
lings, mourning doves, western meadow- 



larks, horned larks, robins, crows, red- 
winged blackbirds, house sparrows, barn 
swallows, and common grackles. Of that 
list, starlings, crows, redwings, sparrows 
and grackles have a reputation as pests. 
There may be more redwings in the 
United States than any other bird, at least 
it was the most often sighted species in a 
recent survey. 



The Ubiquitous Housefly 

According to the National Wildlife Feder- 
ation, the common housefly is apparently 
the most far ranging species outside of 
man. Originally confined to the tropics, 
the fly extended its range through adapt- 
ability to man's every way of life. It 
spencis the cooler seasons in a dormant 
state and uses man's heated structures as 
its home. If man leaves the cooler re- 
gions, it is believed that the fly will again 
be confined to the tropics. 



Tecopa Pupfish Presumed Extinct 

For the first time, an animal has been 
removed from the U.S. Endangered 
Species List for the reason that it is pre- 
sumed to be extinct. 

No one has seen a Tecopa pupfish 
since 1970. Its earlier haunts — small pools 
and springs near Tecopa, California — 
now contain no trace of the IVz-inch fish. 

Its downfall began 20 to 30 years ago, 
according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, when two springs were rechan- 
neled in connection with a bathhouse 
building project. The pupfish could not 
adapt to this change in its habitat. Also, 
various other fish brought into the area 
competed with the pupfish for food, and 
preyed on its young. 




California Lizard Added to 
Threatened List 

The Coachella Valiev fringe-tned li/ard 
(L/mii iiionwtn) has been listed bv the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened 
species, and its critical habitat delineated. 
In September W78, the service proposed 
the lizard as "threatened with critical 
habitat," based on information from the 
California Department of Fish and Game, 
other state officials, and eight professional 
biologists. Later, to comply with sub- 
sequent amendments to the Endangered 
Species Act, the critical habitat portion of 
the proposal was withdrawn and repro- 
posed after completion of an economic 
analvsis and the addition of new biological 
information obtained subsequent to the 
original proposal. 

The 4- to 5-inch lizard is found only in 
the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, 
California. Named both for its home and 
the tinv projections on its toes which en- 
able it to run easily over the sand, this 
small reptile evades predators by "swim- 
ming" beneath the loose surface. The 
presence of wind-blown sand, therefore, 
is essential to the lizard's survival. 

Agricultural and urban development 
have reduced the lizard's range from 
about 324 square miles historically to 
about 120 square miles today, of which 
50-99 are considered suitable habitat. 
Permanent human residents in Coachella 
Valiev, which numbered about 12,000 in 
1942, currently exceed 100,000 and are pro- 
jected to reach up to 164,000 by 1990. (Sea- 
sonal residents may add another 40 per- 
cent or more to the current total. ) At pres- 
ent, however, none of the lizard's habitat 
has been permanently preserved, and 
zoning plans indicate that all of its remain- 
ing range could eventually be developed. 

The habitat is further threatened by 
an invasion of Russian thistle, an intro- 
duced shrub that is spreading throughout 
the West, and by stands of tamarisk trees 
planted as windbreaks. Both plants are 
stabilizing sand deposits. Increasing use 
of off-road vehicles is yet another danger 
to the fragile desert ecosystem. 

Under the threatened classification, it 
is illegal to take Coachella Valiev fringe- 
toed lizards (except under permit for 
approved conservation purposes), and 
to sell them in interstate or foreign 
commerce. The lizard is also protected 
under California's endangered species 
legislation. 

About 12,000 acres (18.5 square 
miles), which include both the areas of 
highest lizard concentration and a source 
of blow sand, have been designated criti- 
cal habitat. Such a determination does not 
create a sanctuary tir wilderness area, nor 
does it represent federal intent to control 
purely private land use; rather, it com- 
plements the protection already given a 
species at the time of its listing by requir- 
ing federal agencies to ensure that actions 



they fund, authorize, or carry out will not 
likely jeopardize the habitat of the pro- 
tected species. 

A critical habitat designation will not 
necessarih' block flood and blow sand con- 
trol, a major concern of Valiev residents. 
Close consultation between project spon- 
soring agencies and the service often 
averts conflicts through mitigation or de- 
sign modifications. The service will coop- 
erate with other federal agencies to 
minimize any impacts on local residents, 
and to maintain the lizard as a viable pact 
of the fauna of the Coachella Valley. 

Although almost none of the critical 
habitat is currently under federal protec- 
tion, the Bureau of Land Management is 
negotiating with several landowners in 
the area for possible land exchanges. One 
corporation is expected to exchange ap- 
proximately 20,000 acres in Coachella Val- 
ley, including 5,000 acres of critical 
habitat. In addition, listing the lizard as a 
threatened species makes it possible for 
the service to negotiate for land acquisi- 
tion with money from the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund as part of a multifac- 
eted recovery plan to be prepared on 
behalf of the lizard. This property could 
then be preserved from future develop- 
ment, and managed instead for the 
lizard's needs. 




Two New Beetles on Threatened List 

Two beetles occurring in California have 
been listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service as threatened species, with criti- 
cal habitat determined for each. The delta 
green ground beetle (Elaphrus viriiiis) and 
the valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Dc- 
smocerus californicus Dimorphus) were each 
proposed for listing in the August 10, 
1978, Federal Register. 

The valley elderberry longhorn be- 
etle originally occurred in elderberry 
(Sambucus sp.) thickets in moist valley oak 
woodland along the margins of the Sac- 
ramento and San Joaquin Rivers in the 
Central Valley of California. Currently, 
the beetle is known from less than 10 
localities in Merced, Sacramento, and 
Yolo Counties. Agricultural conversion, 
levee construction, and stream channeli- 
zation have taken their toll on the species' 
habitat. Also, in some state and county 
parks where populations of the beetle oc- 
cur, the clearing of undergrowth (includ- 
ing elderberry) and planting of lawns has 
caused further habitat degradation. 

Two areas in Sacramento County 



have been designated as critical habitat 
for the valley elderberry longhorn beetle. 

The delta green ground beetle is 
known to occur only at two sites in 
Solano County, CA. Metallic green and 
golden in color, this beetle is a preda- 
ceous member of the family Carabidae. 
It is known to occur only near two vernal 
pools south of Dixon in Solano County. 
Agricultural practices in this area threaten 
the species' survival. 

The delta green ground beetle was 
first collected in 1876 from an unknown 
locality in California and was not redisco- 
vered until 1974. Vernal pools, which are 
filled by winter rains and dry out by late 
summer, were once widespread 
throughout California, but only a few re- 
main. Many of the vernal pools have been 
lost to river channelization, dam con- 
struction, and agricultural conversion of 
natural habitats. Elimination of the two 
vernal pools bv agricultural conversit)n or 
other causes may cause the beetle's ex- 
tinction. At one of the pools, plowing and 
land leveling may have already adversely 
affected the beetle. 

Based on suggestitms by the Califor- 
nia Department of Fish and Game and 
the State Water Resources Control Board, 
the service included in its final critical 
habitat designation a portion of Olcott 
Lake outside the proposed critical habitat 
boundaries and the elimination of two 
areas which appear to be unsuitable as 
habitat for the beetle. 



Bald Eagle Days 1981 

"Bald Eagle Management " will be the 
theme of Eagle Valley Environmentalists' 
(EVE) annual conference, to be held Feb- 
ruary 20, 21, and 22, in Davenport, Iowa. 
EVE has been invited by the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers to hold Bald Eagle 
Days in the Quad Cities area, which is a 
major wintering area for bald eagles. From 
the Blackhawk Hotel, the ci)nference cen- 
ter, participants should be able to see bald 
eagles feeding at Lock and Dam 15 on the 
Mississippi River. 

Bald Eagle Days has become one of 
the most important wildlife meetings in 
North America, attended by bald eagle re- 
searchers from all over the U.S. and 
Canada. There will be two days of scien- 
tific meetings, presentations of papers, 
and panel discussions centering on how to 
manage the bald eagle and its habitat. Bald 
Eagle Days also will feature a keynote 
speaker and a panel discussion on the fu- 
ture of the Mississippi River, on Friday 
evening, February 20. The following 
night, the Bald Eagle banquet will climax 
the conference with a guest speaker. 

On Sunday, February 22, bus fours 
will take participants to eagle wintering 
areas along the Mississippi River. Further 
information is available from the EVE office 
at Box 155, Apple River, IL 61001. 3, 



Latin American Neighbors Day 



Sundm',.I;inuai-yl8 
11:00 a.m. -4:00 p.ni. 




"Tlw .\!ti.''Uuiu.s." I)\- (_',,ir<iUnc Villi FArrii 

A Special. Dav-L<jng Triblte to our iieiglibois south of 
the border will be presented b\- Field Museum on 
Sunday, Januan' 18, 1981 .Join us for this day of music 
and dance, ethnographic fihii, and tours of the Museum's 
collections highlighting the histor\and art of Latin America. 

A program of music and dance features "Alma de 
Mexico," a group often Mexican folkdancers performing in 
Stanley Field Hall from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. Their colorful "grupo 
foklorico," Mexico's traditional form of folkdancing, will 
fascinate audiences of all ages. From 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., delight to 
the liveh' rhnhms of niariachi music with "Mariachi Jalisco," a 
group of seven Mexican musicians. 

Robert Feldman, \isiting curator of South American 
archeologv-, presents an illustrated lecture on "The Empires of 
the Peruvian Desert" at 2: 15 p.m. in Lecture Hall I, Ground 
Floor. 1,500 years before the Incas, great empires arose in the 
barren valleys of the Peru\ian north coastal desert . Their armies 
32 conquered vast territories, and their sophisticated irrigation 



works made fertile oases, pro\ading food and wealth to support 
the building of spectacular temples and palaces. Dr. Feldman 
focuses on the accomplishments of these prehistoric empires 
which in some wavs surpassed those of the modern Western 
world. 

Also scheduled are a selection of programs highlight- 
ing Field Museum's Latin American collections: explore the 
fascinating ancient cultures of Mexico, interpret life in ancient 
Peru and its ties with today's cultures through its potten', look 
at the textiles of South American cultures and watch a demon- 
stration of weaving on a Mexican loom. Throughout the day, 
films from Field Museum's film librar\' will be shown. Films 
include "Discovering the Moche," "Lords of the Labwinth," 
and "The Potato Planters." 

All activities are free with Museum admission. Complete 
listing of events available on Sunday, Januar\' 18, at Museum 
entrances. Tickets are not necessary. For more information, call 
(312) 322-8854. 



Index to Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin^ Volume 51 (1980) 



Articles 



AmtTiaiit Ijuiian Cradle Sodn/s, by Caroline J. Anderson: Feb, 16 

Atiiniah m Hutmin Persptxhzr. bv Anthonv Pleifler: Sept, 22 

Bryan Pattemoii 1909-1979, bv \Villiam D,Turnbull: Feb. 12 

Carl Akt'Uy a:i Naturalist, Taxuttrjtiist, Inventor,: ]an. 10 

Carl Akt'hy ds Sculptor: Jan, 6 

Coca, by timothy Plowman: Sept, 17 

Colombia: Context, Contjueyt, anti Gold, bv Anlhon\- Pfeiffer: March 12 

Dove-Catching with Salt and Other Adventure:^, by W, H, Hudson: Nov, 8 

Endangered and Threatened biirrtebrate Species : Nov, 10 

Endangered and Threatened Plant Species: Nov, 11 

Endangered and Threatened Species (Vertebrate): Oct, 5 

Exploring a Neiv Nation's Ancient Past: Archeology in the .Marshall Islands, by Thomas 

), KUey:J/A20 
Field Museum from the Ground Up: May 20 

From Dust to Dignity, by Phyllis Rabineau and Donald Collier: J/A 18 
G(iUiif£/D,irfli/(): Aprils 
The Great Bronze Age of China: J/A 11 
Irittjuots Sash Inspires Weaver: Oct. 18 

leanetta and Karl Menninger Collection of Indian Rugs, The, by David M. VValsten: J une 1 1 
KenteCloth of Ghana, The, bv Karen Chesna McNeil: April 10 
Lake Michigan Ravint>: on Chicago's North Shore, by Robbiri C. Moran: May 8 
Letters from Brazil, bv Timoth)' Plowman: J/A 24 
Ltm'/y Asphalt Comes into its i.lwn , bv Robert F Marschner: Nov. 4 
Mysterious Sarcophagus in Hall j. The: Feb, 10 
1981— A Year of Minerals, bv Edward Olsen, Dec, 3 
Patterns of Paradise, bv John Terrell and Anne Leonard: March 4 
Phijsiognomy in Chinese Figure Painting, by Art Pontynen: Feb. 6 
Project Antarctica: 1980, bv Edward Olsen: June 4 
Quseiral-Qadim, 1980, by Donald Whitcomb: June 24 
Roman Bottle Caps, bv Donald Whitcomb: Jan, 20 
Six Decades of Change in the Palos Woodlands, bv Phil Hanson: May 12 
South Seas Islands: Paradise and Perdition, bv Anthony Pfeiffer: Jan. 16 
"Splitters" and "Lunifiers", by VV. J, Holland: Oct, lO' 

Technology of the Norlhuvsl Coast Halibut Fisherman, The, by Ronald L, Weber: Nov, 12 
Thome-Graves Arctic Expedition of 1929, The, by Irene Schultz and Bruce Thorne: 

March 16 
Through Chinese Eyes, bv Anthonv Pfeiffer: June 20 
Tifaifai of Eastern Polynesia, bv Joyce Hammond: J/A 4 



Totems of the Gitksan , by Ron Testa: Scpl 4 

Travels in an Antique Land, by Mrs, Anthony L. Pcrrin; Oct. 11 

lV;iy Not Eat Insects?, by Vincent M. Holt: May 24 

Authors 

Anderson, Caroline J, : American Indian Cradle Boards, Feb, 16 

Collier, Donald (coauthor): From Dust to Dignity, J/A 18 

Hammond, Joyce: lifaifiii of Eastern Poli/nesia, J/A 4 

Hanson, Phil: Su Decades of Change in ihc Palos Woodlands, May 12 

Holland, W, J,: "Splitters" and "Lumpers", Oct. 10 

Holt, V, M,: Why Not Eat Insects?, May 24 

Hudson, W H: D<n'f-Cii(diiiij{ with Saltand Other Adventures, Nov, 8 

Leonard, Anne (coauthor): Patterns of Paradise, March 4 

McNeil, Karen Chesna: The KenteCloth of Ghana, April 10 

Marschner Robert E: Linvly Asphalt Comes into Its Own, Nov, 4 

Moran, Robbin C.:Lake Michigan Ravines on Chicago's North Shore, May 8 

Olsen, Edward: Project Antarctica: 1980, June 4 

: 1981— A Year of Minerals, Dec. 3 

Perrin, Mrs. Anthony L.: Travels in an Antitjue Land, Oct. 11 
Pfeiffer, Anthonv: Animals in Human Perspective, Sept. 22 

: Colombia: Context, Conquest, and Cold, March 12 

: South Seas Islands: Paradise and Perdition , Jan , 16 

: Through Chinese Eyes, June 20 

Plowman, Timothv:C(JCd, Sept, 17 

: Luiers from Brazd, J/A 24 

Pontynen, Art: Physiognomy in Chinese Painting, Feb, 6 

Rabineau, Phyllis (coauthor): from Dust to Dignity, J/A 18 

Riley, Thomas J,:£xp/orjn^fl Neio Nation's Ancient Past , J/A 20 

Schultz, Irene (coauthor): The Thome-Graves Arctic Expedition of 1929, March 16 

Terrell, John (coauthor): Pattems of Paradise, March 4 

Thorne, Bruce (coauthor): The Thome-Graves Expedition of 1929, March 16 

Testa, Rt>n: Totems of the Gitksan , Sept, 4 

Tumbull, William: Bryun Patterson, 1909-1979, Feb, 12 

Walsten, David M,: The Jeanetta and Karl Menninger Collection oflndmn Rugs, June 11 

Weber, Ronald L. : The Technology of the Northwest Coast Halibut Fisherman , .Nov, 12 

Whitcomb, Donald: Qi/.^firaZ-Qadim, ;9»0, June24 

: Roman Bottle Caps, Jan, 20 



Subjects 



Abbott, J, B,: N 16 

Abbott, T, R,:F6 

Abu Simbel: O 14 

acid dust: Jun 10 

adamite: D (Sept.) 

Adelman, W.: Ap3 

admission fee increase: S 3 

Aguirre: Mr 15 

Ain Gir: N 7 

Akeley, C.:My22,Jan6, 10 

Alaska expedition: Mr 16 

alexander, golden: My 11 

algae as fertilizer: N 24 

algae as food, fuel: S 25 

alkaloids: S 17 

Almirante Brown: jun 4 

amphibolite: D2 

amphora: Jan 20 

Anderson, C: S3 

anemone, wood: My 10 

Antarchca: Jun 4 

Antarctic Treaty (1961): Jun 5 

Antarctosaurus: N 16 

Anthropology, Dep't, of: J/A 18, F3 

anthropology film festival: S 13 

anting (bird behavior): Ap 15 

Antioch Dunes, CA: My 17 

antivenin from cobra: S 25 

applique tifaifai: J/A 5 

arborx'itae: My 9 

arrrowwood, downy: My 10 

Asare, A, E,: Ap7 

Asare, Mrs M,: Apll 

aspen as cattle feed: My 17 

asphalt: N4 

aster, smooth: My 11 

Atlantis: Jan 13 

Aubrey, J : Ap3 

Austral Islands: J/A 5 

Australopithecus: F12 

azurite: D(Jan,) 

Baird, G C : Ap3, My 14 

Baker, G R : Ap3 

baneberry: My 10 

Barbeau,M,:S3 

bark cloth (tapa): Mr 4, J/A 4 

Barnes, Rov: D 3 

Bartlett, B,: Mrl6 



Bass, R, O .: Ap3 

bass, striped: O 25 

basswood: My 9 

Batak tribe (Philippines): Mr 11 

bats, rabid: F 24 

Beagle Channel: Jun 9 

Becker, R.: My 14 

"bedcovers," Polynesian: J/A 4 

Bedno, E,: My 3 

beech: My 9 

bellwort: My 10 

Bentlev, W.:Mr24 

Berland, J : Ap3 

Bernard, R, E.: Jan 3 

Big Pine Key, FL: N 24 

bighorn, desert: Jun 19 

Bir Kareim: Jun 26 

birch, paper: My 9 

bird deaths bv collision: Jan 13 

bird problems (for man); N 25 

Block, Mrs, PD,, III: J/A 3 

bloodroot: My 10 

blue. El Segundo: My 18 

bluegrass: My 9 

Bluntson, A: S3 

Bluntson, F: S3 

Brazil, plant collecting in: J/A 24 

Bridge, B,:My23 

Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire: F 3 

British Antarctic Survey: Jun 5 

Bronson, B,: F 3 

Bronze Age of China: J/A 1 1 

Brown, Mrs, R. 0,:J/A3 

Brudd, R :02 

buckwheat: My 17 

Buddhism: Jun 21 

buffalo-berrv, Canadian: My 9 

Burd,J,:Mr'24 

Bushman, J, R,: Jan 3 

butterfly, endangered: My 17 

cabbage, skunk: My 10 

Calhoun, L : Mr 24 

caliche: Jun 26 

captive breeding of endangered 

species: Ap 15 
carbon dioxide absorption by forests: 

Jun 10 
Carley, C: Apl4 
Carton, Mrs, R, W,:J/A3 
Cassai, M,: 3 
Catlin, G.:F18 



cedar, red: My 11 

cedar, white: Mv 9 

census of Kenya animals: Ap 15 

Central Anthropology Storage: J/A 18 

Century, S,: Mr 24 

Chaffelz, Mrs, H, E,:J/A3 

Chai Zemin: My 3 

China, Bronze Age: J/A 11 

China Festival: Jun 23 

Chinese Agricultural Delegation: N 22 

Chinese ambassador: My 3 

Chinese painting: F 3 

Chou Ch'en (Chinese artist): F 6 

Christmas party: N 21 

Clary, L, E,: Jan 3 

Cleopatra: F 10 

Cleveland Museum of Art: F6 

cobra venom: S 25 

Coca-Cola: S 19 

cocaine: S 13 

Cole, F. C.:My23 

Colombia: Mr 13, Ap 7 

Commons, G : D3 

condor, California: N 24 

Confucianism: Jun 21 

Convention of Int'l Trade in 

Endangered Species: My 18 
Cook County Forest Preserve: My 13 
Cook Islands: J/A 5 
Cook, Capl J : Mr4 
copper: D (Apr) 
Cortelyou, Rev. J. R,:S3 
Coulter, Mrs, J R,:J/A3 
covellite: D(June) 
coyote: Jan 14 
cradle boards, Indian: F 16 
Crane, C: Mr 24 
crane, Japanese: F 22 
Crane, R. T: Jan. 6 
crane, Siberian: F 22 
crane, whooping: F 22 
Crawford, R: S3 
Curtis, E.S.:N 23 
Dahlberg, A A.:N22 
Dahlgren, B E.:My23 
Daniels, M.:N 17 
Dart, B. K :03 
Davidse, G : J/A 25 
Davies, D. C.:Mv23 
deMonlebello, P.: )/A 13 
DeVale, S. C.:Myl4 



Deception Island: Jun 7 

decomposition of litter: S 12 

deer, Florida Kev: N 24 

deer, Virginia white-tailed: -N 24 

Degen, A: 4 

Dennis, M.:F 19 

Dennis, VV.:F 17 

DePaul Univ : S 3 

Derr, S (Bruner, S): Mv 14 

Dewey, C. L.: Jan 10 

Diablo, M: Mr 24 

Dibble, P G : N 22 

dieldrin: Jun 19 

dinosaur: N 16, 23 

dinosaur extinction: Jan 13 

dinosaur (Life Cereal): O 20 

dog-violet, American: My 9 

dogwood, red osier: Mv 11 

doll's eves: Mv 10 

donors, himor roll: F 26, S 26 

Dorothy (ship): Mr 18 

Drake'Strait: Jun9 

Dybas, H. S : N 22 

eagle attacks crane: F 22 

eagle, bald. sur\'ives storm: 024 

eagle, bald, death of: Jun 10 

eagle, bald, sur\'ev: S 25 

eagle, Philippine monkey-eating: 04 

Edquist, D: Ap25 

Eg^'pttour: O 11 

Elborado: Mr 13, Ap 7 

endangered species, captive breeding 

of: Ap 15 
Endangered Species Act: F 23, O 5 
ephemeral plants: My 10 
erosion: My 8 
Erskine, A.: Jun 5 
Explorers' Club: Mr 17 
"Eye-Dazzler " (Nava|o rug): jun 15 
Falkland Islands: jun 5 
fallout and sheep deaths: Ap 15 
Fasiska, E,: Mv 16 
Feldman, R : Ap25 
Felicetti, J M.:|an3 
Field Museum, construction of: My 21 
Field Museum "Hitlers": S 3 
Fieldiana titles for 1978-79: Ap 16 
Fiji Islands Mr6 

Fine Arts BIdg. Qackson Park): Jan 12 
fingerweaving: 18 
Fini, P.:J/A19 33 



Index 



Flinl. V :F22 

nuoritc:D(Oct.) 

Forbes. R.).:N 4 

fox, Mbid: F 25 

Frankfort, H ; N 4 

Frevie, ) R: Apl8 

Frio Cui-s. TX: F 25 

Fuller, Cjpt AW F JanN 

Futuna: Mr** 

Cdnado (Navj|o rug): Jun 13 

gaschriimatograph: N 7 

Cavford. P Mr 24 

gentian, stiff: Mv II 

Ceologv. Dept of:F12 

Cerhanlt, VV. I : My 23 

Ghana Bird Sanctuar>': F 22 

Chorbal, A.: )an 3 

Girardi. E.-L :Mr25. MvI4 

GiroiK, L.:F23 

Glacial Lake Chicago: Mv 8 

Clover, N.:S'» 

gnathonemus fish monitors water 

punt^': O 24 
gold artworks: Mr 14 
Gold of El Dorado. The: F 3, Ap 6 
Gonzales, L.: Mr 24 
Goodspeed, E ) : Jan 21 
gooseberrv, prickly: My 11 
gonlla. mountain: S 12 
Gould. SI :027 
goutweed: My 11 
Grand Canvon. motors banned in: 

My 18 
Grand Rapids Public Museum: 1"* 
Grant Park. Chicago: Mv 20 
Craves. CC. il: Mr 1ft 
Green. ).: Jun 15 
Grey. W: S3 
Grigelaitis. V.: Mr 25 
Grvtviken: Jun 7 
Cuatavila. Lake: Ap 18 
Gurewitz. S : Mr 24. My 14 
Gutman. T E.:N7 
gvpsum: D (Dec.) 
Haida N 12 

halibut fishing: N 12 

Hammond. J-: Jan 16 

Hansen. C Mr 20 

Hanson. P Jan 3 

Hams. IN 17 

Harrison. S A : Mv 14 

Hartz. Mrs. W H.,Jr.:J/A3 

haw. black: My 11 

Hawaiian Islands: Mr 10 

Hazardous Waste Hotline: Mav 18 

Heineman. Mrs. B. W.: J/A3 

hematite: D (Aug.) 

hepatica: Mv 10 

hickorv-. shaebark: My 10 

HUI. Rev E I Mv** 

Hodge. F VV F21 

Holdman. R : Mv 14 

Holm. BN 23 

Holmes. A.: S 3 

Holmes. E: S3 

Honolulu Academv of Art: F 6 

horsetail, small: Mv*' 

Hsiin Tze: F 9 

Human Diploid Cell Strain: F 25 

hvdrocarbons as air pollutants: S 12 

ice for air-condihoning: My 18 

Illinois air qualitv: O 24 

Illinois Arts Council: N 22 

Illinois Geological Survey: My 9 

Inca ruins: Mr 13 

insects as food: Mv 24 

Int'I Crane Foundation: F 22 

Infl Harvester Co : N 22 

Iroquois sash: 18 

Issel.C J.:F25 

jack-in-the-pulpit: Mv 10 

jadwin. C :011 

jadwin. R :011 

James. Col. SLFll 

Jivaro Indian art: Mr 6 

John. D E :F25 

Jonas. J : Mr 17 

Jones, E.: S 3 

Joseph N. Field South Pacific 
ExpediHon of 1909-13: Jan 19 

juniper, common: My 11 

Kabua, Amata: J/A 21 

Vspa (Hawaiian quilt): J/A 4 

Kamak: 17 
34Kean. W F :D3 



Keene, D: Ap3 

Kellert, S.:F23 

kenle cloth (Ghana): Ap 11 

Kenya animal census: Ap 15 

Kelhlev, J.;N22 

Kish, Iraq: N 5 

Kleiser and Kleiser. O 3 

Knauss, P : Ap3 

Kolar, J :Mv2 

Kopeck, C: Mr 24, Mv 14 

Kuo Jo-hsu": F 8 

KwakiutI fishhooks: N 12 

La Brea tar pits: N 4 

Lace, E : Ap3 

Lake Bluff, IL: Mv 9 

Landow. C :Mr24,S3 

Larson, R : My 14 

laser Jan 13 

Laufer, B .: F 6, Mv 23 

Laughlin, K : My 14 

Laurence, K.: S 25 

Learning Museum Programs: Jan 16, 

Mr 13, Jun 20, S 22 
Leigh, R: S3 
Leonard, A.: Mr 24 
Leslie, Mrs J. H: J/A 3 
Leukos Limen, Egypt: Jan 20 
Lewis, A-: Mv 14 
Lewis, A. B: Jan 2, My 23 
Lewis, P.: F3, Ap3 
Li Po: Jun 23 
Life Cereal: O 20, N 23 
lily, trout: My 10 
Undblad Explorer (ship): Jun 5 
lion hunters. Nandi: Jan 6 
Liu, R C.:N22 
Llano. G.:)un 5 
McGivney, D : Mr 24 
McGraw, L.: S 3 

Maiuro (Marshalls): J/A 21 

Mangaitikai Roa Women's Group: 
J/A 9 

maple, sugar My 9 

Marine Hunters and Fishers Hall 
(Hall 10): F 3. Mv 3 

Marshall Islands: j/A 20 

Marshall. L.G.:F 13, My 3 

Martling, M.:Mr24 

Mason. 0:F16 

Maurer. G J : Ap 15 

Mazon Creek: F 12, Ap 3 

Mech, D.:Myl9 

Members' Nights: My 5 

Mena House Hotel: 13 

Menntnger, J. : Jun 10 

Menninger, K : Jun 10 

Mesopotamia: N 7 

metalmark, Lange's: My 17 

Mever,: Jun 24 

Millspaugh, C. L.:My23 

minerals: D 3 

Mister. L: S3 

Mohenjo Daro, Pakistan: N 7 

Monument Valley, AZ: )un 2 

Moore, C: Mr 24 

moraine: My 8 

Morton Arboretum: Mv 2 

Moseley, M .: Ap25, My3 

motor oil, rec\'cle: My 16 

Muench, D,: jun 2 

Mullen, M: My 14 

Murchi-son meteorite: My 3 

Murphy, C. F , Jr.: Ap3 

Museo del Oro: F 3, Ap 7 

Museum Shops: N 22 

Nadler, Mrs. C. F :J/A3 

Navajo rug: Jun 10 

Nelson, N.W: Jan 3 

Nevling,L. l.,Jr.:J/A3 

Nichols. H.W: My 23 

Nitecki. M.: Mv3 

Nootka fishhooks: N 12 

Nord. D :012 

Nordlof. R. W.:D3 

Northland (ship): Mr 21 

Northwest Coast fishing methods: 

N12 
Northwest Coast Indian totems: S 3 
NSF summer anthropology course: 

Ap3 
oak. bur My 9 
oak, HUl's: My 10 
oak. red: Mv 9 
oak. swamp white: My 10 
oak, white: My 10 



O'Connor. J.J. :Ap 3 

Office of Polar Programs: Jun 5 

Olsen, E, J.:My3 

orchid, ladv's-slipper: My 10 

Osgood, VV. H.: Mr 16, My 23 

Ossenwaarde, G: Mr24 

Owen, C. L.:Mv23 

paca (rodent): j/A 24 

Palmer Station: Jun 9 

Palos Woodlands: My 12 

panda, protection for: Jun 10 

"Patterns of Paradise" (book): Mr 5 

Patterson, B: F12 

Patiment Wildlife Research Center: 

N24 
PCB:Janl4, 025 
PCDF: Jan 14 
Pederson, D. : My 14 
penguin: Jun 6 
Perlberg, M.:N22 
petrel: Jun 9 
pets and rabies: F 24 
Pfeiffer, A : My 14 
phlox, blue: My 10 
pine, white: My 9 
plantain, heart-leaved: My 9 
Poindexter, P.: S3 
poison i\'\' rash control: Jun 10 
pollutants, air: My 16 
Ponce de Leon, P. : F 3 
Potter. Mrs. C.S: J/A 3 
Powers, M.F.: S3 
primrose, Antioch Dunes evening: 

My 18 
Punta Arenas, Chile: Jun 6 
pussev's-toes: My 10 
pvrite: D(Nov.) 
Qin Shihaungdi: J/A 12 
Quaker Oats Co. : O 20, N 23 
Quimbv, G. I.:N23 
Quinn,J, H :F12 
Quseir al-Qadim: Jan 20, Jun 24 
Raabe, D.:S3 

rabies: F 24 

raccoon, rabid: F25 

Ralston, C: Jun 10 

Ransom, J H.: Ap3 

Rapsys, R. J :Myl6 

Ravine: My 8 

realgar D(Feb.) 

recycling of cars: S 12 

Reid. B.:Apl7 

relict plants: Mv 9 

Rhaedr Ogwen Waterfall, Wales: F 2 

rice grass, black-seeded: My 9 

Riggs, E. S.:F12, Mv23 

Ring, ML: 18 

Rita (Marshall Islands): J/A 21 

Robert R. McCormick Charitable 
Trust:F3, Ap25 

rodingite: D (Mav) 

Rouch,J:S13 

Royal Academy of the Arts: Ap 7 

Sadowski, D: S3 

Safford, F. R.:Mrl5 

salmon in Thames: Jan 13 

Samoa: Mar 9 

Sanders, T. R.:J/A3, 3 

Sandwich Islands: Mar 7 

sarcophagus, Greco-Roman: F 10 

Schmigic, F. A.:03 

Schmitt, C.:J/A7 

Schueppert, S.: Mar 24 

Scotia Arc: Jun 7 

Searle, W. L.:Ap3 

serviceberry: My 11 

Shackleton, E: Jun 7 

Shadbush:Myn 

shark, great white: My 16 

sheep deaths from fallout: Ap IS 

Sieber, R: Apll 

Simms, S. C: My 23 

Simpson, W.F.:N 16 

Singer, R.: Ap3 

Sivage, Mrs. G. A.: J/A 3 

skam: D (May) 

Skeena River S 3 

Skift, F. J. V : Jan 12, My 23 

skunk, rabid: F 24 

Slentz, L.W.:N7 

Slocum, K.:D3 

Smith, B.,Jr:Mr25 

Smith, E.:F3 

Smith, H.:Ap3 

snakeroot, Seneca: My 11 



Snowdonia Natl Park, Wales: F 2 

Society Islands: J/A 4 

Softball team. Field Museum: S 3 

Solem. A: Mr 26, My 14 

Solomon Islands: Mr 4 

Solomon's seal, downy: My 9 

South Seas Islands: Jan 16 

Sphinx: 012 

spring beauty: My 2 

Spring Systematics Symposium: My 3 

Stanley, Falkland Islands: Jun 5 

star-flower: Mv 9 

Starr, M. K.:A'p3 

stibnite: D (March) 

Stiaske, G.:S3 

Stonehenge: Mr 3 

Streuver, S.: Ap3 

SuTung-p'o: F8 

Suffredin, J.:S3 

Sullivan. H.:N 22 

Sullivan. J. W.:Ap3 

Sullivan. Mrs. J. W.: J/A 3 

Swartchild, J.:Mr24 

Swartchild, W. G., Jr.: Jan3, Ap3, 

Mv 3, 14 
Swift. Mrs. E. F.:J/A3 
Tahuantinsuvo: Mr 15 
Taj Mahal: 016 
Talbot, P.: Mr 24 
Taoism: Jun 21 
tapa (bark cloth): Mr 4, J/A 4 
tea, New Jersey: My 11 
Teec Nos Pos (Navajo rug): Jun 15 
termite: F 3 
TerreU,J.:Janl7 
Tieken, Mrs. T. D.: Ap3 
Titanosaurus: N 16 
Tlingit fishhooks: N 12 
toadflax: My 11 
Todd, F.: Jun 5 
Tonga: Mr 9 

Toxic Substances Control Act: Jan 14 
trees as air conditioner: S 25 
trillium, white: My 10 
Tsimshian: S3 
Tullv monster: F 12 
Tumbull, W. D.:N17 
TurTiipseed.E.:J/A19 
turtle. Illinois mud: 024 
Tutankhamun: Jan 3 
Two Gray Hills (Navajo rug): Jun 16 
uintathere: N 17 
umiak: Mr 20 
United Nations: Ap 13 
Upland Goose Hotel: Jun 5 
UrN7 

Ur, Standard of: N 6 
urushiol: Jun 10 
Vest. D.:S25 
vetchling, pale: My 9 
Wbumum, maple-leaved: My 10 
violet, blue: My 2 
\iolet. wooleyblue: My 10 
violet, yellow: My 2 
Volunteers recognition party: My 14 
wallflower. Contra Costa: My 18 
walrus. Pacific: Mr 16 
warbler, Kirtland's: S 12 
Washakie Basin: N 17 
Watrous, L. E.:N22 
Webber, E . L. : Jan 3, Mr 24, Mv 14, S 3 
Webber, J.: Mr 7 
Weber, R. L.:Ap3, N23 
Weiss, D,: Mr 24 
Wenzel. R. L.:N22 
West Point Island: Jun 6 
whale. Minke: Jun 9 
Whitcomb, D.:N5 
Wide Ruins (Navajo rug): Jun 12 
wildlife imports: Mv 18 
WUliams, Mrs. P. C: J/A3 
WUliams, T.:S3 
witch-hazel: My 10 
wolf, howling of: My 19 
wolf, red: Ap 14 
wood as fuel: Ap 15 
World Book: N 22 
World Discoverer (ship): Jun 4 
World's Columbian Exposition: F 10 
Wright: H.T.:N 7 
wuifenite: D (July) 
Yamneton. B. J.: Ap3 
Yeibecnei (Nava)o rug): Jun 13 
Yueh Lung Shadow Theatre: O 27 
zodiac boat: Jun 6 



January &^ February at Field Museum 



(Uiunciiy iG t}ir(ni<j^Ii Fclyriuin' 15) 



Continuing Exhibits 

Inoiaxs OF Middle Amerk-a. Aztec stone sculptures are 
a highlight of this exhibit, which focuses on Middle 
American cultures from 1500 B.C. to the present. In 
addition to costumes, potten', and farm implements, 
you'll see dioramas of an Aztec marketplace and of a 
Maya dedication ceremony, as well as a dugout canoe 
of the modern-day Cuna Indians of San Bias. Hall 8, 
main floor. 

Weavtng Demonstrations. Volunteers demonstrate 
weax-ing on a European-st\'le countermarch loom, 
the type brought to the New World by the Spanish 
Conquistadors. On display during the demonstra- 
tions are Sc'imples of cloth woven out of the hair of 
various animals, such as yak, dog, and rabbit. Second 
floor. South Lounge. 10 a.m. -noon, every Monday, 
Wednesday, and Friday. 

New Programs 

Latin American Neic;hbor.s Day. Enjoy the music and 
dance of Mexico through the lively rhwhms played 
by "Mariachi Jalisco" and the beautiful "gmpo 
foklorico" — Mexico's tradirional form of folkdancing 
— demonstrated by "Alma de Mexico." Films and 
tours (in English and Spanish) will highlight 
the histor\' and ait of South America. Dr. Robert 
Feldman, visiting curator of South American 
Archeolog)', will give an illustrated lecmre, "The 
Empires of the Peruvian Desert," at 2:15 p.m. in 
Lecture Hall I. A complete schedule will be available 
at Museum entrances on the d^iy of the event. All 
acti\ities are fi-ee with Museum admission. Sunday, 
Jan. 18, 11 a.m. -4 p.m. 

Fossil- RuBBiNc; Demcjns iRyvnoN. Three local artists wall 
do a fossfl rubbing of Xiphactinu.H audcLv, a relative 
of the modem tarpon, that inhabited the seas about 
100 million years ago. Stephen Swanson, director of 
en\'iionmental sei-vices, Grove National Historic 
Landmark, Glenview Park District, and coordinator 
of the event, will provide commentary' on the process 
and on the fossil itself Annixersan' Hall, main floor. 
Feb. 13, 14 and 15, 12-3 p.m. 



Winter Fun. Children ages 5 to 9 can take part in 
workshops on natural histoiy topics on Saturday, 
Januaiy 17, 24, and 31. Most u'ork.shops are single 
sessions of either (iO or 90 minutes. For times 
and registration information, call or write Field 
Museum's Public Programs, Department of 
Education: 322-8854 (Mon.-Fri.). 

"Egyptian HierogUphs." Children see a film on 
ancient Egjpt and learn to write their names in pic- 
ture script. Ages 7-9. Members $5, nonmembers $G. 
Jan. 17 or 31. 




"Indiim Games." Girls and boys learn Indian games, 
hear Native American stories and music, and make 
Indian pla\things. Morning sessions for ages 5-G, 
afternoon workshops for ages 7-9. Members $5, 
nonmembers $6. Jan. 17, 24, or 31. 

"Days of the Dinosaurs." Children tour Hall 38 and 
make dinosaurs out of day or draw these prehistoric 
reptfles. Morning sessions for ages 5-G, aflernoon 
workshops for ages 7-9. Members $4. nonmembers 
$5. Jan. 17 or 31. 

"Animals in Their Winter Homes." Children learn 
how animals adapt and protect themselves in the 
winter. Ages 5-G. Members $3, nonmembers 
$4. Jan. 17 or 24. 

Continued on buck cover 



ILLTNCIS NATURAL HISTORY 
SURVEY LIB RM 1S6 
N/!TURAL RESOURCES -"ILDING 
UPE/SNfl ILL ftl^c: 



January' &^ February at Field Museum 



Continued from inside back cover 

■■.Natuic Lab. " Young ^n-opli' examine a variet}- of 
specimens under a microscope — human and 
mammal hair, lea\es, insects, and more. Ages 8-9. 
Memliers S5, nonmembei-s $6. Jan. 24 

"Our feathered Friends." ('hildren learn what birds 
thev can see in the ('hic.igo area during the winter 
and construct a birdfeeder to bring home. Ages 8-9. 
Members $5, nonmembers $6. Jan. 24. 

"Animal Art " ('hildren tour the mammal halls, learn 
animal behavior, and draw their favorite animals. 
Moniing sessions for ages 5-(i; afternoon workshops 
forages 7-9. Members $4, nonmembers $,5. Jan. 24. 

\V'eeki:.\i) Dlmxhxry Prcx;ram. Each Saturday and 
Sunday between 11 a.m. and ?> p.m., you can 
piirticipate in a variet}- of free tours, demonstrarions, 
and films on natural histoiT topics. Check the 
Weekend Sheet available at Museum entrances for 
locarions and additional programs. 

"Many Mexicos" explores the fascinaring ancient 
cultures of Mexico from the Olmecs to the Aztecs. 
Saturday, Jan. 17, 1 p.m. 

"Ancient Eg\pt" surveys the traditions of ancient 
Eg\pt. from ever\-day life to m\lhs and mummies. 
Saun-day,jan. 24, 11:30 a.m. 

"Indian Fishermen of the Northwest Coast" illustrates 
daily and ceremonial life centered on the fish harvest. 
Saturday, Jan. 24, 1:30 p.m. 

"Indian Life on the Prairies" concentrates on 
nomadic life when the Indians hunted the buflfalo for 
survival. Sunday, Jan. 2.5, 1 p.m. 

"Stories of Field Musuem" gives the fascinating 
background of some of the best-knomi exhibits, 
including Bushman, Su-Lin the panda, and the Tsavo 
man-eating lions. Satuniay, Jan. 31, 1 p.m. 



"Life in Ancient Egvpt" focuses on the objects and 
pracrices (including mummification) of ancient life 
in the Nile Valley. Sunday, Feb. 1, 1 p.m. 

"Native American Foods and Cooking" acquaints 
\Tsitors udth the diet of Native Americans and their 
methods of cooking, hunting, farming, and fishing. 
Saturday, Feb. 7, 11 a.m. 

"Africa Calls: Its Drums and Musical Instruments" 
is a film documenring how African music serves as 
an accompaniment to work and worship. Saturday, 
Feb. 7,1p.m. 

"Historv of Egyptian Pyramid Construction" is a 
45-minute slide presentation on pyramid-building, 
beginning v^ith the magnificent ruins at Saqqara, 
built for Zoser. Sunday, Feb. 8, 1 p.m. 

"Ammpan: The Talking Drums of Ghana" is a film 
which discusses the major role of ceremonial drums 
in the ritualistic installation of a chief, and "African 
Religions and Ritual Dances" presents a reenactment 
of a Yoruba cult dance. Saturday, Feb. 14, 1 p.m. 

"Clay Dinosaurs." After looking at dinosaurs, 
children will make their own of clay to take home. 
Sunday, Feb. 15, 11 a.m.-l p.m. 



Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scientific 
interests and backgrounds are needed to work in 
various Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer 
Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. 

January AND February Hours. The Museum is open 
from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-9 
p.m., Friday; and 9 a.m. -5 p.m., Saturday and 
Sunday. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 
4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. 



Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



5Z ? 



BELD Museum of Natural History Bulletin 

February 1981 




Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



February' 1981 
Vol. 52, No. 2 



EditoriDei.igner: David M. Walsten 
Production: Martha Poulter 
Ciilctidar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Pliotogiaplicr: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 

President: E. Leland Webber 
Dinxtor: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 



Board of Trustees 
VVilli.im G. Swartchild, Jr., 

Mrs. T Stanton .Armour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O.C Da\ns 

William R. Dickinson, Jr 
Thomas E Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hupo I Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy Jr 
James ) O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Bvron Smith 
Robert H. Strotz 
lohn W Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs Theodore D. Tieken 
E Leland Webber 
luhan « Wilkins 
Blaine J Yarrington 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr 
William V. Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



cpmtniwd )ul'. 

l.jke St^^ifv Drivt-, *^iiiL 

Mu5*.'Uni menilvr>hip i 

(heir OM n an^^ ' 

scripts jre w  

to Field Musi, 

«)605. ISSN. ooL- ij-;: 



-» Bullelm (USPS f!<*«-940) i- published monthly, except 

bv Field Museum ot \'.ituM! Hisror>'. Roosevelt Road at 

|i *mV^>? Subscnptionj: S6.00 annujll)-. S3.00 tor schools. 

J^. ^ . :!•• subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are 

 - - .' -. . ■^- . , w -^cilicitedmanu- 

t nd (onn 3579 
f. Chicago, n. 



CONTENTS 

3 Afro-Blue: A Celebration of African Music 

4 Through A Missionary's Eyes: 
Photo-Documentation of Ingalik Indian Life, 
1893-1925 

By James VanStone, curator of North American 
archeology and ethnology 

14 Behind the Scenes 

16 Field Briefs 

17 Our Environment 

18 The Field Museum: Spotlight on the Collections 

By Matthew H. Nitecki, curator of fossil invertebrates 

23 Edward E . Ayer Film Lectures for March and April 

24 Field Museum Tours to the Holy Land, Peru, 
Papua New Guinea, and Kenya and the 
Seychelles Islands 

back February and March at Field Museum 
cover Calendar of Coming Events 

COVER 

Ordffvician Habitat Group in Hall 37 (the Hall of Invertebrate 
Paleon tology) . The scene depicted is a good example of the crowded 
sea floor of some 450,000,000 years ago. In six square feet of ocean 
bottom are fifteen species of animals, not to mention a seaweed. 
Some of these are colonial corals and bryozoans that band together 
and build single structures for the housing of thousands of indivi- 
duals. Photo by Ron Testa. 








Cameroon trumpeter, 1971 



A Celebration of African Music 

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2:00 p.m. 
James Simpson Theatre 



Come to Field Museum and join us in a celebration of 
West African musical heritage as it lives in American 
jazz today, afro-blue features important Chicago 
musicians in concert. Artists include "The Mandingo 
Griot Society," who evoke the troubadour heritage 
of Africa's Mandingo regions, and "Kudu," who 
perform original compositions based on the African 
experience. Documentary films are shown to trace 
the African influence on jazz in the early part of the 
twentieth century. 

Presented in Conjunction with the Winter Learning 
Museum Course, "West African Art: Power and 
Spirit," AFRO-BLUE depicts a musical tradition so 
strong that it survived the savage journey to the new 
world and slavery. Dr. Paul Berliner, a Northwestern 
University ethnomusicologist and award-winning 



author of Sou/ ofMbira, and his group Kudu play 

music based on African musical structure and ,_ 

lyrics using drums, bass, and saxophones. Other 
performing artists complete the spectrum of music 
offered — from richly melodic African rhythms to 
contemporary American jazz. 

Join Host Neil Tesser, Chicago Sun-Times jazz 
critic, and a variety of talented performers for an 
exhilarating musical experience, afro-blue is made 
possible by a grant from the National Endowment for 
the Humanities, a federal agency. -^ 

Tickets to afro-blue are $3.00 for Museum members, 
$5.00 for nonmembers, and can be purchased at the 
door on the day of the event. For more information, 
call 322-8854 Monday through Friday. 3 






Through a Missionary's Eyes 




Photo-Documentation of 
Ingalik Indian Life, 1893-1925 

Br James W. VanStone 
curator of North American archeology' and ethnology 



IN 1887 the Rev. John Wight Chapman 
(1860-1939) established an Episcopal mis- 
sion among the Athapaskan-speaking 
Ingalik Indians in the village of Anvik on the 
lower-middle Yukon River, Alaska. He was to 
serve his church at Anvils for more than forty 
years and had lived arrioag the Ingalik for three 
years when he first obtaiii'Bd a canriera and be- 



came enthusiastic about photography. He was 
thus well known to the Indians and had estab- 
lished good rapport in the community by the 
time he took his first pictures. 

The photographic record which he made 
over a period of thirty-five years reflects his 
interest in many aspects of Ingalik Indian life, as 
well as the interest and cooperation of those 



whom he photographed. The photos repro- 
duced here are of special interest to us for the 
way in which they reveal changes in Ingalik cul- 
ture during the late nineteenth and early twen- 
tieth centuries. 

The period of sustained European contact 
on the lower Yukon began with the establish- 
ment of Mikhailovskiy Redoubt (St. Michael), 
northeast of the river's mouth, b\' the Russian- 
American Company in 1833 and with the 
penetration of the Yukon Valley by Andrey 
Glazunov's expedition the following year. Ad- 
ditional posts were established at Ikogmiut in 
1836 and at Nulato on the middle Yukon in 1838. 
At first the fur harvest was abundant, and 
meaningful economic relations were established 
with the Ingalik and their neighbors. Soon, 
however, the quantity of furs began to di- 
minish, primarily because the Russians were 
not sufficiently acquainted with the country, the 
traditional economic patterns of its native inhab- 
itants, and the kinds of effort necessary to 
develop new patterns that would benefit 
themselves. 

In spite of the presence of a number of 
trading posts in west-central Alaska, the native 
inhabitants continued to depend on their Es- 
kimo neighbors to the north, the latter maintain- 
ing direct contact with the Chukchi who had 
access to supplies available from Siberian trad- 
ing posts on the Kolyma River. For more than 
thirty years the Russian-American Company 
struggled to turn the fur trade to its own advan- 
tage, but was unsuccessful by the time Alaska 
was sold to the United States in 1867. 

During the early American period the 
Ingalik benefited from competition between the 
Alaska Commercial Company — successor to the 
Russian-American Company — and the Western 
Fur and Trading Company; but following the 
collapse of the latter in 1883 the' situation 
changed radically. Prices paid for furs were 
forced down and the Indians' greater depen- 
dence on European goods, together with a de- 
cline in numbers of fur-bearing animals and 
some large game animals, gave traders a new 
power and authority. 

The introduction of commercial fur trap- 
ping necessitated a reorientation of Ingalik 
ecological and social patterns. The traditional 
seasonal ecology of the Indians had involved 
periods of both dispersal and aggregation and 
the fur trade accentuated the degree and dura- 
tion of social isolation in every season of the 
year except summer. Most furbearers had been 
of little significance to aboriginal subsistence, 
and the effective deployment of trappers to har- 
vest thinly distributed furs was different from 
traditional arrangements for taking caribou, 
moose, small game, and fish. 




..^•^^ 




^ 



I  1 



J 




1. The Rev. John 
Wight Chapman 

m me. 



Beginning in 1845 with the establishment 
of a Russian Orthodox mission at Ikogmiut, tra- 
dihonal Ingalik religion was confronted by a 
small but dedicated group of church workers 
who became increasingly significant as agents of 
culture change. The first Orthodox priests were 
able to make only infrequent visits to most of 
the widely dispersed villages and this restricted 
their influence. Isolated, by the departure of the 
Russian-American Company in 1867, they were 
poorly equipped to withstand the determined 
intrusion of Episcopalian and Roman Catholic 
missionaries twenty years later. Both denomina- 
tions sent workers into the area in 1887, with the 
Roman Catholics establishing their mission at 
Holy Cross, opposite the mouth of the Innoko 
River. 

Although the missions emphasized pro- 
grams aimed at changing the religious views of 
the people, their efforts affected virtually every 
other aspect of Indian life as well. Educational 
programs opened up a new world to village 
young people and helped them to learn English, 
a valuable asset as face-to-face contacts with 
Euro- Americans increased. In the early years of 
the missions the authority of the missionaries 
was virtually complete, since they controlled 
education, medical services, and other areas of 
access to the outside world. After the turn of the 
century, as the United States government as- 
sumed greater responsibility for services in the 
communities, the missionaries gradually be- 
came less significant as an acculturative force. 

An influx of miners into the Yukon Valley 



began with the Klondike gold rush in 1897 and 
continued until the decline of diggings on the 
upper Innoko River just prior to 1920. As a re- 
sult, new and abundant opportunities for in- 
teraction with outsiders were presented to the 
Ingalik. Indians worked on the river boats that 
brought miners and supplies to the gold dig- 
gings and they also found employment as wood 
choppers supplying fuel to these vessels. Al- 
though the volume of river traffic declined 
sharply following the collapse of the Innoko 
diggings, the Ingalik were never again as re- 
mote from the outside world as before the dis- 
covery of gold on the Yukon and its tributaries. 

It is clear, therefore, that when the Rev. 
John Chapman arrived in Anvik, the Ingalik 
were on the threshold of an era of rapid culture 
change. As an agent of some of this change, he 
was responsible for much that was new in In- 
galik life. As a photographer, he documented 
both the old and the new. 

The largest assemblage of Chapman 
photos are currently deposited in the National 
Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, but some are also located in the Archives 
and Manuscript Collections, University of 
Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Archives and Histor- 
ical Collections, the Episcopal Church, in Au- 
stin, Texas. Prints from the Smithsonian and the 
University of Alaska are reproduced here and 
these can be divided into two major groupings 
according to content. In the first group {Figs. 
1-7) methods of subsistence are shown, includ- 
ing food-getting activities that are no longer 





practiced. Also depicted are early wage labor 
opportunities available to the Ingalik. 

Figure 1. Interior of a reindeer herder's tent near 
Shageluk, 1918. The lower-middle Yukon region 
participated marginally in the government- 
sponsored reindeer herding program; this was 
begun on the coast in 1892 in hopes of putting 
the Eskimo economy on a more solid footing. A 
government herd relocated at the Ingalik village 
of Shageluk on the Innoko River in the winter of 
1917-18, was the first successful introduction of 
the reindeer industry among the Indians of the 
interior. The herder's camp where this tent was 
located was a few miles east of Shageluk in an 
area of good forage; from there the herders 
watched the herd, attempting to keep the ani- 
mals together. The reindeer program among the 
Ingalik eventually failed and the reasons were 
multiple, perhaps due as much to biological and 



environmental causes as to any active resistance 
on the part of the Indians. Like the neighboring 
Eskimos, however, the Ingalik were accustomed 
to a relatively stable village life and found it dif- 
ficult to adapt to the nomadic routines asso- 
ciated with close herding. 

Figure 3. Dip net fishing for silver salmon below 
Anvik in 1916. King salmon were also formerly 
taken in this manner. The fisherman, in his river 
canoe as shown here, drifted downriver with 
the current while holding a long-handled net in 
the water. When an ascending salmon was 
caught, it was lifted out, killed and placed in the 
canoe; then the operation was repeated. 

Figure 4. Checking a fish trap at the mouth of 
the Anvik River in 1893. In the late nineteenth 
century, all varieties of salmon were taken most 
commonly in large basket traps, although gill 





nets were also used.' For king salmon, traps 
were more effective than nets, since these fish 
do not travel as close to shore as other species. 
The traps were set at the outer end of long 
fences of stakes that extended from shore. Fish 
wheels — wire mesh dippers mounted on an 
axle and turned by the current — were in general 
use bv the Ingalik in 1913 or 1914, but did not 
replace traps immediately. Residents of Anvik 
today recall that wicker traps were still in use 
during summers into the early 1920s. ^ 



Fii^ureS. Fishing with traps through the Yukon 
River ice; undated but probably about 1898. 
Fishing continued throughout the winter, with 
traps being set in favorable locations along the 
Yukon and Innoko rivers as well as in smaller 
streams for ling, whitefish, and pike. Occasion- 
ally such traps were located where the ice was 
as much as five feet thick; to chop a hole large 
enough for the trap could be difficult work. 
These traps, usually taken up once or twice a 
week, might contain from 20 to 200 pounds of 
fish; the usual weekly harvest appears to have 
been about 50 pounds.' 

Figure 6. Spearing lampreys through the Yukon 
River ice; undated but probably about 1898. To- 
ward the end of November the annual run of 
lampreys occurs on the Yukon River, and the 
Ingalik had a series of holes ready for instant 
use, keeping a sharp lookout for them. As soon 
as the lampreys were seen in the hole furthest 
downriver, the fishermen began scooping these 
fish out with small nets or hooking them with a 
barb fastened to a long pole, as shown here. 
When the lampreys had passed one hole, the 
fishermen would move to the next. The run 
lasted only a couple of days, but because the 
fish moved slowly in a compact mass close to 
the surface, many hundreds of pounds were 
taken if the run was good. They were eaten fro- 
zen and raw, their oil being used in lamps and 
for cooking. "* 

Figure 7. Operating a cement mbcer for the Epis- 
copal mission at Anvik in 1917. The earliest wage 





employment opportunities on the lower- 
middle Yukon were provided by the missions. 
At Anvik, as the mission complex expanded, 
there was a need as well as a desire to hire In- 
dians to assist in the work. During its early 
years, the mission paid for labor in goods such 
as flour, tea, and dry goods, but this form of 
payment frequently led to dissatisfaction on the 
part of the Indians, so the Episcopalians soon 
shifted to a money wage. The concept of work- 
ing for cash wages rather than wages in kind 
was introduced on a small scale as early as the 
1880s and became an established pattern when 
prospectors began to arrive in the Yukon Valley 
after 1897.5 

Figure 8. Rafting wood for steamboat fuel on the 
Innoko River in 1919. Until about 1903, all Yukon 
and Innoko River steamboats stoked their fur- 
naces with wood. The larger boats consumed 
from one to two cords of wood an hour depend- 
ing, of course, on the swiftness of the current 
and whether they were going up or down- 
stream. Much of the wood was cut by Indians, 
and this proved to be the most reliable form of 




9. The Rev. John 
Wight Chapman 9 



income 
period, 
later as 
located 
decline 
sharplv 
wood u 



for the Ingalik during the gold rush 
They worked independently at first, and 

employees of established wood yards 
at intervals along the Yukon. With the 
in gold mining, river traffic dropped off 
, but some vessels continued to burn 
nti! the beginning of World War II.'' 



The second group of photos throws light 
on changing community and settlement pat- 
terns both at Anvik and in Yukon River fish 
camps. Photographs of the latter were an impor- 
tant aid to a settlement pattern survey of the 
lower- middle Yukon region" and are useful for 
the study of shifts in the settlement pattern with 
reference to resource utilization. 

Figure 10. Anvik Point about 1920. This was the 
original settlement at the mouth of the Anvik 
River, located on the left bank, and was the one 
visited by Russian explorers early in the 
nineteenth century. Although the river bank 
has been cutting away in this area for many 
years, in the past it was an excellent location for 
building houses and for fishing. The settlement 
was also strategically located for meeting travel- 
ers along the Yukon River and those on their 
wav from Norton Sound to the Innoko River 
countr\' bv wav of the Anvik River.' At the time 










:^x 





this picture was taken, Anvik Point was used 
primarily as a fish camp. Today it is completely 
abandoned. 

Figure n. Anvik village on January 1, 1919. The 
present Anvik village is located on the right 
bank just inside the old mouth of the Anvik 
River. In 1934 the Anvik cut through the narrow 
tongue of land separating it from the Yukon, the 
lower two miles of the Anvik becoming a 
slough. A small creek enters the Anvik on the 
right bank just above its old mouth and it was at 
this point, directly across the river from Anvik 
Point, that the Episcopal mission constructed its 
buildings in 1889, having moved from a site two 
and a half miles further up the river. Gradually, 
as they accepted Christianity, the inhabitants 
moved across the river onto church land. In the 
background of this photo are the houses of In- 
dians who had made this move. In the fore- 
ground is the oldest Episcopal church in Alaska, 
constructed in 1893 and still standing. 



I 



»-»T -w-r^ » »■ w^r^'^j^ 









Figure 12 . Houses at Anvik about 1923. As late as 
1892, all the inhabitants of Anvik lived in tra- 
ditional semisubterranean winter houses of the 
type described in considerable detail by Os- 
good." Within three years, however, nearly 
one-third of the villagers occupied log struc- 
tures. Although the mission had much to do 
with encouraging the Indians to abandon their 
traditional houses, examples set by miners and 
other whites in the area provided an additional 
impetus, so that not long after 1900 traditional 
houses had virtually disappeared. There were 



only two remaining at Anvik Point in that year.^" 
Chapman took this photo because he believed it 
to show the old and the new. The house at the 
right is in a modified-traditional style; that on 
the left is a log cabin which was typical of the 
village then and remains typical today. 
Figure 13. Four Mile Fish Camp in 1919. This site, 
now abandoned, may have been one of the 
older camps along this stretch of the Yukon 
River. Elderly informants at Anvik confirm an 
occupation in the late nineteenth century and 
further note that the site has been used regu- 





larly during the summer, and sometimes in 
winter, until recent years, when the virtual re- 
placement of dog transportation by mechanized 
snow vehicles reduced the necessity for catch- 
ing and drying large numbers of salmon. Such 
camps were invariably located where small 
creeks enter the river. Most are now abandoned 
and few are shown on historical maps and 
charts of this section of the Yukon, although a 
number would appear to have been occupied 
seasonally at least as early as the mid-1800s. 

Figure 14 illustrates an aspect of culture change 
more specifically related to the presence of the 
Episcopal mission at Anvik. A famous Ingalik 
shaman, Nikolai Doctor, poses with his wife 
and friends. To fully appreciate this photo it is 
necessary to know that Chapman sometimes 
saw his problems at Anvik almost completely in 
terms of obstacles imposed by shamans, and he 
perceived himself as constantly in a virtual state 
of war with these traditional religious prac- 
titioners. Although this photo is undated, it was 
almost certainly taken after 1919, in which year 
Nikolai Doctor renounced shamanism and ac- 
cepted Christianity, an event which caused 
great rejoicing at the mission. 

Unlike many nineteenth-century mis- 
sionaries in Alaska and elsewhere, John Chap- 
man had a genuine interest in Indian language 
and culture, a fact indicated by his long-term 
commitment to learning Ingalik, an Athapaskan 
language, his translation of parts of the Book of 
Common Prayer into that language, and his many 
articles in church publications and anthropolog- 
ical journals. Some of his other photos, obvi- 
ously intended for use at public presentations to 
church audiences, focus on themes related to 
the achievement of mission goals. By far the 
greater number, however, were simply m- 
tended to document those aspects of Ingalik cul- 



ture which seemed noteworthy and were in 
danger of disappearing unrecorded by a sym- 
pathetic observer. With the cooperation of his 
Indian informants he produced an important 
ethnohistorical resource which, when used in 
conjunction with ethnographic data and historic 
source materials, adds a significant dimension 
to our understanding of the process of Ingalik 
culture change. D 



Notes 

1. Osgood, 1940, pp. 226-27. 

2. Chapman, 1913, pp. 49-50; VanStone, l%9b, p. 183 

3. Chapman, 1904, pp. 262-63. 

4. Chapman, 1904, pp, 262-63; Osgood, 1958, p. 401; 
VanStone, 1978, p. 37. 

5. VanStone, 1979b, pp. 124, 151 

6. VanStone, 1979b, pp. 175-76, 178, 180, 192. 

7. VanStone, 1979a. 
8.. Osgood, 1958, p. 28. 

9. Osgood, 1940, pp. 302-12. 
10. VanStone, 1979b, pp. 149, 186-87. 

References 

Chapman, J.W. 

1904 The Yukon River and its value to the Alaska 

mission. Spirit of Missiom, vol. 68, pp. 260-64. 
1913 A message from Anvik. The Alaskan 

Churchman, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 49-50. 
Osgood, C. 

1940 Ingalik material culture. Yfl/eUniDfrsi/y Pub/icfl- 

tions in Anthropotog\f, no. 22. 
1958 Ingalik social culture. Yale Unwerstty Publica- 

tions in Anthropolog}/, no. 53. 
VanStone, J. W. 

1979a Historic Ingalik settlements along the Yukon, 
Innoko, and Anvik rivers, Alaska Fieldiana: 
Anlhropoioj(y. vol. 72. 
1979b Ingalik contact ecology: an ethnohistor)' of the 
lower-middle Yukon, 1790-1935. Fieldiana: An- 
thropologic, vol. 71. 
VanStone, J. W. (ed ) 

1978 E. W. Nelson's Notes on the Indians of the 

Yukon and Innoko rivers, Alaska. Fieldiana: 
Anthropology, vol. 70. 



iTW«p«*i i»»wr ^.» » 



BFIIIXI) IHE SCENES 




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1 cm 



Senior Sdenf'f^ 

technical nil 

the fish in real />'" 



- bski, on the Museum staff 
'an oyster blenny, whose 
- n = ! IS very nearly as long as 



14 



I 



FIELD BRIEFS 



Continental Bank Commemorative 
Plate Features Field Museum 

In photi> at right. Field Museums Stanley 
Field Hall is the subject of the watercolor 
painting held bv artist Franklin McMahon, 
center. The painrtng has been reproduced, 
in color, on an eight-inch china plate, held 
hereb\' Field Museum President E. Leland 
Webber, right, as one of a series in the 
"Chicago Collection," commemorative 
plates issued bv Continental Bank and re- 
cently made available exclusively to new 
or current depositors of a specified 
minimum amount. Field Museum Trustee 
George R. Baker, left. Continental execu- 
tive \'ice president, holds another plate in 
the "Chicago Collection" series. 

NSF, NEA Grants 

The National Science Foundation, a fed- 
eral agency, has recentlv awarded two 
grants to the Field Museum in the total 
amount of $64,901. A grant of $9,356 is in 
support of svstematics svmposia held in 
the spring of each year at Field Museum; 
the Museum's first Spring Svstematics 
Symposium was held in 1978. The new 
grant is for the 1981 and 1982 symposia. 

An NSF grant of $55,545 for continued 
support of the project "Care and Use of 
Systematic Collections of Mammals" has 
been awarded the Dixasion of Mammals. 

The National Endowment for the 
Arts, a federal agency, has granted the 
Museum $20,000 to support the estab- 
lishment of a student teacher training in- 
ternship program. The new program is 
under the direction of Philip C. Hanson, 
head of Group Programs, Department of 
Education. 





Jarmila Kukalova-Peck, 
research associate ofCarleton 
University, Ottazoa, Canada, 
and an authority on Paleozoic 
insects, spent a month at Field 
Museum recently to study the 
Museum's collection of fossil 
insects from theimrld-re- 
nowned Carboniferous beds of 
Mazon Creek, Illinois. Dr. 
Kukalova-Peck is collabo- 
rating zvith Eugene S. 
Richardson, Field Museum 
curator of fossil invertebrates, 
in the preparation of papers 
concerning the Mazon Creek 
fauna. She visited the 
Museum under provisions of 
the Department of Geology's 
Visitmg Scientist Program. 
Prior to her association 
zvith Carleton University, 
Kukalova-Peck served on the 
faculty of Charles University, 
Prague, Czechoslovakia. 



Dave Walsten 




Santa Claus pa ul iin 

airly visil to Field 
Museum, on December 
U, to he with hundreds 
of young Museum mem- 
bers and their families. 
The occasion loas the 
Museum's "Christmas 
Aftemoiw" party, 
sponsored by the 
Women's Board. Here 
Santa (Field Museum 
Photographer Ron Testa) 
exchanges season's 
greetings with tioo 
friends. Behind him 
IS Kathy Laughlin, 
of Accounting. Photo 
by Fleur Hales. 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



What to Feed Bird Visitors 

What wild birds lil<e to eat and what many 
commercial bird mixes contain are not al- 
ways the same, according to a recent re- 
port by Dr. Aelred D. Geis of the Patuxent 
Wildlife Research Center. His study, part 
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 
Urban Wildlife Research Program, reveals 
some new findings on bird-food prefer- 
ences — some apparently unknown to 
several of the birdseed companies that 
provide ready-mixed foods for millions of 
Americans who participate in this in- 
tensely interesting pastime. 

"White proso millet and black oil- 
type sunflower seeds are eagerly taken," 
Geis said. "Yet, such common ingredients 
of commercial mixes as flax, canary, and 
rape (a type of mustard) seeds are rarely 
eaten by the birds." 

These and other findings of the report 
are based on 179,000 observations of feed- 
ing habits of birds in the Washington- 
Baltimore area. Though surveys are being 
continued in Maine, Ohio, and California, 
Geis expects that bird-food preferences 
will be quite similar throughout the 
nation. 

"Milo or sorghum, wheat, oats, 
cracked com, and rice," Geis said, "are 
common ingredients in commercial mixes, 
but are rarely attractive to birds if sun- 
flower seeds or white proso millet are also 
present in the feeder." 

Geis discovered that another com- 
mon ingredient in mixes, peanut hearts, 
was especially attractive to starlings; thus, 
should not be used as bird food. The 
small, oil-type sunflower seeds were 



found to be more attractive to most bird 
species than the larger black stripe or gray 
stripe sunflower seeds that are usually 
available. Only blue jays and tufted tit- 
mice showed a preference for the larger 
seeds, while a number of other species, 
notably goldfinthes and morning doves, 
much preferred the smaller oil-type 
sunflower seeds. 

"Since the kinds of birds that frequent 
people's homes vary from place to place," 
Geis said, "it is impossible to come up 
with a mixture that is universally efficient 
in terms of bird visits per dollar spent." 

He recommends that such seeds as 
white proso millet and black oil-type 
sunflower, which are sought by birds, be 
purchased separately from feed or pet 
stores and presented as needed by the 
birds that are in the particular area. 
Among the findings of the Geis report is 
the following list of birds (both desirable 
and otherwise) and their favorite bird 
seeds: 




^^<J^tJi^^ 



American goldfinch: hulled sunflower 

seeds, thistle seeds, oil-tvpe sunflower 

seeds. 

Brown-headed cou'bird: white proso millet, 

red proso millet, German millet, canary 

seed. 

Cardinal: all sunflower seeds. 

Carolina chickadee: oil-type sunflower 

seeds (showed little interest in other bird 

seed). 

Dark-eyed junco: red proso, white proso 

millet, canary seed, fine cracked corn. 

Common grackle: hulled sunflower seeds, 

cracked corn. 

Eivning grosbeak: all sunflower seeds. 

House finch: oil-type sunflower seeds 

(other sunflower seeds ranked much 

lower). 

House sparrow: white proso millet (and 

most other seeds except flax and rape). 

Mourning dove: oil-type sunflower seeds, 

white proso millet, thistle, wheat, 

buckwheat, milo, canary seed, hulled 

oats, cracked corn. 

Purple finch: all sunflower seeds. 

Red-bellied -woodpecker: black-striped 

sunflower seeds (occasionally). 

Song sparrow: White proso millet, red 

proso millet, t)il-tvpe sunflower seeds. 

Tufted titmouse: peanut kernels, oil-type 

sunflower seeds. (Showed no interest in 

millet.) 

White-crowned sparrow: oil-type and 

black-striped sunflower seeds, white 

proso millet, red prt)so millet. (Infrequent 

visitor to feeders.) 

White-throated sparroic: all sunflower 

seeds, white proso millet, and peanut 

kernels, (Also use red proso millet, canary 

seed, fine cracked corn.) 17 



The Field Museltm 

Spotlight on 

The Collections 

By MAITHEVVH. NITECKI 
curator offossil invci-tehrates 

Founded in 1893, the Field Museum of 
Natural Histon' in Chicago is a nonprofit 
institution supported largely by private 
funds. Its present distinguished position 
is a result of its comprehensive scientific 
and educational programs. Building great 
collections has been a sustained goal of the 
Field Museum for more than 80 years. 
Through worldwide expeditions, ex- 
change, purchase, and manv notable gifts, 
the Museum collections have grown until 
thev now number more than twelve mil- 
lion specimens. These collections repre- 
sent major stages in the history of the 
earth and oi human societies, and are con- 
cerned with the composition and evolu- 
tion of the earth, its nearest neighbors, 
and all forms of life, past and present, 
nonhuman and human. They range from 
intensive coverage of geographic area, 
biohc group, or single culture to extensive 
coverage of a world biota or a broad cul- 
ture area. 

Each of the four scientific depart- 
ments has had a different historical pat- 
tern of collection development and em- 
phasis. Anthropologv has focused on 
selected culture areas, amassing premier 
collections of primitive cultures and high 
civilizations of the past. Botany, while 
specializing in the vascular plants of Latin 
America, has attempted to build a collec- 
tion as a representative index of the vege- 
tation of the world. Geology, in the course 
of building research collections in the 
areas of immediate staff interest, has ac- 
quired a large systematic collection. Zool- 
ogy has tried to develop worldwide collec- 
tions in each of several taxonomic groups. 

The collections of meteorites, 
Pennsylvanian and Permian fossil verte- 
brates and invertebrates. Central Ameri- 
can plant specimens, tropical and neotrop- 
ical birds and mammals. Oceanic and 
Tibetan ethnological artifacts, and primi- 
tive art are world-renowned. Research by 



This article originally appeared in the ASC 
Newsletter Vol. 8, No. 5, and is reproduced 
here with minor adaptations, courtesy the As- 
sociation ofSystatiatics Collections. 



This 1896 view of Field Museum (then knownm 
as Field Columbian Museum) was in what had 
been the Palace of Fine Arts of the World'f 
Columbian Exposition. Today the sculpture i- 
gone, but some of the natural history specimen-- 
barely seen in the gallery oft .'... the left twustii 
be in the collection . In 1921 the .V,u;eum "noir 
from that building, in jacksou P-'.rk, \i (;' 
1 8 present one. in Grant Park. 





TABLE I 
RESEARCH COLLECTIONS 
FIELD MUSEUM 
(SUMMER, 1980) 



AT 



Dcf^artmoit of Anthropology Cotisen'ator Christine Danziger X-rays Neanderthal figure for 
tietenniuation of internal structure (1965). The figure, rune on viete in Hall C, zeas made in the early 
19M)s by U.S. sculptor Frederick Blaschke. 



its own scientists or the research as- 
sociates based on study of these collec- 
tions is published in 225 volumes of four 
series of Fieldiana:* Anthropology, 
Botany, Geology, and Zoology- 

The activities of the scientific staff in- 
clude basic research, management of col- 
lections, and collaboration in public pro- 
grams with the Departments of Education 
and Exhibition. The resources of the 
Museum have been made available to uni- 
versities responsible for the training of 
graduate students. Seminars, aided by 
studv of specimens, are held in Museum 
laboratories and classrooms. Museum 
specialists — many of whom also hold 
academic appointments on the faculties of 
local universities — lecture to graduate 
classes and supervise doctoral students. 
The collections and the Mu.sfuii: profes- 
sional staff play a vital role ii. ruiining 
of students who plan careers in natural 
sciences. 

'Fieldiana is Fich: 
thcdisciplt'iei^ofant'' 
20 ^cobvy. 



The Museum scientific staff (Table 2) 
consists of 45 Ph.D's and its professional 
standing is reflected in the number of pres- 
idencies of scientific societies that present 
staff have held: American Malacological 
Union (Solem), American Society of 
Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (Inger), 
American Society of Plant Taxonomists 
(Nevling), Palaeontological Society 
(Raup), Society of Systematic Zoologists 
(Inger), Society of Vertebrate Palaentol- 
ogy (Turnbull) and Systematic Mala- 
cologists (Solem). Several members of 
the staff have received medals in recogni- 
tion of their scientific contributions: Na- 
tional Science Foundation Antarctic Ser- 
vice Medal (Olsen), Order of Vasco Nunez 
de Balboa of the Republic of Panama 
(Wenzel), and Charles Schuchert Medal of 
the Palaeontological Society (Raup). 

Department of Anthropology 

The anthropological collections of 
over 400,000 cataloged lots or approxi- 
mately 800,000 specimens are exhibited in 



Anthropology: 
Botany: 


800,000 
2,124,290 


Geology: 

Physical Geology: 


65,500 


Fossil Vertebrates: 


93,000 


Microscope Slides: 
Fossil Plants: 


5,800 
71,000 


Fossil Invertebrates 




(estimated): 


2,000,000 


Total Geology (Approx.) 


2,235,300 


Library: 


200,000 


Zoology: 

Reptiles & Amphibians 
Birds: 


212,000 
315,000 


Fishes: 


1,400,000 


Insects: 


2,680,000 


Invertebrates: 


2,500,000 


Mammals: 


122,000 


Total Zoology (Approx.) 


7,229,000 


TOTAL (Approx.) 


12,588,590 



17 halls and housed in 8 storerooms. Con- 
stantly updated records on location, 
movement and condition of specimens 
will be a feature of a computerized collec- 
tion catalog, the Anthropology Informa- 
tion Management System (AIMS). Work 
in research, conservation, and collection 
management is conducted in 9 lab- 
oratories. 

Curatorial responsibilities tend to be 
divided along geographic lines: Asian ar- 
cheology and ethnology (Bennett Bron- 
son). Oceanic archeology and ethnology 
(John Terrell), North American archeol- 
ogy and ethnology (James VanStone, 
Ronald Weber), Middle and South Ameri- 
can archeology and ethnology (Michael 
Moseley, Alan Kolata, Robert Feldman), 
and Middle Eastern archeology (Donald 
Whitcomb). Other curatorships are de- 
fined thematically: prehistory (Glen Cole) 
and primitive art and Melanesian ethnol- 
ogy (Phillip Lewis). 

The nucleus of the department's col- 
lections was formed in 1894, when many 
of the anthropological objects for the 1893 
World's Columbian Exposition were do- 
nated to or purchased by the new Field 
Columbian Museum. They included ar- 
cheological and ethnological specimens 
from the United States (7 states, 12 Indian 
tribes). Middle and South America (12 
countries), Asia (6 countries), and the 
Pacific. Although many of these early 
specimens are not well documented, a 
suprisingly high proportion (especially of 
American Indian objects) were collected in 
the field with great care by professional 
anthropologists. One of these, the re- 
nowned Franz Boas, helped to organize 
the new museum. 

Boas was soon succeeded by W. H. 



TABLE U 
SCIENTIFIC STAFF OF FIELD MUSEUM 

Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 
Dean of Science: David M. Raup 

Department of Anthropology 
Cochairman: Ben not Bronson 
Cochairman: Phillip H. Lewis 
Curators: Glen H. Cole 

James VV. VanStone 
Curator Emeritus: Donald Collier 
Associate Curattirs: Michael E. Moseley 

John E. Terrell 
Assistant Curatgr: Donald S. VVhitcomb 
Visiting Assistant Curators: 

Robert A. Feldman 

Alan L. Kolata 

Ronald L. Weber 

Department of Botany 
Chairman: William C. Burger 
Curator Emeritus: Louis O. Williams 
Associate Curators: 

John J. Engel 

Patricio P. Ponce de Leon 
Assistant Curator: Timothy C. Plowman 
Visiting Assistant Curators: 

Michael O. Dillon 

Svlvia M. Feuer-Forster 

Michael Nee 

Department of Geology 

Chairman (acting): Bertram G. Woodland 

Curators: Matthew H. Nitecki 
Edward J. Olsen 
Eugene S. Richardson, Jr. 
William D. Turnbull 

Curator Emeritus: Rainer Zangerl 

Associate Curator: John R. Bolt 

Assistant Curators: Gordon C. Baird 
Larrj-G. Marshall 

Department of Zoology 
Chairman: Robert K. Johnson 

Division of Amphibians and Reptiles 
Associate Curator: Harold Voris, Head 
Curators: Robert F. Inger 
Hymen Marx 

Division of Birds 
Associate Curator: 

John VV. Fitzpatrick, Head 
Curators Emeriti: Emmet R. Blake 
Melvin A. Traylor 

Division of Fishes 
Assistant Curator: 

Donald J. Stewart, Head 

Division of Insects 

Associate Curator: John B. Kethley, Head 

Curators Emeriti: Henry 5. Dybas 

Rupert L. Wenzel 
Assistant Curator: Larry E. Watrous 

Division of Invertebrates 
Curator: Alan Solem, Head 

Division of Mammals 

Curator Emeritus: Philip Hershkovitz 

Assistant Curator: Robert M. Timm 



Holmes, an archeologist, who undertook 
important pioneering excavations in Yuca- 
tan and elsewhere in southern Mexico 
in the context of an interdisciplinary 
botanical-archeological expedition. His 
work resulted in the addition of ap- 
proximately 1,000 Maya, Aztec, and 
Teotihuacan artifacts to the Museum's col- 
lections. The Museum has remained ac- 
tive in Latin American archeology since 
Holmes's day. 

George A. Dorsey followed Holmes 
in 1896 and staved in the chief curatorship 
long enough — until 1915 — to establish a 
highly personal style in departmental col- 
lections and research activities. His ad- 
ministration saw a sharp increase in funds 
and staff available for field work, and the 
development of a carefully articulated 
methodology for collecting objects. Major 
American Indian holdings continued to be 
assembled. An excellent Egyptian ar- 
cheological collection was purchased, 
with remarkable skill, in Alex- 
andria over a period of only three months. 



S. C. Simms, Fletcher Gardner, Laura Be- 
nedict, William Jones, and Fav-Cooper 
Cole were dispatched to the Philippines, 
where they painstakingh put together 
what would later be recognized as the 
largest and best-documented Philippine 
ethnological collection in the world. Al- 
bert Buell Lewis gathered an even larger 
and equally unmatched collection in 
Melanesia. And Berthold Laufer spent 
three years in China and Tibet laying the 
groundwork for yet another of the 
Museum's highly regarded collections. 

Laufer succeeded Dorsev in 1915 and 
remained chief curator until his death in 
1934. Departmental field work was vigor- 
ous in the 1920s. Major archeological proj- 
ects were carried out by A. L. Kroeber in 
Peru, ]. Alden Mason in Columbia, J. Eric 
Thompson in British Honduras, and 
Henry Field in Iraq. Ethnological projects 
included Laufer's continuing research in 
China and Ralph Linton's work in 
Madagascar. However, all this came to an 
end in 1929, when the Great Depression 



Manneijuin figures atop the Paimee earth lodge, Hall 5 




forced most research activities back inside 
the walls of the Museum. The efforts of the 
Anthropology staff during the 1930s were 
focused on collections research and on an 
extensive WPA-supported renovation of 
exhibits. 

Paul Martin became chairman in 1934 
and staved in that post for the next 30 
\ears. Funds continued to be scarce dur- 
ing the early vears of his administration. 
It was not until the late 1940s that condi- 
tions began to improve as the department 
learned to adapt to the postwar system 
of grants from public agencies and private 
foundations, rather than gifts from 
wealthy individuals. Martin himself con- 
ducted a long, important series of excava- 
tions in the American Southwest, and 
other members of the department worked 
for var\'ing lengths of time elsewhere in 
the U.S. and in Middle and South Amer- 
ica, the Pacific, Scandinavia, and Taixvan. 
Due to political realities in a changing 
world, the focus of departmental field 
work had shifted from collecting per se 
to an increased emphasis on problem- 
oriented fieldwork and on obtaining data 
rather than artifacts. Increasingly, new 
acquisitions were coming from purchases 
or gifts. In 1958 the Museum agreed to 
purchase the great Fuller Collection of 
6,500 Oceanic artifacts; it subsequently 
received a major collection of Benin 
sculpture as a gift from Mrs. Fuller. In the 
early 1960s it acquired notable collections 
of Chinese materials. 

A system of rotating chairman was 
instituted after Martin's retirement. 
Donald Collier, James VanStone, and Phil- 
lip Lewis have each occupied the chair- 
manship for several years during the past 
decade and a half. Lewis and Bennet 
Bronson are currently cochairmen. 

The American Collections are important 
with special strength in materials of recent 
Indian groups of the Northwest Coast, 
Great Plains, southwestern U.S., and 
Brazilian tropical forest; ancient and re- 
cent Eskimos; and ancient cultures of the 
eastern and southwestern United States, 
Mexico and Peru. In all these areas the 
department's holdings rank with the top 
five in the countr\'. 

The Middle Eastern-Egyptian-Medi- 
terranian Collections are uneven but of ex- 
cellent quality. The purchased and hence 
poorly documented Egyptian materials 
cover an exceptionally wide range of 
periods and cultural activities; they in- 
clude especially distinguished assem- 
blages of Coptic textiles, stone inscrip- 
tions, and Romano-Egvptian objects. The 
excavated Middle Eastern collection is 
largely from a single important Iraqi site — 
Kish — and constitutes the largest and 
best-recorded set of Early Dynaftic Sum- 
erian objects in the United States. 

The African Collection - -.vhile generally 

weak, have real strength .ti c. few selected 

areas: historic Benin and recent Nigeria, 

22 Angola, and Cameroon. The Museum's 




Phillip Lezvis, curator of primitive art and Melanesian ethnology, shown in 1977 with visitor David 
Lasisi, artist from Lossu, Neiv Ireland. They hold a Neic Ireland carving from the Museum's 
collection. 



holdings of Benin bronzes and ivories are 
at least as good as any outside Europe and 
Nigeria. 

The Asian Collections vary greatly in 
size and quality. Tibetan materials in the 
Museum are numerous and comprehen- 
sive, covering most aspects of traditional 
Tibetan culture; only one other Tibetan 
collection in North America is as good. 
Chinese holdings are massive, but not as 
well balanced. Thev consist principally of 
(1) recent decorative art objects and folk 
textiles, (2) representative fine art objects 
of all periods, (3) rubbings of stone inscrip- 
tions and reliefs, (4) theatrical objects, (5) 
archeological metals, ceramics, and jade, 
and (6) materials relevant to the history of 
Chinese technology. Japanese holdings 
are currently being expanded greatly as 
the result of several recent gifts; they will 
soon exceed the Museum's poorlv bal- 
anced South Asian holdings in number 
and utility for research and exhibition. 
Holdings from Island and Peninsular 
Southeast Asia are excellent, with particu- 
lar strength in ethnographic materials 
from Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Malaysia, 
and the Philippines. All of these are the 
best of their kind in this hemisphere; the 
last is unmatched anywhere in size, age, 
and quality of documentation. 

The Pacific Collections are distin- 
guished by one of the world's two largest 
and best assemblages of ethnographic 
materials from Melanesia, with com- 
prehensive coverage of almost all cultures 
in the coastal areas of the region. The Au- 
stralian aborigine collection is fair and 
that from the Polynesian islands (espe- 
cially New Zealand) good to very good. 
Micronesia is less weU represented, but 
even here the department's holdings have 
moderate importance. 

The Prehistoric Collections are com- 
posed principally of stone tools from 
France and sub-Saharan Africa. Their 
quality ranges from very good (by North 
American standards) for France and East 
Africa, through fairly good for South 
Africa and wrestem Europe in general, to 



mediocre for the Middle East and poor for 
eastern Europe and Asia. 

Outside interest in the North Ameri- 
can and Asian collections is particularly 
intense; the latter alone are now studied 
by a yearly average of 115 visiting profes- 
sionals and graduate students. Loans to 
other institutions are largely for exhibition 
purposes; the last three years have seen 56 
such loans embracing 2,210 specimens. 

Current in-house research by curato- 
rial staff includes intensive work by Ter- 
rell, Whitcomb, and Cole on Melanesian, 
Egyptian, and African excavated materi- 
als, respectively; by VanStone on Russian 
documents relating to the history of native 
Alaskans; by Terrell on Pacific bark-cloth 
making; by Bronson on early Chinese iron 
metallurgy; and by Lewis on traditional art 
styles in New Ireland. Bronson, Moseley, 
Feldman, Whitcomb, Terrell, and Cole are 
engaged in writing up the results of recent 
archeological field work in Sri Lanka, In- 
donesia, Peru, Bolivia, Egypt, Papua New 
Guinea, and Tanzania. Continuing or 
imminent field projects include (1) a major 
study of environmental factors underlying 
agrarian collapse in ancient Peru (Moseley 
and Feldman), (2) excavations at a 1st mU- 
lenium A.D. port site on the Red Sea in 
Egypt (Whitcomb), and (3) small-scale re- 
search and training excavations at sites of 
the same age in Indonesia (Bronson). 

A substantial proportion of de- 
partmental effort is devoted to exhi- 
bition-related activities. Seventeen major 
permanent halls in the museum — slightly 
less than one-half of its total exhibition 
area — are anthropological. In addition, 
the department has in the past three years 
had responsibility for nine outside- 
originated temporary exhibits that have 
come to the Museum and has itself origi- 
nated five temporary exhibits, while con- 
tinuing to work on a very large new per- 
manent exhibit of Northwest Coast Indian 
and Eskimo culture. 



To he continued next month 



Edivar d E. Jfyer Film Lecture Series 



Mai'ch and April 

James Simpson Theatre 

Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. 



The entrance to Simpson Theatre is conveniently located inside 
the west entrance. This is of special interest to the handicapped, 
for the entrance is at ground level, with all steps eliminated. The 
west entrance also provides free admission to the theatre. Ac- 
cess to other Museum areas, however, requires the regular 



admission fee (except on Fridays) or membership identifica- 
tion. The film/lectures are approximately 90 minutes long and 
recommended for adults. Reserved seating available, until 2:25, 
for members. Doors open at 1:45 p.m. 






March 7 

"Tahiti" by Phil Walker 

From Acapulco we travel on a 50-foot 

ketch across the Pacific, stopping briefly 

at the Galapagos and the Marquesas 

before reaching this fabled paradise. 

We visit a Tahitian luau,' see coral reefs 

underwater, citv' scenes, pageants, 

and even parades. 



March 14 

"German\'" b\' Ed Lark 

In beautiful Munich we visit the 

Marienplatz,\vith its bustling crowds, the 

famous Glockenspiel, and the Olvmpic 

Village; the Bavarian Alps, with some of 

Europe's loveliest scenery; Oberam- 

mergau, famed for its Passion Play; 

Neuschwanstein, with its fair\'land castle; 

Baden-Baden; Cologne; and more! 



March 21 

"Immortal Poland" by Jon Hagar 
This new look at the land of Chopin, 
Copernicus, and Madame Curie focuses 
on life in Poland today — from major 
industrial centers to the most scenic 
and historic regions. We see ever\'day 
life, industn', education, the arts, politi- 
cal realities, even a raft ride down 
the Dunajec. 



March 28 

"Shangri-La" by Jens Bjerre 

In making this exciting film Bjerre 

travelled the Himalayas in small aircraft 

and jeep, walked and climbed for 28 days 

up to 17,500 feet to find his lost valley 

of paradise. There he was accorded the 

rare pri\ilege of entering and filinini; 

"Shangri-La." 



April 4 

"Turkey" bv Frank Klicar 

Klicar guides us across the Anatolian 

Plateau, to the ruins of Troy, Pergamum, 

the hot springs of Pamukkale, the coast of 

the Black Sea. We view ancient frescoes, 

tobacco plantations, nomad villages, 

palaces, churches, and monasteries. 



April 11 

"Scotland" by Fran Reidelburger 
Scotland's history, pageantry', industry; 
Loch Ness — home of the fabled monster, 
moss-grown castles. Highland games; 
agricultural fairs, farm life and ciU' 
industries; the Isle of Skye, the Orkneys, 
and the Shetland Islands — all from the 
vantage point of Reidelburger's 



April 18 

"Lure of Alaska" by Willis Butler 
One of the most complete, comprehen- 
sive films ever made of Alaska, "Lure of 
Alaska" shows what the average tourist 
can see and do in relative comfort, with- 
out organizing an exix>dition. We travel 
from Ketchikiin to Barrow and from Fair 
banks to the Pribilof Islands. 



April 25 

"Amazon" bv Ted Buniiller 

We travel bv raft and ship down the 

longest river in the worUi. We al.so .see 

the colonial grandeur of Lima, seals 

and [X'nguins of the Guano Islands, the 

mysterious Nazca plains, Maclni I'icclui, 

and an Inca festival. 





Kenya and the Seychelles 



(^ 



MlSHl'M 
TOlRs' 



There Is Now, as ihea" has always been, 
an aura of m\slcn' suirouiuiing Africa. 
Tropical islands and the coast, endless 
[i.ihn-fringed beaches, snow-capped 
mountains on the equator, jungle 
primeval, savannah sun-baked plains. 
Thev are all a part of East Africa, the 
home of one of our planet's last great 
natural dramas. The wildlife. . .the 
stateh' processions of giraffe — dark 
centuries silhouetted on the African 
horizon. Prides of lion — stalking the 
plains and still lauded as the king of 
Ix'asts. The Ix-autiful and rare leopard, 
the elegant cheetah and surelv one of the 
wonders of the world, the magnificent 



September 12 -October 3 
Tour Price: $3,750 

migration of wildebeeste and zebra. 
Sadlv, time and civilization move 
inexorabh- onwards so we hope to 
welcome \'ou to Ken\-a and the Seychelles 
with Field Museum Tours in 1981. 

Itinxrarv: Sept. 12: Evening departure 
from Chicago's O'Hare Airport via 
British Airwavs to London. 13: Morn- 
ing arrival in London with time to rest 
before evening departure for Nairobi. 
14: Morning arrival in Nairobi and trans- 
fer to Nairobi Hilton Hotel. Evening 
welcome parU' and lecture by member 
of the East Africa Wildlife Society. 

15: Drive through Kikmu country' for 
overnight stay at Mt. Lodge Tree Hotel, 
the newest of the well-known Tree 
Hotels, designed for optimurn game 
viewing from the comfort of your 
balconv. 16: Drive north and cross the 




24 








->.^ 



equator to the Samburu Game Reserve. 
Overnight at Samburu Game Lodge. 
17: Full dav game \'iewing at Samburu 
Game Reserve. 18: Drive south to spend 
the day at the foot of Mt. Kenya at the 
lu.\urious Mt. Kenya Safari Club. 
19:Journev to Lake Naivasha, a 
bird-watcher's paradise. Overnight at 
the Lake Hotel. 20: Drive through the 
Masai Mara Game Reserve for two days 
of game viewing bv minibus in the Great 
Rift Vallev. Overnight at the Governor's 
Camp. 21: Full day at Masai Mara Game 
Reserve, including a game walk. 
22: Return to Nairobi and the Nairobi 
Hilton Hotel. 23. Journey to Amboseli 
National Park, dominated by the spec- 
tacular Mt. Kilimanjaro. 24: Morning 
lecture bv research naturalist discus- 
sing studies of wildlife behavior. After- 
noon trip to Tsavo West. Overnight at 
Ngulia Lodge. 25: The safari continues 
through the plains of Tsavo to Taita Hills 
Lodge for lunch. Continue to the port 
citv of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. 
Overnight at the Leopard Beach Hotel. 
26: Morning visit to Shimba Hills 
Reserve. Afternoon free. 27: Morning 
departure for Mahe in the Seychelles 
Islands. Afternoon arrival at Reef Hotel. 

28-30: Three days in the Seychelles 
includes a full day excursion by air to 
Praslin Island to visit Vallee de Mai 
and bv boat to Cousin Island to visit 
the internationally renowned bird 
sanctuan'. Optional full day excursion 
bv air to Bird Island. Oct. 1: Free day in 
Mahe. Evening flight to Nairobi, late 
night flight to London. 2: Morning 
arrival in London. Free day to relax 
and explore on vour own. Overnight at 
London Embassy Hotel. 3: Late morning 
flight to Chicago \aa British Airways. 



For a brochure on this or 
any of our other tours 
please write or call the 
Tours office at Field Mu- 
seum, 322-8862. 



Papua New Guinea 



May 1-17 
Tour Price: $4,4G1 



ML'SHl'M 



Papua New Guinea is unique on the lace of 
the planet Earth. For millenia (or untold 
time) a diversity' of contrasting cultures 
ha\-e flourished here within small areas 
because of the isolation imposed by 
rugged terrain of mountains and jungles, 
and because of hostilities between the 
manv different peoples. Largely unknown 
to each other and to the outside world they 
coexisted, each in a communal en\'iron- 
ment sufficient unto itself. Only since 
contact with modern industrial society 
has this isolation been broken, making 
it po.ssible for \'isitors to explore and ex- 
claim over the natural wonders of this 
Edenlike paradise. 

It is one of the most remarkable — 
and last — reser\'oirs of animal, reptile, 
insect, and bird life to be found aimvhere. 
But most of all, Papua New Guinea pre- 
sents a variefv' of cultures and art of 
such freshness and color it holds a fasci- 
nation bevond all else. Each province has 
its own charm, whether it be the all- 





green towering Eastern Highlands, or the 
expansive vistas of the Sepik water- 
shed. To travel through the continuing 
contrasts of this ever-changing land is 
to exj^erience a travel adventure that 
broadens the mind as it enriches the soul. 
To go from the beginnings of the Space 
Age to the remnants of the Stone Age in 
the course of a couple of days cannot fail 
to be an adventure of mind-bending 
proportions. 

The Sepik River is a monster 
watenvav draining a vast area of 
grassland, swamp, and jungle in its 
serjx'ntine circuit. For five memorable 
davs we will cruise the Sepik, reaching 
into the past in remote regions where the 
villagers still travel in traditional dugout 
canoes. Thcv still reside in enormous tree 
hou.ses though not for the long ago pur- 
pose of escaping head-hunting raiding 
parties. Thev still make and use fancifiii 
owl-head pots and carve copious crocci- 
diles and hornbills, symbols of fertility 
and lifi'. rhe\' continue to keep their most 
treasured possessions hidden away or 
buried, only bringing them out on special 



occasions. And the\' still create sunie of 
the countn'"s most artistic artifacts. 

Our lecturer. Dr. Phillip Lewis, 
curator, primitive art and Melaiicsian 
ethnolog\-, u'ill escort the tour from 
Chicago, and share his knowledge of 
the varied arts and cultures of Melane- 
sia. In addition, our Sepik director, Jeff 
Leversidge, a well-known per.sonality 
on the .Sei)ik and R;uiiii Rivers, and ver}' 
knowledgeable about the diverse cultures, 
arts, and customs of the Sepik regions, 
will lecture the group during the crui.se 
and shore excursions. 

Accommodations on board tlie 
lU'wK' refurbished A/c/«'i<\si«/i Lxplorrr 
are modern and comfortable. Passen- 
gers are housed in air-conditioned tv^dn- 
t)unked cabins, each with {irivate bath. 
Abo\e the cabins is a lowly dining and 
lounge area, while the lop deck, aft, is 
fitted with lounges and chairs so that 
jj.issengers mav watch the Sepik water 
world go by in pleasurable ea.se. 

To ensure your reservation, call or 
write the Tours office now. 25 



Journey to the Holy Land and the Red Sea 

A cruise on the Red Sea aboard the Stella Maris, 
followed by a stay in Cairo and Israel 

March 12-26 



(I 




Stilla Maris 



You Are Intvited to participate in an extraordinary itinerary that 
affords a wealth of visual and intellectual experiences un- 
matched in the world of travel: 

Following a transatlantic flight, participants will land at 
Cairo and transfer to the pwrt of Suez to board the cruise ship, 
Stella Maris, and sail leisurely on a Red Sea cruise. Ports of call 
include several along the shores of this ancient sea, where 
centuries have made little change. From each port, excursions 
will reveal sites of unforgettable beaut\' and grandeur. 

The overnight excursion to Luxor wall recall the golden 
age of Egv'pt's power when the wealth of Thebes was showered 
upKjn the god Amon-Ra. A tour of ancient Petra in Jordan will 
reveal a site in an incomparable setting, with an opportunity to 
visit the Monasterv- of St. Catherine, ' liilt in the 6th century on 
Mt. Sinai. 

The cruise will be followed by two nights in Cairo. Hotel 
accommodations will afford views of the p\Tamids of Giza. 
From Cairo, tours will be waAr to Memphis and Sakkara, the 
p>Tamids of Giza and the SphinX; and the Egyptian Museum of 
Antiquities. Follow'.:^, ij thr tav in Caii-o, fly to Israel for a four- 
day ^^sit with accommodations at the Jerusalem Hilton. In 
26 Israel, the tour program includes \isits to Mount of Olives, the 



Old City and sites of Jerusalem, Masada, Bethlehem, and 
Jericho. 

Tour lecturer will be Donald S. Whitcomb, assistant 
curator of Middle Eastern archeology. Dr. Whitcomb, who also 
led Field Museum's recent tour to Greece, has had field excava- 
tion experience in Eg\'pt, Oman, Iran, and S\Tia, as well as 
museum and research experience: as consultant in Islamic ar- 
cheology'. Comprehensive Sur\'ey of Saudi Arabia; and as re- 
search assistant for the Comprehensive Surve}' of Saudi Arabia, 
1976. (Included in this tour's itinerary is the Red Sea port of 
Quseir al-Qadim, a site where Whitcomb is in charge of continu- 
ing excavations.) 

The Stella Maris is a ship of 4,000 gross tons and 297 feet 
in length. Originally built in the early 1960s, it was completely 
rebuilt in 1965 as a one-class elegant cruise yacht. 

The price of this tour depends upon the type of accom- 
modation chosen: $3,625 to $3,995 based upon double occu- 
pant'. A few large staterooms aboard the Stella Maris will 
accommodate a third p>erson in an additional upper berth at a 
rate of $2,925. For a full breakdown of tour rates, itineran', and 
other details, please call the tours office (322-8862) or write for 
a brochure. 



Peru and Bolivia: 1981 October 15 to November 1 Tour price: $3,100 



A Different Experience! A Diiferenl Workll From tlie fabulous Incas, 
through Spanish Colonial times to the modern cities of today — vet 
maintaining its Latin charm. You'll love the green fertile valleys along 
the sandy desert coast of Peru; the highest railroad in the world; 
crossing Titicaca, the world's highest na\'igable lakeh\' hydrofoil; flying 
over the Nazca plains. Our tour includes the fascinating cities of Lima, 
Cuzco, Trujillo, Puno, a train trip to fabulous Machu Picchu, and four 
full days in La Paz. 

Dr. Alan L. Kolata, \'isiting assistant curator of South American 



archeologv' and elhnoiogy. and project director, Fielii Museum E.xpedi- 
tions to Bolivia, will accompany the tour members during the entire 
trip. Dr. Michael E. Moselev, associate curator of Middle and South 
American archeology and ethnolog\', who for the p;ist ten years has 
directed large-scale projects on the north coast of Peru, will join the 
group when we visit his area of research. We will also have an op|X)rtu- 
nit\' to see and learn about Dr. Kolata's work at Tiahuanaco. For more 
information call or v\Tite Field Museum tours. Direct telephone line: 
322-8862. 



Two vieu^s of 

Machu Picchu, 

fly Hermann 

Bowersox 




MISSEL 'M 



ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY 
SURVFY LIB RM 19f. 
MATl)''AL RESOURCES BUILDlNiG 
URPflNA ILL 61P01 



Februwy and March at Field Museum 



(February 16-March 15) 



Continuing Exhibits 

Cultures OF /VnucA AND Madagascar. Dramatic bronze statues 
cast in the ancient Nigerian kinmiom of Benin demand special 
attention here. Bronze-casting in Benin reached high levels of 
technical skill and beauty during the 15th- 19th centuries, 
resulting in some of the finest art ever produced in Africa. The 
exhibit, which includes a fullv furnished reconstruction of a 
(^menHin king's house, shows the life and customs of various 
African [x-oples through their art, tools, weapons, and pottery. 

The Birds of America John James Autlubon's rare elephant folio 
edition ot'Tlie Birds of America is one of America's ornithological 
landmarks. The Museum's set is one of two v\ith an additional 
13 plates. The four volumes, containing 448 plates, consist of 
life-si/^, hand-colored cop[X'rplate engravings of all American 
birds known to Audubon. The book was published in London 
Ix-tween 1827 and 18,18. 

New Programs 

AFRO-BurE. A celebration of West African musical heritage as it 
lives in America. The program features Chicago musicians in 
concert and ethnographic films that trace the African influence 
on jazz in the early part of the 20th century. "Afro-Blue" depicts a 
musical tradition so strong that it sur\'ived the savage journey 
to the New World and slavery. Join host Neil Teaser, Chicago 
Siiri-TiTOfts jazz critic, and a variety of talented performers for an 
exhilarating musical experience. "Afro-Blue" is presented in 
conjunction uith the Winter Learning Museum counse, "West 
African Art: Power and Spirit," and made possible by a grant 
from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal 
agenc>-. Saturday, Feb. 28, 2 p.m., James Simpson Theatre. Call 
322-88.5.5 during business hours to order tickets in advance, or 
purchase them at the dcKjr. Members $3, nonmembers $5. 

Edward E. Ayer Film Lectures. These colorful programs are held 
each .Saturday during March and April at 2:30 p.m. in Simpson 
Theatre. Narrated by the filmmakers themselves, the programs 
are recommended for adults. Admission is free at the Museum's 
West Door. Reser\'ed seating is available for Members until 2:25 
p.m. For program details see page 23. 

Weekend Dlscoverv Programs. Each Saturday and Sunday 
lietween 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., you can participate in a variety of 
free tours, demonstrations, and films on natural history topics. 
Check the Weekend Sheet a\-ailable at Museum entrances for 
locations and additional programs. 

D "African Religions and Ritual Dances" film presents dance 
as an integral part of Afi-ican life, ..vifh a reenactment of a 
Yoi^ba cult dance. Satuu-day. Feb. 21, t p.m. 



n " Prehistoric People in the Illinois Valley" tour investigates 
how prehistoric people adapted to their environment through 
the use of tools. Sunday, February 22, 1 p.m. 

n "Chinese Ceramic Traditions" is a tour of masterworks in 
the fiermanent collection, exploring the styles, innovations, 
and triumphs of China's 6,000 years of ceramic art. Sunday 
February 22, 2:30 p.m. 

n "Atumpan: The Talking Drums of Ghana" film discusses the 
major role of ceremonial drums in the ritualistic installation 
of a chief Saturday, Februan' 28, 1 p.m. 

D "Sea Ceatures" film brings you an unusual parade in the 
depths of the ocean. Sunday, March 1, 1 p.m. 

D "Indians of North America" tour surveys the daily life of six 
tribes. Saturday, March 7, 2:30 p.m. 

D "The Saga of the Sea Otter" film presents playful sea otters 
cavorting with their families and talks about the efforts to 
save them from extinction. Sunday, March 8, 1 p.m. 

n "Welcome to the Field" tour provides the Museum visitor with 
a view of behind-the-scenes activities of a natural history 
museum. Sunday, March 8, 2 p.m. 

n 'The Great Bronze Age of China" slide program presents 
highlights from the extraordinan' exhibit that was at Field 
Mu.seum last year and is currently traveling the United States. 
Saturday, March 14, 12:30 p.m. 

D "Adaptation to Ocean Environments" film illustrates animal 
adaptations to three types of ocean environments: the open 
ocean, the sandy bottom, and the rocky reef. Sunday, March 

15.1 p.m. 

n "The World of Gold" is a half-hour survey of gold: its uses, 
physical properties, and mining procedures. Sunday, March 

15.2 p.m. 



Continuing Programs 

Volunteer OppoRTltNiTlES. Persons with scientific interests 
and backgrounds are needed to work in various Mu.seum 
departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, 
ext. 360. 

February and March Hours. The Museum is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. , 
Monday-Thur.sday (until 5 p.m., beginning March 11; 9 a.m. -9 
p.m., Friday; and 9 a.m. -5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. -4 p.m. Obtain a 
pass at the reception desk, main floor. Closed Feb. IG, Wash- 
ington's birthday. 



Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



^^ EELD Museum of Natural History Bulletin 

March 1981 




Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



March 1981 
Vol. 52, No. 3 



CONTENTS 
3 Field Briefs 

Fieldiana Titles for 1980 
Research at Field Museum 



4 

5 
6 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Spotli>^ht on the Collections, Part II (Geology) 

by Matthew H. Nitecki, curator of fossil invertebrates 



EditorDesi^ucr: Ddvid M. VValsten 
Production: Marthii Poulter 
Calendar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Photo;frapher: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

[■oundfd 1W3 

Pre>uient: E. Leland Webber 
Director: Lorin 1. Nevling, Jr 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Sw.irtchild, Jr., 

chmrmim 
Mrs. T. Stanton .Xrmour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O. Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R Cook 
O.C. Da\is 

William R. Dickinson, Jr 
Thomas E Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy Jr 
James J O'Connor 
James H Ransom 
John S Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert H Strotz 
John W Sullivan 
Edward R Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B. Wilkins 
Blaine J. Yarrington 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 

William McCormick Blair 
loseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr. 
William V. Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M- Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



11 Our Environment 

12 Ancient Egypt: Mummies, Magic, and Love 

Learning Museum Program 

by Anthony Pfeiffer, project coordinator 

16 Behind the Scenes 

18 Kimberley Snail Hunt Again! 

by Alan Solein, curator of invertebrates 

24 Field Museum Tours 

26 Honor Roll of Donors 

back March and April at Field Museum 
cover Calendar of coming events 



COVER 

Road sign in the Australian outback. See "Kimberley Snail Hunt 
Again!" p. IS. Photo by Alan Solem. 



Field Mustum ot Natural History SuUclin il^ 

combined JuIv'.August is?i'e, b\- Fiol..^ Mu^c 

l-ake Shore Drive, Chicago. 11 ^'^-''" -,;-^ 

Museum membership include^ ' 

their own jnd do not necc-^^Jr. 

scripts are welcome. Mu-seum . 

to Field Museum of Natural Hisiorv. R^, j, . 



IjC«6. 1SS\': OCTS-OTOJ. Second class postage pa'.d at Chicago. II. 



^ ,i'i8-Q-»0) is published monthly, except 
n ■! X.itural History, Roosevelt Road at 
rn.'n. )" 110 .annually, $3.00 tor schools. 
f.on. Opinions expressed bv authors are 
-■\ oi Field Mu-seum. Unsolicited manu- 
■410. Postmaster: Please send torm 3579 
c R>:iad 4t Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 11. 




FIELD BRIEFS 




Komodo dragon, Hall 18 

"Komodo Dragon": Lecture March 29 

Walter Auffenberg, Florida State Museum 
curator of herpetology, and professor of 
zoology at the University of Florida, offers 
an illustrated lecture on the Komodo 
dragon of Indonesia Sunday, March 29. 
The lecture, which is free, will be held at 
2:00 p.m. in A. Montgomery Ward Hall 
(Lecture HalU). 

Dr. Auffenberg's presentation em- 
phasizes the social and feeding behavior 
of the Komodo dragon, a living relic of 60 
million years ago. Also known as the 
Komodo monster, it is the largest lizard on 
earth — some reach a length of 10 feet and 
weigh 230 pounds. Adults are highly suc- 
cessful predators of live animals and feed 
largely on deer. They are good runners, 
effective climbers, strong swimmers, and 
capable divers. Dr. Auffenberg and his 
family lived for nearly a year on the island 
of Komodo, making a comprehensive 
study of the behavior and ecology of these 
extraordinary reptiles. 



High School Anthropology Course 
Funded for Sixteenth Summer 

A National Science Foundation grant has 
again been awarded, in nationwide an- 
nual competition, to Field Museum's De- 
partment of Education to conduct a six- 
week tuition-free, college-level course in 
anthropology for high-ability, highly 
motivated high school students from June 
22through July 3L 

While students completing their 
junior year this June must be given prefer- 



ence, the application of any student now 
in high schiiol will be considered in selec- 
tion oi the 27 participants in the program. 
Applicants living beyond commuting 
range of the Museum are welcomed if they 
submit letters approving their staying 
with a specific relative or family friend in 
our area during the course. 

Anthropology appears in few high 
school curricula, and this course affords 



opportunities, otherwise unavailable to 
secondary students, to test a career inter- 
est before college selection. Participants 
become aware of the wide range oi special- 
ized fields within anthropology which al- 
lows a combination of interdisciplinary 
courses in college, thus holding open their 
options in the job market. The archeologi- 
cal field director and two other members 
of our 1981 guest faculty are former partic- 




Aiilhrnpolt i_v;i/ course dig file 



p.int> \vhii weri' intiodiici'd to jnthropoi- 
og\ through this NSF-Miisoiim imirst.' in 

For tho first (our weeks, and the sixth, 
the cidss meets from ViilS a.m. to noon and 
1:00 to 3:00 p.m. During the fifth week, the 
Dig, our charter bus leaves the Museum at 
9:00 a.m. and returns at 5:00 p.m. The first 
four weeks build up a background of 
understanding the Iwix^ of people, in var- 
ious environments and from earliest times 
to the urbani/ed present. Mini-courses (8 
to 10 hours) on Eurh/ Miin bv Dr. Ronald 
Singer, Universitv of Chicago ph\sicalan- 
thropok>gisl, and Al/i/iCi'sh'ni Prclu^ton/ b\ 
Dr. Stuart Strueser, Northwestern IJni- 
\ ersitv archeologist, present the spread of 
mankind throughout the Old and New 
Worlds. Field Museum anthropologists 
and guest experts from universitv faculties 
then compare the development of civiliza- 
tions in the Near East, Africa, and China 
with Mexico and demonstrate en\iron- 
mental adaptations in North American 
Indian culture areas, focusing on the con- 
tinuous occupation of our own Chicago 
region. 

Lecture sessions illustrated with 
.Museum specimens, slides, and films, al- 
ternate with hands-on experience in 



workshops and archeology lab sessions, 
behind-the-scenes tours, and explora- 
tions of anthropology exhibit halls, and 
with film-based discussions and reports 
by the participants themselves. On two 
afternoon field trips, John Aubrey pre- 
sents ethnohistoric documentation at 
Newberry Library of Indian-White con- 
tacts and William Adelman, urban histo- 
rian with the University of Illinois Labor 
Relations Education Program, makes 
visible Chicago's ethnic history by leading 
us through some of its oldest neighbor- 
hoods. 

B\' the fifth week of the course it is not 
as relic-hunters but with a feeling for the 
human activities thev'll find recorded be- 
neath their feet that the students engage in 
their own week-long dig. Each class con- 
tributes to a continuing research program 
in the little-known prehistory of our own 
area. 

A newlv discovered site on the Little 
Calumet River was opened last summer. It 
promises clarification of the relationship 
between two cultural traditions that met in 
the Chicago region in late prehistoric 
times. Archeological literature has as- 
sumed that intruding Indians of the "Mis- 
sissipian" Culture overrode (wiped out? 



drove away?) the less highly organized 
indigenous "Late Woodland" Indians. 
However, evidence from our previous ex- 
cavation on the Des Plaines River suggests 
the alternati\'e of peaceful coexistence, al- 
lowing a blending of cultural traits, in 
ceramics at least. Similar "hybrid" pottery 
at the surface of the Little Calumet site 
overlies a thousand-vear-long Woodland 
cultural tradition here. And on the last 
afternoon of the 1980 dig seven large post 
molds appeared, outlining the curved end 
of what should prove to be an oval struc- 
ture t\'pical of the Late Woodland winter 
house, as shown in the small Sauk-Fox 
diorama in Field Museum's Woodland In- 
dian Hall 5. We look forward to complet- 
ing its excavation this summer and hope to 
find associated hearths and storage pits 
that should contain evidence both of sea- 
sonal activities and of cultural relation- 
ships. 

A brochure and application forms (to 
be returned to the Museum bv April 7) 
ma\' be obtained from the Department of 
Education orbv calling the program direc- 
tor, Harriet Smith, (312) 922-9410, exten- 
sion 36L 

— Harriet Smith, project director, 
NSF Summer Anthropology Program 



Fieldiana: 1980 Titles 



Fieldiana is a continuing series of scientific papers and mono- 
graphs in the disciplines of anthropology', botany, zoolog\', and 
geology; the series is intended primarily for e.xchange- 
distribution to museums, libraries, and universities, but all 
titles arc also available for public purchase. 

The following titles, published during 1980, may be or- 



dered from the DiWsion of Publications. Members are entitled to 
a 10 percent discount. Riblication number should accompany 
order. A catalog of all aviu\ah\e Fieldiana titles is available on 
request. (Please specifv' discipline: anthropolog}', botany, geol- 
ogy', or zoolog\'. ) 



Fieldiana: Anthropolouj- 

1305. "The Bruce Collection of Eskimo Ma- 
terial Culture from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska." 
by James W. VanStone. New Series Number 1. 
S14.50. 



Fieldiana: Botany 

l.'iOe. "Revi.sion of South American Sau- 
rauia (Actinidiaceae)," by Djaja D. Socjarto. 
New Series Number Z. $15.00 

1311. "A Monograph of Ciasrnatocolea 
(Hepaticae)," by John J. E:...!. New Series 
Number 3. $15.25. 

1313. "Flora Costaricen.'ii . '-; iiilv #i5, 
4 Gr.-Lrnineae.'' by Richaixi W. I'ot^i ^^'l!Iiam 



Burger, Editor). New Series Number 4. 
$34.00. 

1314. "Flora of Peru. Conspectus and Index 
to Families. Family Compositae: Part I," byj. 
Francis Macbride and collaborators (Ahmi 
H. Gentn', Michael O. Dillon, and Samuel B. 
Jones). New Series Number 5. $7.50. 



Fieldiana: Geologv 

1308. "Amphibia and Reptilia from the 
Campanian of New Mexico," bv J. Gail 
Armstrong-Ziegler. New Series Number 4. 
$3.50. 

1310. "Svstematics of the South American 
Marsupial Family Caenolestidae," by Larn- G. 



Marshall. New Series Number 5. $9.50. 



Fieldiana: Zoolog\' 

1304. "Species of the Scincid Genus Dasia 
Gra\'," b\' R. F Inger and W. C. Brown. New 
Series Number 3. $2.50. 

1307. "The Bats of Iran: Svstematic, Dis- 
tribution, Ecologv'," by Anthony F. DeBlase. 
New Series Number 4. $23.50. 

1309. "The Contemporary Land Mammals 
of Egypt (Including Sinai)," by Dale J. Osborn 
and I. Helmy. New Series Number 5. $23.50. 

1312. "Ticks (Lxodoidea) from Wild Sheep 
and Goats in Iran and Medical and Veterinan' 
Implications," bv Harr\' Hoogstraal and Raul 
Valdez. New Series Number 6. $1.75. 



RESEARCH AT FIELD MUSEUM 



Until Rather Recently, geologically speaking, 
North and South America were separated by 
an oceanic barrier. The Caribbean and Pacific 
oceans were connected across what is now 
northwestern Colombia and southern Pan- 
ama, and this water gap served as an effective 
barrier to dispersal of animals between the 
Americas. Then, about 3 million vears ago, the 
Panamanian land bridge came into existence 
and united the Americas. As a consequence a 
new route was established which permitted 
the reciprocal intermingling of the long- 
separated North and South American faunas. 
Across this land bridge occurred the most 
spectacular interchange of its kind 
recorded in the fossil record. 

Field Museum assistant curator of fossil 
mammals, Larr}' G. Marshall is studying aspects 
of this amazing interchange. A major point of 
interest is: when exactly did the land bridge 
appearand when did the North American 
groups begin arriving in South America and the 
South American groups in North America? This 
question is being answered by study of the ages 
of the rocks in South America, primarily in 
Argentina, in which the earliest of the North 
America immigrants occur. The ages of these 
rocks are being determined by radioisotope 
methods by colleagues Garniss Curtis and 
Robert Drake, of the Department of Geology and 
Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley. 

Dr. Marshall is also attempting to document 
which animals went in which direction. It is now 
known that included among the animals in 
North America which came from South America 
are the living porcupine, opposum, armadillo, 
and the fossil giant ground sloths, glyptodonts 
and capybaras. Of the North American groups 
which went to South America are dogs, cats, 
skunks, bears, mastodonts, horses, camels, 
deer, peccaries, rabbits, mice, squirrels, and 
shrews. In order to understand the direction 
of dispersal of these groups it is necessary for 
Marshall to first study the pre-land bridge fossil 
faunas in both North and South America. 

Lastly, Marshall is attempting to study the 
effects which this reciprocal interchange had on 



Marshall's work in paleontology is one of numerous 
ongoing research programs at Field Museum in 
anthropology, botany, geology, zoology, and uiterdis- 
ciplinary studies; a selection of these programs will 
be featured regularly in forthcoming issues of the 
Bulletin. 






■^^A 

'^^ ^ ^ 





Larry G. Marshall holds the fossil s^u// of ti giant ground 
sloth from South America, a form ivn/ similar to the ones 
which came to North America across the Panamanian land 
bridge. 

the respective faunas. For example, it is tempting 
to conjecture that the disappearance of some 
native South American groups in South America 
was a consequence of the interchange and that 
they were replaced b\- North American in\ aders. 
Thus, Marshall is studying the consequences of 
the mingling, interaction of the faunas, and their 
integration into faunas of quite different compo- 
sition. An historical perspective must thus be 
used in order to understand the present distri- 
bution of animals in North and Stiuth America. 
This research is being funded by a three- 
year National Science Foundation grant which 
for year one (1980-81) awarded S43,000; the 
awards for year two ($47,000) and for year three 
($44,500) are expected pending availability of 
funds and the scientific progress of the prt))ect. 
Marshall is a co-principal investigator with 
California's Garniss Curtis, and this work is 
being carried out as a joint research project with 
Rosendo Pascual, Museo de La Plata, Argentina 
and the Argentine research organization 
CONICET 




The Field Museum 

Spotlight on 
The Collections 

Part II 

By Matthew H. Nitecki 
curator of fossil invertebrates 

Department of Geology 

In addition to the systematic collec- 
tions of about 2,230,000 specimens and 
the general Museum supporting facilities, 
there are rock and fossil preparation 
laboratories, radiographic equipment, 
computers (including terminals for re- 
mote access to larger centers), an x-ray 
diffraction laboratory, reprint collection 
of 20,000 titles and a map library of more 
than 100,000 items. Two curators are 
physical geologists (Olsen and Wood- 
land), three are invertebrate paleon- 
tologists (Baird, Nitecki, and Richardson) 
and three are vertebrate paleontologists 
(Bolt, Marshall, and Turnbull). 

The Museum acquired its first collec- 
tion of fossils from the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition in 1894. Expeditions to 
the Badlands of South Dakota and to the 



This article originally appeared in fhe ASC 
Newsletter Vol. 8, No. 5, and is reproduced 
here with minor adaptations, courtesy the As- 
6 sociation of Sustematics Collections. 



Medicine Bow Mountains in Wyoming 
began a long tradition of field parties, and 
expeditions to such places as the Cana- 
dian Arctic, Antarctica, Argentina, and 
Australia. 

The first chairman was Oliver C. Far- 
rington, who came to the Museum in 
1893. Farrington published over 100 pap- 
ers in mineralogy, with particular em- 
phasis on meteorites. He built these col- 
lections into worldwide importance, and 
today the department's meteorite collec- 
tion is without peer. 

Henry W. Nichols, who specialized 
in mineralogy, was the second chairman. 
Sharat K. Roy, the third chairman, 
studied in his native India, London, and 
Illinois. He led a number of Museum ex- 
peditions, including those to Baffin Land 
and Labrador in 1927-28, and published 
on invertebrate fossils and meteorites. 

Rainer Zangerl became head of the 
Department in 1962 after serving 17 years 
as curator of fossil reptiles. His main 
areas of research are the lower verte- 
brates: he has published extensively on 
fossil turtles and chondrichthyian fishes. 
Zangerl extended his interest to Pennsyl- 
vanian paleoecology, and his now classic 
memoir on paleoecology of Pennsylvania 
black shale was coauthored with Eugene 
Richardson. Zangerl presided over the 
First North American Paleontological 
Convention held at the Field Museum in 
1969. 

Zangerl was succeeded as chairman 
by Edward J. Olsen in 1974, who came 
to the Museum in 1960 after teaching at 
Case Institute of Technology and West- 
ern Reserve. Olsen, who received his 



■■S?c' 



'^•^.■■S^<;j?v^ff K-' 






- — <i 




Top: Bringing home the bacon — er, venison. 
While in the field, paleontologist Elmer S. 
Riggs (in the lend) spent time looking for pro- 
lusions as well as for dinosaurs. This scene 
occurred during 1899-1900 expedition into 
north-western Colorado. Note "Field Colum- 
bian Museum" pennant over tent. Bottom: 
Assistant on 1899-1900 expedition seems to be 
pondering hoio the huge Brachiosaurus bone 
can be transported back to Chicago. 







Turn-of-the-cetUuiy vieu' of geology prq^arator's lab, with preparator H. W. Menke (left) and curator Elmer S. Rigg^- 



Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, is 
an authority on meteorites. 

David M. Raup succeeded Olsen as 
chairman in 1978. An invertebrate paleon- 
tologist, his special interests include crys- 
tallization as it relates to life, computer- 
based paleobiometrics, and modeling in 
paleontology. In 1980 Raup was named 
dean of science, a new post with respon- 
sibility for the four curatorial depart- 
ments, the Librars', Advanced Technol- 
ogy Labt)ratories, and the Center for Ad- 
vanced Studies. Succeeding Raup, as act- 
ing chairman, was Bertram G. Woodland, 
curator of petrology. 

Invertebrate Paleontology. The number 
of specimens of fossil invertebrates is es- 
timated at about two million, of which 
about 18,500 are types. The types include 
representatives of approximately 8,600 



species and subspecies. Of these one half 
is fully documented and listed in 18 pub- 
lished catalogs. The collection has been 
recognized as the third most significant 
and useful collection of invertebrate fos- 
sils in North America. 

The level of outside use of the collec- 
tion in 1978 is best summarized by the 
number of loans (95), accessions, (70), 
and visitors (292). The number of papers 
in which the type specimens were de- 
scribed is conservatively estimated at 
1,250. 

The collection includes an extensive 
representation of the Paleozoic of the 
Mississippi Valley. Particularly important 
are Ordovician through Pennsyivanian 
fossils from the margins of the Illinois Ba- 
sin. There are no comparable collections 
in existence. 



A number of invertebrate curators 
have been active on Middle Paleozoic in- 
yertebrates. In 1946, Eugene Richardson, 
Jr. jomed the Museum as a curator of fos- 
sil invertebrates. His first activity in- 
volved the installation of the Hall of Fossil 
Invertebrates, reproductions of which are 
found in many standard textbooks of 
paleontology. Richardson s research con- 
centrates on the Ma/on Creek biota; as a 
result the Museum has the most com- 
prehensiye collection of nonmarine and 
marine soft-bodied animals not otherwise 
represented in the fossil record. His 
research has significantly altered our 
understanding of Pennsyivanian biota. In 
addition to describing the most celebrated 
of them all, a dirigiblelike orphan in 
search oi a phylum, Tullimonstnim gre- 
garium, Richardson and his colleagues 7 



have published on over 80 species. A 
svmposium on Mazon Creek fossils, 
edited by Nitecki, was published in 1978 
and it contains eleven contributions from 
the Museum staff and associates 

In 1963, the collection of Walker 
Museum of Paleontology of the Univer- 
sitv of Chicago, the most important uni- 
versifv collection of fossil invertebrates in 
the U.S. was transferred to the Museum. 
At that time, .Matthew H. Nitecki joined 
the Museum curatorial staff as the second 
curator of fossil invertebrates. Nitecki's 
earlier work on the Paleozoic sponges 
and problematica has led him to study re- 
ceptaculitids and cyclocrinitid algae. For 



his monographs on cyclocrinitids and 
receptaculitids Nitecki collected exten- 
sively, and the Museum has recep- 
taculitid fossils from Afghanistan, Burma, 
Australia, Siberia, North America, and 
South America. 

Gordon C. Baird joined the staff in 
1976 as assistant curator of fossil inverte- 
brates. Baird's research is in paleoecology 
and include the studv of erosional events 
in Devonian of New York shelf seas, and 
Mazon Creek biogeography, autecology 
and depositional processes. In 1979, he 
collected more than 90,000 fossil speci- 
mens in his various Pennsvlvanian 
studies. 




8 "irricra; idenfification an 



';r x-ra-y spectrograph used in research and routine work in 
tine analysis. 



Vertebrate Paleontology. There are ap- 
proximatelv 93,000 specimens of fossil 
vertebrates including about 500 primary 
tvpes and many thousands of described 
and figured specimens. Close to 80% of 
the collection is cataloged. All catalogs 
(except for fossil fishes) are completely 
computerized. An important histological 
slide collection of vertebrate hard struc- 
tures is maintained. In 1978, there were 
130 visitors (not including class groups) 
and 25 loans (not including 300 outstand- 
ing as of February 15, 1978). Many publi- 
cations and monographs have been pro- 
duced as the result of research on these 
collections. New additions to the collec- 
tions and the growing corpus of publica- 
tions have been consistently enhancing 
its scientific value. 

The collections are organized accord- 
ing to the traditional areas of curatorial 
responsibility: fishes, amphibians and 
reptiles; birds; and mammals. Each is 
individual in scope, organization and 
problems. 

Silurian and De\'onian agnaths and 
placoderms, mostly from western North 
America; Pennsvlvanian fishes from the 
Mazon Creek localities; Pennsvlvanian 
chondrichthvans and paleniscoids from 
black shales of Indiana and Illinois are 
major strengths of the fish collection. The 
collection of primitive fishes was built to 
one of world-renown by former curator 
Robert Denison and most of the growth 
over the last 20 years was due to him and 
to Rainer Zangerl. Zangerl is monograph- 
ing the Paleozoic chrondrichthyans, and 
continues to add several hundred speci- 
mens per year to the collection. 

The collection of reptiles and amphi- 
bians includes the outstanding Walker 
Museum collection from the North Amer- 
ican Lower Permian with its fine labyrin- 
thodont and lepospondvl amphibians, 
and cotvlosaurian and pelvcosaurian 
reptiles. This material was acquired and 
studied over a period of about 75 vears by 
Williston, Romer, Olson, and their stu- 
dents, and is one of the most important 
collections of Permian tetrapods in the 
world. There are also major collections of 
fossil turtles from the Cretaceous of 
Alabama, the Eocene of Wyoming, and 
the Oligocene of the Dakotas, Nebraska, 
and Wyoming, largely collected by 
Zangerl and Tumbull, as well as signifi- 
cant dinosaur, mososaur, lizard, and 
crocodile collections. John R. Bolt joined 
the staff as assistant curator of fossil re- 
ptiles and amphibians in 1972. His re- 
search interests are the origin of the living 
Amphibia, tooth replacement, and octic 
evolution and function. 

The collection of mammals is one of 
the top five or six collections of fossil 
mammals in North America. Major 
strengths are in: Tertiary of North Amer- 
ica (mainly the mountain states where 
late Paleocene, Eariy, Middle, and Late 
Eocene faunas from Colorado and Wyom- 




Above: Staff paleontologists examine hlack shale from Mecca, Indiana (1954). Left to right: Ramer 
Zangerl (now curator emeritus, fossil fishes), William D. Turnbull (curator of fossil mammals), and 
Eugene S. Richardson (curator of fossil invertebrates). 

Below: Orville Gilpin, then chief preparator of fossils, now retired, shown in 1957 during 
reconstruction of Apatosaurus skeleton. The specimai is now on viexo in Hall 38. 



ing are noteworthy, and the Oligoceno 
faunas of Nebraska, South Dakota, and 
Wyoming are classic); Cretaceous of 
Texas; Mid-to-Late Tertiary of South 
America; and the Latest Tertiary and 
Quaternary of Australia. There is good 
representation of North American Late 
Tertiary and Pleistocene. 

Elmer S. Riggs was largely responsi- 
ble for assembling the nucleus collections 
in vertebrate paleontology. He collected 
many diniisaurs from Colorado, Wyom- 
ing, Utah, and western Canada and led 
several expeditions to South America, 
mainly Argentina and Bolivia, where he 
amassed the Museum's outstanding Ter- 
tiary mammal collectit)n. Brvan Patter- 
son, on the resident staff from 1926 to 
1955, published man\- morphological 
studies on the Riggs mammals. Patterson 
also collected and published on one of the 
first significant Paleocene fossil vertebrate 
faunas. His publication on the mesozoic 
metatherian-eutherian grade mammals 
from North Texas is now a classic. He 
subsequently became an Agassiz Profes- 
sor at the Museum of Comparative Zool- 
ogy, while retaining a research associate- 
ship at Field Museum. He was a member 
of the National Academv of Sciences. 

William Turnbull works on Earlv Ter- 
tiary (Washakie) and Mesozoic mamnii- 
lian faunas, on Late Tertiarv Australian 
faunas, and on functional morphology of 
the masticatory apparatus. Larry Mar- 
shall is actively carrying on the work of 
Riggs and Patterson on the South Ameri- 
can Tertiarv. He is accumulating secure 
and refined radiometric and paleomag- 
netic data to correlate the South Ameri- 
can faunas and is revising them, particu- 
larly the marsupials. He is also in\i)lved 
with the problems of faunal turnover 
rates. 

001 




Paleobotaiu/. There is presently no 
curator of fossil plants, and the collection 
is now under the care of Richardson. The 
collection, of approximately 71,000 speci- 
mens, is particularly strong in Pennsyl- 
vanian coal-forest flora of northern Illi- 
nois strip mines. Cretaceous and Tertiary 
floras of the Gulf Coastal Plain of Tennes- 
see, Mississippi, and Alabama, and l;arl\' 
Paleozoic calcareous algae. The onlv 
curator of fossil plants in the depart- 
ment's history was George Langft)rd 
(1947- 1%1). The collections of vascular 
plants were largely brought together bv 
Langford and Richardson, At present, the 
collection of early calcareous algae is ex- 
panding as a result of Nitecki's program 
of collecting in connection with his 
research. 

Physical Geologi/. There are approxi- 
mately 63,500 specimens in the six physi- 
cal geology collections. The mineralogy 
collection contains a wide variety of min- 
eral species and geographic occurrences. 
The small, but significant gem collection 
of representative precious and semipre- 
cious stones is mostly on exhibit. 

The petrology collection has diverse 
rocks from all over the world. It is particu- 
larK strong in material from Vermont and 
the Black Hills of South Dakota and there 
is a large collection of slates and weakly 
metamorphosed rocks from Pennsyl- 
vania, Michigan and Wales reflecting the 
research interest of Bertram G. Wood- 
land, curator of petrology. Central Amer- 
ican volcanic rocks, largely collected by 
Roy, are well represented. The sedi- 
mentary' rock section has a reasonably di- 
verse reference collection mainly from the 




Bertram C. Woodland, curator of pctrolog}/, exaniiiiuig thin section of deformed rocl< (1963). 



United States, including a significant col- 
lection of Lower Tertiary terrestrial rocks 
from the eastern front of the Rocky 
Mountains and Utah. A general geology 
collection has specimens exhibiting 
geological features (such as raindrop im- 
pressions, ripple marks, weathering ef- 
fects, etc.); a particular strength of this 
collection is the large representation of 
concretions and cone-in-cone structures, 
reflecting another research interest of 
Woodland. 



v^j, curator of fossil invertebrates, with student Robin L. Zawacki (1966). 




One of the largest and most repre- 
sentative meteorite collections in the 
world is housed at Field Museum. It grew 
to significant proportions under Har- 
rington, and has been considerably en- 
larged by Edward Olsen, curator of 
mineralogy, to nearly 3,000 specimens. 
Besides the research carried out by Olsen, 
the collection is a great resource for 
laboratories all over the world doing re- 
search on extraterrestrial materials. 

The economic geology collection has 
examples of most metallic and nonmetal- 
lic ores from all over the world. The col- 
lection began with the vast number of 
specimens that were assembled for the 
World's Columbian Exposition in Chi- 
cago in 1893. Further large acquisitions 
included materials from the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, 1904, The Panama- 
Pacific International Exposition, 1915, and 
the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, 
1909. Significant additions of South 
American specimens were made by O. 
Farrington and H. Nichols during the 
1920s. In 1962, the E. S. Basfin collection 
of metallic ores from Canada, Mexico and 
the western U.S. was transferred to the 
Museum, including specimens from 
mines and mining districts that have long 
been inactive and are now irreplaceable. 

An important adjunct to the above is 
the 2,500 petrographic thin sections of 
rocks, minerals and meteorites. These re- 
flect the research interests of the staff — 
particularly igneous and metamorphic 
rocks and concretions (Woodland), 
meteorites (Olsen), black shales (Zangerl 
and Richardson), and terrestrial sedimen- 
tary rocks (Clark, now retired). 



To be continued next month 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Sea Turtles Use Salt Marsh 
As Nursery 

Researchers at the Uni\'ersitv of Georgia 
have discovered vet another value of salt 
marshes. Thev have learned that turtles 
hatched on the beaches do not head out to 
sea immediatelv as previously thought. 
Instead, the turtles race to the nearest salt 
marsh which man\' other marine animals 
use for nurseries. 

This important bit of information was 
documented with the use of radio- 
tracking equipment and loggerhead turtle 
hatchlings. 



Saguaro: the Desert Sponge 

The expandable skin of the saguaro cactus 
can soak up as much as 200 gallons of 
water during a single desert rainstorm, 
according to the National Wildlife Federa- 
tion. Below ground, a network of shallow 
saguaro roots may sprawl over an area 
almost 100 feet in diameter. This plant king 
of U.S. deserts can live for nearly two cen- 
turies, weigh almost 10 tons, and grow up 
to 50 feet high. 

Live, Via Satellite: 
Wildlife Broadcasts Secrets to Biologists 

A loggerhead turtle swims a solitary 
southwest course in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Although out of sight of any person, her 
path is being carefully charted. A polar 
bear crosses a vast Arctic expanse in 
search of a suitable den. Hers is the only 
shadow cast on the frigid wasteland, but 
each mile that takes her closer to Siberia is 
being meticulously recorded. 

Both the turtle and the bear have been 
subjects of studies which apply the same 
communications technology that beam 
live TV news and entertainment into the 
public's living rooms. Now, satellites are 
adding a new dimension to biotelemetry, 
the study of animals at a distance to record 
biological information without disrupting 
normal behavior. But whether satellites or 
standard radio units are used, telemetry 
continues to revolutionize wildlife re- 
search, yielding invaluable information to 
improve wildlife management. 

Information may be beamed from a 
polar bear's 10-lb. radio-fitted neck har- 
ness or a pine mouse's 1.4-gram, ring- 
sized transmitter collar: The electronics 
specialists and wildlife biologists at the 
Denver Wildlife Research Center (DWRC) 
tailor transmitting devices for dozens of 
species, depending on size, life style, 
habitat, and the type of information 
needed. 



Radio telemetry came of age with the 
development of transistors in the 1960s 
and integrated circuitrv in the 1970s, pro- 
viding small parts and increased reliability 
so that electronic tracking became practi- 
cal. DWRC, a major research station t)f the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a pioneer 
in this area and works with other federal, 
state, and private research teams to ex- 
pand telemetry's capabilities. 

Tracking sea animals is a special chal- 
lenge, since radio signals cannot be carried 
through salt water. DWRC teamed with 
the U.S. Department of Commerce's Na- 
tional Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to 
develop ways to track endangered sea tur- 
tle species, and in 1978 specialists released 
baby loggerhead turtles into the Gulf of 
Mexico with radio transmitters encased in 
floats tethered to their shells. Trackers 
hoped the transmitters would signal when 
the reptiles surfaced for air every few 
minutes. The experiment proved that 
telemetry' could be a valuable information 
tool, although limited by small-power 
transmission to trackers in light aircraft. 

To help save any endangered species, 
scientists must learn long-term behavioral 
information. Toward this end, the Com- 
merce agency funded a cooperative proj- 
ect with DWRC to track an adult log- 
gerhead turtle by satellite. A 212-lb. turtle 
was released in October 1979 with a cylin- 
drical float containing a transmitter com- 
patible with a NASA weather satellite sys- 
tem. The turtle's 1,400-mile movements 
were tracked for eight months, and indi- 
cated the big reptile preferred to stay 
offshore at about 10 fathoms. But, as the 
researchers were recording the turtle's 
movements, the satellite beamed the un- 
believable: The sea turtle was in Galena, 
Kansas! 

The riddle of the grounded reptile 
was soon solved. The transmitting device, 
its tether cut, was traced to a fisherman 
who had discovered it on a trip to Port 
Arthur, Texas. The souvenir served as a 
doorstop and child's toy until its signals 
led the team to it. However, the fate of the 
turtle remains unknown. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service's elec- 
trt)nics experts had been encouraged by 
their first satellite tracking experiment in 
1978, despite one study subject which, un- 
aware of such human conventions as na- 
tional borders, crossed into the U.S.S.R. 
With the cooperation of NASA, the Ser- 
vice had begun to study the feasibility of 
satellite tracking to learn the possible ef- 
fects of energy exploration on polar bear 
denning habits. The 400- to .SOO-lb. female 
bears seek isolated dens to give birth. The 
nn)vement of ice in the Far North results in 
large chunks of ice breakmg up, giving the 



bears shelter to create dens. 

Three polar bears were captured and 
fitted at Point Barrow, Alaska, with 
transmitters in camouflaged white har- 
nesses built to withstand the severe cli- 
mate. One bear was tracked for over a year 
with a satellite that passed 680 miles over- 
head, receiving intermittent signals and 
beaming them down to a Fairbanks station 
which forwarded the data to NASA's 
Goddard Space Flight Center in Mary- 
land. Researchers charted the bear's 
westward progress past Wrangel Island 
off the coast of Siberia to her eventual 
denning location in the west Siberian Sea, 
a total of more than 1,000 air miles. Her 
long odyssey surprised Service re- 
searchers and disproved the theory- that 
Point Barrow and Wrangel Island bears 
belonged to separate colonies. 

While many uses may be envisioned 
for satellite tracking, it must be limited to 
large animals that can carry the required 
equipment, and to cost-effective studies 
where there is no other practical means of 
getting long-term information. Mean- 
while, uses for standard telemetry appear 
almost unlimited. A simple transmitter 
that can report an animal's movements to 
a field researcher equipped with a receiv- 
ing unit may provide information to help 
resolve pressing wildlife-related prob- 
lems. Such transmitters on vampire bats 
in Latin America enabled biologists to dis- 
cover that the biting, blood-lapping car- 
riers of rabies lived in colonies in certain 
caves, apart from other, harmless bat 
species. By the mid-1970s, selective con- 
trols could be applied to keep the vampire 
in check, protecting humans and saving 
millions of dollars in livestock losses. 

Federallv protected species like the 
loggerhead turtle and the polar bear are 
often subjects for telemetry studies. These 
studies yield data on such topics as sea- 
sonal movements, which are invaluable to 
scientists who must make recom- 
mendations that are used to manage 
populations. Service researchers use 
transmitters on endangered Florida man- 
atees that congregate around warmwater 
springs in the winter to see where these 
elusive, otherwise solitary creatures go 
when spring arrives. Transmitters have 
also been used to study movements of the 
endangered shortnose sturgeon in the Al- 
tamaha River in Georgia. Service fishery 
researchers have even developed tiny 
transmitters that are ingested by salmon. 
Ihe resulting information is being used to 
help restore depleted salmon runs on both 
coasts. 

As the number of species under study 

Continued on p. 25 11 



The Sphinx, carved 
largely from a natural 
oil tcropping of rock and 
in the likeness of a 
great pharoah, stands 
guardian over three 
•ryramids. A I'ast necrop- 
olis, or village of the 
dead, surrounds the 
pyramids with hund- 
reds of tombs and 
buried ritual objects 
such as funerary boats. 



4 




Learning Museum P7-o_^am continues with 

ANCIENT EGYPT: MUMMIES, 
MAGIC, AND LOVE 

By AXTHONT PFEIFFER 
Project Coordinator 

Made possible by a grant from the N'ational Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agenc\-. 

OZVMAXDIAS 

Perc}' B\'sshe Shelle\- 
(1792-1822) 



/ met a traveller from cm antique land. 
Who siM: 1\i'o vast and trunkless legs of stone 
Stand in tlie desert. Xear ttiem, on ttie sand, 
Hcdfsunk, a shattered visage lies, ivhosejhnvn 
And wrinkled Up and sneer of cold command. 
Tell tliat it.'i !>culptor well those passions read. 
Which xiet survive, stamped on these lifeless things. 



The hand that mocked them, and the Iwart that fed: 

And on t)ie pedestal tfiese wvrdi appear: 

"My name is Ozpnaiidias, Kingof Kings: 

Look on my works, ye Migfiti', and despair!" 

Xothing beside remcdns. Round the decay 

Of that colosscd nreck, l?oundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away. 



Shelley Never Saw THE Collapsed Statue about which 
he wTote so eloquently. His vand imagen' seems to 
have been inspired by a Greek description of'the 
magnificent and isolated sculpture which was built 
during Egypt's 19th EKTiasty (1293-1184 B.C.). The 
obscure Greek te.xt, immortalized bv a great poet, 
stands as testament to the awe in which Eg\'ptian 
civilization has been held for thousands of years — 
"Look on my works, ye Might)', and despair!" 

An unbroken record of wonder at ancient 
Egypt traces back to the first stirrings of western 
civilization and continues unabated todav. Worship 
ofEgNptian gods spread throughout the Roman 
Empire, as far away as the northernmost reaches of 
England. Everything Egyptian — the language, intri- 
cate and massi\-e works of stone, ornate ritual, and 
idols in animal form — filled the classical world with 
peculiar fascination. Recent decades of popular 
Hollnvood mumm\' mo\ies and the spectacular 
success of the futaiikhamun exhibition demon- 
strate the compelling and lingering nn'stitjue of the 
long-dead pharaohs. 

More than five thousand years ago, the an- 
cient Egvptians proclaimed the resurrection of a 
spiritual body and the immortality of the soul. A 
remarkable document. The Papi'n/.s nf'Aiii ( the 
best-preserved copy of the Egt^ptkin Book of the 
Dead), shows that mortal existence was \'iewed as a 
transition to immortality in the heavens. These be- 
liefs were not just idle talk. A monumental architec- 
ture evolved in service to the beliefs, as did elaborate 
preservation of dead bodies and careful provisions 
for the soul of the deceased. Were it not for creations 
inspired by belief in the afterlife, the EgNpt of the 
pharaohs would be dead to us. Most works through 
which ancient Egvpt is known were preserved 
within tombs in \illages for the dead. 

Skilled tomb construction, master 
craftsmanship of mortuary objects, mummification 
taken to a fine art, and nature's gift of a dry climate 
have combined to preserve all that had to do with 
death. Death pervades the images we have of Egyp- 

NEH Learning Museum at Field Museum 

The NEH Learning Museum program is a three-year 
sequence of learning opportunities focu.sed on the 
Museum's outstanding exhibits and collections and de- 
signed to give participants an opportunity to explore a 
subject in depth. Each unit of study consists of one or 
more speci;il events, a lecture course, and ;i seminar for 
advanced work. Special events are lectures by re- 
novMied authorities or interpretive performances and 
demonstrations. Course members receive an annotated 
bibliographv. a .specially developed guide to pertinent 
museum exhibits, study notes for related special events, 
and access to select materials fioni Field Museum's 
excellent research libi aiy. In-depth, small group semi- 
nars allow more direct contact with faculty and 
Museum collections. 




00 




^ 



One of the /vs( of i7s kind, //ns I'huk ^nviile statuette shows 
Seniuut, who hint tin uml'is^iioiis relntionsliip willi Queen 
Hatshepsut (18th Di/niist}/). Seiiinut issliown liohlin;^ Nef- 
rure, the queen's daughter, whom he was cliosen toeilucate. 



13 



I 






m ni». ffi niln: ni: 'ni SI 







.4 h'c>iimlc sc^iiioit of 

the Icgctuian/ papyrus 

ofAiii (18th dyiuifty). 

Moving left to right. 

Alii, followed hy '''s 

irifc, is just beginning 

his passage to the 

afterlife and faces his 

final judgement. If his 

heart, representing his 

conscience, balances 

against a feather. 

symbolizing law, he 

enters heaven. Aniihis, 

god of the dead. 

operates the scales. The 

god of wisdom stands 

ready to record the 

verdict. IfAni fails to he 

iivrthy of immortality, 

the half-crocodile, 

half- h ippopotam us 

monster eats him 

and he dies a 

second death. 



tian cixilizaiion. The morbid specter of a mummy's 
cvirsc and the desiccated xisage of the walking 
mumm\' itself haunt popular consciousness. In 
startling counterpoint to these dreadful imaginings, 
the e\"idcnce for Eg\-ptian zest for li\ing is ample. 
The\' liked good food and drink. In love they ranged 
from lustful and bawdy to romantically idyllic and 
tender. 

The fabulous accomplishments of ancient 
Egxpt were clearU- not those of a people preoccupied 
\\'ith death. Roughlv 3,000 vears before Christ, in 
what must have been a dramatic conflict, Upper 
and Lower Egv-pt were united and the foundation 
for 25 centuries of draastic rulers was laid. These 
regions of Eg\pt never lost their distinctiveness, and 
a d\7iamic tension between them is a thread run- 
ning throughout Eg\'ptian histor\-. Manv of the ob- 
jects from the tomb of Tutankhamun bear s\Tnbols 
of the unification of the two lands, the pap\Tvis plant 
olLower Eg\pt and the lotus of Upper Egxpt tied 
together at their centers, for example. 



Beautifully modeled 

bronze casting of cat, 

larger than life-size, 

sacred to the ancient 

Egyptian goddess Bast. 

Gift of Watson F. Blau 

n895).Onvie-winHai: 

14 /. case I^ 




Once united, Egi'ptians tamed the Nile. 
Egyptologists wince when the oft-cited words of 
Herodotus, "the father of histon" (400 B.C.), are 
cjuoted once again. But his words put the point 
succinctlv; "Eg^pt is the gift of the Nile. " Napoleon 
Bonaparte's observation was more sophisticated: 

There is no countri' in the world where the ^(oivni- 
lueiit coiiti-ols more closely, by inetms oftlie Xile. the 
life of the people. Under a good admini'itration the 
Xile gains on the desert: under a had one, the desert 
gains on the Nile. 

An untamed Nile was capricious and unreli- 
able. Usuallv its floods would deposit fertile soil, 
nurturing some of the worlds earliest and most 
prolific agriculture. But when too high, the Nile 
would rage o\-er the land, destro\-ing the work of 
months in a few moments. When E_g\pt was united, 
howe\'er, cooperati\'e projects led to more control of 
the ri\-er throughout the land. 

A harnessed Nile and the centralized pwwer 
of kings, in turn, gave rise to advanced concepts in 
writing, science, and art. Even in the late period 
when dominated bv foreigners, Eg\pt seemed a spe- 
cial place for intellectual and aesthetic productintv'. 
Under the Greeks, for example, Alexandria became 
the commercial capital of the world and the center 
for scholarship. The Alexandrian museum with its 
great libran' produced the mathematicians Ar- 
chimedes and Euclid, the astronomers Hipparchus 
and Ptolemv. the phvsicians Erasistratus and 
Herophilus. Manv of our modem ways of conduct- 
ing science, tenets of religion, artistic sensibilities, 
and attitudes in daily life trace back to ancient Egv-pt 
before the Greeks. 

Ancient Eg^'ftMi'mmies. Magic, and Lont in\itesyou to 
explore the most fabled ci\-ilization the world has 
ever known. Field Museum brings you speakers 
from the Universin- of Penns\-lvania, the Museum of 
Fine Arts in Boston, the Oriental Institute at the 
University of Chicago, and Roosevelt University. 




At right is a facsimile of the Roscttn Stone. This modest piece 
of rock hehi the l<e\i to hraikiiig the hieroglyphic code. The 
letter sliowii above is iuiiicatwe of the fascination hiero- 
glyp'hs t't'ofct'. Sent by three 6th graders at Chtirchville 
Elementary School in Elmhurst, Illinois, to Field Museum, 
it reads, "Dear Sir, Our class is studying Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics. Wish that you loould write to us. Yours truly — " 



Learn about mummification as a tribute to the im- 
mortalit}' of the soul and how elaborate funerary 
cults reflected beliefs in cycles of death and rebirth. 
Made to be visited and destined to be robbed, tombs 
are seen in a practical light. Their purposes and how 
they \yere acquired and paid for are revealed. Curses 
and love charms are seen to have a basis in magic 
and religion. Reading and writing are contrasted 
with other ways of climbing the social ladder in 
class-conscious ancient Egyqat. See how love of life 
was celebrated in care of the land, through im- 
posing structures, in song and in the rare surviving 
pieces of literature. The course of study begins on 
April 16, and details arc highlighted in the Spring, 
1981, Courses For Adults Brochure. 

You are also invited to an all-day film festival 
on Sunda\', April 26. The festival, "Images of Egypt, 
Past and Present," offers Holh'wood, popular 
scientific, ethnographic, and scholarly cinematic 
perspectives. Tfie Awakeniriif, The Night of the 
Counting of tlie Years, and a Nova program on the 
modern rediscovery of hieroglyphic meanings are 
among the featured films. Brief panel discussions 
with Eg\'j)tologibts are included. See the Apr(7 
Calendar of Events for details. 






ifta^!^swiw«-iririigrggR^«atiii»Mtiayaiw w Hf.inHiin8yMii?.n 



%K-'ri-^'-'i'^"*/V'-:'."'-,'^^y=-^"^>.^^.'-V'-r"^.-.-'".";'-v-uii,,,,',,,h,w,.j^(K,t,-ju,/yi ..f...,..-^. 






■•yJiV!...! 



BEHIND THE SCENES 



These vieics of taxidermy at Field Museum 
take us back a fezv years. The photos on this 
pageshou' taxidermists Julius Friesser 
(1873-1958) and Frank C. Wonder (1903-63) 
preparing a panda . Friesser (left) was on 
thestafffrom 1905 untill948: Wonder (right) 
seroedfrom 1926 to 1954. 





Above: Julius Friesser imrks on mechani- 
cal cow that subsequently was displayed at 
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. 
Right: Friesser (right) and Leon Walters 
(1888-1956) are well along on their prepara- 
tion of a babirusa, on viae today m Hall 15. 
Walters senvd on the staff from 19U to 
1954. Below: Walters works on Bushman 
(1952), the celebrated gorilla noiv in Hall 3. 








kimberley 
snail hunt, 
again: 



Text ami Photos By Alan Solem 
Ctinitor of Invrrtchrates 



Since Early 1974 1 have been involved in 
cuntinuallv expanding studies on land snails 
from Western Australia and parts of the 
Northern Territory. A series of field and study 
trips to Australia — January to March 1974, 
September 1976 through June 1977, May to July 
1979, and April to July 1980 — have yielded about 
93,000 specimens in 4,141 lots from 724 collecting 
stations. Early articles in the B«//ef»i (July/August 
1976, March 1977, and October 1977) detailed 
some aspects of field work. In April 1979 1 sum- 
marized the complex aftermath of producing 
technical articles on the material collected. 
To date 1 have submitted three large 
and one small paper based both on these collec- 
tions and on additional materials in Australian 
museums. These papers total almost 700 pages of 



manuscript and are being published in Western 
Australia. The main thrust of my research is in 
revising the camaenid land snails, a group which 
invaded Australia from Southeast Asia probably 
during the Miocene (about 20 million years ago). 
According to the theory of plate tectonics, the 
Australian plate collided then with the South- 
east Asian plate, providing a set of island 
steppingstones for the exchange of organisms in 
both directions. About one-third of the more 
than 200 camaenid land snail species are now 
published in Parts I-lII of "Camaenid land snails 
from Western and central Australia (Mollusca: 
Pulmonata: Camaenidae)" issued December 
1979 (Part 1) and March 1981 (Parts II and 111) as 
Supplements to the Records of the Western Australian 
Museum, Perth. Another third of the species are 
in manuscripts being edited for submission, and 
the remaining third are in various stages of 
study. 

As work progressed, it became obvious 
that 1 lacked adequate material from certain 
critical areas, and a continual stream of new 
questions arose. With the support of a new grant 
from the National Science Foundation, Field 
Museum of Natural History budget, and funds 
donated by Mrs. Arthur T. Moulding, Mr. H. 
Wallace Roberts, and the Chicago Shell Club, it 
has been possible to undertake additional field 
work in both 1979 and 1980, and to seek the 
answer to a variety of new questions. 

The first added effort involved a short 
period of field work along the south coast of 
Australia. The camaenid land snails never 
reached the very moist southwest tip of Australia 

^ ,#» 



i 






ts> 



^'p''\'-- 



A Field Mtiseum 

vehicle bogged dmvn 

fo r th ree da i/s during ' 

18 1977' Held trip. . 




'^ 



.iM .-- 



extending a few hundred kilometers both north 
and east of Perth, but dead shells and a few live 
examples of several camaenids had been taken at 
a number of places between Norseman, Western 
Australia, and Ceduna, several hundred kilo- 
meters into South Australia on the fringes of the 
Nullarbor Plain. Apparently related species live 
in the niountain ranges near Alice Springs, 
Northern Territory. Collecting efforts near Alice 
Springs by myself in 1974 and 1977, then by Fred 
and Jan Aslin of Mt. Gambier, South Australia, 
in 1978, had provided major collections from the 
Alice Springs region for study, but the lack of 
anatomical material from the south coast was a 
major gap in geographic coverage. 

My previous field work in the Australian 
outback had taught me that although snails are 
very easy to collect in the wet season, when they 
are out and crawling, often these conditions 
mean that the area to be visited cannot be 
reached by vehicle, foot, or even horseback. 
Heavy rains turn the bush tracks into impassable 
quagmires. The lesson of a Western Australian 
Museum field vehicle mired in November and 
dug out in May makes me hesitate to challenge 
the rains. Good collecting also can be done at the 
start of the dry season by cropping snails that 
have aestivated in shallow rock piles before the 
annual bush fires fry them in their shells. The 
more deeply hidden snails in the same rock piles 
are insulated from fire by the depth of rock and 
from collectors by the weight and volume of rock 
to be moved. Other snails spend the dry season 
in deep fissures of boulders or cliffs and are not 
accessible to the collector. 

But collecting of material to dissect was 
not my only interest. I've been working out the 
basic seasonal reproductive cycle in camaenids 
from the Kimberley, where heavy summer rains 
(November to March) are the rule. No rains fall in 
the remaining months (April to October). Along 
the south coast, winter rains (May to September) 
are the pattern, with occasional showers falling 
out of season. Would the south coast snail 
species show a reversed reproductive cycle? The 
same reproductive cycle? There was only one 
way to find out. Go there at a critical point in the 
hypothesized annual cycle: right at the start of 
the rainy season. I would try to get into the area 
just before the rains came, or just at the time of 
first rains, but before the roads became impas- 
sable. A very neat balancing act, since a mis- 
judgement could result in being stuck for days 
or even a few weeks. 

I left Chicago early in May 1979, just as a 
touch of spring was in the air. Arrival in Perth 
was just as the first clouds of the approaching 
rains gathered and the chill of fall began. I was 
joined there by Fred and Jan Aslin, dedicated 




Geraldton 



Albany 



snail collectors and geological technicians with 
a great knowledge of caves and the Australian 
bush. We headed east from Perth, into the first 
pouring rains. From Norseman, we went out 
to nearby Jimberlana Hill. In February 1974 
(midsummer dry season), Laurie Price, Field 
Museum field associate in zoology from Kaitaia, 
New Zealand, and I had spent half a day to get a 
few broken shell fragments. On this same slope 
in June 1979, we got over 60 live adult snails in a 
couple of hours. 

This auspicious beginning marked an 
incredible three weeks of luck with the \\ eather. 
Rains either just preceded us or accompanied us. 
They were hard enough to activate the snails, but 
not so heavy as to wash out the roads. Fred Aslin 
delightedly map-read our way across country 
from sinkhole to cave to limestone ridge (all 
places that provide good shelter for the snails we 
sought). Days passed and the collecting bags 
filled. Nights grew colder — several mornings ice 
was on the tents. Days grew shorter, and the 
rains more frequent as the Australian winter 
closed in . The field work ended, and, on 
returning to Perth, I found that galley proof for 
Part II of my monograph was ready to read. 
There was a frantic rush to pack gear and 
specimens, read galley proof, then undertake 
needed studies ot specimens at museums in 
eastern Australia and New Zealand. After 
returning to Chicago, unpacking and processing 



19 



of the specimens took a few weeks, then 1 made 
a quick check to see if there were any dramatic 
surprises in the collections. Some minute land 
snails belonging to the family Punctidae were 
selected and shipped off to a New Zealand 
colleague for study, and I then returned to 
analysis of the Kimberley snails. 

Finished manuscript awaiting publica- 
tion in Perth covered 75 species. By late 1979, 
another 60 species were "roughed out" — I was 
reasonably certain what were species, had 
analyzed local and geographic variations, and 
had dissected many individuals of each species. 
My very talented new illustrator, Linnea 
Labium, was busily translating the three 
dimensions of anatomical structure into lines 
and dots on paper. Many of these species live in 
the series of Devonian age limestone reefs that 
fringe the Kimberley on the south and east. 
These raised relicts of a long-vanished shallow 
sea have today an extraordinary radiation of 
camaenid land snails. 

The great majority of these species 
are new to science. We realized we had many 
new species when we were collecting them in 
1976 and 1977, but noihozv many. We could not 
"field identif\'" each of the more than 100 new- 
species. We tried to make fully adequate collec- 
tions, but inevitably as I studied the material, 
there would be a gap of a few hundred meters be- 
tween collecting stations. Naturally, interesting 
things happened in these gaps. "Species A" was 
found on one side of the gap, "Species B" on the 
other. Did they overlap? Intergrade with each 
other? Sharply replace each other? Show major 
changes in shell and/or anatomy within this 
area? Such questions increasingly are a part of 
modern systematic revisions. Aspects of both 
camaenid distribution and biology made these 
species an excellent group to pursue such ques- 
tions in the field. 

Also, for many species from the east 
fringes of the Kimberley, all I had available were 
dead shells. My only collections there had been 
made late in the dry season, after the annual 
fires, and thus the most difficult time to collect 
live snails. They obviously represented 
unknown species, but without soft parts to study 
I could not hope to show exactly how they were 
related to other species and genera. Finally, an 
amateur collector had just (March 1979) found 
some very intriguing camaenid land snails near 
Kathcrine, Northern Territory. No collections of 
land snails had been made anywhere between 
Kathoi in:? and f.he East Kimberley. Once again 
I had pinpointed a significant collecting gap. 

Suoplti mental funding for field work 
in 19':i0 was sought from the National Science 
Foundahon dnd given. Another generous 



donation by Mrs. Arthur T. Moulding provided 
the added financing needed for a return to the 
Kimberley, and, together with a donation from 
H. Wallace Roberts, to extend the field work into 
the unvisited areas between the East Kimberley 
and Katherine, Northern Territory, then along 
the Western Australia-Northern Territory border 
between Kununurra and Halls Creek. 

With financing arranged, a flurry of letters 
and calls was needed to assemble a field team. 
Mr. Laurie Price, who had been with me in 1974 
and part of 1976-7, indicated that since his father, 
now in his mid-80s, still was loading and 
unloading hayracks by himself, on their beef 
feeder farm in northern New Zealand, he could 
get away for 2V2 months. He would join me in 
Perth for the long drive north and the subse- 
quent weeks of collecting. Jan and Fred Aslin, 
from Mt. Gambler, South Australia, elected to 
use three weeks of holiday time to join us for the 
collecting in the Northern Territory and far 
northern corner of Western Australia. They 
would fly into Kununurra and then return home 
from Katherine. Barbara Duckworth, assistant at 
the Australian Museum, would fly to Katherine 
shortly after the Aslins left, providing a much 
needed extra pair of snail-snatching hands as we 
worked our way back to Perth. 

By the end of April everything was ready 
for our departure from Perth. As usual, Fred 
E. Wells, curator of molluscs at the Western 
Australian Museum, Perth, and Kevin Young, 
storesman, had everything so well organized 
that all Laurie Price and I had to do was buy food 
and pack the landrover for 68 days of camping. 
We departed on a bright sunny morning with a 
well-stuffed landrover. A midmorning pause 
revealed a low hum and strange vibration near 

Bush flies, which greeted us every morning, 
find Laurie Price's hat irresistible. 




the right rear of the landrover that persisted even 
when the engine was turned off. Puzzled and 
more than a little concerned, I felt extremely 
foolish on finding that my battery-powered 
electric razor had accidentally turned on and was 
merrily running down — oh, well, the change 
from partial to full beard would not be difficult. 

Our first night out was a camp near some 
rocks with a warm breeze, near full moon, bril- 
liant stars, and a chance to organize our \'ehicle 
packing more efficiently. The second and third 
nights out produced evidence of the unusual 
wet season that had just ended: clouds of 
voracious mosquitos, the worst I've encountered 
anywhere. A part of the coast that normally has 
10 inches of rain in a year had been soaked with 
42 inches in January alone. The mosquitos were a 
residual reminder of this abundant deluge. 
Laurie Price and 1 disagree completely on how to 
camp out — I prefer a zipped-up tent in areas 
where mosquitos, snakes, spiders, scorpions, 
and ants are common; he always opts for a 
sleeping bag in the open or at most a tarpaulin 
against the rain. I admit to smiling smugly as I 
drifted off to sleep in my mosquito-free tent 
(after swatting 10 or 15 invaders), listening to 
grunts, expletives, and smacks as Laurie 
continued to deal with his constant visitors. 

We drove past Derby on the fourth day 
and headed east to the Napier Range, the south- 
ern and eastern edge of the Kimberley snail 
country. Although it is less than 100 miles inland 
from the area drenched by January downpours, 
the Napiers had suffered two bad wet seasons 
in a row, receiving less than half their normal 
rainfall. Waterholes that had been usable by 
cattle in late November 1976 were almost empty 
in early May 1980 and had dried out completely 
by late June 1980. The two years of drought had 
drastic effects on the snail populations. Rock 
slides that had yielded live materials in abun- 
dance in earlier visits now contained almost no 
live individuals. 

Collecting of live specimens was very 
poor, but we could use dead shells fairly 
effectively to trace out exact points of some 
species transitions. And we did have success 
with an experiment in marking snails. In January 
1977, 122 live adults of one species had the top of 
their shell marked with bright pink nail polish, 
then were returned to the population. Now, 44 
months later, even though most live snails were 
aestivating deep in cliff fissures, we found two 
live and only three dead marked shells. Since 
this species takes three years to mature, we now 
know they can live at least seven years. 

We traveled east to the Oscar Ranges, 
Virgin Hills, Pillara Ranges, and Emanuel 
Ranges, each area showing clear signs of 








Above: Main access road m 1977. Beloie: 1980 
"superhighway" amid cane grass. 



^v 



^,f^>'t-: 



::!:^ 




drought. At Halls Creek, we then turned north to 
Kununurra and returned to an area blessed with 
good rainfall in 1979-1980. At the Kimberley 
Research Station, they had had a normal 
46-inch "wet season." We picked up Fred and 
Jan Aslin at the Kununurra airport, and headed 
out to an obscure chain of hills that was our 
prime objective for collecting. Luck came our 
way in full measure. 

In 1976 and 1977, gaining access to these 
hills involved much 4-wheel-drive grinding 
away. At times, the track dwindled to a barely 
detectable trace. Exploration for both minerals 
and oil is taking place all over Australia, and the 
area we hoped to collect in also was scheduled 
for 1980 geological surveys. We thus found a 
newly graded "superhighway" into the range. 
On pulling up at our potential campsite, we were 
greeted by a genial red-bearded giant — naturally 
nicknamed "Tiny" — who not only cleared a 



21 



Limestone cliff typical 
of the Kimhcrley 



campsite for us with his grader, but announced 
that in the next two davs he would be clearing the 
track all the way to the top of the hills. Instead of 
creeping along the track trace at 5-10 km/hour, 
we could breeze along a "highway" at 40-50 km/ 
hour — so long as we stayed on the track. In 
places the cane grass was 12 feet high, and 
routinely we wtnild drive through 3-5 foot dense 
grasses, capable of hiding 6-inch to 3-foot old 
reef edges, that could badly batter our land- 
ro\er. Boggy spots could be spotted only with 
difficulty, and off-track travel had to be slow 
and cautious. 

Once off the track, there are no trails, 
only a confusing tangled web of kangaroo 
hops, crossing and recrossing, joining and 
separating. Hiking to the raised limestone ridges 
was easy. One can pick a promontory, and 
despite detouring around raised reef edges or 
weaving through boulder fields, making use 
of first this and then that kangaroo pathway, 
glimpses of the promontory keep you approx- 
imately on track. Returning /rom the ridges was 
far more difficult. Only at rare places along the 
chain was there a clear landmark to the east 
that could be used for return navigation. Em- 




barrassingly often I would join the main track 
many meters from the parked landrover. 
In two frantic weeks, we made 83 
collecting stations along this 42-kilometer 
discontinuous chain of hills. We were attempting 
to establish exactly where transitions occurred 
among species and what the total range of each 
species was to the nearest 100 meters. My initial 
collecting in 1976 and 1977 had resulted in finding 
17 species from 17 stations. In only three cases did 
two species occur under the same rock, and in 
only three situations did the same species occur 
at two different stations. We could now field 
identify our collections, and by moving back and 
forth along the hills, could quickly tell where 
species changed over. It will take months of 
detailed study to verify our field impressions, 
but this short area of limestone seems to have the 
greatest concentration of speciation among land 
snails known for any area in the world, and may 
be a record for any group of organisms. We now 
know 21 species from this region, with only 8 
situations in which "same rock pile" occurrence 
of two species can be demonstrated. The total 
range for each of these species is 0.3-4.9 km, 
with a median range of 1.6 km. How this evolved 
and how this diversity is maintained are ques- 
tions yet to be answered. 

At the mining company headquarters, we 
had seen large scale aerial photographs of this 
region, indicating that large, isolated areas of 
limestone lay 2-4 km east of the track. Hiking 
into and back out from one of these masses took 
all day, but another two new species were 
collected. The other areas were thoroughly 
shielded from ready visitation by boulder fields 
and reef edges. 

In the last few years, the use of helicopters 
to muster cattle has become standard in much of 
the Kimberley. I thus tried, without success, to 
rent use of a helicopter to reach the most isolated 
area. Alas, this miracle of modern machinery 
broke down three days running, frustrating our 
attempts. Members of the Chicago Shell Club 
had donated $200 toward my field work, with 
the request that this be used for an exceptional 
opportunity. Thus, at the end of our field work, 
we chartered a single-engine prop plane, and 
spent 90 minutes traversing along the range 
photographing madly, and noticing all kinds 
of interesting isolated rocks or pinnacles that 
were potential homes to additional unusual 
land snails. But these were not to be reached 
on this trip. 

Delighted with our collecting and our 
viewing, we headed east to Katherine in the 
Northern Territory. Greatly aided by rangers 
of the Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission, 
we sampled the scattered exposed limestone 



outcrops near Katherine and Mataranka, south 
of Darwin and in the center of cattle country. 
Farewell to the Aslins, hello to Barbara 
Duckworth at Katherine, and then back into 
Western Australia after land snails near the 
shores of Lake Argvle. We met with considerable 
success, and then headed south and east to a 
different area of the Napier Range west of Derby. 
Live specimens were very scarce because of the 
two bad wet seasons, but we did manage to 
collect live specimens of the last two Napier 
Range species for which I lacked anatomical 
material for dissection. 

In sunny, warm weather, slightly cool 
nights, and elated with success, we headed 
toward Perth, nearly 3,000 km to the south. We 
had been without news of the world, except for 
an occasional Time or Newsweek, for two months. 
All of a sudden there was a barrier across the 
road, indicating that it was closed to traffic. 
Enquiries were made at Dampier. The worst 
rains in over 30 years had flooded the coastal 
roads 400-L200 km south of us. They were 
expected to remain closed for several weeks. This 
was exactly the area targeted for one final field 
effort — to resample several populations visited 
on earlier trips and thus to complete a "sampling 
through the seasons" with collections spaced at 
roughly two-month intervals. This project was, 
literally, a washout. If the main roads were 
closed for four or five weeks, the side tracks 
would be impassable indefinitely. 

Fortunately, we could take an inland road 
through Meekatharra down to Perth, splashing 
through puddles and miniature lakes, and enter- 
ing Perth in the middle of a 2V2-inch thunder- 
storm. There awaited galley proof for Part III, 
plus the now-routine packing of specimens 
for shipment, cleaning and repair of field gear, 
and planning for the next stage of work in 
Chicago. 

Arrangements for the six cartons and 
crates of specimens, 18,000 in number, to be 
shipped air freight were completed, and I 
returned to Chicago in late July. The shipment 
did not arrive when expected, and early in 
August I started to track it down. Five crates had 
reached San Francisco. The sixth was missing. 
Which one was lost? Naturally the one 
containing the scientifically most valuable 
material: the specimens for dissection from the 
area of remarkable diversity in which we had 
labored so hard. After a nail-biting week, we 
learned the crate was found, but badly damaged, 
in Sydney. At long last, after salvage efforts by 
colleagues at the Australian Museum, it arrived, 
with Vs to V4 of the specimens damaged, but the 
vast majority intact. 

AH 731 lots and 18,000 specimens from the 




1980 trip have been sorted, housed, given 
preliminary identifications, cataloged, and 
readied for study in detail. But already I can see a 
big geographic collecting gap in the Northern 
Territory between Alice Springs and Mt. Isa in 
Queensland. Aerial photographs and our 
90-minute flight over the limestone hills that 
contain the 21 species collected to date show- 
major isolated areas of limestone that we could 
not reach cross-country — certain to contain other 
species. Problems of species interactions in this 
area offer great opportunities for study, .^nd the 
final sampling of snails between the Northwest 
Cape and Geraldton still needs to be made. 
The joy of scientific research. PartK' 
answer one question, reveal a dozen others. 
Learn a bit, question a lot. lmpro\'e the quality of 
the questions asked. A continuous and enjoyable 
process on which I'm well along. D 



l^ocket of Iwe snails 




^ ^ S/ii'//s, labelled and 
f catalo;j;cd, aicnil labo- 
ratory study. 23 



FIELD MUSEUM TOURS 



Pcipua Neiv Guinea 

May 1-17 
Tour Price: $4,461 

Papua New Guinea is unicjue on ihe face ofthf plaiu-t Earth. For 
inilk'iiia (or untold timc)a diversity of contrasting cultures has 
nourished here within small areas because of the isolation 
imposed bv rugged terrain of mountains and jungles, and 
because of hostilities between the man\' different peoples. 
LargeK' unknown to each other and to the outside world they 
coexisted, each in a communal environment sufficient unto 
itself. Onlv since contact with modern industrial societv' has this 
isolation been broken, making it possible for visitors to explore 
and e.xclaim o\'er the natural wonders of this Edenlike paradise. 

It is one of the most remarkable — and last — reservoirs of 
animal, reptile, insect, and bird life to be found anvwhere. But 
most of all, Papua New Guinea presents a variets' of cultures and 
art of such freshness and color it holds a fascination bevond all 
else. 

The Sepik River is a monster waterwav draining a vast area 
of grassland, swamp, and jungle in its serpentine circuit. We 
will cruise the Sepik, reaching into the past in remote regions 
u'here the villagers still travel in traditional dugout canoes. 

Our lecturer. Dr. Phillip Lewis, curator, primitive art and 
Melanesian ethiiologv, will escort the tour from Chicago, and 
share his knowledge of the varied arts and cultures of Melanesia. 
In addition, our Sepik director, Jeff Leversidge, a well-knowai 
[lersonalitv' on the Sepik and R;>mu Rivers, and verv knowledge- 
■ible about the diverse cultures, arts, and customs of the Sepik 
regions, will lecture the group during the cruise and shore 
excursions. 

Accommodations on board the newlv refurbished A/Wo/if- 
iian E-vplorer are modern and comfortable. Passengers are 
housed in air-conditioned twin-bunked cabins, each w ith pri- 
I'ate bath. 



Onlv here in East Africa is there still such diversitv. 

The itinerars' includes a davlime stopover in London, over- 
nights at the Nairobi Hilton, Mt. Lodge Tree Hotel, Samburu 
Game Lodge, Mt. Kenva Safari Club, Lake Hotel (at Lake 
Naivasha), Governors Camp (Masai Mara Game Reserve), and 
other first class accommodations. Three davs in the Sevchelles 
Islands and an overnight stav in London will conclude the trip. 

Tour lecturer will be Audrev Faden, a native Kenv^an, who 
formerly served as Officer in Charge of Education at the Na- 
tional Museum of Kenva, Nairobi. 

Peru and Bolivia: 1981 

October 15-November 1 
Tour Price: $3,100 

A Different Experience! A Different World I From the fabulous 
Incas, through Spanish Colonial times to the modern cities of 
today — yet maintaining its Latin charm. You'll love the green 
fertile valleys along the sandv desert coast of Peru; the highest 
railroad in the world: crossing Titicaca, the world's highest 
navigable lake by hvdrofoil; flving over the Nazca plains. Our 
tour includes the fascinating cities of Lima, Cuzco, Ti-ujillo, 
Puno, a train trip to fabulous Machu Picchu, and four flill davs 
in La Paz. 

Dr. Alan L. Kolata, visiting assistant curator of South 
American archeologv' and ethnologv', and project director. Field 
Museum Expeditions to Bolivia, will accompany the tour mem- 
bers during the entire trip. Dr. Michael E. Moselev, associate 
curator of Middle and South American archeologv' and ethnol- 
ogv', who for the past ten vears has directed large-scale projects 
on the north coast of Peru, will join the group when we visit his 
area of research. 



Kenya and the Seychelles Illinois Archeology 



September 12-October 3 
Tour price: $3,750 

There Is Now, as there has ahvavs been, an aura of mystei^' 
surrounding Africa— "n-opical islands and the coast, endless 
palm-fringed beaches, snow-capped mountains on the equator, 
jimgle primeval, sun-baked plains. They are all a part of East 
Africa. The wildlife .. .the stately processions of elephant and 
giraffe, prides ollion, the beautiful and rare leopard, the elegant 
cheetah. th< magnificent migration of wildebeeste and zebra. 



May 31 — June 5 

For the third consecutive year Field Museum is ofiTering an 
archeological field trip which will visit Dickson Mounds, 
Kampsville, and Cahokia Mounds. Limited to 30 pjarticipants, 
the trip includes site visits, lecture and slide presentations, 
workshops and discussions led by stafTarcheologists working at 
the respective sites. The field trip director is Robert Pickering, 
anthropologist and archeologist who led the 1979 and 1980 field 
trips. 



24 



For itbi/Tcwies, brochures, or general tour infonnation, please 
call :h£ Tour Office, 322^8862, or write Dorothy Roder, Field 
Museum Tows, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 
60605. 



m FIELD 
ML'SElTvl 
TDUHS' 



OITR EiWlROXMEN 1 

Coii't from j'. II 



for various purposes has increased, the 
telemetPv- experts have refined their tools. 
Self-adjusting radio collars have been de- 
veloped which expand, since young an- 
telope, elk, deer, sheep, and small mam- 
mals mav more than double their size in a 
season. This has relieved concern about 
animals which could outgrow their collars 
and choke before thev could be recaptured 
and fitted with larger equipment. It also 
makes instrumentation a one-time task. 

Each new project presents a new puz- 
zle to the DWRC electronics specialists. 
An animal must accept an artificial at- 
tachment without changing its behavior 
pattern for information to be useful, anci 
weight is a critical factor. The general rule 
is not to exceed five percent of a mammal's 
or three percent of a bird's weight in de- 
signing a custom transmitter. Even with 
miniature transistors, tiny batteries, and 
lightweight antenna wire, it remains a 
challenge to build a workable device that 
allows small species to run or flv, feed, 
mate, and rear voung without interfer- 
ence. 

Avian aerodynamics call for feather- 
weight instruments which must be at- 
tached so that a bird's balance is not upset. 
Transmitters clipped to tail feathers are 
common, although leg attachments en- 
able small birds to carry heavier equip- 
ment, and may eventuallv be used for 
most species. Some transmitters now in 
use are equipped with solar cells to re- 
charge small batteries, thus lengthening 
their life. 

Beyond their laboratory, which pro- 
cesses about 500 transmitters a year for 
various studies, the DWRC electronics ex- 
perts hope to see commercial firms de- 
velop fullv automated tracking systems 
that can be adapted for wildlife research. 
However, the Service's telemetry pio- 
neers are less concerned with space-age 
showmanship than simple invention, 
such as applving glue to secure molting 
tail feathers carrying clipped-on transmit- 
ters and experimenting to see whether the 
G-string of a guitar or dental wire makes 
better antenna material. 



Porpoise Quota for Tuna Fishers 

The number of porpoises allowed to be 
killed each year in yellowfin tuna fishing 
nets was reduced by more than a third in 
new regulations announced by the admin- 
istrator of the National Oceanic and At- 
mospheric Administration (NOAA). Dur- 
ing the proceedings on the new rules, the 
Environmental Defense Fund represented 
a coalition of ten environmental organiza- 
tions, which advocated the quota ulti- 



matelv chosen b\ the administrator. 

The new rules, in effect for the years 
1981 through 1983, impose an annual quota 
of 20,300. Ihis represents a significant cut 
in the 31,150 limit applicable in 1980 and a 
dramatic reduction from actual deaths less 
than a decade ago. Before the 1977 success 
of an EDF-led legal effort to save the por- 
poises, several hundred thousand of them 
were trapped in the nets and drowned 
each vear. 

I'he administratiir's decision ends a 
proceeding that began in August 1979, 
when a scientific workshop, re\iewing 
porpoise population data, found several 
species more seriously depleted than had 
been suspected. The tuna industry urged 
continuation of the 1980 quota of 31,150, 
although actual porpoise kills in each of 
the past two years have been far below 
that number. 

Another important aspect of the new 
regulations, also urged by EDF, is a prohib- 
ition on "sunset sets." This refers to the 
practice of initiating the setting of a purse 
seine around a school of porpoise so late in 
the evening that it cannot be completed 
before dark. The porpoise mortality as- 
sociated with such sets is much higher 
than for daytime sets and has actually 
increased over the past three years, 
although total porpoise deaths have 
declined. 

Even before the new rules were an- 
nounced, several tuna boat captains filed a 
class action suit in San Diego to bar the 
government from using information 
gathered by federal observers aboard tuna 
boats in enforcement proceedings over 
violations of porpoise protection regu- 
lations. Since on-board observers provide 
the only practical means of ensuring com- 
pliance with these rules, the suit threatens 
to nullify their very purpose. EDF has ir 
tervened in the suit to preserve the ob- 
server program. 



Rehabilitated Eagle Regains Freedom 

A young bald eagle flew away to freedom 
January 12 after being "hospitalized" 
nearly 11 weeks with an injury from a 
shotgun blast. The bird was found, 
wounded and unable to fly, in late October 
last year near the Little Trimbelle River 
south of Diamond Bluff in western Wis- 
consin. 

It was taken to Wisconsin state 
wildlife officials who turned it over to the 
Raptor Rehabilitation Center on the St. 
Paul campus of the University of Min- 
nesota. I'wo shotgun pellets were found in 
the flesh of the left wing, and the wing was 
briiken. After the wing was repaired and 
the raptor was given time to recuperate, it 
was given daily training exercises to re- 
store its strength and ability to fly. 

The bird was released at a high bluff 
overlooking the Mississippi River at Pres- 
cott, Wisconsin, in the west-central part of 



the state. Prescott is a small community 
nestled at the confluence of the St. Croix 
and Mississippi Rivers, and is a popular 
wintering spot for a number of bald eagles; 
it offers heavilv-wooded river banks and 
ravines up and down both rivers, and a 
current swift enough to keep the water 
open most of the time during the winter. 
About 40 people were present to observe 
the release, including members of the 
press and television, wildlife officials from 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the 
Wisconsin Department of Natural Re- 
sources, the Minnesota Department of 
Natural Resources, and individual wildlife 
enthusiasts. 

When taken from a crate b\ Patrick 
Redig of the Raptor Rehabilitation Center, 
the full-grown eagle, weighing eight 
pounds and ha\ing a wing span of 6V2 
feet, exhibited an obvious eagerness to 
part ways with its benevolent captor. 
Within seconds after the release it was lit- 
tle more than a dot against the sky, high 
oxer the ri\x'r bluffs. The bird carried a leg 
band and a highly visible wing marking. 
Wildlife officials hope that anyone who 
spt)ts the bird in the future will report it to 
state or Federal wildlife offlcials. 

A reward of up to $3,000 is still being 
offered for information leading to the ar- 
rest of the person who shot the eagle. 
Under the Bald Eagle Act the FWS can pay 
rewards amounting to half of any fine im- 
posed, with a maximum of $2,500. The 
National Wildlife Federation, Washing- 
ton, D.C., is offering $500. 

In Wisconsin and four other states — 
Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, and Wash- 
ingttm — the bald eagle is classified as a 
threatened species under the Endangered 
Species Act. In these states the maximum 
penalt)' for shooting an eagle is one year in 
prison and/or a $5,000 flne. The bird is 
classified as an endangered species in the 
other 43 contiguous states. 



Manatee Sanctuaries Established 

On November 12, 1980, the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service established the flrst per- 
manent manatee sanctuaries: in Kings 
Bay, Crystal River, Florida. Waterborne 
activity is to be prohibited within them 
between November 15 and March 31 of 
each year Thev are known as the Banana 
Island Sanctuaries, Sunset Shores 
Sanctuary, and Magnolia Springs 
Sanctuary. Boat access to residences, boat 
houses, and boat docks in the sanctuaries 
will be permitted by residents and their 
authorized guests by obtaining and dis- 
pla\ing stickers provided by the Service. 
Ihey will be required to maintain idle 
speed within the sanctuary. 

The regulation which allowed the 
Service to designate these permanent 



Continued on f). 27 25 



HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 



Miijor Contributors of Field Museum's Programs 
of Research, Education and Exhibition 

(Period ol'Juhl, through December 31, 1980J 

We wish to recogni/e those generous donors to Field Donors the following who contributed S1,000 or more 

Museum who in 1980 helped to maintain a balanced during the period July 1 through December 31, 1980. 

budget. The year ended with no debt or deficit financ- (Donors earlier in the year —January 1 through June 

ing, thanks to these and thousands of other donors. By 30, 1980 — were recognized in the September 1980 

way of recognition, we place on the Honor Roll of Bulletin). 



Individuals — S5,000 and over 

Anonymous (2) 

Allen-Heath Memorial Foundation 

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Bent 

Buchanan Familv Foundation 
(Mr. and Mrs.DeWitt Buchanan) 

Mr. and .Mrs. Walter L Cherrv 

Mr. Joseph N. Field 

Mr. and Mrs. William .M. Freeman 

The Grainger Foundation 
(Mr. and Mrs. Da\id Grainger) 

HBB Foundation 
(Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Tieken) 

Mr. Oscar Kottmann 
Mr. and .Mrs. Albert E. M. Louer 
Mr. ]. deNavarre Macomb, Jr. 
Mr. and Mrs. William H. .Mitchell 
Mrs. Charles S. Potter 
Pritzker Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Pritzker) 
Mr. and Mrs. John S. Runnclls 
Mr. and Mrs. William L. Searie 
Mr. Ezra Sensibar 
Mr. and Mrs. John M. Simpson 
Mrs. David W. Stewart 
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Sullivan 
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Taylor 

Individuals— Sl,000 - S4,999 

Anonymous 
Alsdorf Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. James W. AlsdorO 
Mrs. A. Watson .Armour 111 
Mr. and Mrs. T Stanton Armour 
Mr. and Mrs George R. Baker 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Bass 
Mr. and Mrs. Harry O. Bercher 
The Bjorkman Fund 

(Mr. and Mrs. Cari Bjorkman) 
Mr. and .Mrs. Bowen Blair 
Mr. William McCormick Biair 
Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block 
Edwin J. Brach Foundation 

(Mrs. Berh-amZ. Brodie) 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Brown 



Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Buehler, Jr. 
Dr. and Mrs. Robert W. Carton 
Mr. and Mrs. Jerry G. Chambers 
Estate of John L. Cochran 
The Collier-Swartchild Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. James Swartchild) 
A. G. Cox Charity Trust 
The Crawford Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. William F Crawford) 
Mr. Michael Cudahv 
Mr. and Mrs. Murra\' Daniels 
The Davee Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. Ken Davee) 
Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Davis 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Delaney 
The Dick Famih' Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Dick) 
Mr. and Mrs. William R. Dickinson, Jr. 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Dittmer 
Elliott and Ann Donnelley Foundation 

(Mrs. Elliott Donnelley) 
Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord Donnelley 
Mr. and Mrs. George H. Dovenmuehle 
Mr. and Mrs. R. Winfield Ellis 
The Forest Fund 

(Mrs. Glen A. Llovd) 
Mr. PaulJ. Gerstlev" 
Mr. and Mrs. Paul'W. Goodrich 
Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Guenzel 
Mr. and Mrs. R. R Gwinn 
Mr. and Mrs. Corwith Hamill 
Mrs. Norman R. Hanson 
Dr. and Mrs. William A. Hark 
Mrs. D. Foster Hadand 
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Helberg 
Mrs. Patricia W. Hewitt 
The loka Fund 

(Mr. George W. Ashman) 
Mr. and Mrs. Reinhardt Jahn 
Mr. and Mrs. Harold B. James 
Mrs. Spencer R. Keare 
•Mrs. Richard W. Leach 
Otto W.Lehmann Foundation 

(Mr. Robert Lehmann) 
Mrs. Edward J. Loewenthal 
Mrs. Viola Laski 
Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Lunding 



Estate of Minnie Malunat 
Mrs. Helen Mayer Medgyesy 
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Meeker 
Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Meyer 
The Molner Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. Morton John Barnard and 
George Hugh Barnard) 
Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Morrow 
Mr. Hisazo Nagatani 
Peterborough Foundation 

(Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field) 
Mr. and Mrs. John T Pirie, Jr. 
Mr. James H. Ransom 
Mr. and Mrs. John Shedd Reed 
Mrs. T Clifford Rodman 
Mr. William R. Rom 
Mr. and .Mrs. Henr\' N. Rowley 
The Arthur Rubloff Fund 

(Mr. Arthur Rubloff) 
Mrs. Dorothy S. Ruderman 
Mr. and Mrs". Arthur W. Schultz 
The SeaburvFoundation 
(Mr. John W. Seabury) 
The Sedoh Foundation 

(Mr. Scott Hodes) 
Arch W. Shaw Foundation 

(Mr. John I. Shaw) 
Bessie E. Shields Foundation 

(Dr. Thomas W. Shields) 
Mr. and Mrs. Edward B\ron Smith 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J.'Smith 
Mr. and Mrs. George T. Spenslev 
Mrs. David B. Stern, Jr. 
The Bolton Sulli\an Fund 

(Mr. Bolton Sullivan) 
Mr. and Mrs. William G. Swartchild, Jr. 
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Taylor 
Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Telling 
The Thorson Foundation 
(Mr. Reuben Thorson) 
Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Travlor, Jr. 
Mr. and Mrs. Howard J. Tnenens 
Mr. and Mrs. Glen Verber 
Mr. and Mrs. Louis A. Wagner 
Mr. and Mrs. E. Leland Webber 
Dr. and Mrs. Philip C. Williams 
Mrs. Claire B. Zeisler 



Corporations and Foundations 
S5,000 and over 

Abbott Laboratories 

Amoco Foundatiein, Inc. 

Arthur Andersen & Company 

Beatrice Foods Company 

Continental Bank Foundation 

Tile DeSoto Foundation 

R. R. Donnelle\' &: Sons Companv 

FMC Foundation 

Marshiall Field & Compan\' Foundation 

Field Enterprises Charitable Corporation 

First National Bank of Chicago Foundation 

General Electric Company 

General Mills Foundation 

i larris Bank Foundation 

International Business 

Machines Corporation 
International Harvester Ftiundation 
The ]o\ce Foundation 
Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust 
McMaster-Carr Supply Company 
Naico Foundation 
Northern Illinois Gas 
Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. 
The Albert Pick, Jr. Fund 
S&C Electric Company 
Dr. Scholl Foundation 
Sears, Roebuck & Co. 
The Sterling Morton Charitable Trust 
United Airlines Foundation 
Walgreen Benefit Fund 
Arthur Young & Company 



Corporations and Foundations 

$1,000 - $4,999 

Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance 

Companies of Illinois 
American Hospital Supply Corporation 
Amsted Industries Foundation 
Bank of America 
Bliss & Laughlin Industries 
The Brunswick Foundation, Inc. 
Bunker Ramo Foundation, Inc. 
CR Industries, Inc. 
Central R'lephone and 

Utilities Corporation 
Chicago Bears Football Club 
Chicago & Northwestern 

Transportation Company 
Chicago Title & Trust 

Company Foundation 
Chicago Tribune Foundation 
Chicago White Metal 

Charitable Foundation 
C-E Power Systems, Inc. 
Ehlco Foundation 
FRC Investment Corporation 
First Federal Savings and Loan 

Association of Chicago Foundation 
Geraldi-Norton Memorial Corporation 
Gooder-Henrichsen Company, Inc. 
Gould Foundation 
Walter E. Heller & Company 
Household Finance Corporation 
IC Industries, Inc. 
Illinois Tool Works Foundation 
Fred S. James & Co., Inc. 
Jewel Foundation 
Kelso-Burnett 
Kirkland & Ellis 



Maremont Corporation Foundation 

Masonite Corporation 

The Oscar Mayer Foundation, Inc. 

McGraw-Edison Company 

McKinsey & Company, Inc. 

William E. Mercer, Incorporated 

Morton Norwich 

Motorola Foundation 

Murray's 

National Boulevard Foundation 

Northwest Industries Foundation, Inc. 

j. C. Penney Companv, Inc. 

George Pick & Companv 

The Proctor & Gamble F'und 

The Prudential Foundation 

Rollins Burdick Hunter Co. 

Santa Fe Industries Foundation 

Sargent & Lundy 

Schwarten Corporation 

Security Pacific Charitable Foundation 

Shure Brothers, Incorporated 

Signode Foundation, Inc. 

Sunbeam Corporation 

John S. Swift Company, Inc. 

Charitable Trust 
Szabo Food Service Company 
Talman Federal Savings and 

Loan Association 
Texaco Inc. 

The Oakleigh L. Thome Foundation 
Trans Union Corporation 
Union Oil Company of California 

Ft)undation 
United Con\'evor Foundation 
UOP Foundation 

Urban Investment & Development Co. 
Montgomery Ward Foundation 
E. W. Zimmerman, Inc. 



Om EXMROXMENT 

Can't from p. 25 



manatee protection areas also provided 
for the emergency establishment of such 
areas. On January 11, 1980, approximately 
2 acres adjacent to Warden Key on Kings 
Bay were established under this emer- 
gency provision as a manatee refuge. This 
designation expired March 31, 1980. 

Following the expiration of the 
emergency designation, the three areas in 
Kings Bay were proposed as manatee 
sanctuaries. The Warden Kev area was de- 
leted from the proposal because it lacked a 
warm water source which limited its effec- 
tiveness as a sanctuarw The area did, 
liowever, effectively demonstrate the 
need to provide habitat free from distur- 
bance irom waterborne acti\ities. 

The Banana Island and Sunset Shores 
Sanctuaries are adjacent to, but do not 
include, the main spring. However, they 
do include secondary springs. Diving ac- 
tivities will still be allowed at the main 
spring, providing recreational opportu- 



nity to observe and interact with those 
manatees that are tolerant of human pres- 
ence. The Magnolia Springs Sanctuary 
contains a warm water spring known as 
Magnolia Spring, or "Alligator Hole." 
This area is located in a section of canal 
within the Springs O'Paradise subdivi- 
sitm. 

The warm springs provide manatees 
with areas where water temperatures are 
moderated during cold weather periods. 
Manatees tend to "congregate" around 
the warm springs during these critical 
periods. In an effort to observe and inter- 
act with manatees, human activity in- 
creases at these manatee "congregations." 
This disturbance causes manatees to flee 
these warm spring areas, subjecting them 
to physiological stress and increasing the 
potential for mortality. Disruption of 
normal mating or calf rearing behavior 
may also result. 

The sanctuaries are intended to pro- 
vide areas free of disturbance to manatees. 
Over 100 individuals out of an estimated 
population of 1,000 animals have been 
known to use the Kings Bay-Crystal River 
area. 



Asbestos in Schools 

The En\ironmental Protection Agency has 
responded to a two-vear EDF effort to gel 
action on the health hazards of asbestos 
materials in school buildings. EPA has 
proposed that school districts be required 
to inspect schools for disintegrating asbes- 
tos, primarily in ceilings. A 1978 EDF peti- 
tion, followed by a 1979 EDF lawsuit, 
prompted EPA's response to this issue. 
Newl\-passed legislation authorizes the 
Department of Education to make 
interest-free loans or grants to pay some of 
the cost of repair or replacement, if Con- 
gress appropriates the necessary funds. 
EDF commented on the inspection regu- 
lations and will do so for the repair regu- 
lations when they are proposed this 
spring. 




ILLINOIS N'ATURAL rilSTORY 
SURVEY LIB RK 196 
'^J^TURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 
UOBfi.NA ILL 61°01 



March and April at Field Museum 



March 16 to April 15 



ContinuintJ Exhibits 



RuL OF Amphibians AM) Ki;fiil£.s lake a look at the Komodo 
dragon, out" otthe most impressive residents of Hall 19 and the 
subject of Field Museum s March 29 lecaire (see below). The 
world's largest living lizard shares the hall with models of 
re[)tiles closer to home — the snttkes. frogs, mrtles. and other 
reptiles one might find in the C'hicago area. The skull of a 
15-fi)ot man-eating crocodile is part of an exhibit that explains 
Just how to tell a crocodile from an alligator. Hall 19, ground 
floor. 

H.\LL or Ptrvsicju. Geology. Examine the materials and struc- 
tures of the earth, and learn something about the interplay of 
forces that are shaping it. This hall contains exhibits on the 
main cla.sses of rocks and on \olcanoes and earthquakes. 
There are displays illustrating the work of uind, water, and 
ice in leveling and building up land features. Examples of the 
interpla\- of earth forces and processes are shown in four 
dioramas: a \alley glacier, a limestone cave, an active vol- 
cano, and the Grand Canyon. Hall 34. second floor. 

Ne«- Programs 

Ray A. Kr(x: Ewironmknt.-u, Lecti're "Science and Science Fic- 
tion: Creati\if\' \s. Credibilit}" is the topic of a provocative 
lecture by Ben Bova, novelist, lecturer, and executive editor of 
Ornrii Magazine. He will examine the processes that lead to 
creati\it}- in the arts and sciences, with examples ranging 
from Galileo to \'eliko\sky. Then he will trace the oiigins of 
such science fiction ideas as humanoid robots, death rays, 
£md interstellar flight and look into the frtture to determine 
if and when they might become realitw Fridav, March 20, 
8 p.m. Members $2, nonmembers $4. Tickets are available 
in advance, or at the West Door before the program. For 
information, call 322-8854 during business hours. 

"The Komodo Dragon." Dr. Walter Auffenberg, curator of her- 
petolog\\ Floiida State Museum, presents a slide lecture on 
the Komodo dragon, a li\ing relic of GO million years ago and 
the world's largest lizard. (Some reach a length of 10 feet and 
weigh 250 pounds.) Dr. Auffenberg and his family lived for 
nearly a year on the island of Komodo in Indonesia stud\ing 
the behavior and ecolog\- of these unusual land reptiles. Sun- 
day, March 29, 2 p.m., Lecture Hall I. Free. 

Edward E. Avtr Film Lectltres. See the sights of foreign lands 
through 90-minute illustrated lectures during March and 
April. Admission is free at the barrier-free 'West Door; show 
membership card for priority' seating. Programs recom- 
mended for adults. .Saturdavs, 2:30 p. m., Simpson Theatre. 
(When the theatre has reached full seating capacity' the doors 
will be closed b}- security- perso.inel, in compliance with fire 
regulations.) 

D March 21: "Immortal Poland" 



D March 28: "Shangri-La" 
D April 4: "TYirkey" 
D April 11: "Scotland" 



Gamelan Miniconcerts. Field Museum's adult education clkss, 
Gainelan Performiince Ensemble, presents miniconcerts 
under the direction of Dr. Sue Carole DeVale. Free. Sundav, 
March 29, 2 and 3 p.m.. Hall K, ground floor. - « 

Gamelan Concert. This is the annual performance by the 
advanced class, Gamelan Performance Repertoire. The group 
has been pla\ing together for three years. Free. Sunday, April 
12, 2 p.m., Simpson Theatre. 

Spring Journey: "A Time to Sow: The Ston- of Seeds" illustrates 
how different culmres use seeds for food, mone\', and e\'en 
musical instruments. Wind your way through Museum halls 
and learn about the important role of seeds in human culture. 
Freejourne}' pamphlets are available at Museum entrances. 

Weekend Discov'ery Programs. Participate in a \arietA' of free 
tours, demonstrations, and films every Saturda\- and Sundav 
between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Check the Weekend Sheet at 
Museum entrtmces for locations and additional programs. 

Saturday, March 21: "Museum Highlight Tour," 2 p.m. 

Simday, March 22: "Life in Ancient Egv'pf " tour, 1:30 p.m. 

Saturday, March 28: "Museum Highlight Tour," 2 p.m. 

Sunday, March 29: "Chinese Ceramic Traditions" tour, 1 p.m. 

Sunday, March 29: "The Visual Record of North American 
Indians" slide program, 2:30 p.m. 

Saturday, April 4: "Ancient Eg\pt" tour, 11:30 a.m. 

Saturday, April 4: "Life in a Tl-opical Forest" film, 1 p.m. 

Sunday, April 5: "Amei ican Indians: Portraits in Oil" slide 
program and tour, 2:30 p.m. 

Saturday, Apt il 11: "Boreal Forest" film. 1 p.m. 

Sunday, April 12: "Indian Life on the Praii ies" tour. 1 p.m. 

Continuing Programs 

Vouwteer Opixjrtunities. Individuals with scientific interests 
and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum 
departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, 
ext. 360. 

March AND April Hours. The Museum is open fiom 9 a.m. to 5 
p.m. eveiy day except Friday. On Fridays the Museum is open 
fi-om 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the vear. 

The Museum Libr.«y is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
Obtam a pass at the receprion desk. North Entrance. 



Museum Phone: (312) 922-9410 



S2_ 



ield Museum of Natura 



April 1981 




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JtATHAKAL/ SOUTH INDIAN DANCE DRAMA: MAVIS 



MEMBERS' NIGHTS: 
APRIL 30, MAY 1 



Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



AprU 1981 
Vol. 52, No. 4 



Editor De>i^m'i: D>i\id M. Walsten 
Production: Marth.i Poulter 
Calendar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Pluitos;raphcr: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

hounded 1893 

Prcfidetit: E. Leland Webber 
Diri'ctor: Lorin I. N'evling, Jr. 

Hoard OF Tla^STEES 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chiUnnan 
Mrs. T. Stanton .\rmour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O. Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O C Davis 

William R. Dickinson, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy Jr. 
lames J. O'Connor 
James H Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Snuth 
Robert H. Strotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B. Wilkins 
Blaine I Yarrington 



CONTENTS 

3 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 

William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr. 
William V. Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



Members' Nights: April 30, May 1 

Annual Open House for Members 



4 Field Briefs 

5 Our Environment 

6 Field Museum of Natural History 

Spotlight on the Collections, Part III (Zoology) 

by MatthezcH. Nitecki, curator of fossil invertebrates 

12 Behind the Scenes 

with Glen Cole, curator of prehistory 

14 The Tipi: A Cultural Interpretation of Its Design 

by Terry Straus 

21 Receptaculitids: Ancient Organisms 
Studied by Visiting Scientist 

by Matthew H. Nitecki 

22 Field Museum Tours for Members 

23 Volunteers Honored 

26 Kathakali: South Indian Dance-Drama 

Performance May 15 

27 April and May at Field Museum 

Calendar of Coming Events 



COVER 

Member of Kathakali South India dance-drama group applies 
makeup. Photo by Malcolm Lee. For program details see page 26. 



'••I'S .S'^-940) is published monlhly, except 

;m v>t Natural History, Roosevelt Road at 

iptions; S6.00 . r--i!.illv. S3.00 for schools. 

.,-iption Opinion .. v^ -.^sed by authors are 

; ,^olicv ot Field Mu .c ^^r.\ L nsolicited manu- 

-:2-9410. Pvistmasto- Please send torm 3579 

> Field Museum ot Natural History K..'Osevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 11. 

ISSN, [V15-0703. SecoiKl dass postage paid at Chicago, II. 



datura 


/ Hl<t:- ■-■ '■■- 


ii(;ust 


lS5Uf 


 "^^ICICO 




Judc- 






'. 


useum phcn.r 




30th Annual Members' M^hts 

April 30, May 1 




Have \ou ever seen a sheep shorn? CJr a tipi raised? You can 
at the Museums 30th Auiuial Memhers' Nights, the behind-the- 
scenes view of Field Museum which will take place on Thursday, 
Apiil 30, and Friday, May 1, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. (Third Floor 
opens at 7:00 p.m.) 

This vear, highlights fiom our various ethnic fesrivals will 
be featured, including a Taichi demonstration from the China 
festival; "Alma de Mexico," a Mexican folk dancing group from 
our Latin American Neighbors Dav festi\al; and demonstrations 
of sheep shearing, spinning, quillworking, beadworking, and 
silversmithing plus a tipi-raising from our North American In- 
dian Heritage Day festival. Other highlights include: 

Ground Floor: Your Name in Eg\j)lian Hieroglyphs, Sea .Snakes 
at the Field Museum, Lots ofLizards injars, (lamelan Orchestra 
Session. 

First Floor:Journey to the Center of the Museum; Discovery 
Tours, including "Stories of the Field Mu.seinn" and "China 
Through the Ages "; Members" Treasure Hunt. 

Second Floor: Keeping It All Together iuv rutting It H.ick To- 
gether — cleaning and mounting of textiles and costumes from 
the Field Museum collection. Electronic I'roduclion of Range 
Maps. 

Third Floor: Dust to Dignit\-: Kediscovciiiig the Pacific, Fossils 
in Concretions: Coal-Age Plants and Animals of Illinois, Dis])lay 
ofMineral Specimens Used in Field MuseumCalendar, Mount St. 
Helens: The Volcano that Blew Its Ibj), Scorpions, Centipedes, 



Spiders and Other Venomous (Creatures, How I'l.iiits (iet I heir 
Latin Names. 

Fourth Floor: Putting an Exhibit Together, Capturing Speci- 
mens in Art — Scientific Illustration, Graphics Demonstration. 

Free parking is available in the north Museum and Soldier 
Field lots. A shuttle bus will c ircle these areas lontinuouslw 
providing free transportation to and fioin the Museum. Or u.se 
the free roimd-tiip charter bus ser\ ice between the Loop and the 
south entrance ofihe Museum. These (.'7'A buses marked I'lLLD 
MUSEUM will originate at the Canal Street entrance of Union 
Station and stop at the Canal Street entrance of Northwestern 
Station, Washington and State. \\'ashington and Michig.in. 
Adams and Michigan, and Halbo and Michigan. Tvvo buses will 
rim circuits beginning at 5:45 p.m. and continuing at 15-minute 
intervals until the Museum closes. (liolli buses will travel to the 
train stations until the departure of the last train. Please i hei k 
voirr- train scheditle for the e.xaci times. ) 

Keasonabh pi iced dirmer-s and snack-s w ih be a\ ailable 
in the Museum food service area from (;:()() p.m. to H:00 jj.m. 

To achieve ;i more even disliibulron of visitor's, we suggest 
vou follow- this alphabetical schedule: 

A through L Thursday, Ajrril .30 

M ihrough Z Friday, May 1 

Adtnirtance will be l)\ inv itation, .so pleasi" retain your Members' 
Niglit invitation artd present it at the door for admittance for you 
and your family. 

We look forward to seeing you! 



FIELD BRIEFS 




/i'/i« Terrell 



Swartchild, Chairman of Board, Honored 

Atci Februiir\ ZOi-linncrat the Ambiissador 
West Hotel, the Har\ard Club Award for 
outstandini; communitv service was given 
to William C. Swartchild, Jr., chairman of 
the Field Museum Board of Trustees. 
Swartchild has served as a Museum trus- 
tee since 1966 and was elected chairman in 
1978. He is also board chairman for Chil- 
dren's Memorial Hospital and for North- 
western Universitv's McGaw Medical 
Center. 



William C. Swartchild. jr. 

II 




Curator Terrell .Awarded lulbright 

lohn Terrell, associate curator ot Oceanic 
archeology and ethnologv, has been 
awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at 
the University of Aukland, in New Zea- 
land. During his six-month stav there, he 
\\ ill teach courses in Pacific archeologv. As 
a graduate student 16 vears ago, Terrell 
had conducted research at the University 
as a liilbright-Havs Fellow. While in New 
Zealand, Terrell will also continue work 
on a current project, a book about the pre- 
history of the South Seas, Science and Pre- 
hi<.tor\i in the Pacific hlands. 



Gifts in Kind 

Recent gifts of specimens to Field Museum 
include the following: Commander and 
Mrs. G. E. Boone, of Monmouth, IL, ha\e 
given a group of Japanese ceramic dishes, 
bowls, snuff bottles, goblets, lacquer 
boxes and similar materials; Mr. John J. 
I loellen, of Chicago, has given a collection 
ot Chinese porcelains; the University ot 
Chicagti has given a collection of Middle 
Stone Age artifacts; Mr. Hisazo Nagatani, 
of Chicago, has given a collection of liikite 
(door pulls). David Kistner, a research as- 
sociate in the Division of Insects, has given 
a collection of 2,783 beetle specimens. 

Dr. and Mrs. Karl Menninger, of To- 
peka, KA, have given nine Navajo rugs; 
Mrs. Marjorie P. Bohrer, of Winnetka, IL, 
has gi\en three Navajo rugs; Mr. Harold 
E. \Valler, of Kewanee, IL, has given a 
Persian carpet; Dr. Eugene L. Dellinger, of 
Fort VVa\ne, IN, has given a L85 carat 
natural ruby. 



Herman Abendroth, John Bayalis, 
Walter Segall 

Herman Abendroth, who was head of 
Field Museum's Division of Photography 
at the time of his retirement in 1950, died 
November 21 at the age at 95. A native 
Chicagoan, Abendroth joined the 
Museum staff in 1921. 

John Bayalis, who succeeded Aben- 
droth as head of the Division of Photogra- 
phy in 1950, died on January 20. Also a 
native Chicagoan, Bayalis spent his entire 
professional career with the Museum, 
joining Harris Extension (a di\ision of the 
Department of Education) at the age of 18 
and retiring 50 \ears later, in 1975. He 
transferred from Harris Extension to the 
Division of Photography in 1948. Follow- 
ing his retirement, Bayalis continued to 
ser\e the Museum as a volunteer in Pho- 



tographs' and the Department of Botany, 
coming in taithtulU up until the week be- 
fore his sudden death at the age of 73. 

Walter Segall, research associate in 
the Department of Geology since 1969, 
died November 25 at the age of 79. An 
otolaryngologist with a practice in 
Chicago, Segall also had a strong interest 
in the comparative anatomy of the ear re- 
gion in li\ingand fossil mammals, the sub- 
ject of the research he conducted at Field 
Museum. Five of his technical papers, on 
the auditory region in mammals, were 
published in Fieldiana . 




Walter Segall 



John Bayal 




Jame.s .Swartchild 



"Marine Hunters and Fishers" Project 
Awarded S625,422 NEH Grant 

The rohiibilit.itiDii ot Field Museums 
Northwest Coast and Inuit ethnographic 
materials in Hall 10, the project known as 
"Marine Hunters and Fishers," has been 
awarded a grant of $625,422 by the Na- 
tional Endowment for the Humanities. 
This is one of the largest amounts ever 
received bv the Museum for a pro|ect of 
this t\pe. the hall is scheduled to open in 
l'-*82, and will present one of the world's 
finest assemblies of such materials. 

A grant in the amount of $23,001) has 
been awarded by the National Science 
Foundation in support of the project 
"Phvlogenv and Biogeographv of Helicoid 
Land Snails," under the direction of Alan 
Solem, curator of in\ertebrates. This sup- 
port is a continuation of NSF funding 
which began in 1978 and now totals 
$77,775 for this project. 

Edward J. Olsen, curator ot mineral- 
ogy, has been awarded a $14,557 grant 
from N.A.S.A. in support of his project, 
"Refractory Inclusions in the Murchison 
Meteorite." 



Syslematics Symposium 
Papers Published 

B;c)(it" Criit'i in Ecological and E-oolutionan/ 
Time, edited by Matthew H. Nitecki, 
curator of fossil invertebrates, has been 
published by Academic Press, New York. 
The 301-page work consists of nine papers 
presented at the third annual Spring Sys- 
tematics Symposium, held at Field 




Susanmary Young, i^ecretnn/ to Field Museum Presuient E. Leland Webbci , mcirc^ tchiitations 
from Thomas Sanders, vice president of development (left), and Donald Fischer, duel oj Security 
and Visitor Services, on the occasion of her retirement, Februari/ 27. They are shoum at a reception 
in Mrs. Young's honor, held in the President's room. 

Mrs. Young came to the Museum in 1944 as secretary to Orr Goodson, then actnig director of 
the Museum. She had expected to stay, she confesses, "only two years." 



Museum in May 1980. Three of the papers 
are by Field Museum staff: "Introduction; 
What Is a Crisis?" by David M. Raup (dean 
of science), "The Great American Inter- 
change — An Invasion-Induced Crisis for 
South American Mammals," by Larry G. 
Marshall (Department of Geology), "Liv- 



ing with Crises; Human Perception of Pro- 
cess and Time," by Michael E. Moseley 
and Robert A. Feldman (Department of 
Anthropology), and Charles R. Ortloff. 
The price of the book, available at the Field 
Museum Shop, is $25.00; 10 percent dis- 
count for members. 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Microscopic "Tags" for Wildlife 

They are so small they escape the notice of 
animals indelibly marked by them, but 
microscopic plastic particles as distinctive 
as fingerprints may soon have a big impact 
on wildlife research. The particles, now 
being tested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, could reveal valuable information 
long sought by scientists who study the 
ways of wildlife. 

Microtaggants — salt-sized, color-coded 
plastic chips originally manufactured by the 
3M Company to trace explosives used in 
criminal acts — may revolutionize the time- 
honored practice of marking animals for var- 
iiius purposes. "Recognition marking" was 
attempted beftire the nineteenth century by 
ornithologists and ichthyologists to establish 
ownership, send messages, and learn bird 
and fish movements. Izaak Walton's The 
Compleat Angler in 1653 alluded to experi- 
ments where young salmon had ribbons 



tied to their tails to demonstrate their return 
to spawn. The earliest known bird marking 
dates back to ancient Rome. 

Today, marking is a basic tool of 
fishery and wildlife biologists who use 
tags, streamers, dyes, even radioactive 
isotopes, to learn behavioral information 
not otherwise available. Microtaggants 
could make marking easier for researchers, 
safer for animals, and cheaper for the fed- 
eral government, with unique codes, dura- 
bility, and ease of detection and recovery. 

The tiny tags are made of up to 10 
layers of inert plastic sandwiched in a spe- 
cial color sequence to make an identifNTng 
code. Available with fluorescent and fer- 
romagnetic layers, they can be quickly 
spotted under ultraviolet light and easily 
picked up for decoding with a small mag- 
net. Although the particles are unobtrusive 
and do not interfere with animal behavior, 
they can be detected and decoded by any 
field researcher with a portable mi- 



croscope. 

Application methods now being tested 
may further increase the usefulness of the 
particles; for example, aerial spraying may 
make mass marking of birds practical for 
the first time. Blackbirds and starlings can 
spread disease or cause considerable dam- 
age to crops. Researchers need more in- 
formation about these birds, which some- 
times congregate in roosts by the millions, 
so they can be effectively controlled. 

Fish and wildlife fed food laced with 
the flakes could give biologists important 
short-term information. Service scientists 
conHnue to study predator-prey relation- 
ships, and the markers may help solve na- 
ture's "whodunits" — identifying prey- 
ing species and evaluating their effects. To 
learn how mink affect the duck population 
in a certain area, for example, a researcher 
could mark eggs or ducklings in nests, and 
mink droppings could be tested for the 
markers' presence. 



The Field Mi^seitm 

Spotlight on 
The Collections 

Pari III 

By i\L-\rrni:uH. Xmkcki 
curator of fossil iiivcrtehrdtes 

Department of Zoology 

At the founding of Field Museum 
in 18^3, a Department of Zoology vvas 
contemplated that would include all ani- 
mal life, for which the divisions of Or- 
nithology, Mammalogy, Herpetology, 
Ichthyology, Entomology, Conchology 
and Osteology were set up. However, 
when it was learned that it would he pos- 
sible to acquire the 19,000 specimen bird 
collection of Charles B. Cor\- in exchange 
for creating a Department of Orinthology 
with Cory as curator, that step was taken, 
and the two departments were formed 
together, one as Department of Ornithol- 
ogy, the other with the awkward title of 
Department of Zoology, except Ornithol- 
ogy. This name it bore for 12 years. 



This article originally appeared in the ASC 
Newsletter Vol. 8, No. 5, and is reproduced 
here with minor adaptations, courtesy the As- 
sociation of Systemattcs Collections. 



During the early years of the de- 
partment, the staff consisted of Curator 
D. G. Elliot, and as many assistants as he 
could wangle. These were assistant 
curators in Zoologs', no matter what their 
particular discipline, and presumabU had 
multiple responsibilities among the sev- 
eral divisions. The first two, O. P. Hay 
and S. E. Meek, serving consecutively, 
were both Ichthyologists, but Meek vvas 
noted in one annual report as relabeling 
the shell collection. Although Meek vvas 
sometimes referred to as assistant curator 
for Ichthyology, the first person to receive 
a formal appointment in a given division 
was \V. J. Gerhard, who was made assis- 
tant curator for Entomology in 1400; his 
tenure had spanned half a century when 
he retired in 1930. In the meantime, the 
Department of Ornithology was develop- 
ing under Cor\', a lifetime curator without 
residence obligations, and his assistant 
curators G. K. Cherrie and N. Dearborn. 

In 1906 there was the upheaval that 
brought Ornithology back into Zoology. 
Elliot, the eminent ornithologist and 
mammalogist who was the first curator of 
Zoology, resigned to return to the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History in New 
York. At the same time, the wealthy Cory 
lost his fortune and vvas forced to seek a 
paying job. The problem was resolved by 
uniting the departments and making 
Cor\- curator of Zoology, where he was 
extremely productive, publishing books 
on the birds and mammals of Wisconsin 
and Illinois, and starting publication of 
the Catalogue of the Birds of the Ameri- 
cas, eventually completed in 11 parts. 



comprised of 15 volumes. During his 
tenure most of the divisions received 
their own or a shared assistant curator. E. 
N. Gueret took over Osteology in 1906, 
W. H. Osgood Mammalogy and Or- 
nithology in 1909, and Carl Hubbs, 
briefly. Ichthyology and Herpetology in 
1916, to be succeeded by A. C. Weed in 
1920. 

Osgood came to Field Museum after 
establishing an excellent reputation as a 
young scientist with the Biological Sur- 
vey, studying particularly the difficult ro- 
dent genus Peromyscus. During his 32 
years here, he became the leading author- 
ity on Neotropical mammals, but his 
interests were worldwide and he also col- 
lected and published on the mammals of 
Africa and Indo-China. A new division. 
Oology, vvas created in 1917 to accept the 
bird egg collection of judge R. Magoon 
Barnes, and Barnes vvas appointed absen- 
tee curator. This division lasted during 
Barnes's lifetime, and the eggs became 
part of the collections of the Bird Division 
m 1943. 

On the death of Cory in 1921, there 
was considerable change and expansion, 
with all dual appointments being ended. 
The names of the divisions were Angli- 
cized and all the ologies, except Osteol- 
ogy, were dropped; Ornithology became 
Birds, Entomology became Insects, and 
so on. Osgood was made curator, and he 
vvas replaced in Birds by J. T. Zimmer, 
and in Mammals by E. Heller. Weed was 
restricted to Fishes and was replaced the 
following year in Reptiles and Amphib- 
ians by K. P. Schmidt. Only Lower Inver- 



Division of Mammals: Research Associate Jack Fooden 




^^gfer" ^ 



tebrates lacked its own assistant curator. 
Schmidt was not only a first-rate her- 
petologist, but a world-renowned 
ecologist. His influence extended well 
beyond his published works, for he was 
devoted to voung students and inspired 
man\' to adopt careers in science. Upon 
his retirement in 1935, he was elected to 
the National Academy of Sciences, the 
first member of the museum staff to be so 
honored. 

In 1922 came the appointment of the 
first associate curator, C. E. Hellmayr in 
the Division of Birds, who was hired to 
complete the Catalogue of Birds of the 
Americas that had just been started by 
Cory. Hellmavr was at that time the 
preeminent student of neotropical birds, 
and he brought with him a first-hand 
knowledge of European collections and of 
the types of neotropical birds that was 
unsurpassed. Although he returned to 
Europe in 1931 to be nearer the historical 
collections there, he remained on the staff 
and continued to submit manuscripts for 
the Catalogue. He was forced to flee Au- 
stria to Switzerland when the Nazis in- 
vaded, but he continued his work as best 
he could, and the last four volumes were 
completed in collaboration with Boardman 
Conover, research associate in the Divi- 
sion. Conover, a wealthy voung Chicago 
sportsman, had been guided into scien- 
tific ornithology by Osgood, starting in 
1920, and had formed a superb collection 
of game birds of his own, housed in the 
museum and eventually becoming part of 
the museum's collections. The completed 
Catalogue, the joint product of Cory, 
Hellmayr, and Conover between 1918 and 
1949, is still the basic taxonomic text for 
New World birds. 

The next major change, at least in ti- 
tles, in the Department came in 1936, 
when the curator became known as chief 
curator, assistant curators were promoted 
to curator, and assistants, such as E. R. 
Blake in Birds, and D. D. Davis in Osteol- 
ogy were made assistant curators. The 
last cilogy was lost when Osteology was 
renamed Vertebrate Skeletons. This divi- 
sion had two more metamorphoses to go, 
becoming Anatomy and Osteology in 
1938, and Vertebrate Anatomy in 1946; it 
was finally phased out in 1972 and its col- 
lections dispersed to the respective ver- 
tebrate divisions. In 1938, the flnal divi- 
sion received its own curator when Fritz 
Haas, another Hitler refugee, was ap- 
pointed in Lower Invertebrates (nee Con- 
chology). Haas was a world-renowned 
authority on fresh water clams, and he 
maintained a prodigious productivity 
during his years at Field Museum. 

Division of Amphibians & Reptiles. The 
Division of Amphibians & Reptiles was 
established at Field Museum with the ar- 
rival of Karl P.Schmidt in 1922. The 
specimens in the collection now number 
over 212,000, including 3,200 skeletons as 
well as cleared and stained materials. The 




Division of Invertebrates: Scientific illustrator Linnea Lalilum. An important activity in each of 
the divisions is the rendering of scrupulously accurate anatomical draivings of specimens. 



collection is cosmopolitan but has particu- 
lar strength in materials from Mexico, 
Colombia, Chile, Egypt, Southwest Asia, 
the Congo, South Africa, the Philippines, 
Borneo, Malaysia, and Thailand. Our col- 
lections from the latter three countries are 
strong both in terms of breadth of cover- 
age and ecologically useful series. The 
crocodilian collection is one of the 
foremost in the United States. A large 
portion of the Edward H. Taylor collec- 
tions have been deposited here as well as 
numerous other collections that are heav- 
ily cited in publications. A total of 1,139 
types is housed adjacent to the main col- 
lection. The collection as a whole was 
rated as one of the five major collections 
in the country by the Committee on Re- 
sources commissioned by the Association 
of Systematic Collections and three her- 
petological societies. 

The collection itself is housed on the 
ground floor with adjacent offices and a 
specimen preparation/visitor area. The 
outstanding Karl P. Schmidt Memorial 
Library containing over 30,000 titles is 
also located here. Special collections of 
histological slides, tape recordings. 



photographs, and stomach contents are 
also maintained. 

The herpetological collection is heav- 
ily used nationally and internationally 
with frequently over 50 loans per year, 
including a total of around 1,500 
specimens. 

Extensive field work in the 1950s and 
1960s in Southeast Asia by the then head 
of the Division, Robert F. Inger, have led 
to systematic works on the herpetofauna 
as well as studies with an ecological 
orientation. Curator Hymen Marx, in col- 
laboration with Research Associate 
George Rabb, has done his research on 
the relationships of advanced snakes with 
an emphasis on the viperids. Research on 
various aspects of the biology of marine 
snakes has held the interest of Harold 
Voris since he joined the staff in 1973. 

Division of Birds. Established in 1894 
as a separate Department of Ornithology, 
the Division of Birds today houses the 
third largest scientific bird collecfion in 
the United States. The main collection 
contains approximately 315,000 speci- 
mens, including 600 holotypes, 2,800 
skeletons, and 1,500 fluid specimens. In 7 



addition, the division houses 16,500 egg 
sets and 200 nests. The scope of the col- 
lection is worldwide, with major geo- 
graphic strength in North America, 
Mexico and Central America, South 
America, Africa, and the Philippines. In- 
cluded among its manv historicallv and 
scientifically valuable, individual collec- 
tions are the H. B. Conover Game Bird 
Collection, Good's and van Someren's 
African collections, C. B. Corv's West In- 
dian collection, the Bishop Collection ot 
North American birds, a large portion of 
Koelz's material from India and the Mid- 
dle East, and a large series of separate 
collections from South America, Africa, 
and the Philippines. A collection of 11,500 
skins recentiv acquired from Princeton 
University are presently being cataloged 
into the main collection. 

Current research projects focus on 
the svstematics and biogeograph\ of 
South American birds, especialK- the 
Tvrannidae, including primary collecting 
in remote areas of the Peruvian Andes. A 
salvage program produces roughly 1,000 
skin, skeleton, and fluid specimens of 
local Illinois migrants and zoo specimens 
annually. These are available for ex- 
change with other systematic collections. 

Division of Amphibians and Reptiles: 

(Ahu'c) AInii Rt'St'/ifr, custodian of the collec- 
tion, examines shipment of sea snakes collected 
in the Straits of Malacca in 2975 /'i/ Harold 
Voris (beloir, left), associate curator of amphi- 
bians and reptUes. 




r: 5 





Division of Birds: Emeritus Curator of Birds Melinn A. Traylor {center} examines 
(left), division assistant, and Volunteer Margot Merrick. (1973 photo) 



shipment of birds from Bolivia. With him arc Diaiinc Miuncr 



A major goal of present and future acces- 
sions is to improve the breadth of the 
anatomical collections. 

Besides the regular staff. Curator 
Emeritus Emmet R. Blake works regularly 
on the second volume of his Manual of 
Neotropical Birds, and Curator Emeritus 
Traylor is finishing a manuscript for the 
final volume of Peters' Checklist of the Birds 
of the World. 

Division of Fishes. Established in 1894, 
the collection of fishes at Field Museum 
now contains an estimated 1.4 million 
specimens in about 110,000 lots. About 85 
percent of the collection is cataloged. The 
scope of the collection is worldwide in- 
cluding material from all continents, all 
oceans, most major seas, and many is- 
land groups. The collection is about 
equally divided between freshwater 
(mainly the Americas, also important old 
world material) and marine (mainly west- 
ern Atlantic, but with worldwide repre- 



sentation). Collections of premier impor- 
tance include material from freshwaters 
of Central and South America, the west- 
ern tropical Atlantic (holdings from the 
Caribbean coast of Central America are 
unequalled), and fresh and nearshore 
marine waters of North America. First- 
rate collections include material from east 
Asia, southeast Asia and the Indian and 
Pacific Oceans (open sea, continental, 
and insular — both freshwater and 
marine). Also included is diverse material 
from other areas, including areas other- 
wise poorlv represented in U.S. collec- 
tions (among them: Iraq, Lebanon, 
Szechwan, etc.). Some 300 families and 
an estimated 7,000 nominal species are 
represented. Holdings of type materials 
(800 primary types, 600 secondary types) 
place the Field Museum collection among 
the five most important type depositories 
in North America. In addition to type 
holdings, there is considerable material 



with substantial historical importance, 
especially from the United States, Mexi- 
co, Central and South America collected 
and/or reported by such early workers as 
Eigenmann (and his students). Meek, 
Meek and Hildebrand, and A. ]. Wool- 
man. The Owston collections from east 
Asia (especially Japan) also include histor- 
ically important material. In 1979, nearly 
10,000 specimens (ca. 1,500 lots) were sent 
in 63 separate loan transactions. Growth 
of the collection averages 2.2 percent per 
year. 

The Division of Fishes was led by the 
late Loren P. Woods for nearly 40 years, 
1941 to 1978. Woods amassed' large and 
important collections of both freshwater 
(North America) and marine (western At- 
lantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans) fishes. 
He worked on a wide diversity of fresh- 
water and marine groups, and is espe- 
cially remembered for work on damsel- 
fishes and berycoids. 




Division of Fishes: Assistant Curator Donald j. Stexrart, divit^ion head, measures specniwn. 
Slu'hvd bottles behind him contain fish specimens in alcohol. 



Robert Karl Johnson joined the staff 
in 1972, and served as head of the Divi- 
sion until Jan. 1, 1981, when he was 
named chairman of the Department of 
Zoologv. The hulk of Johnson's published 
work is on the svstematics and zoogeog- 
raphv of a varietv of mesopelagic groups. 
More recentlv Johnson In collaboration 
with David VV. Greenfield (research as- 
sociate and professor of biology at North- 
em Illinois University) has been working 
on a faunisfic/ecological study of the 
shorelines of Belize, Central America. 
The more than 30(1 marine collections 
from Belize and Honduras amassed by 
Greenfield and Johnson since 1970, added 
to the material previouslv collected, have 
led to the unequalled importance of Field 
Museum collection of fishes from the 
Caribbean coast of Central America. 

Donald J. Stewart joined the staff in 
1979, as assistant curator of Fishes. His 
research background includes such di- 
verse areas as svstematics and ecologv of 
various African freshwater groups, popu- 
lation'communitv ecologv t)f Lake Michi- 
gan salmonids and their prev, and svs- 
tematics and distributional ecology of 
U.S. Atlantic seaboard fishes. More re- 
centlv, Stewart has been working on 
10 South American freshwater fishes and 



has engaged in extensive fieldwork. His 
long-range goals include a faunistic study 
of the freshwater fishes of Ecuador and 
systematic studies on a variety of neo- 
tropical groups. 

Division of Insects. The core staff is 
supplemented bv temporary grant, stu- 
dent, and volunteer help, when possible. 
Henr\' S. Dvbas and Rupert S. VVenzel, 
curators emeriti, as well as a number of 
research associates, enlarge the scientific 
scope of the division. 

The collections, offices, laboratories, 
and librarv occupy 12,127 sq. ft. The 
pinned collections, approximately 
13,000-drawer capacity, with 80 percent 
expansion space, are housed in standard 
wooden drawers, stored in metal cabinets 
of various drawer capacity. The alcohol- 
preserved specimens (more than 100,000 
lots) are stored in vials in communal jars 
kept in aluminum trays to maximize the 
utilization of space. Microslide prepa- 
rations are kept in metal trays housed in 
cabinets. 

The collection encompasses all ar- 
thropods, including fossils in amber, ex- 
cept Crustacea. It presentiv includes 
more than 2,680,000 specimens and lots, 
and more than 115,000 identified species; 
about 65 percent of the specimens in the 



organized collection are identified to 
species. More than 7,500 species are rep- 
resented bv primary tvpes and several 
thousand others by paratypes and 
cotypes. 

All of the major orders are repre- 
sented. In general, the collections are 
especiallv strong for North America, 
South America, the Palearctic Region, the 
Philippines, Micronesia, and Australia. 
Those of Coleoptera, macrolepidoptera 
and ectoparasites are strong and repre- 
sentative for the world. 

Numericallv, the strongest repre- 
sentation, taxonomicalh' and geographi- 
callv, is of Coleoptera, tiitalling almost 2 
million specimens. Within this order, are 
a number of specialized units, including 
collectums oi historic significance. Staph- 
\linidae — 240,000 specimens, represent- 
ing about 20,t)(K) idenrified species and 
more than 4,000 types, the Bernhauer, 
Bierig, Benick, and Seevers collections 
(an additional 300,000 specimens await 
preparation); Cleridae — 13,000 speci- 
mens, 1,000 species, the A. B. VVolcott 
and Josef Knull ct)llections; Drvopoidea — 
30,000 specimens; Histeridae — 50,000 
specimens (75 percent of the world 
species), the C. A. Ballou collection; 
Leiodidae — 13,500 specimens (55 percent 
of the world species), the Knirsch collec- 
tion; Lucanidae — 10,000 specimens (55 
percent of the world species), the Benesh 
and Knirsch collections; Meloidae — 
15,400 specimens, broad range of generic 
representation and palearctic species; 
Mordellidae — 17,500 specimens, the 
Eugene Ray collection (the Liljeblad col- 
lection is here on indefinite loan); 
Pselaphidae — 30,000 specimens (the 
Park, Bierig, Steeves, Schmidt, and 
Reichle collections) plus 40,000 to be pre- 
pared; Ptiliidae — 260,000 specimens; 
Scarabaeidae — approximately 130,000 
specimens, broadiv representative at the 
generic level, the Ondrej and Knirsch 
Collections, especiallv Cetoniinae, 78 
percent of the world genera, 55 percent of 
the world species; Tenebrionidae — 47,000 
specimens, broad range of generic repre- 
sentation. 

The Lepidoptera collection — 150,000 
specimens, 75 percent of the U.S. species, 
including the Strecker Collection of Mac- 
rolepidoptera (on indefinite loan to the 
AUvn Museum of Entomology). The 
Isoptera collection contains nearly 50 per- 
cent of the world species, donated princi- 
pally bv A. E. Emerson. Ectoparasites of 
vertebrates are represented by: batflies — 
40,000 specimens, 70 percent of the world 
species, types of 40 percent; fleas— about 
35 percent of the world species, types of 
25 percent of Neotropical species; sucking 
lice — about 30 percent of the world 
species; ticks — 40 percent of the de- 
scribed species; major holdings of para- 
sitic mites from Neotropical and Austra- 
lian hosts. The water mite collection — 
types of about 90 percent of the North 




Division of Insects: Prcparator Laurel johnsoji with sonic of the showy scarabs m the beetle 
collection. 



American species (Ruth Marshall collec- 
tion), 90 percent of the Indian and Ethio- 
pian species (deposited by D. Cook). 
Specialized groups of free-living mites 
(Opilioacariformes, Holothyrida, Trygy- 
naspida) and arthropod-associated mite 
species (Heterozerconoidea, Eviphid- 
oidea) are well represented. The 
Myriapoda collection has much Neotropi- 
cal and African material and about 100 
holotypes. The collection of BalHc Amber 
fossil insects, about 2,800 pieces, is espe- 
cially rich in microlepidoptera, diptera 
and spiders. A significant block of unpre- 
pared specimens is contained in the Ber- 
lese residue collection (modified Tullgren 
samples of the leaf-litter and forest floor 
community); 6,000 samples, an estimated 
2 million specimens, from North Amer- 
ica, Central America, Australia, New 
Guinea, Nepal — especially rich in mi- 
crocoleoptera, diplopods, spiders, and 
mites. 

During the past 5 years, 455 loans, 
totalling 139,437 specimens, were made to 
professional systematists or graduate 
students. 

Division of Invertebrates. In August of 
1938, the Division of Invertebrates was es- 
tablished with the hiring of Fritz Haas 
(formerly of the Senckenberg Museum, 
Frankfurt-am-Main) as the first curator 
and head. Crates containing the 11,312 
lots of mollusks and other miscellaneous 
invertebrates (exhibits from the 1893 Field 
Columbian Exposition) were opened, and 
the work of rehousing, relabelling, and 



reidentifying, and increasing the collec- 
tions was undertaken by Haas, strongly 
supported by the Museum administra- 
tion. By 1957, when G. Alan Solem was 
appointed assistant curator, Haas had 
managed to increase the mollusk collec- 
tion to well over 55,000 lots. 

In 1979, the collections totalled more 
than 225,000 lots, or approximately 
2,500,000 shells and preserved mollusks 
arid other invertebrates, indicating the 
growth of the division since Solem be- 
came curator and head. The research ma- 
terials consist of land and freshwater 
taxa, and a synoptic species representa- 
tion of most large-sized marine groups. 
Emphasis is worldwide and land mol- 
lusks, with the greatest strengths in 
North American, Neotropical, West In- 
dian, Pacific Basic, and Australian geo- 
graphic areas. 

The main emphasis of collecting ef- 
forts since 1974 has been the land 
mollusks of Australia, while the building 
of the collection in other geographic areas 
continues. 

Division of Mammals. The Division of 
Mammals presently has 122,000 speci- 
mens. Established in 1894, the collection 
is worldwide in scope and is one of the 
largest and most representative collec- 
tions of mammals in the United States. In 
terms of absolute numbers of specimens, 
it ranks fifth or sixth, and in terms of 
worldwide coverage and representation 
of families, genera, and species, it proba- 
bly ranks third in the nation and fourth in 



the world. We have 485 type specimens. 

Nearly 40 percent of the specimens 
arc Neotropical, followed bv 17 percent 
Nearctic, 16 percent Palearctic, 14 percent 
Oriental, and 13 percent Ethiopian. From 
the Neotropical region, Mexico, Belize, 
Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, 
Chile, and Brazil arc particularly well rep- 
resented. Important collections from the 
Palearctic include those from Afghanis- 
tan, Iran, Egypt, and China; from the 
Oriental arc Philippines, Borneo, Malay- 
sia, India, Ceylon, Nepal, Sikkim, and 
Burma; and from the Ethiopian are Su- 
dan, Ethiopia, and Angola. 

With the exception of two families of 
whales (Eschrichiidae, Balaneopteridae), 
one family of marsupials (Notoryctidae), 
one family of bats (Crasconycteridae) and 
one of rodents (Selveninidae), all extant 
families and approximately 80 percent of 
all extant genera are represented. As may 
be expected, rodents and bats are espe- 
cially well represented. The primate col- 
lection is unique due to the endeavors of 
Philip Hershkovitz. 

Most of the specimens are study 
skins with skulls, but some 20,000 are 
fluid-preserved. In addition, we have 
3,000-5,000 partial and complete skele- 
tons that were made available by 
anatomist D. Dwight Davis as well as 900 
anatomical preparations, a baculum col- 
lection and an auditory ossicle collection. 

The Division of Mammals is pres- 
ently housed in a new fourth-floor addi- 
tion totalling 24,610 sq. ft. There are eight 
ranges; seven for dry specimens are on 
compact storage units and one for wet 
specimens is on stationary shelving. 
There are two spacious labs, one as- 
sociated with the fluid- preserved material 
and another that is the primary prepara- 
tion area. Two rooms off the preparation 
lab accommodate the dermestid beetle 
colony, and the large steam kettle and 
degreaser. The latter room is tiled and has 
a hoist track in the ceiling for easy move- 
ment of larger or heavy specimens. 

There are 15 offices located through- 
out the fourth-floor range that accommo- 
date staff, curator emeritus, research as- 
sociates, visitors, and the divisional 
library. Three additional rooms were 
recently insulated and cooled for storage 
of skins of large mammals. We also have 
a large walk-in freezer. 

In the past five years, loans, profes- 
sionals visitors, and visitor days have tre- 
bled. Nearly 200 publications resulting 
from study of our specimens have been 
produced in this period. 

Assistant Curator Timm is investigat- 
ing the coevolution of burrowing mam- 
mals and their ectoparasites. Curator 
Emeritus Philip Hershkovitz is working 
on the second volume of his Living New 
World Monkeys. 



To be continued next month 1 1 



BEHIND THE SCENES 




12 



The Field Museum has recently received a large collection of 
artifactual material from Nelson Bay Cave, South Africa. 
Here, volunteers Mary Robertson (left) and Kathryn Daskal 

For more than a Million Years human 
beings in Africa practiced a stone-working tradi- 
tion known as Acheulian. Then, more or less 
abruptly, someHme between 200,000 and 100,000 
years ago, this long-standing earlier tradition 
gave way to a very different set of stone indus- 
tries of the so-called "Middle Stone Age." The 
nature of the change from the Acheulian to the 
"Middle Stone Age" is obscure. 

It is not uncommon to find, in African 
sites, Acheulian material buried beneath de- 
posits containing the younger "Middle Stone 
Age" artifacts with no suggestion of transitional 
phases. Few localities have been found to have 
stratified sequences containing artifactual mate- 



get instruction from Glen Cole, Field Museum's curator of 
prehistory, on the classification of certain of the artifacts in 
preparation for cataloging. 

rial which might be regarded as transitional be- 
tween the Acheulian and a particular "Middle 
Stone Age" industrv. This situation has led to 
much speculation about the nature of the seem- 
inglv sudden demise of the Acheulian. Does its 
abrupt replacement in the stratigraphic column 
bv "Middle Stone Age" industries indicate that 
more modern people bearing an advanced 
technology had displaced the Acheulian 
toolmakers? 

Indeed, there is reason to suspect that this 
change in stone industries may eventually prove 
to be coincident with the disappearance of more 
archaic hominids (Homo ertxtus) and the appear- 
ance of Homo sapiens "on the scene. Or could it 



be that the newer stone-working technology, 
tor whatever reason, spread amongst the pre- 
existing human populations of Africa, replacing 
the older tradition so rapidly that little evidence 
has been retained in the archeological record? Or 
again, could it be that the Acheulian rather gen- 
erally developed into the various regional "Mid- 
dle Stone Age" industries but that this happened 
too quickly to permit resolution except in certain 
exceptional circumstances? 

Glen Cole, curator of prehistor\-, has long 
been interested in such questions and has under- 
taken, or has participated in, several excavations 
in eastern Africa that relate to the problem. In 
recent years, some of the artifacts recovered from 
these excax'ations have been acquired bv the 
Field Museum and are presently being cata- 
loged. In 1956 and 1957, Dr. Cole worked with 
two Field Museum research associates. Dr. F. 
Clark Howell, now with the University of 
California at Berkeley, and Dr. Maxine R. Klein- 
dienst, University of Toronto, on the Isimila Pre- 
historic Site in central Tanzania. Roughly half of 
the material collected at the Isimila site was kept 
in Tanzania. The remainder, until it was trans- 
ferred to the Field Museum four years ago, was 
housed at the University of Chicago. 

In 1961 and 1962, Cole, working on a Na- 
tional Science Foundation award, excavated at 
the Nsongezi Prehistoric Site on the Kagera River 
where it forms the border between Uganda and 
Tanzania. At this locality conditions of sedimen- 
tation were such that any transitional industry 
which might have existed should have been pre- 
served. Acheulian artifacts were found deeply 
buried on what had been an ancient shoreline of 
Lake Victoria. The thick deposits which overlie 
the Acheulian horizon contain many occurrences 
of "Middle Stone Age" artifact aggregates. Oc- 
currences were also found which include fea- 
tures suggestive of a transitional industry, but 
such findings tended to be under equivocal cir- 
cumstances. Further investigation is called for 
but, unfortunately, the delicate political situation 
in this area in recent years has made field work 
there infeasible. 

The Field Museum's holdings in the area 
of African prehistory in general had been weak 
before the acquisition of the large Isimila collec- 
tion, and had remained so for the "Middle Stone 
Age." This situation was much improved by a 
gift from the University of Chicago in 1979: a very 
large quantity of well documented artifactual 
material from the Nelson Bay Cave site on the 
South African coast between Capetown and Port 
Elizabeth, which was excavated by Dr. Richard 
Klem of the University of Chicago. Several vol - 
unteers have been recruited recently to assist 
with the cataloging of this material. D 




Above: Louva Calhoun, Field Museum associate, has prepared for publication a 
large number of illustrations of stone artifacts from the Isimila Prehistoric Site in 
Tanzania and is now engaged in the cataloging of that collection . Here she is drawing 
a stone tool for its catalog card. Beloiv: Glen Cole examines a quartzite tool which he 
excavated at the Nsongezi site in Uganda. The Field Museum received from the 
Oregon State Museum of Anthropology in 1979 a small collection of Nsongezi 
artifacts, which are now being cataloged. 
ms 




THE TIPI 

A Cultural 

luterprt^tation 

onts Desigu 

By Tern/ Straus 



The house form ot the nomadic tribes of the 
Americcin Great Plains was the tipi; the 

native horticulturalists of the eastern 
plains also used the tipi when they left their earth 
lodge villages to hunt the buffalo, especially in 
the summer months. Details of the tipis varied 
from tribe to tribe, but it was essentially a skin 
tent consisting of a conical pole framework built 
on a base of either three or four "foundation 
poles" bound together several feet from the top 
with rawhide. The cover of the tipi ct)nsisted 
essentialh' of 8 to 12 tanned buffalo hides sewn 
together with sinew. The cover was wrapped 
around the frame from the back, and the front 
seam fastened above the entrance with pins of 
wood or bone. The entrance itself was covered 
with a rawhide door. Stones secured the tipi 
cover at the ground, and flaps sewn to the cover 
by the smoke hole at the top were attached to 
long poles by which they were opened or closed. 
In contemporar\' tipis, canvas replaces the buf- 
falo hides and nylon thread replaces the sinew, 
but the design and construction is otherwise the 
same. 

The tipi was remarkably well adapted to 
the plains environment and to the nomadic, 
buffalo-hunting lifcwav of its inhabitants. In de- 
sign, its curving lines helped the tipi withstand 
the typically high winds when other structures 
suffered damage. With prevailing winds from 
the west, the tipi entrance was always to the east, 
maximizing protection. The tipi was warm in the 
winter and cool in the summer. An interior lining 
of buffalo hides tied to the poles provided excel- 
lent insulation in the coldest months, and the 
central fire uniformly heated the living space and 
pro\'ided for cooking. 

The smoke hole above the fireplace at the 
front part of the tipi top allowed the smoke to 
escape (cotlonwood logs, which created the least 



Dr. Terry Straus teaches Native American Studies at the 
University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus. 



smoke, were preferred). The smoke hole could 
be covered bv the large flaps sewn next to it for 
protection from rain or snow and those same 
flaps served as windbreaks for the interior of the 
dwelling when the\' were raised. The cover itself 
was partially waterproofed at the top by the 
smoke, which left ^i protecti\'e coating around 
the smoke hole. 

In the summer, women cooked outside 
and removed the insulating cover from the inside 
of the tipi. They also removed the stones and 
rolled up the bottom of the tipi cover, allowing 
air to circulate through the structure; the open 
smoke hole also provided for circulation in the 
summer months. The whole tipi could be rapidh' 
disassembled, was lightweight and easily trans- 
portable. As with the rest of High Plains material 
culture, there were no fragile parts, everything 
travelled well. The cedar poles were transported 
as well as the cover (which was easily folded and 
packed for travel), since wood was so scarce in 
the plains. The poles were bound ttigether at one 
end and secured across the back of a horse, thus 
forming the traivif, which carried the tipi cover, 
personal bek)ngings, and often children or the 
elderly from camp to camp. 

The functional utility and environmental 
fit of the tipi are indeed impressive. But, like the 
earth lodge, this Plains Indian home did more 
than shelter its inhabitants; it provided them 
with a domestic space which both reflected and 
taught about the larger world, thus offering a 
secure refuge in which to prepare for and re- 
group from life in that world. 



Cheyenne tipi with paintings depicting special events in 

family history. 





^..*??ll*^. 



iJtiiK 






The ground plan of the tipi is circular, cir- 
cumscribing a space consistent with everything 
its inhabitants know and feel about the world. As 
Lame Deer, a Siouan medicine man, explained: 

Nature wants things to be round. The bodies 
of human beings and animals have no corners. 
With us the circle stands for the togetherness 
of people who sit with one another around a 
campfire, relatives and friends united in peace 
while the pipe passes from hand to hand. The 
camp in which every tipi had its place was also 
a ring. The tipi was a ring in which people sat 
in a circle and all the families in the village 
were in turn circles within a larger circle, part 
of the larger hoop which was the seven 
campfires of the Sioux, representing one na- 
tion. The nation was only a part of the uni- 
verse, in itself circular and made of the earth, 
which is round, of the sun, which is round, of 
the stars, which are round. The moon, the 
horizon, the rainbow — circles within circles, 
with no beginning and no end. To us this is 
beautiful and fitting, symbol and reahty at the 
same time, expressing the harmony of life and 
nature. Our circle is timeless, flowing: it is 
new life emerging from death — life winning 
out over death.* 

The tipi circle enhances the solidarity of 



the family within, setting it off from everything 
outside the circle. Within the circle is security, 
meaning, order, and power; outside there is only 
being lost. The center holds the circle together, 
the central fire holds the family together. The 
center is understood to be specially powerful and 
must be respected. The power of the center, of 
the fire, is such that one must not sleep with his 
head or feet pointing towards it; it may over- 
whelm him: (You will get a headache if you 
sleep that wav.") The special relationship of each 
individual to the fire, the domestic center, must 
be respected; one must not pass between the fire 
and an individual who is smoking/praying in the 
tipi. The fire is the focus of these prayers, carry- 
ing them up in its smoke through the smoke hole 
to the Above World and the spirit persons which 
inhabit it. Each individual, whether he stands, 
sits, or sleeps on the circumference of the domes- 
tic circle, shares that fire as his "center," his 
heart, his focus. 

As Lame Deer, the Siouan Medicine man, 
makes very clear, the circle has/is motion. It 
is "with no beginning and no end . . . flowing . . . 
new life emerging from death." The flow follows 
the sun, beginning in the east and proceeding 



Painted and decorated 
Arapaho tipis, on site of 
St. Louis World's Fair 
of 1904. 



"Lame Deer, Lame Deer, Seeker df Visions (Neu' York, 
Simon & Sihuster, 1976), p. 100. 



15 



Unpaittted /4ssfMibi)/>if 
tipis including one 
without coi'cr. Decora- 
tive medallion on man's 
trade blanket shou'S cir- 
cular motif and cross 
symbolizing the four 
directions. 




clockwise, "sunwise" to the south, the west, the 
north, and returning again to the east to begin a 
new cycle. Just as winter follows the fall, so the 
rejuvenation of spring follows the winter, "life 
emerging from death, life winning out over 
death." As with the seasons, the davs and life 
itself, time, which is the rh\thm of these things, 
is cyclical, nonprogressive, and in this way, 
"timeless." 

In this view of life, the \'er\- old and the 
very young have a special relationship, and there 
is a strong unarticulated sense of generational 
and sometimes individual reincarnation. Sleep- 
ing arrangements in the tipi reflect the contiguitv 
of ver\- old and very young. The voungest prop- 
erly slept with their mothers near the door of the 
tipi — in the east, place of dawn, of newness, 
while the oldest slept towards the north, repre- 
senting their relationship both to the mature 
adulthood of the lodge head (and his favorite 
wife), who slept to the west in the honored place 
of the tipi, and to the new life which developed 



again in the east; old and \i)ung were spatially 
linked as they were understood to be linked in 
the c\xie of life as defined in Plains culture. 

The Four Directions were symbolically as- 
sociated with the seasons, the days, the stages of 
life, the quadrants of the body, the qualities of 
individuals, the colors of the earth. They pro- 
vided the sacred, primal, and essential organiza- 
tion of the world in Plains culture — that which, 
in their creation stories, makes order out of 
chaos, culture out of nature. Four is the "magic 
number" into which all things seem naturally 
and properlv divided. Virtuallv all domains of 
Plains life can be seen to reflect this fourfold 
order of things: 

In former times the Lakota grouped all their 
activities b\' fours. This was because they rec- 
ognized four directions: the west, the north, 
the east, and the south; four divisions of time: 
the day, the night, the moon, and the year; 
four parts in everything that grows from the 



ground: the roots, the stem, the leaves, and 
the fruit; four kinds of things that breathe: 
those that crawl, those that fl\', those that walk 
on four legs, and those that walk on two legs; 
four things above the world: the sun, the 
moon, the sky, and the stars; four kinds of 
gods: the great, the associates of the great, the 
gods below them, and the spiritkind; four 
periods of human life: bab\'hood, childhood, 
adulthood, and old age; and finallv, mankind 
has four fingers on each hand, four toes on 
each foot and the thumbs and the great toes 
taken together form four. Since the Great 
Spirit caused everything to be in fours, man- 
kind should do everything possible in fours.* 
This plan must be seen to reflect the de- 
sign of the medicine wheel which, outlined in 
stones on the sacred mountain, defined the 
world; it also outlined the actual path of the vi- 
sion seeker, directing his pravers towards each of 
the Four Directions, beginning in the east, in his 
effort to gain insight into the great circle of being. 
The medicine wheel with the symbolic associa- 
tions suggested above may be understood as a 
sort of "master symbol" of Plains Indian culture, 
summarizing Plains Indian world view and re- 
vealing the proper order of things as defined in 
Plains Indian culture. The ground plan of the tipi 
is clearlv neither accidental nor purely func- 
tional; it feels right to its inhabitants because it is 
in harmonv with the world as they have come to 
know it. 

The tipi as a whole is sometimes as- 
sociated with the human body, domestic space 
and personal space being intimately linked. The 
support poles may be referred to as its "back- 
bone," the flaps as its "ears." The body is most 
commonly conceptualized as female: women 
own tipis, domestic space is woman's space, and 
the tipi itself ma\' be seen to resemble a woman in 
the native position for childbirth, arms out- 
stretched to clutch two upright poles, her dress 
(made from a hide formerlv part of a tipi cover) 
covering her squatting body, the new life emerg- 
ing through the entrance from within her. But 
contemporary artists such as Richard West 
(Cheyenne) suggest a relationship as well be- 
tween the form of the tipi and the figure of a man, 
arms outstretched in prayer. 

The triangular form of the tipi is s\'mboli- 
cally associated with mountains, which them- 
selves are represented b\' triangles in geometric 
designs beaded or quilled b\' the women. The 
height of a mountain brings it in closer contact 
with the Above World and makes it a good place 
to go to seek guidance from those powerful per- 

7. R. Walker, "Oglala Metaphysics," Dennis and Barbara 

Tcdlock, cds., Teachings from the American Karth fA/cic 
York, Livcright, 1975). p. 215. 



sons who inhabit the Above World. The smoke 
hole of the tipi, like the apex of the symbolic 
mountain, is the closest place in this world to the 
"reflected world" beyond; indeed, it may pro- 
vide a kind of fulcrum for that reflection. 
Situated above the central fire, itself a focus of 
power within the tipi, the smoke hole is the 
intersection of the prayers/ smoke going up and 
the blessings coming down from the Above Per- 
sons (analogous in this way to the crotch of the 
center pole in the Sun Dance lodge). The apex 
of the tipi is a common locus of visions in cere- 
mcinies held within the tipi. 

The location of tipis within a camp further 
explicates the symbolic associations, the mean- 
ings of spatial arrangements in Plains culture. In 
the old days, the whole tribe came together only 
for a few months during the summer; for the rest 
of the year families scattered into bands of close 
relatives and friends, following the buffalo 
which also dispersed in search of grass. When 
the tribe camped together, the plan of the camp 
mirrored the ground plan of the individual tipi. 

In the center was a large ceremonial hut 
and/or tribal fire, represented in purely social 
gatherings today by the pow-wow arbor. To the 
west — place of honor — the tipi which held the 
sacred tribal objects was located along with the 
tipis of the keepers of those objects. The entrance 
to the camp was an opening to the east, and ritual 
motion within the camp circle (the herald riding 
around with the news of the day, for example) 
was all clockwise, sunwise, from east to south to 
west to north. Within the circle, the separate 
bands of the tribe tended to camp together, 
maintaining the same relative position year after 
year, and individual family tipis could be recog- 
nized by position as well as by identifying de- 
signs or stories painted on their covers. The 
whole tribe, thus arrayed, formed a kind of huge 
tipi. The members think and speak of themselves 
as a unit, a family, and the spatial arrangement 
contributes tc^ that feeling of kinship and solidar- 
ity. It is no great surprise that such camps en- 



Sioux tipis, ifith wa- 
gons, which replaced 
the travois. 





Tipi models hi Hall 6. Above: Plains Indian villagi': below, 
hit: buffalo-hide model made by Cheyenne; below, right: 
model made bu Cheyenne, u'ith pictographs of battle scenes. 





couraged tribal feeling and emboldened young 
warriors before major battles. 

The Plains Indian tipi, in its plan, orienta- 
tion, and location, supports and informs the 
order of things as they are understood in the 
Plains Indian way. Public and ceremonial struc- 
tures — the sweat lodge, the Sun Dance lodge, 
and the summer pow-wow arbor, for example — 
can similarly be seen to reflect native cosmology. 
The same arrangements of space recur continu- 
ally throughout Plains Indian life. These ar- 
rangements teach about the order of the world, 
reflect the organization of the cosmos, and sup- 
port the position of the individual within the 
tribal communit\'. The elements of organization 
of the tipi are the elements of all organization in 
the Plains Indian world, the arrangements 
deemed necessar}' to consistency, harmony, and 
adjustment within the cosmos. 

The cultural constitution of architectural 
space within the tipi is poignantly reflected in 
one Northern Cheyenne woman's view of the 
changes imposed upon her people by federal aid 
and regulation of reservation homes. She speaks 
of three main stages of domestic architecture on 
the reservation: native tipis, one-room log hous- 
es, and multiroomed plank houses. 

The first changes came slowly. When, in 
the early reservation days, a Northern Cheyenne 
agent suggested the rectangular, one-room log 
house as an alternative and an improvement 
upon the native tipi, the only person who could 
be persuaded to try it was a chief who used the 
sample log structure to house his horse. Eventu- 
ally, however, as the buffalo disappeared and 
the lifeway changed, the sedentary log hc^iuse 
became predominant on the reservation. Many 
such houses remain in use today on the Northern 
Cheyenne and other reservations in the Plains as 
well as elsewhere throughout the country. 

The log house presented certain func- 
tional problems. It was hot in the summer and 
cold in the winter, lacking the perquisites of the 
tipi to adjust to the seasonal changes. Whereas 
the tipi had an internal insulating sheet for cold 
weather, the log house was hard to insulate, 
though many tried to solve the problem by stuf- 
fing newspapers in the ceiling and the cracks. 
Wind whistled through the cracks in the wall 
mortar and the roof leaked. Moreover, the house 
was small; the tipi had allowed more people to 
live together comfortably and without the sense 
of crowding that became so evident in the log 
house. The reduced height of the log house made 
its inhabitants feel further hemmed in — "boxed" 
in rectangular space, as it were. 

But there were other kinds of problems with 
the log house as well: it simply didn't feci right. It 
had no center, no common focus from which 



each inhabitant was equidistant and equally re- 
lated. Though it enclosed a domestic group it 
was improper domestic space; there were parts 
of the dwelling, with its angular borders, which 
could not be accommodated within a circle. The 
orientation towards the Four Directions was 
often ignored in favor of orientations towards 
"streets" or paths deemed necessary by the 
agents, and there was no height and no high 
point, no apex to lift prayers up and to funnel 
blessings down from the Spirits Above. The log 
house was out of sync with the rest of the world 
and the home was no longer supportive, restora- 
tive in its organization. 

Inside the log house, even today, native 
efforts to reproduce the feeling of the tipi are 
clear. The stove is always in the center of the 



Painted canvas tipi 
(Blackfoot). showing 
smoke flaps, bone pins 
securing front seam, 
and xeooden pegs hold- 
ing tipi cover to 
ground. 




\ 




cover to foundation 
poles in hack. 



Crou-tipi showing rope structure, the chimnev extending through the 
(left) used to secure roof ^f jtg highest point. Around the stove, along 
the perimeter of the house, are the beds; and the 
corners, outside the domestic circle but inside 
the house, may ser\'e as storage spaces. There is 
an apparent effort to forge circular domestic 
space out of the angular architectural form; but 
the full power of the circle as expressed in the 
dwelling itself has been lost. 

Although with the log house domestic 
space came to resemble that of the white home- 
steaders, it did retain Indian organization and it 
did allow for the maintenance of family cohe- 
siveness. At night, the old people, crowded into 
their cabins with the others, could still tell their 
stories and share their experiences within the 
domestic unit. There were no paintings on the 
walls of the cabin to proclaim family histor\-, but 
that histon.- was still told and retold and tribal 
traditions were similarly repeated and ex- 
plained. In the next stage even this was lost, and 
the new house is understood as at least partially 
responsible for, partialh- a sign of, the ultimate 



20 



decline in tribal traditions. 

Mass-produced federal prefabricated 
housmg eventually replaced many of the log 
houses on this and other reservations. The 
Bureau of Indian Affairs house, following federal 
design and values, "improved" upon the log 
house primarily through room division and in- 
crease in size; prisacv was understood to be es- 
sential to domestic planning. This plank house 
has itself gone through several changes. Indoor 
plumbing and propane heating have been added 
in most cases. But the division of separate bed- 
rooms, kitchen, and living room is common to 
them all. The home thus provided for a family 
divided and a family divided pro\ed a poor unit 
for the transmission of cultural and personal her- 
itage. Stories told at night bv the old people 
could not be shared in the same wa\-, and often 
were not even heard by the young ones in their 
separate room, asleep before the rest. There was 
no way to create a center, a focus to hold them 
together and provide direction and security to 
the individual members. Interestingly, in times 
of family crisis or distress, family members 
commonly abandon their private sleeping quar- 
ters, preferring to sleep together in the main 
room on couches, chairs, or even the floor. The 
old arrangement still gives the most support and 
is revised in troubled times. 

The division of the family home accom- 
panied and supported the decline of tradition in 
the view of at least one Northern Chevenne wo- 
man, and her view is important in that it ex- 
presses the feeling of many that the imposed 
architecture was inappropriate to the Chey- 
enne/Plains world. It was uncomfortable for its 
inhabitants and could not provide the traditional 
support which the tipi had brought them. 

For the inhabitants of the tipi, which re- 
mained the preferred dwelling at ceremonies 
and social dances today, the home is a kind of 
microcosm, a representation of the order of the 
macrocosmic world. Traditional architectural de- 
sign reflected native cosmology; it also taught it. 
In design, orientarion, placement, and even dec- 
oration, the tipi, like the earth lodge, revealed to 
its inhabitants important things about the cos- 
mos and about their own lives. The disruption of 
traditional architecture exacerbated a feeling of 
displacement and despair. 

The relationship between architectural 
design and world view — the symbolic associa- 
tion and analogies, are perhaps more obvious in 
small-scale societies; but, however complex, 
these associations are also evident in contempo- 
rary- urban America. Architectural design does 
not develop in a vacuum; it is guided by cultural 
\aluation and in turn communicates that valua- 
tion to the individuals who live in and around it. 



Receptacul it ids: 

Organisms that Perished a 

Quarter-Billion Years 

Ago Are Studied by 

Visitmg Scientist 



Advances in Science sometimes seem to occur in 
small jumps, unnoticed at first but recognized 
later when history appears shortened in perspec- 
tive. When viewed from the present, such indi- 
vidual jumps added together appear revolution- 
ary; however, at their conception they are 
nothing but hypotheses proposed to best explain 
events. The study of growth in extinct organisms 
fits well into this category. 

For more than 15 years Professor Siegfried 
Rietschel, director of the State Natural History 
Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany, has been en- 
gaged in the patient examination of the nature 
and growth of receptaculitids, organisms that 
spanned almost a quarter-billion years of the 
Phanerozoic (that part of geologic time repre- 
sented by rocks in which the evidence of life is 
abundant). They became extinct some 250 mil- 
lion years ago and are still of uncertain biological 
affinities. Field Museum's collection of these very 
ancient organisms is the world's largest, both in 
the number of specimens as well as in geographic 
coverage. 

The deciphering of the growth pattern of 
receptaculitids required a construction of a 
model in which the prevailing interpretation of 
the nature of these fossils was entirely reversed. 
Instead of considering them animals, Rietschel 
proposes that they were plants; they ceased to 
move and became capable of photosynthesis! 
Many subsequent additional small jumps were 
made: the interpretation of the ecology of recep- 
taculitids, the discovery of the nature of their 
skeletons, the attempts to formulate the system 
of classification; but above all else the history of 
plant life was greatly enlarged, and the gap in the 
knowledge was substantially filled. 



Today, research on the growth of recep- 
taculitids, thanks to Rietschel, is highly rated, 
and the excitement of this work is second to 
none. Professor Rietschel's study on such diverse 
organisms as algae, sponges, conodonts, and 
Archeopteryx, the first bird, may be regarded as 
additional jumps in what is now a well known 
interpretation. His recent paper on recep- 
taculitids is an impressive contribution, with 
numerous technical drawings and charts, and it 
forms the basis of many other important research 
problems in evolutionary biology. The paper is 
not easy reading, because of the new scientific 
terminology that Rietschel had to invent; 
nevertheless, it is intellectually rewarding. 

Dr. Rietschel is now at the Field Museum as a 
visiting scientist in the Department of Geology, 
where 1 am participating with him in his analysis 
of the growth of fossil organisms. From this sci- 
entific camaraderie is emerging an understand- 
ing of one of the most fascinating fossils in the 
fossil record. The knowledge of previously un- 
recognized plants will, when completed, pro- 
vide insight into many secrets of the evolution of 
life and of life communities and their growth. 

—Matthew H. Nitccki 
Curator of Invertebrates 



Siegfried Rietsehel 



Dr. Siegfried Rietsehel's research at Field Museum is 
under proz'isions of the Visiting Scientist Program, 
initiated in 1979. The program sponsored two scien- 
tists in 1979 and eight in 1980, including five from 
U.S. institutions, one from Canada, one from France, 
and one from England. 




21 



Field Museura Tours for Members 



Papua New Guinea 

May 1-17 
Tbur Price: $4,461 

Papua New Guinea is unique on the face of the planet Earth. For 

milleiiia (or untold time) a diwrsity of contrasting cultures has 
nourished here within small areas tx-cause of the isolation 
imposed bv n.igged terrain oliiiountains and jungles, and be- 
cause of hostilities IxMween the many different jx-oples. Largely 
unknown to each other and to the outside world they coexisted, 
each in a communal environment sufficient unto itself Only 
since contact with modern industrial societA' has this ist)lation 
Ix'en broken, making it }X)ssible tor \'isitors to explore and 
exclaim over the natural wonders of this Edenlike paradise. 

It is one of the most remarkable — and last — reservoirs of 
animal, reptile, in.sect, and bird life to be tbunii anwhcre. But 
most of all, Papua New Guinea presents a variet}- of cultures and 
art of such freshness and color it holds a fascination beyond all 
else. 

The Sepik Ri\'er is a monster waterway draining a \'ast area 
of grassland, swampi, and jungle in its serpentine circuit. We 
will cnii.sc the Sepik, reaching into the past in remote regions 
where the \illagers still travel in tradition dugout canoes. 

Our lecturer. Dr. Phillip Lewis, curator, primitive art and 
Melanesian ethnolog\-, will escort the tour from Chicago, and 
share his knowledge of the varied arts and cultures ot Melanesia. 
In addition, our Sepik director, Jeff Le\'ersidge, a well-known 
}X'rs<inalitv on the Sepik and R^imu Ri\ers, and ver\' knowledge- 
able about the diverse cultures, arts, and customs of the Sepik 
regions, will lecture the group during the cruise and shore 
e.xcursions. 

Accommodations on board the newly refurbished Melan- 
esian Explorer are modern and comlbrtable. Passengers are 
housed in air-conditioned twin-bunked cabins, each with pri- 
vate bath. 



tour includes the fascininating cities of Lima, Cuzco, Trujillo, 
Puno, a train trip to fabulous Maclui Picchu, and four full days 
in La Paz. 

Dr. Alan L. Kolata, \isiting a.ssistant curator of South 
American archeolog\- and ethnolog)-, and project director, Field 
Museum Exj)editions to Bolivia, will accompany the tour mem- 
liers during the entire trip. Dr. Michael E. Moseley, associate 
curator ofMiddlc and South American archeolog)' and ethnol- 
og\', who for the past ten years has directed large-scale projects 
on the north coast of Peru, will Join the group when we \isit his 
area of research. 

Kenya and the Seychelles 

September 12-October 3 
Tour Piice: $3,750 

There Is Now, as there has always lieen, an aura of myster}' 
surrounding Africa — Tropical islands and the coast, endless 
palm-fringed beaches, snow-capf)ed mountains on the equator, 
jungle primeval, sun-baked plains. They are all a part of East 
Africa. The wildlife . . . the stately processions of elephant and 
giraffe, prides of lion, the beautiful and rare leopard, the elegant 
cheetah, the magnificent migration of the wildebeest and 
zebra. Onl\- here in East Africa is there still such diversity'. 

The itinerarv includes a daytime stopover in London, over- 
nights at the Nairobi Hilton, Mt. Lodge Tree Hotel, Samburu 
Game Lodge, Mount Kenya Safari Club, Lake Hotel (at Lake 
Naivasha), Governors Camp (Ma.sai Mara Game Reserve), and 
other first class accommodations. Three days in the Seychelles 
Islands and an overnight stay in London will conclude the trip. 

Tour lecturer will be Audrey Faden, a nati\'e Kenyan, who 
fbrmerlv served as Officer in Charge of Education at the 
National Museum of Kenva, Nairobi. 



Peru and Bolivia: 1981 ^"^"^^ Archeology 



October 15->Jo\ ember 1 
Tour Price: $3,100 

A Different Experience! A Diflerent World! From the fabulous 
Incas, through Spanish Colonial times to the modern cities of 
todav — vet maintaining its Latin charm. Youll love the green 
fertile \allevs along the .sandv desert coast of Peru; the highest 
railroad in the world; crossing Titicaca, the world's highest 
na\igable lake by hydrofoil; firing over the Nazca plains. Our 



May 31-June 5 

For the third consecutive year Field Museum is offering an 
archeological field trip which will visit Dickson Mounds, 
Kam[).sville, and Cahokia Mounds. Limited to 30 participants, 
the trip includes site \'isits, lecture and slide presentations, 
workshops and discussions led by staff archeologists working at 
the respecti\e sites. The field trip director is Robert Pickering, 
anthropologist and archeologist who led the 1979 and 1980 field 
trips. 



I^Ifieli^ 

MLSErXI 
TIX'RS 



22 



For itineraries, brochures, or general tour infonnation, please 
call tlie Tour Office, 322-8862, or write Dorotlxy Roder, Field 
Museum Tours, Roosei'elt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 
60605. 



Reception Honors 1980 Volunteers 



The 1980 Volunteer Recognitiim Receptit)n, held on Feb- 
ruary 18, 1981, hosted volunteers, staff, and their guests to a 
lively evening of cocktails and a buffet dinner. Preceding the 
award-giving, the chairman of the board, Mr. William G. 
Swartchild, Jr., and the president, Mr. E. Leland Webber, 
spoke of the valuable contributions made by volunteers to 
Field Museum. The director. Dr. Lorin 1. Nevling, Jr., then 
honored those \'olunteers with .SOO hours or more and per- 
sonallv presented them \\ ith indi\'idual gifts, tokens of our 
appreciation for their work. A short program prepared by 
staff presented a review of Field Museum animals on 
parade. Volunteer Coordinator Victoria Grigelaitis, con- 
cluded the program with comments on the impact of volun- 
teer work throughout the entire Museum. The remaining 
gifts were then distributed to the volunteers. 

This yearly event acknowledged the 43,343 hours 
contributed by 290 volunteers who worked throughout the 



Museum in a great variety of capacities. They assisted with 
collection maintenance, specimen preparation, library activ- 
ities, scientific research projects, conducted educational 
programs seven days a week, identified uncataloged speci- 
mens, photographed, typed, and performed other diver- 
sified work. 

Additional hours were earned by the temporary ex- 
hibit volunteers. Sixty volunteers contributed 3,084 hours to 
"The Gold of El Dorado" exhibit, and 105 volunteers added 
5,011 hours for "The Great Bronze Age of China." The 
Museum was the recipient of a total of 51,438 hours, which 
translates into the ec]uivalent of 25 full-time staff persons. 
These hours reflect a tangible community commitment to 
the Museum. The 1980 Volunteer Recognition Reception 
acknowledges the volunteers who so substantially gave of 
their time, energy, and skills toward the realization of Field 
Museum's goals. 



Special Recognition 



Over 500 Hours 

Lorna Gonzales (967 hours): Education: conducted English and 
Spanish programs on geology and anthropology to school groups; 
assisted with Summer Fun, Winter Fun, and Kroc Field Trips; 
assisted with visitor services with "The Gold of El Dorado" and 
"The Great Bronze Age of China" exhibits. 

James Swartchild (754 hours): Anthropology; photographed speci- 
mens. 

Roger Larson '(664 hours): Administration; interim Museum Shop 
manager; reviewed, analyzed grant-related and other special 
projects. 

Connie Crane (622 hours): Anthropology: did research for the 
Northwest Coast Project (Hall 10). 

Llois Stein (614 hours): Anthropology: researched and cataloged 
collection from Biah Islands, Irian Saya (Dutch New Guinea). 

Sol Century (612 hours): Antliropology; accessioned and cataloged 
in general projects in Asian Division. 

David Weiss (585 hours): Anthropology; administrative assistant in 
Asian Division; responsible for overseeing loans; miscellaneous 
correspondence, special projects. 

Carolyn Moore (584 hours): Anthropology: special projects 
researcher in Asian Division. 

Frank Greene, Jr. (581 hours): Geology; collected Mazon Creek 
specimens, keeping records of their distribution in the field. 

James Burd (544 hours): Anthropology; accessioned and cataloged 
in general departmental projects in Asian Division. 

Peter Gayford (543 hours): Anthropology: administrative assistant 
in Middle Eastern Archeology; assisted in study and organization 
of Egyptian predynastic and Old Kingdom artifacts. 

Carol Landow (543 hours): Education; instructed school groups and 
Museum visitors in Place for Wonder; introduced innovative 
teaching methods; (winner of Chicago's 1480 Volunteer Service 
Award for "Outstanding Volunteer" in the area of Cultural Arts). 

Margaret Martling (500 hours): Botany: organized collections in 
botany library; assisted with indices for publications. 



Over 400 Hours 

John Bayalis': Botany and Photography; pulled botany negatives 
and prints, printed them; general photography printing. 

William Bentley: Anthropology: photographed artifacts in Asian 
Anthropology. 

Halina Goldsmith: Education; conducted programs for school 
groups and visitors in Place For Wonder; assisted with visitor 
services for "The Gold of El Diirado" and "The Great Bronze Age 
of China" exhibits. 

Steve Sroka: Geology: curated Mazon Creek bivalves; consolidated 
and identified uncataloged material. 

Patricia Talbot: Geology; enlarged photographs of fossils in geology • 
darkroom for forthcoming book; did library bibliographic refer- 
ences. 

Robbie Webber: Anthropology; researched effects of plate tectonics 
on precolumbian peoples in Peru; indexed, edited articles, com- 
piled material for articles in preparation. 

Over 300 Hours 

Dennis Bara:Mi'wf'crs/»;); weekend membership representative. 

Louise Brown: Botany: bibliographic work, assisted curator with 
preparation of liverworts for herbarium. 

Sophie Ann Brunner: Zoology; Amphibians and Reptiles; skinned, 
skeletonized, labeled and boxed specimens. 

Louva Calhoun: Anthropology; cataloged Acheulian artifacts from 
prehistoric site in Tanzania; numbered, measured, and made 
drawings of the specimens. 

James Currey: Zoology: Mammals; skinned, tleshed specimens. 

Evelyn Gottlieb: Education; conducted Weekend Discovery tours, 
assisted with visitor services with "The Gold of El Doratio" and 
"The Great Bronze Age of China" exhibits. 



* Deceased 



23 



1980 Volunteers 
Over 300 Hours 

Cecilv Gregory: Geology: inventiiried Sedimentary Rock, General 
Geology and Economic Geology collections; cataloged specimens. 

Sol Gurewitz: Aiithropolo\;\i: curatorial assistant, photographer in 
Asian Anthropology. 

Ciaxton Howard: Library; filed records and correspondence; typed 
and shelved materials. 

Shirlev Kennedy: Education; conducted programs for school 
groups and visitors in Pawnee Earth Lodge; assisted with visitor 
services with "The Gold of El Dorado" and "The Great Bronze Age 
of China" exhibits. 

Anne Leonard: Anthropology; co-curated "Patterns of Paradise" 
exhibit, and the catalog, antl label cop\'; worked on photographic 
records and prepared exhibit f\)r shipment. 

Withrow Meeker: Anthropology; prepared loan specimens; special 
projects in Asian Division. 

Norman Nelson: Administration; diversified projects involving 
physical plant. 



1980 Volunteers 



Louise Neuert; Anthropologi/; retrieved and cleaned specimens, 
made costume mounts in Northwest Coast project (Hall 10). Educa- 
tion; information services assistant for "The Gold of El Dorado" 
exhibit. 

Ernest Newton: Antliropology; phcitographed artifacts in Asian Di- 
vision. 

Gary Ossewaarde: Education; conducted, researched Weekend 
Discovery tours in anthropology and geology; introduced 
Weekend Discovery film features. 

Elizabeth Rada: Botany; typed and edited cryptogamic manuscripts 
for publication. 

Helen Ruch: Building Operations; cared for and maintained living 
plants in Museum. 

James Skorcz: Library; helped fill interlibrary loan requests from 
outside libraries, filed cards in catalog, compiled statistics, special 
projects. 

Lorain Stephens: Zoology; Birds; prepared manuscript for a series 
of "Ornithological Gazetteers of South America," completed the 
gazetteer for Peru . 



Laura Abou-Shaaban 
Bruce Ahlborn 
John Ahrens 
Victor Algmin 
Carrie Anderson 
Cleo Anderson 
Robert Anderson 
Dolores Arbanas 
Judy Armstrong 
HarPi- Ault 
Beverly Baker 
Dennis Bara 
Lucia Barba 
Gwen Barnett 
Sanda Bauer 
Dodie Baumgarten 
Johin Bayalis 
Martha Bavs 
Virginia Boattv 
Marvin Benjamin 
Phoebe Bentley 
William Bentley 
Patricia Bercher 
Robin Berkson 
Ruth Blazina 
Riva Blechman 
Sharon Boemmel 
Doris Bohl 
Idessie Bowcns 
Hermann Bowersox 
Susan Bovnton 
Carol Briscoe 
Louise Brown 
Kathryn Briggs 
Jonathan Brookner 
Jean Brund r 
Sophie Ann Urunner 
John Brzuskiewich 
Rose Buchanan 
Teddy Buddington 
Man' Ann Bulanda 
James Burd 
Barbara Burkhardt 
Ann Butterfield 
24 Louva Calhoun 



Robert Cantu 
Cathe Casperson 
Sol Centura- 
June Chomsky 
Linden Chubin 
Margaret Chung 
Ilona Cinis 
Susan Cohen 
Lillian Comstock 
Judith Cottle 
Connie Crane 
William Crowe 
Velta Cukers 
Jim Currey 
Lleanor DeKoven 
Carol Deutsch 
Marianne Diekman 
Lisa Dorn 
Monica Dubina 
Robert Dunlavev 
Stanley Dvorak 
Milada Dybas 
Lynn Dyer 
Kathleen Early 
Alice Eckley 
Anne Ekman 
Agatha Elmes 
Adrian Esselstrom 
Nancy Evans 
Dervila Fennel 
Vaughn Fitzgerald 
Norma Fiizwater 
Ginny Foreman 
Gerda Frank 
Patricia Franks 
Arden Frederick 
Peter Gayford 
Helen Gayner 
Anne Gelman 
Nancy Gerson 
Irving Oilman 
ElizalTeth-Louise Cirardi 
Pamela Gold 
Halina Goldsmith 
Lorna Gonzales 




Pawnee Earth Lodge Volunteers (left to right): K. Urnezis, j. Nelson, A. Hagan, M. Hall, 
]. Sherry, V. Grigelaitis, W. Sherry. 

Weekend Discover}/ Program Volunteers, left to right (back row): M. McCollam, M. Bulanda, 
N. Evans, C. Ossewaarde, R. Parker, C. Briscoe, /. O'Boye; (front row): V. Grigelaitis (volunteer 
coordinator), L. Chubin, L. Sandberg, C. Nachtrab, L. Gonzales, S. Gonzales 




Steven Gonzales 
David Gordon 
Judv Gordon 
Helen Gornstein 
Evelvn Gottlieb 
Ophilia Gratz 
Frank Green, Jr. 
Loretta Green 
Cecily Gregor\' 
Ann Grimes 
Sol Gureuitz 
Diane Gutenkaut 
Bernadette Guzzy 
Sylvia Haag 
Dorothv Haber 
Charles Hadala 
Michael Hall 
Elizabeth Hamilton 
Jim Hanson 
Susan Hasse 
VVallv Hastings 
Shirley Haths 
Jane Healy 
Richard Heaps 
Mar\' Pat Helmus 
Joseph Hennessey 
Patricia Hevmann 
Audrev Hiller 
Vicki Hlavacek 
April Hohol 
Izabella Horvath 
Claxton Howard 
Ruth Howard 
Adrienne Hurwitz 
Lucinda Hutchison 
Janet Hvde 
Ellen Hvndman 
Darrvl Isaacson 
Tom Israel 
Judith Johnson 
Mabel Johnson 
Paul Johnson 
Malcolm Jones 
Dan Joyce 
Carol Kacin 
Carole Kamber 
Elizabeth Kaplan 
Dorothy Karall 
Dorothy Kathan 
Myrette Katz 
Ruth Keller-Pehtti 
Shirley Kennedy 
Barbara Keune 
Elizabeth Kimball 
Mar|orie King 
Dennis Kinzig 
Judy Kirby 
Alida Klaud 
Rosemary Knapp 
Carol Kopeck 
Judv Kurtz 
Peter Lacovara 
Carol Landow 
Barbara Larson 
John Larson 
Roger Larson 
Viola La ski 
Joan Lauf 
Katharine Lee 
Siu Min Lee 
June LeFor 
Marion Lehuta 
Steve LeMay 
Anne Leonard 
Virginia Leslie 
Michelle Levin 
Ralph Lowell 
Mark McCollam 
Dorothea McGivney 



Edna MacQuilkin 
Margaret Madel 
Jean Malamud 
Elizabeth MalotI 
Melinda Manoni 
Gabby Margii 
Gretchen Martin 
Margaret Martling 
Robert Mastej 
Joel Matek 
Joyce Matuszewich 
Karon Maupin 
Joan Maynard 
Melba Mayo 
VVithrow Meeker 
Beverly Mever 
Laura Michalik 
Judi Minter 
Carolyn Moore 
Sharon Morgan 
Anne Murph\' 
Marlene Mussell 
Charlita Nachtrab 
Mary Naunton 
Lee Neary 
John Nelson 
Mary Nelson 
Norman Nelson 
Louise Neuert 
Janet Nevling 
Ernest Newton 
Herta Newton 
Georgia Nixon 
Gretchen Norton 
Barbara Novak 
11a Nuccio 
JanisO'Boye 
Joan Opila 
Christine Oswald 
Gary Ossewaarde 
Anita Padnos 
Ray Parker 
Chris Patricoski 
Cynthia Patterson 
Delores Patton 
Frank Paulo 
Christine Pavel 
Mary Ann Peruchini 
Barbara Prescott 
Barbara Preston 
Dorothy Pryor 
Nancy Puckner 
Elizabeth Rada 
Cindy Radtke 
Karlene Ramsdell 
Lee Rapp 
Ernest Reed 
Margaret Reidy 
Sheila Reynolds 
Elly Ripp 
Addie Roach 
Mary Robertson 
Stephen Robinet 
William Roder 
Barbara Roob 
Robert Rosberg 
Susan Rosenberg 
Sarah Rosenbloom 
Marie Louise Rosenthal 
Anne Ross 
Ann Rubeck 
Helen Ruch 
Lenore Ruehr 
Tom Salutz 
Linda Sandberg 
Everett Schellpfefter 
Marianne Schenker 
Alice Schneider 
Jacky Schneider 



S\ Ivia Schueppert 
Ihelma Schwartz 
Beverly Serrell 
Jessie Sherrod 
ludy Sherry 
lini Sipiora 
James Skorcz 
Eleanor Skydell 
Eric Slusser 
Beth Spencer 
Irene Spensley 
Julie Spiegel 
Steve Sroka 
Monica Steckenrider 
Llois Stein 
Lorain Stephens 
Tom Dean Stuart 
Mar|orie Sutton 
Sarah Suttim 
Beatrice Swartchild 
James Swartchild 
Patricia Talbot 
Benjamin TavKir 
Jane Thain 
Lorraine Thauland 
Gerda Thompson 
Barbara Tiao 
Clare Tomaschoff 
Adrienne Travis 
Dana Treister 
Nora TweeHe 
Joan Ulrich 
Karen Urnezis 
Lillian Vanek 
Paula-Ann Vasquez- 

Wasserman 
Barbara Vear 
David Walker 
Ted Wallace 
Sheila Walters 
Joyce Wash 
Harold Waterman 
Robbie Webber 
Alice Wei 
David Weiss 
Penny Wheeler 
Bradley Wieland 
Carol Williams 
Kurt Wise 
Gerda Wohl 
Ron Winslow 
Reeva Wolfson 
Sarah Woodward 
Zinette Yacker 
Joseph Zeller 




Director Na'ling presents anthropology volunteer Carolyn Moore with gift. 

Laurel Johnson, Diz'ision of Insects, plays the moose in 
"Field Museum Animals in Rei'ieu'." 




/M<^ 






h^U 



^v»-i^ 



Friday, May 15 

Lecture Demonstration: 10:30 a.m. 

Evening Performance: 8:00 p.m. 



Kathakali, which originated in Kerala, a state on 
India's southwest coast, is an all-male theater whose 
performance techniques stem in part from a vigor- 
ous martial tradition. Seventeen actors bring the 
magic of the god's royal heroes and demon kings of 
ancient Indian m\lh to life. 

Dating from the 16th centun', Kathakali is 
truly India's most dynamic theater form. It is related 
to the only sur\i\'ing form of classical Sanskrit 
drama, Kutiyattam, whose origins mav date back 
to the second centurv'. The extraordinan' art of 
Kathakali lies in the eloquent telling of stories 
from the great Indian epics like the Ramayana and 
the Mahabharata through drama, song, dance, mime, 
and a complex language of hand gestures. Although 
the heroes and \-illains mav seem super-human 




Clittora R Jones 



in their abilities and appearance, they remain 
distinctlv human in character. The st\'lization of 
Kathakali extends from the rich costumes, elaborate 
make-up, and patterns of movement to characteri- 
zation as ever\' actor endeavors to recreate a tradi- 
tional, designated personalis' tvpe. 

The noble, heroic, or divine character, called 
paccha. such as Rama or Krishna, has a green face 
with velvet black brows and red mouth. A katti 
character, evil but with a streak of nobilitv, has a 
green base with a red and white sU'lized moustache 
snarling over each cheek. The "red beard," or de- 
monic antihero, has a black and red face and knobs 
on the nose and forehead. Various other details, 
from false breasts to holv beads, designate a 
panorama of personalities — demones.ses, sages, 
apparitions, charioteers, and e\il women who are 
"too beautiful" and therefore suspicious. The artists 
are allowed to subtly develop each role and interpret 
them indi\idually. In fact, certain passages of 
Kathakali theatre are whollv improvised ever\' time 
thev are performed. 

The musical accompaniment in Kathakali is 
characterized by specific ragas (melodic modes) 
and talas (rh\-thmic patterns). The lead singer also 
plays acenna/a;7z, or gong, with which he sets the 
tempo. He is joined by drums and, in dramatic 
moments, a conch shell, or sankhii. 

The troupe comes from an organization 
which has been dedicated to the preservation and 
presentation of Kathakali since 1930: The Kerala 
Kalamandalam. Their arrival for this spring tour 
marks the troupe's third appearance in the United 
States. The tour is sponsored bv The Asia Societ\''s 
Performing Arts Program, which is supported by 
grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mr. 
John Goelet, The Weatherhead Foundation, Mr. C.Y. 
Tung, and the World Study Museum, Kyoto. This 
program is partially funded bv the Illinois Arts 
Council. 

A one-hour lecture-demonstration on the art 
of Kathakali at 10:30 a.m. on Ma\' 15 is a basic 
introduction to Kathakali epic theater and describes 
the major characters in\'()lved in the dance dramas, 
dance movements and what the\' mean, make-up 
application, and costume smibolism. The lecture- 
demonstration is designed to enhance one's under- 
standing of the formal e\'ening performance. Tick- 
ets for the lecture-demonstration are $5.00; S3. 00 
for Museum members. 

The formal evening performance takes place 
at 8:00 p.m. It is held in James Simpson Theater at 
the Museum's barrier-free West Entrance. The pro- 
gram is 90 minutes long, plus a 15-minute intermis- 
sion. Tickets for the evening performance are $8.00; 
$6.00 for Museum members. We encourage \'ou to 
order tickets in advance for this ver\' special event. 
Tickets will be sold at the door on a space available 
basis. For further information, call 312-322-8854. 



April and May at Field Museum 



April 16 thmuf^h Mtiy 15 




K>\rHAK,\i.i I.).\.\c:i;-UK/\nla 

Continuing Exhibits 

Hall OF ANCIENT Egyptians. To put yourself in the mood 
for the April 26 E,y;>-]it Film Festival (see details below), 
browse through Field Museum's collection of artifacts 
from ancient Ej^vpt. Ifs one of the best in the countn'. 
The most compellinu; objects are of course the human and 
animal mummies. In the center of the hall stands the 
great funeran- ship from Da.shur, one of the best-pre- 
sen'ed large ancient shi{)s in existence. The suix-rb bronw 
cat sacred to Bast (ca.-^e 16) is an outstanding example of 
Eg\'ptian animal .'sculpture. 
HallJ, ground floor. 

Hallof ASIATIC MamM/\ls. Marco Polo's sheej), with their 
gracefully sweeping horns, are among the first animals 
vou encounter in this hall of fascinating habitat groups. 



CiincKdR Jones 



Swamp deer stand in mudd\- ground, a snow leopard 
directs a piercing stare at \asitors, and the Indian rhi- 
noceros and the oxen of southeast Asia startle one with 
their great size. 
Hall 17, first floor. 

Neu- Prograni.s 

Ec.YPr Film FE.STiVAL:'Tmagcs of Eg\pt, Past and Present." 
Come to Field Mu.seum for a da\-long film festival devoted 
to the most fabled civilization the world has ever known. 
Immerse yourself in a culture thai tried to ensure eternal 
life Ibr its royalty by buiying ih.rii with evcrv-thing they 
would need in the afterlife, and comp.ire the ancient 
civilization with the sharp contrasts of Eg\-pt loikiy. The 
lestival will include Hollywood "mummy movies," 



u back cover) 27 



^ ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY 

SURVEY LIB PM 196 
^ NATURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 

URBANA ILL -1801 



April and May at Field Museum 



iCuiiliiuwtt fiiini in.-iklf cover) 



popular scienlilic and ethnographic fihns. and panel 
discussions with noted Egyptologists. The festival is 
designed for an adult audience and is not recommended 
for children or family groups. Tickets are $3 for Members, 
$5 for nonmembers, and are available for purchase in 
acUance from the Department of Education (322-8854), 
or at the West Door on the day of the festival. Sunday, April 
26, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The Egx-pt Film Festival is presented 
in conjunction with the Learning Museum course: "An- 
cient Eg\pt: Mummies, Magic, and Lo\'e,'" and made 
possible bv a grant from the National Endowment for 
the Humanities. 

EuvvARn E. A\t;r Film Lecti'res. These colorful programs 
at 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays continue through April injames 
Simpson Theatre. Narrated b\' the filmmakers them- 
selves, the programs are recommended for adults. 
Admission is free at the barrier-free West Door; show 
membership card for priority seating. (When the the- 
atre has reached full seating capacity, the doors will be 
clo.sed bv .security personnel, in compliance with fire 
regulations.) 

n April 18: "Lure of Alaska" 
n April 25: "Amazon" 

Weekend Discovery Programs. Participate in a variety of 
free tours, demonstrations, and films ever\' Saturday and 
Sunda\' between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Check the Weekend 
Slieet at Museum entrances tor locations and additional 
programs. 

Saturday, April 18: "Olympic R;iin Forest" and "Slash and 

Burn Agriculture" film features, 1 p.m. 
Saturday, April 18: "Chinese Ceramic Traditions" tour, 

2 p.m. 
Sunday. April 19: "Museum Highlight Tour," 2:30 p.m. 
Saturday. April 25: "Happy Birthday, Mr. Audubon!" 

lecture and film, 12:30 p.m. 
Sunday, April 26: "Lif'- in Ancient Eg\'pt" tour, 3 p.m. 
Saturday, Ma\- 2: "Island of the Red Prawns" film feature. 

Ip.m. 
Sunday, Ma\ ,i: Hie Tomb of Tutankhamun: Discovert' 

and E.\cavation" slide preA=:-, ' ition, 1 p.m. 
Saturday. May 9: "Ancient Eg\-pt" tour, 11:30 a.m. 
Saturday, May 9: "Women Up in Arms" film feature, 

1 p.m. 
Sunday, May 10: "Mu.seuni Highlight Tour," 2 p.m. 



Kathakali DAjNCE-Drama. An hidian art form since the 
16th centun', Kathakali combines music, a sung te.xt, 
acting, mime, and dance with rich costumes and fantastic 
makeup. This immensely vital form brings to life ancient 
Indian epics. It is an all-male theater whose performance 
techniques stem in part from a vigorous martial tradition. 
Field Museum will present Kathakali dance-drama from 
the Kerala Kalamandalam in South India on Friday, May 
15, 8 p.m., James Simpson Theatre. A lecture/demonstra- 
tion will be given at 10:30 a.m. Tickets for the demon- 
stration are $3 for Members, S5 for nonmembers; for the 
evening performance, $6 for Members, $8 for nonmem- 
bers. These mav be purchased in advance from the De- 
partment of Education (322-8854) or at the West Door 
on the day of the event. Advance purchase is recom- 
mended; tickets may be purchased at the door on a space- 
available basis only. 

Courses for Adults begin the week of April 13. Explore 
such topics as brain evolution and language, Shiatsu, sea 
beasts, and pollution. The Learning Museum course, 
"Ancient Egypt: Mummies, Magic, and Love," will include 
discussion of mummy preparation, funerary cults, magic 
charms, and Eg\ptian lo\'e songs. Advance registration by 
mail is required. For information, call 322-8855. 

R/\Y A. Kkoc Environmental Field Trips. These one-day 
trips to local areas of ecological and biological significance 
will take place on weekends through May and June. Volo 
Bog, Mt. Forest Island, and Hickor\' Creek will be among 
the sites visited. Field- trip brochures are in the mail to 
members. For additional information, call 322-8854. 



Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scientific 
interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various 
Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordi- 
nator, 922-9410, ext. 360. 

April AND \L\v Hours. The Museum is open from 9 a.m. -5 
p.m., Saturday-Thursday (until 6 p.m., beginning May 1); 
9 a.m. -9 p.m., Friday throughout the year. 

The Museum Library is open u'eekdavs 9 a.m. -4 p.m. 
Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Closed 
April 17, Good Frida\'. 



Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



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Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 

Mav 1981 
Vol'. 52, No. 5 

Editor/ Designer: David M. Walsten 
Production: Martha Poulter 
Calendar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 

President: E. Leland Webber 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chairman 
Mrs. T Stanton Armour 
George R. Baker 
Roberto. Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O.C. Da\is 

William R. Dickinson, ]t 
Thomas E. Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galilzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F Murphy Jt 
James J. O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Snuth 
Robert H. Strotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B. WUkins 
Blaine J. Yarrington 

Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel InsuU, Jr. 
William V. Kahler 
WiUiam H. MitcheU 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



field Musfum i>r Nnlunl History Bullclm (USt^ 898-940) is published monlhly, except 
combined July August issue, by Field Museum of \atural History, Roosevelt Road at 
Lake Shore Drive. Chicago, 11 6060=; Subscriptions: S6.00 annually. S3. 00 for schools. 
Ivluseum membership includes PulU-tir, subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are 
their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manu- 
scripts are welcome Museum phone: (312) 922-9410 Postmaster: Please send form 3579 
to Field Museum of Natural History. Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive. Chicago, D. 
610605 ISSN: (Xn5-0703 



CONTENTS 

3 Members' Nights: April 30, May 1 

4 North American Challengers of the Southwest 

Learning Museum Program 

by Anthony Pfeiffer, project coordinator, and Donald 

McVicker, instructor 

10 The Field Museum: Spotlight on the Collections 

Part IV: The Department of Botany 

by Matthew H. Nitecki, curator of fossil invertebrates 

12 Field Museum Tours for Members 

14 Field Briefs 

15 Our Environment 

16 The Argentine Connection 

by Larry G. Marshall, assistayxt curator of fossil mammals 

26 Kathakali: South Indian Dance-Drama 

Dance Demonstration and Performance: May 15 

27 May and June at Field Museum 

Calendar of coming events 

COVER 

Diorama of Abyssinian colobus, or guereza, monkeys (Colobus 
guereza), in Hall 22, the Hall of African Mammals. The guereza 
is widely distributed in the dense forests of equatorial Africa. Photo 
by Fleur Hales. 




Hopi kachina. 
Exhibit of kachinas opens June 13. 



30th Annual Members' Nights 

April 30, May 1 




Have vou ever seen a sheep shorn? Or ;i lipi raised:' You can 

at the Museum^ 30th Annual Members' Nights, the behind-the- 
scenes \ie\v of Field Museum which will take place on Tluiisday. 
April 30, and Friday, May 1, from (;:()0 to 10:00 p.m. (I'hird Floor 
opens at 7:00 p.m.) 

This vear, highlights from our \arioiis ethnic festi\als will 
be feamred, including a Taichi demonstration liom the Clhina 
festival; "Alma de Mexico," a Mexican folk dancing group from 
our Latin American Neighbors Day festi\al; and demonstrations 
of sheep shearing, .spinning, quillworking. beadworking, and 
silversmithing plus a tipi-raising from our North American In- 
dian Heritage Day festival. Other highlights include: 

Ground Floor: Your Name in Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Sea Snakes 
at the Fiehi Museum, Lots of Lizards injars, (Jamelan Orchestra 
Session. 

First Floorrjourney to the Center oflhe Museum; Discowiy 
Tours, including "Stories of the Field Museum" and "China 
Through the Ages "; Members' Treasure Hunt. 

Second Hoor: Keeping It All Together for Fulling It Hack To- 
t^ether — cleaning and mounting of lexliles and costumes liiim 
the Field Museum coiledioii, Fleclronic I'roduilion of Range 
Maps. 

Third Floor: Dust lo Dignity: Rediscovering the Pacific, Fossils 
in Concretions: Coal-Age Plants and Animals of Illinois, Display 
of Mineral Specimens I'sed in Field MuseuinCalendar, Mount St. 
Helens: The Volcano that Bleu lis Ibp. Scorpions. Centipedes, 



Spiders and Olliei- Venomous Creatiu'es, How Pianls (.el Iheir 
Latin Names. 

Fourth Floor: Putting an Exliibit Together, Capturing Speci- 
mens in Alt — Scientific Illustration, C.rapliics Demonstration. 

Free parking is available in the noi ili Mu.scum and Soldier 
Field lots. A shuttle bus will circle these areas continuously, 
pro\iding free transportation to and fioin the XUiseum. Or use 
the fiee round-lrip charier bus ser\ice between the Loop and the 
.south entrance of the Museum. These C.TA buses marked I'll. LI) 
xMl'SI^l'M will originate al the (^anal Slreel entrance ofT'nion 
Station and stop al ihe Canal Slreel entrance of Norlhweslern 
Starion, Washington and State, Washington and Michigan, 
Adams and Michigan, and Halbo and Michigan. Two buses \\ill 
run circuits tjcginningal 'rA't j).m. and conlinuingal l.")-minule 
intervals until the Museum closes. (Both buses will tra\el lo ilic 
train stations until ihe de|)aiture oflhe last train. Please i heck 
vmw train schedule for liie exact limes. ) 

Re.i.sonabiv priced dinnere and snacks will be a\ ail.ililc 
in llie Museum food service are.i liom (>:00 p.m. lo H:()() p.m. 

lb achieve ;i more even dislribulion of \ isilors, we suggest 
\()U IciIIdw lliis ,il|ihab('liiiil s( hcdiile: 

A ihrough I. I hursday. April .30 

M through /- li iday, M.iy 1 

Admittance will be bv invitation, so plea.se retain yoin- Memlx'rs' 
Night invitation and prescnl il ;it the dooi- l()r .idmilt.ince fijr you 
and your fiimily. 

W'c look loi-waid loseeingyou! 



This variety of com, 

bred for toughness to 

survive a desert 

habitat, represents the 

economic foundation 

upon which the pueblos 

ivere built. Careful 

husbandry of maize 

kept life ^oing. 

Neglect and drought 

meant disaster 




urn's Hall of'Southvvest Indians) had 800 rooms, 
included 32 kivas, and must have housed well over 
1,000 persons. These pueblos were like protoU-pe 
multiston' apartment buildings. Such structures 
were not equalled in size anywhere in the New 
World until white Americans reinvented them 
800 \'ears later. 

An obvious challenge to grovidng crops in 
the desert is the scarcit\' of water. Indians were, of 
necessitv', adept at getting it. Among the Hohokam 
of the Sonoran Desert, irrigation channels guided 
the lifeblood of corn to the fields. In other places. 



check dams and checkerboard fields retained the 
water from periodically intense rains. Periodic 
droughts and shifting rainfall patterns, nonethe- 
less, were constant threats to Indian survival. 
Though these tribes developed extensive trade and 
redistribution networks to level out the unpredict- 
abilities of their existence, in 1276 (the date was 
determined bv analysis of growth rings in trees), a 
great drought struck many parts of the Southwest 
and endured remorselessly for nearly a generation. 
The great drought was a terrible blow to Pueb- 
lo culture, one from which it never fully recovered. 



In this rare photo- 
graph, the flute priei-. 
ofOraibi Pueblo driii: - 
a cloud symbol on th- 
ground, using sacrt.: 
meal. The sanciity i- 
this occasion cannot 
be overemphasized 
Without rain and tli-- 
collective power of 
6 tlie people, all is lost 




New people from ilie nortli Ibrced their \v;n' inio 
Pueblo laiitis. The I\iebl() world became an ever- 
narrowing band anchored on the u])|K'r Rio Grande 
River in northern Xew Mexico and stretching hall- 
way across northern Arizona. Ties with Mesoamer- 
ica were finalh- se\'ered. Some large cities were 
built, but wiilu)ut the gieat ceremonial centers of 
the jjast. Many of these cities were soon abandoned 



tired ol the Spiinish and svstenialically annihilated 
I hem. I'he Hopi stayed much as Coronado had 
finind them, the isolated westernmost reprcseiita- 
ti\es of I^ueblo culture. It would be easy to attribute 
the stming jxiwer ofthe Hopi to material factors: a 
resource-poor, de.sert habitat tor which no one was 
willing to com|)ete. Ho\v'ever, Hopi religion has 
some unicjue (jualities which have helped the Hopi 





Grinding the com, ca. 1901 



and the people moved on, searching for safer and 
more producti\'e places to live. 250 years later 
Coronado, spurred on by lust for gold, arrived in 
search ofthe fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. He en- 
countered Navijjo, Apache, Pima, and Papago, but 
found only 70 Pueblos in a limited region where 
there had once been hiuidreds scattered over an 
area as big as France. 

One of these Pueblo cultures, the Hopi, is 
featured in two exhibits coming to Field Mu.seum 
on June 13 — "Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life" and 
"The Year ofthe Hopi." The Hopi were "conquered" 
by the Spanish in 1540. Forty years later the Hof)i 



resist white incursions for over four centuries. The 
Hujji wa\' is probabh' this continent's oldest sur\nv- 
ing indigenous religion. 

An insight into the Hopi way Ix'gins with 
an appreciation tor tiieir choice of iiame (or them- 
selves — Hopi. Although of^en translated "The 
Peaceful People," Hojii means "well-mannered," or 
"well-l)eiia\eil [H-o|)le." The vast majority of cul- 
tures name themselves "The Peojile" or "I'he Only 
People," neatl\- .separ.iting themselves from the rest 
of humanit\' and defining outsiders as nonixrsons. 
The Hopi recognize that other ways of Ix'ing 
human are ]X)ssible, and their name for themselves 




Young Hopi u'omu/i, with western blouse, ca. 1901 



embodies this recognition. Thev do not deny alter- 
native philosophies. Their ideas of the proper life 
are based on tolerance and comparison, not simple 
isolation and being out of touch. This straightfor- 
ward but sophisticated belief system has given the 
Hopi an adaptive flexibiliu^ in dealing with strang- 
ers. A remarkable example of this flexibility is the 
fact that Tewa-speaking Pueblos, fleeing the Span- 
ish at Santa Fe in the 17th centur\', sought refuge 
among the Hopi and have lived among them peace- 
fully for centuries, yet have retained their identir\-. 

Ceremonial aspects of Hopi religion, too, 
have always helpjed the Hopi deal with change. 
Kachinas, known to most tourists simply as dolls, 
are intennediaries between the Hopi and their 
gods. There are well over 250 kinds of kachina, 
distinguished from each other by the way in which 
the\- are dressed and decorated. Kachina figures 
comprise a sort of cultural library. Performers cos- 
tume and make themselves up after the kachinas 
and becoms transformed into messengers to the 
gods. If rail) is being summoned, a particular 



kachina will be used in a ceremony which has been 
effective in bringing rain in the past. Kachinas 
which do not work may not be used again for 
generations. Choices beUveen kachinas and 
ceremonies are timeh' and immediate, rooted 
in the present. 

The Hopi concept of time has added 
strength and longevit}' to their religion and is well 
described in the following: "Unlike the linear time 
concept of Western man, Hopi time is c^-clical and 
rh\-thmic. By wa\' of example, the ceremom- held by 
Christians at Christmas celebrates an e\'ent that 
took place nearly 2,000 years ago. In contrast, when 
the Soval kachina appears to signal the beginning 
of the new religious year, it is not a commemora- 
tive event or a celebration of the anniversary of the 
first such happening. Rather, it is a function that is 
vital to the continuation of the ceremonial c\'cle for 
the coming year. All Hopi ceremonies have this 
sense of immediacy- to them. Even new kachina 
songs are composed each year."' The Hopi way is a 
religion that can adapt to the moment, that can 




move with the \'iscissitudes of the desert. 

Native American Challengers of the 
Southwest is a sL\-week course about a land, once 
abounding in plant and animal life, profoundly 
ravaged over time b\' climate and seeminglv made 
barren. It is about the people who settled in to coax 
a living from this land. A remarkable archeological 
record reveals the emergence of three d\'namic cul- 
tural traditions, founded bv native Americans prac- 
ticing agriculture against heavy odds. These tra- 
ditions culminate spectacularly in the great Pueblo 
period and live on among their inheritors in the 
Southwest today. Beginning in the early 19()0s, Field 
Museum archeological e.\f)editions were sent to the 
Southwest, and today the Museum houses and dis- 
plays superb collections of artifacts that document 
10,000 years of American prehiston'. 

Native American Challengers of the 
Southwest begins at Field Museum on June 18. 
Details on the cour.se are featured in the Summer, 
1981 Courses forAciults brochure. A related sf)ecial 
event, Southwest Indian Heritage Day, is scheduled 
for June 27. Films, crafts, demonstrations, and per- 
formances combine to give a rich and varied view 
of a hard land and its [x"ople. Southwest Indian 
Heritage Day is featured in xhcjune Calendar of 
Events. 



*from "Kachina," bv Mark Bahli, in I'cicijk Discover}', \'u 
XXXIII,No. 3,p. 3.' 



Hopi pueblo. 1901 



Young Hopi man, ca. 1901 




The Field Museum 

Spotlight on 
The Collections 

Part I\' 

B}- MATTHKWH. NITKCKI 
curcitor offossil im'fiirJvdlrs 



Department of Botany 

The Department of Botany consists 
of the botanical research collections, the 
botany library, a palynology laboratory, 
and plant preparation and mounting 
areas. The research collections number 
over two million specimens and they are 
responsible for the department's research 
concentration in the fields of systematic 
and evt)lutionarv botany of living or- 
ganisms. 

The Museum acquired its first botan- 
ical collections from the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition of 1893; these were 
largely materials of economic use. Dr. 
Charles F. Millspaugh, a physician 
by training, but an avid botanist and 
naturalist who in 1887 published a major 
work on American medicinal plants, 
began soliciting donations of collections 
for the Museum during the Exposition. 
Collections of gums, resins, fibers, oils, 
waxes, tannins, dyes, starches, cereals, 
sugars, spices, medicinal plants, timbers, 
and cabinet woods were offered by more 
than twenty countries. In this manner the 
Department of Botany began with a fine 
collection of cabinet woods, forest 
products, and useful plant products. 
Millspaugh became the first appointee to 
the scientific staff as the Curator of 
Botany. 

The herbarium was established in 
1894, and numbered 50,000 specimens by 
1898. Millspaugh made important collec- 
tions in the Yucatan Peninsula in the 
period 1894-96, and in the West Indies 
during 1899-1907. From this time on the 
Museum concentrated its efforts on the 
American tropics and established one of 
the world's major collections of Central 
and South American plants by sponsor- 
ing or cosponsoring more than 60 botani- 
cal expeditions to the American tropics. 
Jesse H. Greenman collected extensively 
in Mexico and Central America from 
1904tol912 J.Francis Macbride, who 



This article originalli/ appeared in rhe ASC 
Newsletter Vol. 8, No. 5, and is reproduced 
here with minor adaptations, courtesy the As- 
10 sociation of 5i/stematics Collections. 




William Burger, chairman of the Department of Botany, examines specimens from the herbarium, a 
collection of more than 2 million vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, algae, and lichens. 



joined the staff in 1922, worked in Peru 
and initiated one of the department's 
major floristic works. The Flora of Peru, 
7,226 pages of which have been pub- 
lished to date. 

Paul C. Standley joined the staff in 
1927, and did extensive field work in Cen- 
tral America. Among his many publica- 
tions are The Flora of the Lancetilla Valley 
(Honduras), The Flora of Costa Rica, The 
Rubiaceae of Colombia, also of Ecuador, of 
Bolivia, and of Venezuela. In 1964 he began 
the Flora of Guatemala, which by the time 
of his retirement in 1955, had been issued 
in four parts totaling 1,868 pages. A pro- 
lific author, Standley's bibliography lists 
more than 250 titles. This, together with a 
phenomenal memory that permitted him 
to identify at sight a great majority of the 
over 20,000 plant species of Mexico and 
Central America, earned Standley an en- 
during plac-e in the history of American 
botany. 

The John G. Searle Herbarium, 
named in honor of one of the Museum's 
important benefactors, consists of the fol- 
lowing major collections, estimated as of 
1979: vascular plants ca. 1,821,640 speci- 
mens; bryophytes 95,615 specimens; 
fungi 77,788 specimens; lichens 51,695 
specimens; and algae 77,552 specimens. 

These collections, taken together. 



make ours the fifth largest herbarium in 
the Western Hemisphere. Their impor- 
tance is reflected in a total of 356 loan re- 
quests in 1978-79 that resulted in our 
sending 49,894 sheets on loan during that 
period. 

The regional strengths and important 
holdings are as follows: North America: a 
good overall collection with some impor- 
tant historical collections; very good 
Illinois and Missouri material. Central 
America: overall the world's finest single 
collection with special strengths in 
Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. 
South America: one of the world's impor- 
tant collections with special strengths in 
Columbia, Ecuador, and highland Peru. 

There is a good representation of 
cryptogamic exsiccatae from many areas. 
The uniqueness of the angiosperm collec- 
tions is due to the wide representation of 
Central American and Andean South 
American materials. 

The Type Photograph Collection. In 
1929, under a plan funded by the Rocke- 
feller Foundation, J. Francis Macbride 
travelled to Europe to photograph her- 
barium specimens of nomenclatural 
types. The intent was to make the photo- 
graphs available for consultation by 
American botanists unable to finance 
travels to European herbaria. The wide- 



spread adoption of the loan process was 
not as fully developed as it is today, 
necessitating travel for consultation. The 
project proved to be enormous and Mac- 
bride's work continued for four and 
one-half years, producing about 30,000 
photographs. These results were of im- 
mediate importance to American s\s- 
tematic botany, but tho\' acquired added 
meaning following the destruction of 
parts of European herbaria during World 
War II. In some instances, the only record 
of a species is to be found on photo- 
graphic paper. Additional photographs, 
of presumed tvpes, have been accumu- 
lated since Macbride's original effort, 
with the result that the collection now 
numbers 34,935 negatives. I'rints are 
available to scientists on a sale or ex- 
change basis. In the past ten years some 
20,000 prints have been requested for 
professional and student use. The largest 
request in recent years is from Manaus, 
Brazil, (or all type photos, of which about 
12,000 alreads' have been sent. 

Laboratory Facilities. The Department 
of Botany has developed a laboratory de- 
voted to palvnological study. This new 
facility supports present research as well 
as provides a base on which to develop 
other research techniques. A representa- 
tive pollen reference collection, based 
primarily upon the large collections 
housed in the herbarium, is planned. The 
pollen and spore collection numbers 
about 2,400 slides at present, and an 
additional 1,000 slides and specimens in 
liquid of anatomical and morphological 
specimens. 

Julian A. Steyermark joined the staff 
in 1937; he did extensive field work in 
Missouri and later wrote The Flora of Mis- 
souri. Further field work in Guatemala 



and Venezuela led to his collaboration 
with Standle\' on the Flora of Guatemala 
and later to his contribution to The Flora of 
Venezuela, l.ouis O. Williams joined the 
staff in 1460 and nt)t onl\' completed the 
monumental Flora of Guatenuila (6,528 
pages in 13 parts), but also initiated new 
projects in Central America and Peru 
while serving as departmental chairman 
from 1964 to mid- 1973. William Burger 
joined the staff in 1965 and has under- 
taken a new Flora Costaricensis project. 
Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. joined the staff in 
1973 and brought the Flora of Veracruz 
project with him from Harvard Univer- 
sity. This project utilizes computer data 
bankmg centered at the cooperating in- 
stitution, Instituto de ln\estigacit)nes 
sobre Recursos Bioticos, in Mexico. Two 
visiting assistant curators currently are 
engaged in floristic projects, Michael Nee 
on the Flora of Veracruz and Michael 
Dillon on the Flora of Peru. 

While neotropical floristics of flower- 
ing plants has been a major focus in the 
histoPv' of the department, a number of 
staff distinguished themselves in other 
areas, i.e., Llewelyn Williams in economic 
botany, Francis Drouet in algae, B. E. 
Dahlgren in palms, and Theodor Just in 
paleobotany. 

The herbarium also expanded 
through the purchase of collections and 
the acquisition of the herbaria of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago and Northwestern 
University. It was through the purchase 
of important small herbaria that our cryp- 
togamic herbarium has maintained a 
strong worldwide representation. The 
fungi are actively curated by Patricio 
Ponce de Leon, a specialist in Gastermy- 
cetes. Rolf Singer, author of the modern 
reclassification of the Basidiomycetes, 



Louis O. Williams, former chairman of the Department of Botany, now retired, prepares index to his 
monumental Flora of Guatemala; assisting him is Mrs. Williams. 




IS an active research associate. The 
bryophphyte collections are curated bv 
John Engel, whose research is concerned 
with the hepaticae of the southern end of 
the world 

The Economic Botany Collections. The 
collection of economic botany had its ori- 
gin in the Columbian Exposition, espe- 
cially enriched by gifts from the national 
exhibits of British Guiana, the Philip- 
pines, Japan, Brazil, Burma, and India. In 
1965, the collection contained an esti- 
mated 100,000 cataloged items. They are 
very broad in coverage, including materi- 
als on ethnobotanv, medicinal plants, 
fiber plants, food and forage plants, veg- 
etable oils and waxes, spices, lumber, 
and fine woods; and several smaller 
categories such as resins and lacquers, 
vegetable ivon,', latex products, tannins, 
etc. One of the larger segments of this 
assemblage is the very fine collection of 
finished woods, including a set of display 
boards of temperate zone hard and 
softwoods as well as a set of boards from 
the tropics. 

Museum expeditions added to the 
nucleus collection. Among these expedi- 
tions were those of Dahlgren to British 
Guiana, Brazil, and the West Indies and 
Llewellyn Williams to Amazonian Peru, 
Venezuela, and Thailand. Additional ma- 
terials were obtained by exchange, pur- 
chase, and gift from government bureaus 
of agriculture and forestry throughout the 
wt)rld. 

Staff of the Departmait of Botany. The 
following is a brief overview of the pres- 
ent research staff and their main interests: 

William Burger continues to work 
on the Flora of Costa Rica; he also is in- 
terested in species richness in angio- 
sperms, and how monocot\'ledons have 
evolved. Michael Dillon is working on the 
Flora of Peru project; he is interested in 
the huge Compositae family. John Engel 
is engaged in a project to produce a man- 
ual of the liverworts of Tasmania. This is 
a natural extension of his interest in aus- 
tral groups which began with extensive 
work in southernmost South America. 
Syhia Feuer-Forster is working on pollen 
morphologN' and evolution in the San- 
talales. Michael Nee is working on the 
Flora of Veracruz project. He also works 
with the genus Solanum, and the flora of 
central Wisconsin. Timothy Plowman 
specializes in the Er\thro\\laceae family 
and had made ethnobotanical studies of 
its most famous species, the source of 
coca and cocaine. He hopes to review the 
medicinal and useful plants of the upper 
Amazon Basin. Patricio Ponce de Leon 
continues his studies of the Gasteromy- 
cetes with revisionary work in Calvatia, 
Bovista, and Lycoperdon. Robert Stoize cu- 
rates the pteridophyte collection and re- 
cently completed a treatment of the ferns 
lor the Flora of Guatemala. Currently he 
is working on -a treatment of the fern al- 
lies of Guatemala. 



11 



Field Museum Tours for Members 

For tour- infonnatinti, please write or call the Tours Office, 322-8862 



i 




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k-j^ 






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wK^: 


'1,1 lioness 






Krin'nn lin': u 





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Kenya and the Seychelles 

September 12-October 3 
Tour Price: $3,750 

There Is Now as there always has been, an aura or 
mvster\' surrounding Africa — Tropical islands and 
the coast, endless palm-fringed beaches, snow- 
capped mountains on the equator, jungle primeval, 
sun-baked plains. Thev are all a part of East Africa. 
The wildlife . . . the stately processions of elephant and 
girafTe, prides of lion, the beautiful and rare leopard, 
the elegant cheetah, the magnificent migration of the 
wildebeest and zebra. Only here in East Africa is there 
still such diversity'. 

The itinerary' includes a dav'time stopover in Lon- 
don, overnights at the Nairobi Hilton, Mt. Lodge Tree 
Hotel, Samburu Game Lodge, Mount Kenya Safari 
Club, Lake Hotel (at Lake Naivasha), Governor's Camp 
(Masai Mara Game Reserve), and other first class 
accommodations. Three days in the Se\'chelles Island 
and an overnight sta\' in London will conclude the trip. 

Tour lecturer will be Audrey Faden, a native 
Kenyan, who formerly served as Officer in Charge of 
Education at the National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi. 



Grand Canyon River Adventure 

July 17-26 

Leader: Matthew H. Nitccki, curator of fossil inverte- 
brates. For full information on this exciting trip please 
1 2 uTite or call the Tours office. 





-^ 



Peru and Bolivia: 1981 

October 15-November 1 
Tour Price: $3,100 

A Different Experience! A Different World! From the 
fabulous Incas, through Spanish Colonial times to the 
modern cities of today — yet maintaining its Latin 
charm. You'll lo\'e the green fertile valleys along the 
sand\' desert coast of Peru; the highest railroad in the 
world; crossing Titicaca, the world's highest na\igable 
lake by hydrofoil; flying over the Nazca plains. Our tour 
includes the fascinating cities of Lima, Cuzco, Trujillo, 
Puno, a train trip to fabulous Machu Picchu, and tour 
full da\'s in La Paz. 

Dr. Alan L. Kolata, visiting assistant curator of 

Grand Canvon adventure. Juh' 17-26 




Soutli American archeolom' •""' I'lhnoloii^w and jji-ojeci 
director. Field Museiiiii Expeiiilions to Bolivia, will 
accompany the lour members during the entire trip. 
Dr. Michael E. Moselev, associate curator ol'Middlc and 
South American archeolosA' and ethnolosA', who for the 
past ten years has directed large-scale projects on the 
north coast of Peru, will join t he grouj) when we visit his 
area of" research. 



tfiki 




Jewellike Devil's Uike, nestled in the Bamboo Riin^e 

Wisconsin's Baraboo Range 

May 16-17 

Dr. Edward Olsen, curator of mineralog\', will lead 
tour members through the Baraboo Kiinge and along 
the shores and hinterland of beautiful Devil's Lake, 
150 miles northwest of Chicago. The Baraboo R;inge 
is of special interest as a niuiicubiuck — what is left 
of an ancient mountain range and which now stands 
out above the younger rocks and sediments. The range 
consists ofquartzitc — more than one billion years 
old — which, although conipre.s.sed in places into verti- 
cal folds, retains the original sedimentan- structures. 
The mountains were further modified by glaciers, 
forming the lake and the picturesque glens, and 
changing the course of rivers. 

Overnight accommodations and meals will be at 
a nearby motel. Hiking clothes are strongly recom- 
mended for the scheduled hikes. The trip is not suita- 
ble for children, but xounger people interested in 
natural histon- are welcome. For further details please 
call or uTite the Tours office. 



4 

r 




Mnstf hi^rli in tlwAi.^, . 

Illinois Archeologj' 

May 31-Juiie 5 

For the third consecutive \'ear Field Nkiseum is offering 
an archeological field trip which will visit Dickson 
Mounds, Kampsville, and Cahokia Mounds. Limited to 
IM) participants, the trip includes site visits, lecture and 
slide presentations, workshops and discussions led by 
staff archeologists working at the respecti\'c sites. The 
field trip director is Robert Pickering, anthrojx)logist 
and archeologist who led the 1979 and 198(1 field trips. 
This popular trip is always booked up earh', so make 
your re.serxations as soon as possible in order to a\'oid 
disai)i)ointnH'nII 

Ki'pticn ofWoocihmd-style home iit KxnnpsvilU' 




13 



FIELD BRIEFS 



Willard L. Boyd Elected 
Field Museum President 

VVillcird L. Bovd, president ot the Univer- 
sity oi Iowa, has been elected president of 
the Field Museum of Natural History, suc- 
ceeding E. Leiand Webber, who has held 
the top administrative post since 1962. The 
appointment of Dr. Bovd marks the end of 
a year-long search for a successor to Web- 
ber, who informed the Board of Trustees in 
1980 of his desire to retire from active man- 
agement responsibilities in 1981. Boyd is to 
join the Museum staff on September 1. To 
welcome Dr. and Mrs. Boyd, a staff recep- 
tion in their honor was held March 1 1 in 
the President's Room 

A native of St. Paul, MN, Boyd re- 
ceived his undergraduate degree and a 
law degree from the University of Min- 
nesota, and LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees 
from the University of Michigan. He has 
also received honorary degrees from a 
number of colleges and universities. He 
joined the Universitv of Iowa faculty in 
1954, was named professor in 1961, vice 
president of academic affairs and dean of 
the faculties in 1964, and president in 1969. 

A resident of Iowa City, Dr. Boyd is 
married to the former Susan Kuehn. The 
Bovds are the parents of one daughter, 
Elizabeth, and two sons, Willard and 
Thomas. 

Dr. Boyd is a member of the National 
Council on the Arts; a member of the Ad- 
visor\' Board of the Metropolitan Opera 
Association; a member of the boards of the 
Association of American Universities, the 
American Council on Education, the 
Harry S. Truman Librarv Institute for Na- 
tional and International Affairs, the Coun- 
cil on Postsecondary Accreditation, El- 
derhostel, and CEMREL, Inc. He is chair 
of the council of the Section on Legal Edu- 
cation and Admission to the Bar of the 
American Bar Association. In past years 
Dr. Boyd has served as chair of the Associ- 
ation of American Universities, and on 
many other boards and commissions. 

In recent years Dr. Boyd has also 
served as president of the National Com- 
mission on Accrediting; as a member of 
the AdNisory Committee for the Office for 
the Advancement of Public Negro Col- 
leges, National Association of State Uni- 
versities and Land-Grant Colleges; and on 
various commissions and panels for the 
American Council on Education, includ- 
ing an ACE panel with which he continues 
to be involved: the National Identification 
Program for the Advancement of Women 
in Higher Education Administration. 

The appointment of Dr. Boyd as chief 
14 executive of the Museum, culminating a 




Willard L. Boyd 



year-long, nationwide search, completes 
the formation of a new administrative 
team at Field Museum. The first step in the 
transition was the appointment of Dr. 
Lorin I. Nevling, Jr., as director and chief 
operating officer of the Museum in May 
1980. Dr. Nevling, a botanist, joined the 
Field Museum staff in 1974 as chairman of 
the Department of Botany and served as 
assistant director from 1978 to 1980. 

Mr. Webber retires as president after 
more than 31 years' service to Field 
Museum. He will continue to be as- 
sociated with the Museum, however, in a 
nonmanagement capacitv, working on 
special projects. 



Grants and Gifts 

For the second year of a five-year grant 
entitled "Curatorial Support for the John 
G. Searle Herbarium," the Department of 
Botany has received funding from the Na- 
tional Science Foundation (NSF) in the 
amount of $35,000. The program is under 
the direction of Curator William F. Burger, 
chairman of the Department of Botanv. 

The Santa Fe Industries Foundation, 
headquartered in Chicago, has made a gift 
of $25,000 toward expenses of presenting 
the temporary exhibitions "Hopi Kachina: 
Spirit of Life" and "The Year of the Hopi," 
both opening June 13 in Halls 26 and 27, 
respectively. 

The Department of Anthropology has 
received from NSF a two-year grant in the 




£. Lelaiui Webber 



amount of $168,000 for the project "Reor- 
ganizing Pacific Collection Storage," as 
part of the Svstematic Anthropology Col- 
lections program. Codirectors of the pro- 
gram are Phillip Lewis, curator of primi- 
Hve art and Melanesian ethnology, and 
Phyllis Rabineau, custodian of the an- 
thropologv collections. 



Hopi Exhibits Coming June 13 

Two temporary exhibits, both featuring 
aspects of Hopi life — North America's 
oldest continuously surviving culture — 
will open at Field Museum June 13 (Mem- 
bers' preview June 12). "Hopi Kachina: 
Spirit of Life," organized by the California 
Academy of Sciences, will be seen in Hall 
26. "The Year of the Hopi," a traveling 
exhibit sponsored bv the Smithsonian In- 
stitution Traveling Exhibit Service (SITES), 
will be in Hall 27. 

Large-scale models of Hopi religious 
ceremonies will be featured, as well as 
displays of hundreds of kachinas — doll- 
like representations of sacred figures. 
Beautiful candid photos and watercolor 
paintings bv Joseph Mora will also be on 
\'iew. The photos, dating from the first 
decade of this century, are rare indeed. 
Shortiv after they were taken bv Mora, 
cameras were banned from Hopi public 
ceremonies — thev remain banned today. 

The closing date for both exhibits is 
September 8. Further details will be an- 
nounced in the June Bulletin. 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Condor Studies 

Last fall a team of biologists from tho Con- 
dor Research Center, Ventura, California, 
embarked on two foreign trips to stud\' 
the endangered Andean condor (Viiltur 
gn/phtis) and various African vultures. 
Information and experience gained dur- 
ing the six weeks of studv will be used 
in planning and executing future recov- 
ers' efforts on behalf of the endangered 
California condor {Gymjiogifps califor- 
nianui). 

In mid-September 1480, the timing 
recommended bv African vulture experts, 
the team visited studv sites of the Vulture 
Study Group (VSG) in South Africa. This 
group has conducted a variety of research 
projects for a number of years and has 
netted and handled well over 1,000 adult 
and nestling vultures, far more than any 
other team presentU' stud\ing vultures. 
Current studies of VSG are directed pri- 
marily towards two species, the lappet- 
faced vulture {Torgos trachcliotus), a bird 
nearly as large as the California condor; 
and the colonial, cliff-nesting. Cape vul- 
ture {Gyps coprothcrcs), which has a 7-to- 
8-foot wingspan, somewhat smaller than 
the California condor's wingspan of 9 feet. 

While in southern Africa, team mem- 
bers handled nestlings of both the lappet- 
faced and Cape vultures, and adults of 
three species — lappet-faced, hooded 
(Necrosi/rh'S moiiachus), and white-backed 
(Gyps africamts). This experience afforded 
the team members the opportunity to ob- 
serve for themselves handling techniques 
and various response characteristics of the 
different species of birds. They found that 
most adult vultures (with the exception of 
white-backed vultures) presented no 
handling difficulties. Some nestliings, 
however, did offer resistance; lappet- 
faced vultures are nearly inert up until 
they are almost ready to fledge, at which 
time they begin to offer some resistance; 
nestling Cape vultures struggle in an at- 
tempt to stay in their nests. These conclu- 
sions were consistent with the experiences 
of the VSG over several years of handling 
the birds. 

All members of the VSG consider col 
lection of data from nestling vultures to bi 
an essential part of their studies, and .i 
procedure which involves little risk to thr 
bird. To date, no vultures have been losi 
during handling procedures by members 
of the VSG. 

An expedition in a national park in 
Zimbabwe helped clarify for the team the 
workings and possible risks of thi 
cannon-netting capture techniques. Hvi 
dence from this experience, and the VSG s 



cumulative experience of several vears 
trapping, indicate that injurv or death due 
to the net or attached parts is extri'mely 
unlikeU'. Although, early in their trapping 
program, VSG lost 14 vultures (out of 700 
netted) — two were struck by missiles 
which carry the net over the birds, and 12 
died of heat stress when large numbers of 
vultures were trapped at once and not re- 
moved immediatelv from under the net. 
Corrections made in positioning bait and 
the angle of the net have eliminated these 
problems. African vulture workers have 
found other trapping methocfs to be less 
desirable. 

A study recently initiated with the 
VSG staff involves a calcium problem in 
Cape vultures which manifests itself in se- 
vere feather deformities and twisted 
bones. This condition reflects a recent 
socio-ecological phenomenon in which 
food tvpes available to foraging vultures 
have changed. Apparently, the diet of 
Cape vulture chicks must include bone 
fragments brought in from the carcasses 
by the adults. In South Africa today, 
where most carcasses are domestic live- 
stock and where the bone-crushing 
hyenas have been eradicated, bone frag- 
ments are not available, seriously affecting 
the chicks. This problem has clear implica- 
tions for similar studies of the California 




'.  .■•'".■■■.«iAi.:v'.»- 



condor. 

In early October the team joined 
forces with the Stanley Temple group in 
the Sechura Peninsula of northwestern 
Peru. Prior to the team's arrival, (he Tem- 
ple group had successfully released 5 
captive-bred Andean condors, flown in 
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 
I'atuxrnt Wildlife Research Center in 
Laurel, Marvland. These birds, all wear- 
ing tags attached to the patagium, a fold 
of skin between wing and bodv, and 
patagial-mounted radio transmitters, 
were moving freeh' around the eastern 
edge of the Illescas Mountams and were 
associating in apparently normal fashion 
with wild Andean condors. 

During their month stav, the team 
was able to evaluate the efficac\' and risks 
involved with the following ma|or proce- 
dures on u'ild Andean condors: (1) capture 
techniques — rocket-net, clap-trap, and 
ualk-in trap; (2) patagial-mounted radio 
transmitters; (3) laparoscopy; (4) blimd, 
feather, fecal, and tracheal sampling; and 
(5) various handling methods. 

The team's radio-telemetry activities 
went cxtremelv well. They received sig- 
nals from all 11 Andean condors (including 
5 released captives) currently carrying 
transmitters in the wild. Reception was 
achieved both from their mobile ground 
stations and from a tracking plane. 

Prior to the team's tracking flights, it 
had been thought that the Illescas Moun- 
tain condors represented an isolated 
population. Aerial monitoring, however, 
revealed that condors were crossing the 
7T-mile-wide Sechura Desert betxveen the 
Illescas and the Andean foothills. It ap- 
pears that condor movement across the 
desert and back again ma\' be regular and 
frequent. 

In recent weeks. Temple researchers 
have found two condors, u earing patagial 
markers, at two different nesting sites, 
each with an unmarked companion. 
These nests will he watched to see 
\s hether normal nesting behavior ensues. 

The radioed birds have led the Tem- 
ple researchers to previously unknown 
feeding sites, an undiscovered nest site, 
and areas where predator poisoning was 
taking place. Apart from radio-telemetry, 
there is no other wa\' to gather such in- 
lormation. 

Data gathend through these studies 
ari' vital to California condor recovery ef- 
forts since the Andean condor is the 
t losest surrogate species available for such 
testing. C)nce radio-telemetry can be used 
as part of field studies in C alifornia, it will 
bi' possible to get badly needed habitat 
utilization information. 15 




Curiosities which evolved in South America during its isolation include tanklike glyptodonts, toxodonts, mesotheres, 
proterotheres, hegetotheres, and macraucheniids. 



16 



THE ARGENTINE 
CONNECTION 



by L/\RRV(i. M/\KS1L-VLL 
A'isL'itatit Cunttorof'FussH xMcinuitah 



It IS impossible to reflect on the changed state of the American continent witltout the deepest astonishment. Formerly it 
must liave swarmed with great monsters: now we find mere pigmies, compared with the antecedent, allied races. 

— Charles Darwin, 
The Voyage of the Beagle 



For Charles Darwin, South America provided 
many of the raw materials used in the develop- 
ment of his theory of evolution. Of particular 
importance were the mammals. VVhv, he won- 
dered, were there more extinct than living 
species? "This wonderful relationship in the 
same continent between the dead and the living, 
will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light 
on the appearance of organic beings on our 
earth, and their disappearance from it, than any 
other class of facts." Darwin's prediction has 
come true, and the land mammal fauna of South 
America has played a primary role in demon- 
strating that evolution indeed has occurred. 
Manv of the relevant facts have come from 
knowledge of changes which occurred in this 
fauna during the'last 6 million years. 

The Isolation 

Until rather recently, geologically speaking. 
North and South America were separated by an 
oceanic barrier. The Caribbean and the Pacific 
Ocean were connected across what is now north- 
western Colombia and southern Panama and 
this water gap (the Bolivar Trough) deterred dis- 
persal of land animals between the Americas. As 
a consequence of this barrier South America was, 
as Australia is today, an "island continent" dur- 
ing most of the last 65 million years. Evolution 
there occurred in a closed system and the South 
American fauna evolved in splendid isolation.'' The 
eminent paleontologist George Gaylord 
Simpson has demonstrated that the history of 
the South American fauna "can be considered as 
an experiment without a laboratory, fortuitously 
provided by nature."^ And indeed, many basic 
evolutionary principles and concepts were for- 
mulated from either knowledge of or direct study 
of this marvelous fauna. 

One result of this fortuitous experiment 
was the development in South America of a 



unique fauna during isolation. Among the manv 
strange and bizarre creatures to evolve there 
were the tanklike glvptodonts, distant giant rela- 
tives of armadillos. Some reached a length of 10 
feet and were over 5 feet high. They were en- 
cased in a thick bony shell and could easily pro- 
tect themselves from attack bv simply squatting 
and bending the head into a tucked position. The 
tail, which was movable and often had a spiked 







Sabertooth meels Old 
Cluhtail. Artist John 
Conrad Hansen's con- 
cept of the glyplodon I 
Eleutherocercus 
being attacked by and 
disfvsing of the mar- 
supial >alvrloolh Thy- 
lacosmilus. The 
wlcano-shaped struc- 
ture on the glypto- 
dont's back is believed 
to hai>e housed a large 
scent gland. \j 



The Bolivar Trough marine barrier con- 
nected the Carribean and the Pacific, and 
deterred dispersal of land animals between 
the Americas. Then, the barrier dried up 
about 3 million years ago,perniitttng the 
interchange of the long -separated North 
and South American faunas across the 
newly emergent Panamanian land bridge. 




South American 
ground sloths were the 
"ancient mariners" to 
make it to North Amer- 
ica about 6 million 
years ago. 



clublike structure at the end, could also deal a 
mortal blow to an unwary predator. Some glyp- 
todonts developed on the central part of the back 
what is believed to have been a large musk gland, 
evidenced by a small volcano-shaped area in the 
shell. By forcefully extruding the contents of this 
gland an irritated glvptodont could conceivably 
produce its own mini-Mt. St. Helens and engulf 
itself in a shower of repugnant skunklike scent 
which would repel even the most persistent of 
attackers. 

Among other South American curiosities 
were large camellike animals called macrau- 
cheniids; large, stocky, and possibly semiaquatic 
beasts called toxodonts; medium-sized creatures 
with rodentlike teeth called mesotheres; horse- 
like novelties called proterotheres; and the small 
rabbitlike hegetotheres. Despite the superficial 




resemblances of some of these animals to true 
rabbits, horses, and camels, thev were in no way 
closely related. The appearance of animals which 
look alike but which are not closely related is 
called convergence in evolution. This evolution- 
ary phenomenon occurs when animals evolve 
independently to fill particular roles, and more 
likely than not they come to resemble one 
another as well. It is simply that certain body 
types suit particular life styles, and through 
natural selection the most efficient body plan for 
a particular life style is favored. Similar oppor- 
tunities, or "job openings," existed on each con- 
tinent at the beginning of the Age of Mammals, 
some 65 million years ago, and those animals on 
hand during the "hiring process" were the ones 
employed. On the other hand, some animals 
which look c]uite different from one another fill 
nearly or exactly the same jobs (or roles) in their 
environment (or society). Glyptodonts ate grass, 
just as horses do, but otherwise there is little in 
common between them. 

Isolation and the evolution of a unique yet 
apparently ecologically balanced fauna in South 
America set the stage for the most important 
event of the experiment. This event began about 
6 million years ago and for all practical purposes 
is still in progress today. Paleontologists refer to 
this event as The Great American Faunal Inter- 
change'' and within it are recognized two par- 
ticipant groups, the ancient mariners and the 
oz'erlaiiders. 

The Ancient Mariners 

By 6 million years ago the Bolivar Trough marine 
barrier began to decrease in width, and the 
American continents were, figuratively speak- 
ing, drawn closer together. As a consequence, 
the probabilities increased for successful chance 
dispersal of land mammals between the Ameri- 
cas. It is now known that about this time a limited 
but important interchange of land mammals in- 
deed occurred. The means of dispersal of these 
animals across the water barrier is not certain, 
but a plausible mechanism has been proposed: 
During times of flooding and high water levels, 
rafts of vegetation are broken away from the 
banks of swollen rivers and carried to the sea. In 
addihon to the vegetation, some rafts also in- 
clude animal life, among which are occasional 
mammals. These animals are able to live on the 
provisions provided on the raft. Plant-eadng 
animals, like rodents, will eat vegetation; insec- 
tivorous animals, like shrews, will eat insects; 
but carnivorous animals, like dogs or cats, will 
have a hard time of it since they will quickly 
consume whatever animal life is isolated with it 
on the raft. In general, large rafts will have more 



provisions than small rafts; tln' snialK'r ihv size of 
the animal the larger the raft and hence the 
greater the amount of provisions; the fewer the 
animals on the raft the more provisions per ani- 
mal. These and other factors determine how long 
each type of animal can live on a raft of particular 
size and containing various provisions. In es- 
sence, these rafts serve as small "Noah's Arks"' 
and these are carried by ocean currents and pre- 
vailing winds to distant shores. 

It is assumed that over the great expanse 
of geologic time a great number of such rafts 
existed. Although many would have disinte- 
grated during the vovage, some would remain 
intact and fev\er still would provide ample pro- 
visions for their passengers to survive. Upon 
"docking"' on a distant shore the surviving 
passengers disembarked. This, then, is the 
means by which some land mammals are 
believed to have become reluctant "ancient mar- 
iners" and crossed the Bolivar Trough marine 
barrier or even the Caribbean itself. If the immi- 
grants survived and if there was a breeding pair 
or a pregnant female such that the species could 
be perpetuated, then it is possible that the 
species could establish itself in its new land. 
However, the fossil record documents only the 
successful voyages and colonizations, and we 
don't know how many failed. 

The seafarers which went from South 
America to North America included two kinds of 
ground sloths, extinct relatives of the living tree 
sloths of the American tropics. These animals 
were about the size of a large dog. One kind 
apparently came directly from South America, 
while the other may have had its "port of embar- 
cation" in Cuba, where related fossil forms oc- 
cur. The Cuban population came from an earlier 
colonization from South America or possibly 
even from some other island in the Antilles. 

Two distinct groups "sailed" from North 
America to South America at about the same 
time. One included a member of the carnivore 
family Procyonidae: raccoons and allies. The 
oldest fossils of this group in South America are 
known from several localities in west-central 
(Huayqueri'as) and northwestern Argentina 
(Corral Quemado, Chiquimil). The earliest form 
is a cat-sized animal called Cifonasua. One of its 
descendents, also extinct, was Chapalmalania. 
which reached the size of a bear and probably 
was also beariike in its habits. The other grt)up of 
North American seafaring immigrants were 
members of the rodent family Cricetidae (cotton 
mice and their relatives). These mice were first 
found in South America in beds of about 3..S 
milhon years in age at a locality called Monte 
Hermoso along the Atlantic coast of Argentina 
just east of Batiia Blanca. These animals probably 



procyonid 




Menihcrs of the rac- 
coon family Procyoiii- 
dae and wiceof the 
family Cncctidac nvre 
the "ancifiit nuirinfrs" 
to wake it from North 
America to South 
America athiut 6 mil- 
hon years a^o. 



got to South America at about the same lime as 
the procyonids, but they arc of very small size 
and the earlv part of their fossil record in South 
America is apparently not yet know n. 



ARGENTINA 




800km 



19 



The Bolivar Trough marine barrier con- 
nected the Carribean ami the Pacific, and 
deterred dispersal of land animah between 
the Americas. Then, the barrier dried up 
about 3 million years ago.pennitting the 
interchange of the long-sepmrated North 
and South American faunas across the 
neivly emergent Panamanian land bridge. 




clubliko structure at the end, could also deal a 
mortal blow to an unw arv predator. Some glvp- 
todonts developed on the central part of the back 
what is believed to have been a large musk gland, 
evidenced by a small volcano-shaped area in the 
shell. By forcefully extruding the contents of this 
gland an irritated givptodont could conceivablv 
produce its own mini-Mt. St. Helens and engulf 
itself in a shower of repugnant skunklike scent 
which would repel even the most persistent of 
attackers. 

Among other South American curiosiHes 

were large camellike animals called macrau- 

South American cheniids; large, stocky, and possibly semiaquatic 

"~,. ". ' " . beasts called toxodonts; medium-sized creatures 

ancient marmers to  . j .-i 

make it to North Amer- ^^'f" rodentlike teeth called mesotheres; horse- 

ica about 6 million lil<e novelties called proterotheres; and the small 

years ago. rabbitlike hegetotheres. Despite the superficial 




resemblances of some of these animals to true 
rabbits, horses, and camels, thev were in no way 
closely related. The appearance of animals which 
look alike but which are not closelv related is 
called convergence in evolution. This evolution- 
ary phenomenon occurs when animals evolve 
independently to fill particular roles, and more 
likely than not they come to resemble one 
another as well. It is simply that certain body 
types suit particular life styles, and through 
natural selection the most efficient bodv plan for 
a particular life style is favored. Similar oppor- 
tunities, or "job openings," existed on each con- 
tinent at the beginning of the Age of Mammals, 
some 65 million years ago, and those animals on 
hand during the "hiring process" were the ones 
employed. On the other hand, some animals 
which look quite different from one another fill 
nearly or exactly the same jobs (or roles) in their 
environment (or society). Glyptodonts ate grass, 
just as horses do, but otherwise there is little in 
common between them. 

Isolation and the evolution of a unique yet 
apparently ecologically balanced fauna in South 
America set the stage for the most important 
event of the experiment. This event began about 
6 million years ago and for all pracHcal purposes 
is still in progress today. Paleontologists refer to 
this event as The Great American Faunal Inter- 
change'' and within it are recognized two par- 
ticipant groups, the ancient mariners and the 
overlanders. 

The Ancient Mariners 

By 6 million years ago the Bolivar Trough marine 
barrier began to decrease in width, and the 
American continents were, figurativelv speak- 
ing, drawn closer together. As a consequence, 
the probabilities increased for successful chance 
dispersal of land mammals between the Ameri- 
cas. It is now known that about this Hme a limited 
but important interchange of land mammals in- 
deed occurred. The means of dispersal of these 
animals across the water barrier is not certain, 
but a plausible mechanism has been proposed: 
During times of flooding and high water levels, 
rafts of vegetahon are broken away from the 
banks of swollen rivers and carried to the sea. In 
addititm to the vegetation, some rafts also in- 
clude animal life, among which are occasional 
mammals. These animals are able to live on the 
provisions provided on the raft. Plant-eating 
animals, like rodents, will eat vegetation; insec- 
tivorous animals, like shrews, will eat insects; 
but carnivorous animals, like dogs or cats, will 
have a hard time of it since they will quickly 
consume whatever animal life is isolated with it 
on the raft. In general, large rafts will have more 



provisions than small rafts; the smaller the size of 
the animal the larger the raft and hence the 
greater the amount of provisions; the fewer the 
animals on the raft the mcire provisions per ani- 
mal. These and other factors determine how long 
each type of animal can live on a raft of particular 
size and containing various provisions. In es- 
sence, these rafts serve as small "Noah's Arks"^ 
and these are carried by ocean currents and pre- 
vailing winds to distant shores. 

It is assumed that over the great expanse 
of geologic time a great number of such rafts 
existed. Although many would have disinte- 
grated during the voyage, some would remain 
intact and fewer still would provide ample pro- 
visions for their passengers to survive. Upon 
"docking"' on a distant shore the surviving 
passengers disembarked. This, then, is the 
means by which some land mammals are 
believed to have become reluctant "ancient mar- 
iners" and crossed the Bolivar Trough marine 
barrier or even the Caribbean itself. If the immi- 
grants survived and if there was a breeding pair 
or a pregnant female such that the species could 
be perpetuated, then it is possible that the 
species could establish itself in its new land. 
However, the fossil record documents only the 
successful voyages and colonizations, and we 
don't know how many failed. 

The seafarers which went from South 
America to North America included two kinds of 
ground sloths, extinct relaHves of the living tree 
sloths of the American tropics. These animals 
were about the size of a large dog. One kind 
apparently came directly from South America, 
while the other may have had its "port of embar- 
cation" in Cuba, where related fossil forms oc- 
cur. The Cuban population came from an earlier 
colonization from South America or possibly 
even from some other island in the Antilles. 

Two distinct groups "sailed" from North 
America to South America at about the same 
time. One included a member of the carnivore 
family Procyonidae: raccoons and allies. The 
oldest fossils of this group in South America are 
known from several localities in west-central 
(Huayquerias) and northwestern Argentina 
(Corral Quemado, Chiquimil). The earliest form 
is a cat-sized animal called Cyonasua. One of its 
descendents, also extinct, was Chapalmalania, 
which reached the size of a bear and probably 
was also bearlike in its habits. The other group of 
North American seafaring immigrants were 
members of the rodent family Cricetidae (cotton 
mice and their relatives). These mice were first 
found in South America in beds of about 3.5 
million years in age at a locality called Monte 
Hermoso along the Atlantic coast of Argentina 
just east of Bahia Blanca. These animals probably 



procyonid 




Members of the rac- 
coon family Procyoni- 
dae and mice of the 
family Cricetidae were 
the "ancient mariners" 
to make it from North 
America to South 
America about 6 mil- 
lion years ago. 



got to South America at about the same time as 
the procyonids, but they are of very small size 
and the early part of their fossil record in South 
America is apparently not yet known. 



ARGENTINA 




800 km 



50* 



19 



Chiquimil 



^ ^•t^*-^^'' 




Corral Quemado 




Huayquerias 



20 




Of the South American groups which 
walked northward across the Panamani- 
an land bridge and which are found as 
fossil in the United States are por- 
cupines, capybaras, opossums, 
■^■^ several types of giant ground 

^^^ sloths, armadillos, giant 

armadillos, and glypto- 
donts. Fossil toxodonts 
are found in Central 
America. 




capybara 



21 




The prt'daceous flight- 
less phowrhaconi 
ground bird Titanis 
walked across the land 
bridge along -with the 
mammals. These birds 
came from South Amer- 
ica ami fossils are 
found in Florida. This 
animal teas described 
and named by the or- 
nithologist Pierce 
Brodkorb (1963. Auk, 
80.111-135). 



22 



The Overlanders 

The geological processes responsible for the 
gradual closure of the Bolivar Trough continued. 
Then, about 3 million years ago, the areas of 
present dav Panama and Colombia united; the 
Panamanian Land Bridge was now complete. 
Across this land bridge occurred the most spec- 
tacular and best documented interchange of its 
kind in the fossil record, '■ *■ ^ * and the site of the 
former Bolivar Trough was the "gateway" for the 
interchange. The long-separated land mammal 
faunas of North and South America \sere given 
the opportunity to mingle and interact, and their 
integration was to result in the formation of 
faunas of quite different character from those 
existing before the land bridge. ' More important, 
each fauna was provided with the opportunitv to 
test the other and to see which contained the 
most successful animals for a particular way of 
life. Both faunas were balanced and each had its 
own species adapted for a particular wav of life. 
Moreover, it is axiomatic that no two species can 
do exactly the same thing and coexist indefi- 
nitely. In essence, there is only one job opening 
for a particular line of work in anv particular 
place, and although there may be several appli- 
cants, only one will be permanently employed. 
Let's first look at the applicants, then at the hiring 
process. 

Representatives of 17 families of mammals 



of South American origin eventually went 
northward through the "gate," following the 
appearance of the land bridge. As indicated bv 
the fossil record, a large number of Si>uth Ameri- 
can forms appeared at various localities in the 
United States almost simultaneously, about 2.5 
million years ago. These include a capvbara 
(Ncochoerus), a porcupine (Lrcthizon), a glvpto- 
dont (Glifptothcrium), a giant ground sloth (Glos- 
sothcrium), a giant armadillo (Kraglicvichia), and 
another armadillo similar to the living Dasi/pus." 
In addition, a giant phororhacoid ground bird 
named Titanis is found in beds of similar age in 
Florida. This animal stood about 10 to 12 feet in 
height and was carnivorous. A flightless crea- 
ture, it came from South America along \sith the 
mammals. '■ " 

In beds of slightly younger age (Middle 
Pleistocene) appear additional South American 
immigrants — several more giant ground sloths, 
another capybara, another giant armadillo, and 
the opossum Didclphis. The toxodonts reached 
Central America and are found there in beds of 
late Pleistocene age. Most of these animals died 
out at the end of the Pleistocene (about 10,000 
years ago). Yet the porcupine, armadillo, and 
opossum are still \\ ith us and are characteristic 
elements of the present-day fauna in the United 
States. 

These are the only South American 
groups known in fossil form north of the gate- 
way. Yet, in the recent fauna of central America 
are other groups of South American origin which 
either came north relatively recently, or did so 
much earlier and are simply not represented in 
the fossil record. Included are monkeys (Calli- 
trichidae, Cebidae), two types of anteaters (Cy- 
clopidae, Myrmecophagidae), tree sloths 
(Bradypodidae, Choleopodidae), and two fami- 
lies of caviomorph rodents (Dasyproctidae, 
Echimyidae).- 

Animals of North American origin begin 
to appear in abundance in South America, more 
specificalh' at Uquia and elsewhere in Argentina, 
at about the same time as the early South Ameri- 
can immigrants begin to appear in North Amer- 
ica. In all, 14 families of North American origin 
are known to have immigrated to South America 
following the appearance of the land bridge. 
Among the early immigrants were members of 
the families of skunks (Mustelidae), peccaries 
(Tayassuidae), dogs (Canidae), cats (Felidae), 
bears (Ursidae), camels (Camelidae), deer (Cer- 
vidae), horses (Equidae), tapirs (Tapiridae), and 
mastodonts (Gomphotheriidae). Later immi- 
grants included squirrels (Sciuridae), shrews 
(Soricidae), and rabbits (Leporidae).- Most of 
these groups are still living in South America. 
Only the mastodonts and horses died out at the 






squirrel 







The North American 
groups which walked 
southward into South 
America include members 
of the families of shrews, 
squirrels, rabbits, skunks, 
cats, dogs, bears, pecca- 
ries, tapirs, deer, camels, 
horses, and mastodonts. 



bear 



Uquk. Ill these beds 

are found some of the 

first "overlanders" to 

have made it into 

South America. 




"fTT^ 






^^,H 



• ' ^VUwiw.v- 



: t 







^-^^Si^l^^a 






>»!*'■ 



.-•♦•^^ 




Larry G Marshall 



24 



end of the Pleistocene in South America and in 
North America as well (the horse was rein- 
troduced, by man, after the arrival of Columbus), 
while the tapirs and camels (llamas, guanacos, 
alpacas) survive in South America but died out in 
North America.' The faunas of today in various 
parts of the Americas are thus quite different 
from what they were several million years ago. 

Present knowledge of the fossil record 
suggests that although the interchange began 
shortly after the appearance of the land bridge, it 
was and is a continual process. Some animals 
extended their ranges deep into the other conti- 
nent, some barely reached beyond the gateway, 
while others never made it through the gateway 
and thus did not disperse beyond the limits of 
the continent of their origin. It is now evident 
that only animals or animal groups which had or 
have at least part of their distribution in tropical 
or subtropical areas took part in the interchange. 
Hence, comparisons and contrasts of dispersal 
potential and success must be made among these 
groups and need not include groups with ranges 
restricted to temperate areas. None of the latter 
groups took part in the interchange, as the 
tropics and subtropics were a barrier to their 
dispersal.^ 

The Consequences 

Have the subsequentlif introduced species consumed 

the food of the great antecedent races? Can we believe 

' 'he Capyhara has taken the food of the Toxodon, 

,anaco of the Macrauchenia, the existing small 

Edentata of the numerous gigatitic prototypes? 

— Charles Darwin 

The Voyage of the Beagle 

As the interchange progressed, the structure and 
composition of the fauna changed. This was par- 



ticularly true for the mammal fauna in South 
America. Many of the native South American 
groups went extinct subsequent to the appear- 
ance of the land bridge, while the North Ameri- 
can immigrants increased in number and diver- 
sity. These changes were relatively rapid, and 
today about 50 percent of the genera and 40 per- 
cent of the families of mammals living in South 
America belong to or evolved from groups that 
invaded South America during the Great Ameri- 
can Interchange.- 

It is tempting and indeed almost unavoid- 
able to conjecture that the disappearance of some 
native South American groups was a conse- 
quence of interchange." As such, attempts have 
been made to search for cause and effect relation- 
ships. It has been suggested that this replace- 
ment resulted from competitive interaction 
among members of the native and invading 
faunas, and that the invaders were more aggres- 
sive and therefore better competitors than the 
South American natives.^ Another view is that 
the decline in the native fauna was due to an 
ongoing trend begun several million years earlier 
and was speeded up by ecological changes re- 
sulting in large part from the uplift of the Andes. ^ 
If this is the case, then the changes in the South 
American fauna would have occurred despite 
the invasion by North American immigrants. 

Thanks to the efforts of my colleagues 
G.G. Simpson,^ S.D. Webb," R. Pascual, and the 
late B. Patterson,'' it is now apparent that the 
observed changes resulted from a mixture of 
these and other causes. In particular cases where 
invader and native animals appear virtually 
identical, it seems permissible to attribute the 
disappearance of one to the simultaneous ap- 
pearance of the other. An example is the disap- 
pearance of the native marsupial sabertooth 



which coincides with the appearance iif the in- 
vader placental sabertooth. Here a one-tii-i)ne 
cause and effect relationship appears probable. 
Yet, at the other extreme, it is believed that the 
invading dogs and cats were competing for the 
same or similar food resources as were the native 
phororhacoid ground birds. The decline to even- 
tual extinction of these predaceous birds mav 
have resulted from competitive interaction with 
the invading dogs and cats. 

Among the herbivorous animals, the dis- 
appearance of the hegetotheres, mesotheres, to- 
xodonts, macraucheniids, and proterotheriids 
may be linked to competition with invading mas- 
todonts, deer, peccaries, camels, horses, and 
tapirs. However, there is nothing quite like a 
toxodont among the invaders, nor is there any- 
thing quite like a mastodont among the nattves. 
In these and other cases it is difficult to identify 
ecological equivalents among the two faunas and 
as such there is little basis for inferring a specific 
cause and effect relationship for the disappear- 
ance of such unique groups as toxodonts. The 
important lesson to be learned from the inter- 
change is that North American invaders have 
come to occupy many jobs previously filled by 
native South American groups. We may never 
totallv understand the reasons responsible for 
this replacement process, but it is stimulating to 
try. 

The Fatal Impact 

Did wan, after his first inroad into South America, 
destroy . . . the unwieldy Megatherium ami the other 
Edentata? 

— Charles Darwin 

The Voyage of the Beagle 



About 12,000 years ago man arrived onto the 
South American continent. Shortly before this 
hme he invaded North America from Asia across 
the Bering land bridge, and continued his jour- 
ney southward over the Panamanian land 
bridge, eventually reaching Tierra del Fuego, at 
South America's uttermost tip. In the Americas, 
man's arrival coincided with a major extinction 
episode. Many large herbivores and their special- 
ized predators became extinct. In South America 
about 45 (37 percent) of the 120 known genera in 
the late Pleistocene disappeared.^ Gone were the 
sabertooth cats, the mastodonts, the giant 
ground sloths, and the tanklike glyptodonts, just 
to name a few. Most investigators now agree that 
man's activities played a decisive role in the final 
demise of these animals. With the appearance of 
man so ended the last vestige of South America's 
splendid isolation; the fortuitous experiment, 
nonetheless, continues. O 




marsupial sabertooth 
Thylacosmilus 




placental sabertooth 
Smilodon 




The pen and ink restorations of mammals in this artii. le 
were drawn by Field Museum staff artist Marlene Hill 
Werner; the phororhacoid ground bird was drawn 
by statf artist Zorica Dabich. 

References and Acknowledgements 

1. Marshall, L. G. 1978. The Terror Bird. Field 
Museum of Natural Histon/ Bulletin, 49:6-15. 

2. Marshall, L. G. 1981. The Great Amorican Intor- 
change — an invasion induced crisis for South Ameri- 
can mammals, pp. 133-229, in Biotic Crises in Geological 
and Evolutionary Time. M. Nitecki (ed.). Academic 
Press, New York. 

3. McKenna, M. C. 1973. Sweepstakes, filters, cor- 
ridt)rs, Noah's arks, and beached Viking funeral ships 
in palaeogeography, pp 21-4h, in Implications of Conti- 
nental Drift to the Earth Sciences, D. H. Tarling and S. K. 
Runcorn (eds.). Academic Press, New York. 

4. Patterson, P. and Pascual, R. 1972. The fossil 
mammal fauna of South America, pp. 247-309, in 
Ei'olution, Mammals and Southern Continents, A. Keast, 
F C. Firk, and B. Glass (eds.), State University of New 
York Press, Albany. 

5. Simpson, G. G. 1980. Splendid Isolation: the curi- 
ous history of South American mammals. Yale University 
Press, New Haven. 

6. Webb, S. D. 1976. Mammalian fauna! dynamics 
of the Great American Inters liange. Palcohiology, 
2:216-234. 

Special thanks to Aiademie Press Inc. for permission 
to reproduce the restorations in figures 3, 8, 9, and 10 
from reference 2. 



The extmcli.m of 
the South American 
marsupial sabertooth 
Thylacosmilus com- 
cides with the apfvar- 
ance in South America 
o/ Smilodon, (J ;i/(i- 
cental saherloolh in- 
vader from Sorth 
America. 



25 



JC^tU 



\l^\i 



^K^ 



*\/s^^ 






Friday, May 15 

Lecture Demoiisfrarion: 10:30 a.m. 

E\ening Perfbi'mance: 8:00 p.m. 



Kathakcili, which originated in Kerala, a state on 
India's southwest coast, is an all-male theater whose 
performance techniques stem in part from a Wgor- 
ous martial tradition. Seventeen actors bring the 
magic of the god's roval heroes and demon kings of 
ancient Indian m\-th to life. 

Dating from the IGth centur\', Kathakali is 
truly India's most d\Tiamic theater form. It is related 
to the only sur\i\ing form of classical Sanskrit 
drama, Kutiyattam, whose origins ma\- date back 
to the second centur\'. The extraordinary art of 
Kathakali lies in the elocjuent telling of stories 
from the great Indian epics like the Riunayana and 
the Mahabharata through drama, song, dance, mime, 
and a complex language of hand gestures. Although 
the heroes and xillains may seem super-himian 




Clinord R Jones 



in their abilities and appearance, thev remain 
distinctly human in character. The st^'lization of 
Kathakali extends from the rich costumes, elaborate 
make-up, and patterns of movement to characteri- 
zation as ever\' actor endeavors to recreate a tradi- 
tional, designated personality type. 

The noble, heroic, or divine character, called 
paccha, such as Rimia or Krishna, has a green face 
with velvet black brows and red mouth. A katti 
character, e\al but with a streak of nobilitw has a 
green base with a red and white st\'lized moustache 
snarling over each cheek. The "red beard," or de- 
monic antihero, has a black and red face and knobs 
on the nose and forehead. Various other details, 
from false breasts to holy beads, designate a 
panorama of personalities — demonesses, sages, 
apparitions, charioteers, and e\il women who are 
"too beautiful" and therefore suspicious. The artists 
are allowed to subtly develop each role and interpret 
them indi\'iduall\'. In fact, certain passages of 
Kathakali theatre are wholly improvised even' time 
they are performed. 

The musical accompaniment in Kathakali is 
characterized by specific ragizs (melodic modes) 
and talas (rhythmic patterns). The lead singer also 
plays acennalam, or gong, with which he sets the 
tempo. He is joined bv drums and, in dramatic 
moments, a conch shell, or sankhu. 

The troupe comes from an organization 
which has been dedicated to the preservation and 
presentation of Kathakali since 1930: The Kerala 
Kalamandalam. Their arrival for this spring tour 
marks the troupe's third appearance in the United 
States. The tour is sponsored by The Asia Societ\''s 
Performing Arts Program, which is supported b\' 
grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mr. 
John Goelet, The Weatherhead Foundation, Mr. C.Y. 
Tung, and the World Study Museum, Kyoto. This 
program is partialh- funded b\- the Illinois Arts 
Council. 

A one-hour lecture-demonstration on the art 
of Kathakali at 10:30 a.m. on May 15 is a basic 
introduction to Kathakali epic theater and describes 
the major characters invoked in the dance dramas, 
dance movements and what they mean, make-up 
application, and costume svTnbolism. The lecture- 
demonstration is designed to enhance one's under- 
standing of the formal evening performance. Tick- 
ets tor the lecture-demonstration are $5.00; $3.00 
for Museum members. 

The formal evening performance takes place 
at 8:00 p.m. It is held in James Simpson Theater at 
the Museum's barrier- free West Entrance. The pro- 
gram is 90 minutes long, plus a 15-minute intermis- 
sion. Tickets for the evening performance are $8.00; 
S6.00 for Museum members. We encourage vou to 
order tickets in advance for this ven' special e\'cnt . 
Tickets will be sold at the door on a space available 
basis. For further information, call 312-322-8854. 



May and June at Field Museum 



May 16 through June 15 




Hop: iikiitiiiiii idctail). H,,,. 



New Exhibits 

"HOPI." This exhibit celebrates America's oldest 
continuously surviving culture — the Hopi Indians, 
who have lived atop the barren, windswept mesas 
of the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona for 
the past eight centuries. The exhibit features large- 
scale models of Hopi religious ceremonies, as 
well as main' kiichinas — doll-like representations 
of the sacred beings of the Hopi. Beautiful candid 
photographs and watercolors by Joseph Mora 
are also featured in the exhibit. The photographs, 
which date back to the first decade of this cen- 
tuns are rare indeed. Shortly after the photo- 
graphs were taken, cameras were banned from 
Hopi public dances and remain banned today. 
Opens June 13. Halls 2G and 27. Members' pre- 
view: June 12. For further information, see below, 
"New Programs." 



Continuing L.vhibits 

Anniversary Exhibit. International Museum Day 
(see below) offers an appropriate opporfunitA' to 
explore Field Museum's roots. The place to begin 
is the Anniversary' Exhibit, which features speci- 
mens from each of the Museum's four scientific 
disciplines — anthropology', botany, geolog\'. and 
zo()log\' — as well as a displa\' tracing the found- 
ing and de\'el(>pment of this world-famous institu- 
tion. Hall 3, main floor. 

Hall of African Mammals I'hc Abyssinian colo- 
bus monkeys featured on the cover can be found 
in this hall, with sucii varied companions as the 
huge bongo, the ugly giant forest hog, thi' dainty 
little klipspringer. and the man-eating lions of 

Contimwd on back cowr 



27 



May andjune at Field Museum 



Continued from inside cover 



Tsavo. At the south t-nd of" I lie hall is the Muse- 
um's largest habitat group — 23 animals gath- 
ered around an African waterhole. Hall 22, 
main floor. 



New Programs 

IxTF.RXATioNAL MusiX'M Dav Cklebration'. Special 
tours, films, slide lectures, demonstrations, and 
informal talks focus on Field Museum's origins, 
collections, and behind-the-scenes activities. Pro- 
grams include: "Anatomy of a Mummy" talk, 
"Animal Babies" craft program for children, "Ex- 
hibition Design" slide lecture, "Age of Dinosaurs" 
tour, and much, much more. All events free. 
Sundiiy, Nkiy 17, 11 a.m. -4 p.m. 

Members" PRE\aE\v to "Hope" The Museum's 
new exhibit will be open e.xclusiyely for Members 
Friday, June 12, 1-9 p.m. After touring the exhibit. 
Members are invdted to join Museum staff for re- 
freshment and conversation. The exhibit will be 
in Halls 26 and 27. 

Ray a. Kroc Environmental Field Trips. These 
one-day trips to local areas of ecological and 
biological significance continue on weekends in 
May and June. For information, call 322-8854. 

WEEKEND Discovery Programs. Participate in a 
variet\' of free tours, demonstrations, and films 
e\'er\- Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 
3 p.m. Check the Weekend Sheet at Museum en- 
trances for locations and additional programs. 

D Saturday, May 16: "Potato Planters" film 
feature, 1 p.m. 



D Saturday, May 23: "China Through the Ages" 

tour, 11:30 a.m. 
D Saturday, May 23: "Afghan Women" film 

feature, 1 p.m. 
n Sunday, May 24: "Animal Babies" craft project 

for children, 12:30 p.in. 
n Sunday, May 24: "Life in Ancient Eg^-pt" tour, 

2 p.m. 
D Saturday, May 30: "Alice Elliot" and "The 

Hands of Maria" film features, 1 p.m. 
n Sunday, May 31: "Ancient Eg\'pt" tour, 2 p.m. 
D Saturday, June 6: "Native American Foods" 

tour, 11:30 a.m. 
D Saturday, June 6: Corn-grinding demonstration, 

12-2 p.m. 
D Sunday, June 7: "The World of Whales" film 

feature, 2 p.m. 
D Saturday, June 13: " Histor\- of the Eg\'ptian 

Collection" slide program, 1:30 p.m. 
D Sunda\', June 14: "Animal Babies" craft project 

for children, 1 p.m. 
D Sunday, June 14: "The World of Whales," film 

feature, 2 p.m. 

Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scien- 
tific interests and backgrounds are needed to work 
in various Museum departments. Contact the Vol- 
unteer Coordinator, 922-9410, ext. 360. 

May AND June Hours. The Museum is open from 
9 a.m. -6 p.m., Saturday-Thursday; 9 a.m. -9 p.m., 
Frida\' throughout the year. 

The Museum Library, is open weekdays 9 a.m.- 
4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main 
floor. Closed May 25, Memorial Da\'. 



Museum TtLEPHONE: (312) 922-9410 



I s^ Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 



b.^ 



June 1981 




Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 

I line 1981 
Vol. 52, No. 6 



Editor/ Designer: David M. Walsten 
Production: Martha Poulter 
Calendar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 

President: E. Leland Webber 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Board OF Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chmrman 
Mrs. T. Stanton Arniour 
George R. Baker 
Riibert O. Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Ccxik 
O.C. Davis 

William R. Dickinstin, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles E Murphy Jr. 
James J. O'Connor 
James H Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert H.StTOtz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E Leland Webber 
Julian B. Wilkins 
Blaine J. Yarrington 

Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr. 
William V Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J Howard Wood 



Field Museum of Nclural History Bullenr, iL'SPS 898-940) is published monthly, except 
combined July^Aug\ist issue, W Field Museum of .\at\iral History, Roosevelt Road at 
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 11. 60605 Subscriptions: S* 00 annually S3 00 for schools. 
Museum membership includes Builrhn sub<<-nption Opinions expressed by authors are 
their own and do not necessarily reflect the po'ucv- ot Field Museum. Unsolicited manu- 
scripts are welcome. Museum phone; (312) 5122-9410 Postmaster Please send form S579 
to Field Museum of Natural History. Roosevelt Road at l-ake Shore Drive, Chicago, n. 
60605 ISSN: 0015-0703. Second class posUge paid at Chicago, n. 



CONTENTS 



10 
11 
12 

16 

back 
cover 

COVER 



Farrington's Folly? 

by Edward Olsen, curator of mineralogy 

Eskimo and Indian Settlements in South wrestern 
Alaska, 1902: A Photographic Record 

by James W. VanStone, curator of North American 
archeology and ethnology 

Our Environment 

Field Museum Tours for Members 

A Whale of a Tale 

by Larry G. Marshall, assistant curator of fossil 
mammals 

The Hopi as They Were 

by Alice Schlegel 

June and July at Field Museum 

Calendar of Coming Events 



Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, viewed from the north side. The 
Hopi Indians, the subject of Alice Schlegel's "The Hopi as They 
Were" (p. 16), have survived — and prevailed — in this seemingly 
inhospitable region for centuries. Photo by David Muench. 

June 13 is the opening date for two special exhibits: "Hopi 
Kachina: Spirit of Life," organized by the California Academy of 
Sciences in cooperation with the Hopi people, and "The Year of the 
Hopi," sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Ex- 
hibit Service (sites)'. "The Year of the Hopi," featuring turn-of- 
the-ccntury watercolor paintings and photographs by Joseph 
Mora, will be seen in Hall 27. "Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life," 
which includes materials from 18 public and private collections, 
will be in Hall 26. 



KM 



"Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life" and 
"The Year of the Hopi" open June 13 

Members ' Pre\ 'iew 

Friday, June 12 

1:00-9:00 p.m. 

refreshments 




The U-toii Willanu-tli' 
iiu'tt'orite icas found in 
Clackamas County, 
Oregon, in 1902. The 
large hasins in which 
the children are re- 
i lined are the result of 
centuries of weathering 
and corrosion ichile 
buried in the soil. A 
slice of this meteorite is 
in the Field Museum 
collection. 



FARRINGTON^S FOLLY? 



By Edward Olscn 
Curator of Mineralogy 



The Meteorite Collection at the Field Muse- 
um has turned out to be a kind of "sleeper." The 
storv of the collection starts with Oliver Farring- 
ton back around 1894. Dr. Farrington was the 
first curator of geology, at what was then called 
the Field Columbian Museum. We don't have 
"curators of geology" anymore — we're all very 
specialized now, and are curators of this, that, or 
the other thing: mineralogy, fossil mammals, 
fossil fish, etc. But back in Farrington's day he 
was curator of all of that, and more. 

Early on in his career he became enamoured 
of meteorites. It's an easy thing to do; they are the 
very most ancient of natural history objects — as 
old as the Solar System, 4,550,000,000 years! 
When you handle a meteorite you are touching 
an object older than the lunar rocks that were 
collected by the manned lunar landings; older 
than any of the rocks of the earth's surface. When 
Farrington was "grabbed" by these objects we'll 
never know, but we do know that in 1912 he 
managed to get the Museum to purchase a large 



collection of them to add to what he had already 
acquired by bits and pieces since 1894. He now 
had all together a majt)r collectitm. 

Farrington continued to acquire meteorites. 
From his collection he was able to saw or chip 
off pieces to exchange for samples of meteorites 
not already represented in the collection. He 
exchanged with private collectors and other 
museums around the world — London, Wash- 
ington, D.C., New York, Berlin, Vienna, etc., a 
process that is still going on at Field Museum 
today. He also purchased meteorites when an 
owner preferred cash, and when he was able to 
raise it. 

Unlike the search for most other natural his- 
tory objects, it isn't, in general, a good expendi- 
ture of a curator's time to try to go out and collect 
them. That is a "needle-in-the-haystack" kind of 
operation (except for the recent collections being 
made in Antarctica — which is a whole other 
story). Farrington did, however, chase down 
rumors of meteorites reported to be in farm fields 

Continuedonp. 26 



Eskimo and Indian Settlements 
In Southw est Alaska, 1902 

A Photographic Record 



far James W. VanStone 
Curator of North Anwricaii Archeology' and Ethuologi' 



In MW Wiltrod H. Osgood (1873-1947) joined 
the staff of Field Museum as an assistant 
curator in the Department of Zoology; 32 
years later, in 1941, he retired as chief curator. 
Prior to beginning his long and distinguished 
career at the Museum, Osgood was employed as 
an assistant in the Division of Biological Survey, a 
now-defunct branch of the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture. In this capacity, he conducted a 
biological survey of portions of southwestern 
Alaska in the summer cif 1902, one of the earliest 
scientific explorations of that part of the territor\-. 

Traveling chiefly by canoe, Osgood and 
three assistants left Iliamna Bay on July 10, 
crossed the mountains to Lake Clark, then por- 
taged to the Nushagak River drainage, descend- 
ing that river to the trading settlement of Nush- 
agak on Bristol Ba\', which they reached on 
September 12. Later that month the party crossed 
the bay to the village of Egegik, at the mouth of 
the King Salmon River, then proceeded over the 
Alaska Peninsula to Puale Bay, where they took 
passage to Seattle on a smaller steamer. 

During the 1960s, I conducted archeological 
and ethnographic research on Lake Clark and 
along the Nushagak River. For someone inter- 



ested in early accounts of the native inhabitants 
of that region, Osgood's report on his journey 
proved to be a disappointment.' He was, of 
course, primarily interested in the birds and 
mammals he encountered, but his map indicates 
that he visited at least three important native 
settlements: Old Iliamna, a Tanaina Indian 
community at the east end of the lake of that 
name; Kijik, a Tanaina village on Lake Clark; 
and Kokwok, an Eskimo village on the middle 
Nushagak River. Although abandoned today, 
all three were important settlements in the late 
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

I had long dismissed Osgood's report as a 
minimally useful historical source that was only 
marginally relevant to my own research when, 
in 1976, a member of the Museum's library staff 
called my attention to an unidentified album of 
Alaskan photographs which had been stored in 
the library for an unknown period of time. It was 
obvious from even the most cursory examination 
of these photographs that they represented a 
record of Osgood's Alaskan travels in the sum- 
mer of 1902. Although the biologist's name no- 
where appears on the album and some of the 
individual pictures are also unidentified, many 






» 

i 


* 

 


( • 


< 


i 


t^ 


ii 




are accompanied b\' useful captions which 
clearly indicate their provenience. Nine of these 
photographs have been selected for illustration 
here because they relate to the previously men- 
tioned Indian and Eskimo settlements, and thus 
are important documents relevant to the history 
of human occupation in the area. 

Figure 1. The village of Old Iliamna, a set- 
tlement of Athapaskan-speaking Tanaina In- 
dians on Lake Iliamna and the site of a Russian 
trading post early in the nineteenth century. Of 
all the northern Athapaskan tribes, the Tanaina 
are the only ones who reach the sea. Their cul- 
tural center was the Cook Inlet area, where the 
people were oriented toward a maritime econ- 
omy with marked coastal Eskimo overtones. The 
settlements visited by Osgood, however, were in 
the interior, where the Indian economy was fo- 
cused on salmon fishing and the hunting of large 
land animals such as caribou and moose. The 
interior Tanaina exploited their environment 
much as did the neighboring riverine Eskimos of 
the Nushagak River and its tributaries. 

In this photograph note the log cabin resi- 
dences, which had begun to replace traditional 
semisubterranean houses toward the end of the 
nineteenth century. Old Iliamna had a popula- 
tion of 49 at the time the first American census 
was taken in 1880; 10 years later 76 were enumer- 
ated. About 1910, the settlement moved across 
the lake to a location at the mouth of the Nevvha- 
len River, probably because an American trading 
post had been established there. 

Figure 2. Inhabitants of Old Iliamna. Note 
that the villagers are clothed in typical American 
garments of the beginning of the present cen- 
tury. Among northern Athapaskans, traditional 
caribou skin clothing disappeared more rapidly 
than other items of material culture, possibly 
because Indians wished to identify with the 
white man through similar dress, but also be- 



cause ready-made European garments saved 
work and were, in most cases, more comfortable 
to wear. 

Figure 3. This is the only known photo- 
graph to show an appreciable segment of the 
village of Kijik on Lake Clark. The settlement was 
located at the mouth of a small river along the 
north shore of the lake. To the north of the set- 
tlement and almost directly behind it is Kijik 
Mountain, which rises to a height of more than 
3,000 feet. This photograph does not show any 
residences. The elevated structures to the left are 
storage caches where dried fish and other sup- 
plies were stored. The large log structures in the 
center and on the far right are smokehouses 
where salmon were hung to dry. Smoky fires 
built inside these structures kept off flies and 





'},i-^st;»^-ii,i*: 



fifiiiTtTirni 



improved the flavor of the fish. 

The village of Kijik, where archeological 
excavations were undertaken in 1966 by Joan 
Townsend of the University of Manitoba and 
myself,^ was the largest and most important 
interior Tanaina settlement in the nineteenth 
century. It cannot be said with certainty when 
the settlement was first established, but Indian 



informants today believe that this took place 
shortly after 1800, when people moved inland 
from the coast. The earliest population estimates 
for the village are derived from the vital statistics 
of the Russian Orthodox mission at Nushagak, 
on Bristol Bay, between 1875 and 1900. Allowing 
for seasonal variaticins, it seems likely that the 
village supported a maximum population of 150 




to 175 individuals througiiout this period. 

People began to move a\\a\' from Kijik in 
1902, the \ear of Osgood's visit, and the \illage 
was eventually abandoned, primarily because it 
was too far from trading posts on lliamna Lake 
and from the salmon canneries that \\ ere being 
established along the shores of Bristol Bay; the 
latter offered seasonal empkn'ment to native in- 
habitants of the area. A measles epidemic shorth' 
after the turn of the century depleted the popula- 
tion and thus ma\' also have pro\ided an impetus 



lation abandoned the settlement most houses 
were dismantled so that the logs could be used in 
new dwellings elsewhere. 

This photograph, therefore, is of particular 
interest. It shows a log cabin, the ri>of of uhich 
slopes almost to the ground '>''>d is covered with a 
layer of sod. Such a house could be heated easily, 
either w ith a central!\' located fireplace charac- 
teristic of traditional liouses or w ith a cast iron 
stove, remains of w hich were abundant in tlie 
site. Although noi show n here, excavations re- 




5. Wilfred H. Osgood (left) in his later years. He i.s >tu 
diorama. 



iih I leld Museum staff artist A. G. Rueckert and model of sea otter 



for the move. 

Figure 4. Excavations at Kijik in 1966 re- 
vealed considerable variation in the size and 
shape of the Indians' houses. All dwellings ap- 
peared, however, to have been variations on a 
basic, above-ground log cabin type of construc- 
tion. Details of construction were difficult to 
determine, because when the bulk of the popu- 



vealed that bathhouses were connected to many 
of the Kijik residences. Hot rocks were brought 
in on a \N-ooden shovel and placed in the center of 
the small room, the floor of which was lower 
than the house floor; water was then poured on 
the rocks to provide steam. Attachi'd bathhouses 
were also characteristic oi traditit)nal Panaina 
houses.' 





Figures 6 and 7 show residents of Kijik. The 
man in Figure 6, also present in Figure 7, is iden- 
tified as the oldest inhabitant. Note the skillful 
construction of the structures in the background. 
Large spruce trees are plentiful along the shores 
of Lake Clark. 

Neighbors of the Tanaina to the west of lakes 
Iliamna and Clark were the Eskimo-speaking in- 
habitants of the Nushagak River and its tribu- 
taries. Although Osgood may have stopped 



at a number of villages on his trip down the 
Nushagak River, only the settlement of Kokwok 
is shown on his map. 

Figure 8. This photograph shows houses 
and elevated caches at Kokwok, today the largest 
abandoned village on the Nushagak River. These 
structures were located in a row along the river- 
bank, which is flat and relahvely high in this 
area. 

Kokwok is mentioned regularly in the statis- 
tics of the Russian Orthodox mission at Nush- 
agak between 1847 and 1910; it had a population of 
145 in 1882. In 1898 the number was 106, but when 
Osgood's party stopped at the settlement four 
years later, he found only 25 people living there. 
However, this visit was in September, and the 
party noted almost as many people proceeding 
upriver on hunting trips.'' Eskimo informants 
along the river today agree that Kokwok was 
in a decided decline following a severe influenza 
epidemic in 1918-19. Survivors moved either 
upriver to another village or to Nushagak Bay, 
where seasonal employment in the salmon 
canneries was an attraction." 

Figures 9 and 10. Modified forms of the tra- 
ditional semisubterranean Eskimo house, shown 
in these photographs, persisted on the Nusha- 
gak River until about 1930, although missionaries 
encouraged the construction of log houses as 
early as the last decade of the nineteenth century. 
The transitional stage in the shift from the tra- 
ditional house to the log cabin involved the con- 
struction of a sod-covered log framework, either 
without excavation or with a very shallow one. 
Entrance chambers were also unexcavated and 
used primarily for the storage of dog harnesses, 
firewood, and household equipment. Inside the 
house was a hard-packed, dirt floor and a central 
fireplace. Sleeping benches along the walls were 
characteristic of some structures, and there was a 
skylight in the middle of the roof to admit light 
and to allow smoke from the fire to be drawn out. 

Wilfred Osgood's considerable reputation 
as a biologist is not, of course, dependent on his 
youthful contributions to Alaskan natural his- 
tory. Nevertheless, his explorations in south- 
western Alaska at the turn of the century repre- 
sent an important early chapter in the history of 
scientific activitv in that relatively remote region. 
1 wish that 1 had been aware of the existence of 
Osgood's photographs at the time of my own 
research in the area more than 60 years later; they 
would have been extremely helpful. The infor- 
mation provided in this article will add, it is 
hoped, to the significance of the photographs 
as historical documents and, at the same time, 
demonstrate the manner in which a photo- 
graphic record can provide an added dimension 
to our understanding of the recent past. 



D 





NOTES 



1. Osgood, VV.H., 1904. 

2. VanStone and Townsend, 1970. 

3. Osgood, C, 1940, pp. 38-59. 

4. Osgood, VV.H., 1904, p. 18. 

5. VanStone, 1971. 



REFERENCES 

Osgood, C. 

1940 The ethnography of the Tanaina. Yale Univer- 
sity Publications in Anthropology. No. 16. 

Osgood, VV.H. 

1904 A biological reconnaisance of the base of the 
Alaska Peninsula. Sorth American Fauna, no. 
24. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division 
of Biological Survey. Washington. 

VanStone, J. W. 

1971 Historic settlement patterns in the Nushagak 
River region, Alaska. FieUiiana: Anthropology, 
vol. 61. 

VanStone, J.W. and J.B. Townsend 

1970 Kijik: an historic Tanaina Indian settlement. 

FieUiiana: Anthropology, vol. 59. 



10 




» 9 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Manatee in Chesapeake Bay 

On October 22, 1981, the remains of a male 
West Indian manatee {Trichcchus maiiatus) 
weighing nearly 740 pounds (335 kg) and 
measuring over 9V2 feet (295 cm) were 
found by Sue Black, a local resident, in 
Buckroe Beach, Virginia. Buckroe Beach 
lies on the Chesapeake Bay just north of 
the mouth of the James River. The appar- 
ent cause of death was starvation com- 
pounded by pneumonia. 

This occurrence marks the north- 
ernmost documented range for manatees 
in files of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- 
vice. The previous authenticated record 
was from Ocean View, Virginia, in 1908. 
Ocean View is just south of the mouth of 
the James River in Norfolk. [The journal of 
Mammology (February, 1950; Vol. 1; pg. 98) 
reported an account of what appears to be 
a manatee sighted in the Rappahanock 
River, Virginia, bv Thomas Glover on June 
20, 1676. The Rappahanock River lies just 
south of the Potomac River and north of 
the James River. 1 

Generallv during the winter months 
the U.S. population of the West Indian 
manatee is restricted to peninsular Flor- 
ida, congregating around natural and in- 
dustrial warm-water discharge sources. 
(Winter distriburton has apparently ex- 
panded because of warm-water dis- 
charges from industrial and power-gener- 
ating plants.) Summer distribution is 
more widespread, occurring along the 
Gulf and Atlantic coasts from western 
Florida to Georgia. Occasionally, sight- 
ings are reported from southern Texas to 
North Carolina. The principle distribution 
of the U.S. manatee population, however, 
is in Florida. It occurs in the St. Johns River 
from Brevard County to Jacksonville; 
along the Atlantic coast from Merritt Is- 
land to Key West; along the Gulf coast 
from Key West to Tampa Bay; horizontally 
across the state, along the Caloosahatchee 
River; Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie 
Canal; and in Bernardo and Citrus Coun- 
ties from Chassahowitzka National Wild- 
life Refuge to Crystal River (also on the 
Gulf coast). 

The Denver Wildlife Research Cen- 
ter's Laboratory at Gainesville, Florida, 
serves as the Fish and Wildlife Service's 
focal point for rescue and salvage opera- 
tions. The rescue and salvage effort is 
conducted in cooperation wii:h and the as- 
sistance of the Florida Department of 
Natural Resources, the University of 
Miami, the Miami Seaquarium and Sea 
10 World in Orlando. 



Record Year for Whooping Crane 

America's wild whooping cranes are con- 
tinuing their slow but steady recovery 
from near-extinction with a record num- 
ber of birds on their wintering grounds. 
The main flock of 78 birds, two more than 
last year, recently migrated from the 
Texas Gulf coast to nesting grounds in 
Canada. Meanwhile, a transplanted flock 
of about 17 whooping cranes migrated 
with their "foster" sandhill crane parents 
from the Rio Grande Valley of New 
Mexico to the Rockies. 

Prospects for future growth in the 
main flock are even more encouraging, 
with about half of them — 19 pairs — now- 
active breeders. U.S. and Canadian wild- 
life officials predict a jump in the flock's 
population in the next few years unless 
something unforeseen happens or unless 
most are the same sex. 

Six young hatched during the spring 
of 1980 are among the 78 whoopers that 
wintered at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service's Aransas National Wildlife Ref- 
uge in Texas and nearby, after the 2,600- 
mile fall migration from Canada's Wood 
Buffalo National Park. Upon arrival at 
Aransas, families and breeding pairs 
staked out territories of about 400 acres, 
where they fed on clams, blue crabs, and 
occasionally acorns. Refuge officials say 
there is ample space at Aransas for the 
"hoped-for" expansion of the flock. 

Before their return northward, the 
breeding pairs began their spectacular 
courtship rituals — dancing and leaping 
into the air, their satiny black-tipped 
wings spread in what one observer has 
called a "joyous celebration of life." Whoo- 
pers are known to form pair bonds as 
early as two to three years of age, but 
their exact breeding age is not yet known. 
They began mating before reaching 
Canada, some at Aransas and others dur- 
ing migration. 

As the main flock approached court- 
ship ritual time, the young "foster" flock 
had already departed from Bosque del 
Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New- 
Mexico for its 750-mile return to the 
Grays Lake refuge in Idaho. At least 15 
made a favorite midway stopover at two 
national wildlife refuges in Colorado's 
San Luis Valley. 

Refuge officials believe the most suc- 
cessful technique for transplanting 
Patuxent-reared whoopers to Grays Lake 
would be to place a young female onto 
the territory of a male from the foster 
flock, keeping her safe until the two 



formed a strong pair bond. Researchers 
may get a chance to try the experiment 
this summer in yet another of the innova- 
tive techniques that have restored the 
whooping crane from a low of 15 in 1941 to 
this year's record number of nearly 100 
birds in the wild and 24 in captivity. 



New Ruling on Sale of 
Alligator Meat 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 
revised the special rule on the American 
alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) , allow- 
ing the nationwide sale of meat and other 
parts, except hides, from lawfully taken 
specimens. Under the revised rule, fab- 
ricators who manufacture products from 
American alligator leather are no longer 
required to obtain a permit. After review- 
ing public comments on the proposed 
rule, the Service decided that no substan- 
tive changes to the proposed rule were 
necessary. 

Although fabricators are no longer 
required to obtain a permit, buvers and 
tanners engaging in trade in American al- 
ligators remain highly regulated. This is to 
ensure that only lawfully taken specimens 
enter the market. Basically, American al- 
ligator meat and other parts, except hides, 
mav be sold nationwide if the sale is in 
accordance with the laws and regulations 
of the state in which the taking occurs and 
the state in which the sale occurs. 

A number of conditions must be satis- 
fied in order for harvested alligators to 
reach the market place: (1) the untanned 
hide may be sold or transferred only to a 
person holding a valid federal permit to 
buy hides, (2) the hide must be tagged by 
the state where the taking occurs with a 
noncorrodible, serially numbered tag 
which identifies the state, (3) the tag 
number, length of skin, type of skin, and 
date and place of taking must be recorded 
with the state, and (4) packages or con- 
tainers for shipping American alligator 
must have an identifying tag or label on 
the outside. 

Any person wishing to engage in the 
activities of a buyer or tanner must first 
applv for a federal permit from the Fish 
and Wildlife Service. The Service will 
issue a permit based on, among other 
things, the applicant's reliability and ap- 
parent ability and willingness to keep an 
accurate inventory and records of all 
American alligator hides, and all hides of 
any other species of the order Crocodilia 
handled by the applicant. 



TOURS FOR MEMBERS 




Peru and Bolivia 

OclohiM 15-N'o\imiiIh'i 1 
lour I'lite: $3,100 

Dr. Aliiii I.. KiiUitd iiiitl Dr. Muluiel 
Mosele}' — fiftd MuM'unt luntturs iv/io 
(ire sjwcidtists in tlw iinlie()to{^' ut this 
reiffo/j — ii'i// Ih' lecturers fiir //ii.v suiH'rb 
tour, l.iitui. Cuzco. Ui I'liz, tlw I'litiiis of 
A'(Jif«, Uiki' Titiciuii, diul txrjtuiixjus 
ruins oJ'MacItu I'iccliii and Cliiin Clutn 
are on llw itineran: Limited to Z5 fter- 
sons. Write tlie Tours Office or caU 
1322-8862) for detaiLs. 

 Village festival on shores of Lakr Titicaca in 
Botiiia. Dancers wear co.stumes bearir^ images 
derived fhwi tlie ancient art of Tuihuufuico, an 
empire tiuit ruled the .southern Aiuie.^ 1,500 irars 
aga. 



Grand Canyon 

Adventure 

July 17-26 
Tbur Price: $1,485 

An e.irititifi 280-mile cruise down tlw 
Colortutn River by tnotoriZ'Cd rubber 
rafl,canipini^outdoors under tlie stars. 
Dr. Mattltew M. \'itecki, curator of fos- 
sil invertebrates will lead the tour. 
Group limited to 25. For additional in- 
formation call 1322-8862) or write tlie 
Tours Office. 




^- 



r'e^ 




E^'pt (with Xile Cruise) 

Ivbnuiiy i^-'S.i. VM2 
Price Id Ix' announced 

This is one of Field Museum's peivn- 
nidlly i>opular tours — always fully 
Ixioked (.so mtikc rr.sfnvi/ion.s now:), 
l^mpha.'iis on the major historical .si(<\s.- 
the I'yrctmids at Ciz-a. Memphis, 
Abt'diis. llie Viillei'ofllie Kiri.vfs, Kxirnak, 
Aswan, and Abu Simtk-l. F.teirn m<^ltts 
idmard a iletu-ie Xile Hiiyr cruiser. Tour 
lirtuirrs air I'S. L\^'ptnlo\^-its. Croup 
limited to 30. Write or call tlie Tburs 
Olfice l322-KH62)f)r brochiitv 



11 



Abu Simbel 



The Horo waits dili- 

geiith/ for the return 

of a shore party. 



A Whale of a Tale 

In the footsteps of Darwin, modern-day seafaring geologists 
and paleontologists explore the forbidding coast of Patagonia 




by Larn^ G. Marshall 
Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals 

photos courtesy of the author 



12 



Cruise 78-3 of the Research Vessel (R/V) 
HERO began at 12:30 a.m. on July 9, 1978, 
when we left Ushuaia harbor, southern- 
most Argentina, and headed east through the 
Beagle Channel. It was midwinter in the south- 
ern hemisphere — cloudy, bitterly cold, with 
several inches of snow covering the surround- 
ing islands. The seas were choppy and became 
worse as we left the channel and entered the 
South Atlantic. Turning northward, we fol- 
lowed the eastern coast of Isla Tierra del Fuego 
and crossed the eastern opening to the Straits 
of Magellan, reaching a point off the coast of 
continental South America. 

I was aboard the R/V Hero as part of an 
international team of scientists whose goal it 
was to collect fossils, study the geology, and 
determine the age of formations along the coast 
of southern .Argentina. The work was sponsored 
by the Office of Polar Programs of the National 
Science Foundation. The last person to attempt 
such a sli:dy in this area was the young natu- 
ralist-geologist-paleontologist Charles Darwin, 
who ^dsiled the region in 1833 during his voyage 
on the H. M.S. Beagle. The routes followed by 
the Beagle and the Hero were virtually identical. 



Our group included William Zinsmeister, 
an invertebrate paleontologist and the group's 
leader, from the Institute of Polar Studies, Ohio 
State University; Robert Drake, a geologist from 
the University of California, Berkeley; William 
Roggenthene, a paleomagnetist from the South 
Dakota School of Mines; Byron Gulick of Ohio 
State University, field assistant to Zinsmeister; 
Horacio Camacho, an invertebrate paleontolo- 
gist from the Centro de Investigaciones en Re- 
cursos Geologicos, Buenos Aires; and myself, a 
vertebrate paleontologist. 

The R/V Hero is named after the ship used by 
Nathaniel Palmer, an American explorer who 
discovered continental Antarctica in 1820-21, and 
was designed and built specifically for USARP, 
the United States Antarctic Research Program. 
She is owned by the National Science Founda- 
tion and operated by Holmes and Narver, Inc., of 
Anaheim, California. Launched in March 1968, 
the Hero began Antarctic service in November 
that year. She operates from her Antarctic base 
at Palmer Station and serves as a mobile labora- 
tory for scientific investigation throughout the 
Antarctic Peninsula area, including the southern 
coasts of Argentina and Chile. The Hero is fully 



equipped to support research in biological, 
geological, oceanographical, and related fields. 
With a crew of 12 and accomnn>dations for 8 
scientists, she is 125 feet long (33 feet longer 
than the 242-ton Beagle), diesel-powered, and 
equipped with two masts which accommodate 
four sails. The hull is made of New England 
oak, and her bow and stern are sheathed with 
metal for added protection against floating and 
pack ice. 

We met the Hero in Ushuaia, the southern- 
mt)st town in the world, located on the bottom 
edge of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the 
largest of the multitude of islands forming the 
vast archipelago south of the Straits of Magellan . 
Ushuaia is a Yahgan Indian name which means "a 
bay penetrating to the westward," and its harbor 
is situated on the north side of the Beagle Chan- 
nel. The name Tierra del Fuego means "Land of 
Fire" and was given by Ferdinand Magellan t)ver 
450 years ago because of the numerous fires he 
saw along the shore of this large island — proba- 
bly warning fires of Ona Indians who were star- 
tled at the sight of Magellan's fleet. 

During Magellan's first vovage to the New 
World in 1520, his fleet established winter quar- 
ters at 49° South on the Atlantic Coast of south- 
ern Argentina in what is now called Bahia de San 
Julian. For man\' weeks Magellan believed that 
the land was uninhabited, but in midwinter na- 
tives arrived at the estuarv. Thev were Tehuelche 
Indians and the men among them averaged six 




OOHIAAf^j,^ 




INSTITUTE OF POLAR STUDIES 
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 



1978 



Official cmhlcm of our 1978 I'atagoniun expedition. The 
symbols (from lower left to lower right) represent kei/ ele- 
ments in the expeiiilion — a ship (the Hero); fossil shell 
(invertebrate paleontologist, William Ziiismeister); glypto- 
dont, a fossil mammal (vertebrate paleontologist, myself): an 
atom (radioisotope dating, Robert Drake); and the earth's 
polarity (paleomagnetism, William Roggenthenc). 




feet in height. To the gracile Spaniards and Por- 
tuguese, these Indians seemed like giants, and in 
subsequent accounts their size became grossly 
exaggerated. The Tehuelches wore moccasins 
made from the skin of guanaco, a kind of South 
American camel, and these fur-lined slippers 
greatly exaggerated the size of footprints left in 
the sand. In his narrative of the voyage, Antonio 
Pigafetta referred to these Indians as Pata-gon 
("big-feet"), in reference to those enormous foot 
prints. In time the land came io be known as 
Patagonia, "The Land of Giants." 

The narpe Patagonia is generally applied to 
that part of Argentina h'ing between the Straits 
ot Magellan to the south and the Rio Negro (or 
39th Parallel) to the north and between the foot- 
hills of the Andes in the \\ est and the Atlantic 
Ocean in the east. Patagonia denotes a geo- 
graphic region, not a political -one. 

We first anchored on )uly 11 at Cabo Buen 
Tiempo(Cape Fairweather), on the Patagonian 
coast just niirth of the mouth of the Rio Gallegos. 
Here we saw terrestrial beds of Farlv Miocene 
age (ca 20 million years) and overlying marine 
beds of Pliocene age {ca 5 million years), ex- 
posed along one of the mt>st bleak coastlines in 
the world. HIeak, the dictionary di'fines as "ex- 
posed to wind and weather," "blank," "deso- 
late," "stormy," and "unfriendly" — all fitting 
descriptions for this inhospitable, barren coast. 
Patagonia is truly bleak, bleak, bleak. 



13 



T;u' R,V Hero IS 

125 feet long, dicsel- 

pou'ered, and equipped 

with tiro masts ivhieh 

ean aeeommodate four 

sails. The hull is made 

of New England oak, 

and her bow and stern 

are sheathed with metal 

for added proteetion 

against floating and 

paek iee. 



To get to the Patago- 

nian shore lee used 

small pvntoon boats, or 

zodiacs, which are 15 

feet long, 5 feet wide, 

and driven by a small 

outboard motor. A 

zodiac ean carry a creie 

member (to operate the 

motor), four scientists 

and their equipment. 

Leader William Zins- 

meister is in tlie prow. 



C*^ 




To get to the Patagonian shore we used smal 
pontoon boats caWedzodiacs, which are 15 feet 
long, 5 feet wide, and driven by a small outboard 
motor. A zodiac can carry a crew member to 
operate the motor, four scientists, and their 
equipment. From our point of anchor it was 
about two miles to shore. On our first day we 
started for shore in a rough sea, but when the 
zodiac got within 100 yards of the beach, we saw 
it was impossible to land. The treacherous waves 
crashed over the gunwhales of the little boat, and 
we returned to the ship drenched and freezing. 

Next, we headed northward in search of 
calmer waters and a more favorable landing site, 
finallv choosing a spot about a mile south of the 
mouth of the Rio Santa Cruz. Our hopes soared 
when we managed to get a party ashore at 11:30 
a.m. on July 12, but when they attempted to 
return at 1:30 that afternoon, sea conditions had 
worsened, and the loaded zodiac was flipped 
by a large wave. Our expeditionary team was 
stranded, soaking wet, and bitterly cold. 

A rescue mission in a second zodiac was 
immediately launched with survival equipment 
(sleeping bags, food, etc.) in a floatable water- 
proof container. This zodiac stopped about 100 
yards offshore and a line was shot to the beached 
party by means of a specially modified rifle. Our 
stranded comrades used the line to pull the wa- 
terproof container ashore, but even with survival 







■*««*•** 



14 



equipment, it was a long, cold night. Luckilv, 
weather conditions had improved by the next 
morning and at sunrise a zodiac was able to res- 
cue the stranded party and tow them and their 
zodiac back to the ship. Despite their numbness 
and lack of sleep, good humor prevailed. 

At that point, we decided to forego further 
attempts to land along the southern Patagonian 
coast and made a beeline for Valdes Peninsula in 
the north. The weather had grown progressively 
worse, and we were travelling in high seas and 
35-knot winds. Seasickness prevailed. Once you 
have acquired vour "sea legs" a storm at sea is 
thrilling for even the most devout of land lovers, 
but it usually has the ill grace to wear out its 
welcome. One member of the party became sea- 
sick only two hours after leaving Ushuaia (six 
days earlier) and had not eaten since. Finallv, on 
July 13, the captain decided to seek shelter in the 
Bahia de los Nodales just south of the Rio De- 
seado to allow our now emaciated comrade to 
recuperate and to get some food down. Several 
of us came to realize that the great virtue of sea 
travel is that it makes land seem so attractive. 

The lonely days at sea, coupled with 
hazardous weather conditions and all-too- 
frequent disappointments, can bring out the 
cvnical side of even the heartiest souls. Such was 
the case of the author of a notice which hung in 
the ship's mid-lab and expressed his view of six 
phases of a research project: enthusiasm, disillu- 
sionment, panic, search for the guilty, punish- 
ment of the innocent, and praise and honors 
for the nonparticipants. And the crew had long 
since developed a sense of humor of their own. 
One sign in the wheelhouse read "Lindsay's Law 
— when your draft exceeds the water's depth, 
you are most assuredly aground." Another 
suggested an appropriate response to a pending 
emergency — "When in danger or in doubt, run 
in circles, scream, and shout." 

Julv 16 and 17 found us heading north across 
the turgid waters of the Golfo de San Jorge, that 
large indentation in the eastern coastline of the 
tail of South America. On the 18th we anchored 
in the isolated bay of Golfo Nuevo, where to 
our delight we found calm, peaceful waters. 
There was a mad scramble as seaworn scientists 
claimed seats in the first zodiac headed for 
terra firma. 

We spent three peaceful, productive days at 
Golfo Nuevo, studying the geology and collect- 
ing fossils. The beds in this area, all marine in 
origin, are late Miocene {ca 9 million years) in 
age. Fossil shells are abundant, and we made 
several large collections. The geologists plotted 
eight stratigraphic sections between Punta Nin- 
fas and Punta Conscriptos along the south shore 
of Golfo Nuevo and collected rock samples for 




\\r ifvul Ihrtr pi-acc- 
'■(/, prodtiiliiv dat/sal 
iH<lfo Nuivo, iludying 
the geology and iollal- 
ing foaaih. The beds 
■>een here are marine in 
ngiii and about 9 mil- 
.;.'»/ i/i'iirs III age. 



paleomagnetic analysis and tuffs (compacted 
volcanic ash) for radioisotopic dating. 

On July 21 we left Golfo Nuevo and headed 
for Golfo San Jose, on the north side of the Valdes 
Peninsula. We worked in the southwest corner of 
this tranquil bay, collected large numbers of fos- 
sil shells, and drew six stratigraphic sections. 
Then on July 25, at a spot 4 miles east of Punta 
Logaritmo, we made the most exciting discovery 
of the trip: Exposed on the upper edge of the tide 
flat during low tide, we found bones of the jaw 
and skull of a large whale. The bones were just 
waiting to be collected, and we were able to free 
them from the rock in the course of an hour. The 
jaw weighs about 250 pounds, and the occipital 
part of the skull is 3 feet wide and weighs 100 
pounds. Three of us dragged these bones above 
the high water mark, and returned the next 
morning to collect them. Getting the bones 50 
yards to the water's edge was no easy task, and 
four of us were needed to hoist them into a wait- 
ing zodiac. Fortunately, the Hero has a crane, 
which we used to lift the bones from the zodiac to 
the ship's deck. 

The bones belong to a large baleen, or 
toothless, whale, a species similar to the living 
southern right whale, and are of great impor- 
tance when we reahze that there are few south- 
ern right whales in existence. If fact, one of the 
few southern right whale breeding areas is in 
the Golfo San Jose, and at one point in the trip, 
we had five of these rare animals sunning them- 
selves alongside the Hero. 

The presence of fossil southern right whales 
in the Golfo San Jose suggests that these animals 
have been living and may have been breeding in 
these waters for at least the last ^ million years. 
Although Field Museum mav never possess a 
skeleton of the living southern right whale, we 



now have fossil bones of its probable ancestors. 

We left Golfo San Jose on July 26 and headed 
north to the naval yard at Belgrano, near Bahia 
Blanca, Argentina, where the Hero went into 
drydock to get patched up for the next season's 
research and exploration in Antarctic waters. 

In reflecting back upon this trip 1 recall 
the memorable words of Charles Daruin (The 
Voyage of the Beagle): 

"In calling up images of the past, I find that 
the plains of Patagonia frequently cross before 
my eyes; yet these plains are pronounced by all 
wretched and useless. They can be described 
only by negative characters; without habitations, 
without water, without trees, without moun- 
tains, they support merely a few dwarfed plants. 
Why then, and the case is not peculiar to myself, 
have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold of 
my memory?" a 



Expedition member!, on 
the beaeh at Golfo San 
josi: ivith the whale 
jaw. awaiting the ar- 
rival of a ziidiac. Left 
to right: Camaeho, 
Drake, the author, 
Roggcnthene. 




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Hopi ktuhiiia doll 



THE HOPI AS THEY WERE 

by ALICE SCHLEGEL 
"Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life" ami "The Ycm of the Hopi" opai ]uuc 13 



At a time when we feel dispirited bv inter- 
est-group strife, impatient with the 
slow pace of the movement toward sexual 
equality, and threatened by random violence, it 
is cheering to know that there existed a society 
that solved its political problems through con- 
census, notconfrt)ntation, that granted the sexes 
equality, and that abhorred violence. That soci- 
ety was the traditional Hopi, who farmed, 
herded, and hunted in the dry plateau country of 
northern Arizona. Theirs was no Utopia. Life was 
difficult, and only hard work and frugality en- 
sured survival — and not always then, when the 
rains failed to come. 

Shortages of arable land and water some- 
times precipitated conflicts within \illages, caus- 
ing them to split apart with much bitterness. The 



Left: Hopi country: Through the chink we see Arizona's 
snou'-capped San Francisco Peaks y/i'smj/iy beneath a tur- 
quoise sky. The petroglyph^, little changed by centuries of 
sun, rain, and windstorms, u'cre the work of some prehis- 
toric artist. Photo by David Muench. 



abrasions of small \illage life could accumulate 
until they exploded in witchcraft accusations. 
Along with threats of starvation and enemy raids 
were the e\'er\cfa\' sorrows of frequent deaths 
in infancy and childbirth. Probably few Hopis 
wouldchoose to go back to the hard and uncer- 
tain lives of their ancestors; \et, the values and 
patterns of behavior of their forebears are recog- 
nized as a precious part of Hopi heritage today. 

We will go backward in time and become 
observers of the 1 lopi villages as the\' were from 
about 1880 to about 1910. Pickup trucks are ab- 
sent from the lanes that meander between rows 
of houses. Clothing, while often made of pur- 
chased cloth, is likt'h' to bi' cut m traditioniil 
style, although a tew \ounger people might try 
"modern" dresses and pants. Gone will be tele- 
vision aerials; in their stead, ladders leading from 
openings in house ceilings project above the 
rooftops. The sounds of modern living, car horns 

Alice Schlegel is associate professor of anthropology at the 
University of Arizona, Tucson. 



17 




Wild Buckwheat blooms in foothills near Arizona's San Franiisco Peaks. 



18 



and radios, are missing, but we notice the odors 
of earlier times — the sweetish stench of rotting 
garbage, the wonderful pungent smell of pinyon 
smoke. We move into the past. 

Hopi Village Life 

Hopi i.'illages, strung out along the mesa tops 
that rise above the dry plains, are indistinguish- 
able at a distance from the rocks on which they 
are situated. Small rectangular houses, built of 
the rock and seeming to grow out of it, form a 
square around a central plaza where village 



ceremonies take place. From these simple dwell- 
ings, the men of the household leave each morn- 
ing, well before sunrise, to herd or to cultivate 
their corn fields, aided only by a hoe. They plant 
beans, squash, and a few other vegetables, but 
the principal crop is the native corn, superbly 
adapted over centuries of experimentation to 
desert conditions. 

The laborious grinding of this corn and the 
preparation of corn meal for home consumption, 
for use in ceremonies, for gift giving in the vil- 
lage, and for trade with neighboring nomadic 









lV(;/;>i Village, on the 
cilf^c of Fint Mi'<ut, tip- 
pean to };row out of the 
rock. Tofarw the fielih 
and fetch water, people 
had to climb down sff/'s 
cut into the mesa edge 
to the plain below. 



tribes is the main occupation of women. Men 
also grow native cotton, from which they weave 
the family's clothing and the handsome textiles 
that are traded among the tribes throughout 
the Southwest. Women's principal crafts are pot- 
tery and the colorful baskets they weave from 
native grasses. 

The houses that line the plaza are virtually 
identical. Every family, from the village chief's to 
the poorest families of the least significant clan, 
lives more or less alike. Social rank in the com- 
munity is not reflected in material possessions. 
But every village does have one or more struc- 
tures that are different in appearance and set 



apart from the dwellings. These are the kivas, the 
ceremonial buildings in which the men's and 
women's religious societies hold their private 
ceremonies. When they are not used for religious 
purposes, the kivas serve as men's clubhouses, 
where men gather to discuss village affairs while 
they occupy their hands with carving, leather- 
work, or other handicrafts. 

It is not strange that men should spend 
much of their free time in the kiva rather than at 
home, for the houses belong to the women and, 
as the Hopi say, "the man is a stranger at his 
wife's house." This is an exaggeration, of course; 
husbands and wives have common interest in 




Inside Walpi Village. 
At this time (around 
1900) doors uvre start- 
jpiv; /iu"i)"U' in use, but 
roof ladders uvre still 
common (as they still 
are in the kivas). A 
kiim, its roof almost at 
ground level, can he 
„en at the left of the 
picture with the ladder 
projecting dlwe it. 
Donkeys, used to 
transfvrt ImIs and 
produce lieti'ven fields 
and home, are rarely 
seen today. 19 



_.*iikjKs 



A kachina dance in the 
plaza of Shipaulovi, on 
Second Mesa. The 
kachina hein^ danced is 
the Niman. The piles of 
food in the plaza will be 
distributed to the spec- 
tators by the kachinas. 



20 



the well-being of the family, and women depend 
on men to provide the food and clothing they 
require. Nevertheless, female ownership of 
house and its contents is well recognized by the 
Hopi. Women belong to the house; whereas, in 
another Hopi saying, "the man's rightful place 
is on the land," meaning he belongs outside of 
the house, to protect it and provide for it. It is 
through this role as protector and provider, 
rather than as household head, that men earn 
their honor in the home. 

In contrast, women are at the very center of 
the house. A typical family consists of an elderly 
female household head and her husband, one 
or more married daughters and their husbands 
and children, and unmarried sons. When sons 
marry they move out into their wives' homes, 
and sons-in-law come in to replace them. One 
daughter, generally the youngest, inherits the 
house and cares for her elderly parents. Her 
sisters move out as their families expand into 
houses built onto or near the original house, 
constructed by their husbands but owned by 
the women. 

With every house goes the right to use a 
portion of land owned by the clan to which the 



female head belongs. Men, therefore, work land 
controlled by their wives, and when they bring 
the produce into the house at harvest time, it 
becomes the property of the women. The owner- 
ship of the major economic goods for consump- 
tion and trade — houses, household articles and 
food — rests with women. Men achieve self- 
respect by working hard for the benefit of others, 
sacrificing their own desires so that their children 
will be provided for. 

Each village is divided into a number of 
clans, groups of kin who trace common ancestry 
through the female line. Each clan, therefore, 
consists of men and women, who call each other 
"brother" and "sister," and the children of the 
women members. Every individual belongs to 
his or her mother's clan. It is these clans that own 
the land and that apportion it out among the 
women members for their husbands to farm. 

While authoritv in the household lies with 
women, in the clan it is shared between women 
and men as "sisters" and "brothers." Each clan 
has two leaders, a Clan Mother and a Clan Uncle, 
a sister-brother pair who will pass on their offices 
to a daughter and son of the Clan Mother. Clan 
decisions, generally concerning land, are arrived 



lit tlirough discussion anioiij; ilaii nu'iiibors. 
Final authority o\-er matters concerning the 
clan's role in the village rests with the Clan Un- 
cle, while the Clan Mother has final authority 
over clan land. The clan acts as a strong support 
group tor its members and often as a political 
faction in village politics, particularly where clan 
land boundaries are in dispute. Clan members 
consider themsehes to be cioseh' related and 
never marry one another. Each clan has its par- 
ticular history, legends, and rituals. An impor- 
tant dut\' of the Clan Mother is to care for clan 
ritual objects and to pray for the health and pros- 
perit\' ot clan members. 

Within the ceremonies that make up the 
elaborate Hopi ritual calendar, each clan plays its 
part. Most of the priestly offices are owned bv 
clans; the \illage chief, who is the spiritual leader 
and "father" of the village, comes from the Bear 
Clan, the leader of the important Powamuwi 
ceremony comes from the Badger Clan, the head 
priest of the Snake Society and leader of its cere- 
mony comes from the Snake Clan, etc. The vil- 
lage is organized around its ceremonial calen- 
dar, which provides the rhythm of the year and 
brings the clans together into a cooperating 
body. The political leaders and the ceremonial 
leaders are one and the same, for it is the leaders 
of the most important ceremonies, plus a few 
other officials, who make up the \illage chief's 
council. 

The dual role of the kiva, as ceremonial 
chamber and men's clubhouse, also points to 
the integration of church and state. During the 
periods of seclusion of ceremonial participants, 
and during the private portions of ceremonies, 
men's and women's minds must be on spiritual 
matters, allowing unity and brotherhood to pre- 
vail over clan and factional politics. But at oth- 
er times, when the kiva serves as an informal 
gathering place for men, political issues are 
aired, and positions, formed in homes or clan 
meetings, are taken. Village council members, as 
kiva participants, listen to these discussions and 
are able to get a good reading of village opinions. 
Supported bv this information, their council de- 
cisions reflect village concensus or at least the 
most widely held positions. 

While at first glance the Hopi political sys- 
tem might look autocratic, with its hereditary 
offices and ranking of clans by ceremonial and 
political importance, the process of discussion at 
every level ensures that every possible position 
is heard and taken into account. All persons, 
even those from low-ranking clans that do not 
own any leadership offices, participate in discus- 
sion. Like the village chief, the leaders see them- 
selves as fathers to the village, to protect it 
through prayers that bring down the blessing ol 



the gods. Any leader who tries to impose his will 
on the people would find himself a social out- 
cast, a target of gossip and, worst of Hopi pun- 
ishment, ridicule. 

Gi\en the importance of women in the 
household and clan and the fact that women 
speak up freely in clan meetings, women's opin- 
ions are well represented in ki\a discussions 
even though women are not present. A man 
would ha\e to be very brave or very foolish to 
take a position that was opposed b\ the women 
of his househcild or claii if he wanted any peace 
in his domestic life. In addition to the economic 
and social ptiwcr inherent in wttmen's house- 
hold and clan position, direct political power is 
available to certain women, the sisters of the 
ceremonial leaders. In man\' of the important 
ceremonies, the leader's sister or women ot his 
clan play a necessar\- ritual role. There have been 
known cases of sisters refusing to pla\' these 
re)les unless the brother capitulated in a political 
dispute, thuseffectively exercising the veto. In 
this societN', no one can gi\'e orders. 

Growing up Hopi means constant traiiiing 
in cooperation, responsibility, and self-reliance. 
Suggestions, admonitions, cautionary tales, and 
always the threat of mockery — these, rather 
than commands, instruct children in proper be- 
havior and make them highh' sensitive to the 
good opinions of others. Punishment is used, 
but it often has a ritual as well as disciplinary 
connotation. A child might be purified from his 
bad behavior by being held in juniper smoke — 
and, incidentally, find the experience so un- 
pleasant that he would in the future behave 
properly. Or a frightening costumed figure 



HOPI SHOP 

In conjunction with tln' Ho{)i exhibits 
Oune 13-St'ptembtT 8), a special sliop, 
locateci at the entrance to Hall 27, will 
feature arts and crafts of liic Hopi: 
silver jewelr\', ceramics, wicker and 
yucca basketry, textiles, and even 
kiichina dolls. An excellent selection of 
lidok.^ (in Hopi lilc .ind ciillurc, as well 
as on Southwest Indian culture in t^cii- 
eral, will be available. Tiie main 
MiLseuni Shop, on the first floor, \\ill 
al.so carr\' a selection of siuii items. 



21 








i 

This storage room tells us a good bit about Hopn material life at the turn of the eentury. Stored eorn — white beloir, blue above, 
icatcrmelons on the floor, ami pnimpkins drying on a shelf, were staple vegetable foods. Above the stacked corn hang bunches of 
suvet corn that have been roasted, a piroeess that converts the carbohydrates to sugar and presen'es the corn for many months. 
Above the door is a sheep's rib cage with dried meat attached. This ivill be used for making soup. Dried meat can also be seen on a 
shelf above the pump^kins, and fresh meat is drying on a p'ole above the horse tack on the center wall. Other indications that the 
family oivns one or more horses is the rop'c to the left and a hobble above the door. The technology ofHopi food production is ivell 
represented here, from the hoe at the righ t. to the drifing and storing facilities, to the corn-grinding bins at the back. Baskets for 
sifting different types of meal are plac'cd near the bins, and a "modern" mesh sieve hangs on the wall in back. Next to it is a 
painted baby's rattle. Herbs for ritual-medicinal pnirpjoses hang from the beams, as does a cotton knitted man's legging. Other 
native textiles hang from a pmle in the small room to the side. The grasses drying on the floor ivill be used for weaving baskets. 



22 



might come to the house threatening to take 
away the bad child, and it would be only the 
pleading of the parents and grandparents and 
the promise of the child to be good that would 
persuade the monster to withdraw. 

Adults, too, are kept in line effectively 
through gossip, withdrawal of support by kin, 
and finally, by public ridicule for extreme cases 
ofkahopi — i.e., un-Hopi, or unethical — behav- 
ior. Since privacy is practically nonexistent in 
crowded houses and small villages, improper 
behavior on the part of any individual, child or 
adult, quickly becomes a matter for public gos- 
sip. Teenage boys, who roam the village after 
dark, might discover that so-and-so was visiting 
a neighbor while her husband was away over- 
night at his corn field or with his herd. The next 
morning, the villagers might find a line of ashes 
drawn between the two houses. Or the clowns, 
who put on humorous skits as comic relief dur- 
ing public religious ceremonies, might perform a 
thinly veiled parody of someone who dared to 
act in an arrogant fashion, causing him to flee the 



plaza in shame, followed by the mocking laugh- 
ter of his neighbors. Thus are social harmony and 
cooperation ensured against egotistical or self- 
serving acts. 

The social world of the Hopi requires coop- 
eration, self-sacrifice, harmony, and balance of 
power. Child training prepares Hopis for this 
life, and most people do seek dignity, self re- 
spect, and the respect of others through atten- 
tion to their duties and willing shouldering of 
their responsibilities. But life is not all responsi- 
bility and hard work. There are events that pro- 
vide drama and excitement, bring gaiety and 
good feeling into their lives, and express their 
most deeply held beliefs about the worlds of 
gods and mankind. There are the ceremonies. 

Hopi Ceremonies 

To the traditional Hopi, there is no distinction 
between the ethical life and the religious life. If 
people fulfill their responsibilities with a cheerful 
heart, avoid selfish and sorrowful thoughts, 
deny self-importance, and turn a humble face 




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<^ 


iT^Hl 



A room in daily iifc. On the wiill han^^ tlic faiinlii'> 'l',>l china" — painted pottery stew boiels. Near them han^^ a horse girth 
and a purchased bread pan, while on the floor stand jars for carrying and storing water. The door behind the jars leads to a 
basement. Opposite the stove are grinding bins, tunvused for pottery storage. Above the bins, a pole holds blankets of purchased 
and native fabrics: at the lefl hangs a kachina doll. The walls and floor are of adobe and plastered with an adobe xcash. The 
ceiling is of logs and thatch; prayer feathers, to bless and protect the house, hang from it. Horse blankets and tack on the floor 
indicate that the family oiims a horse and is therefore rather vrosperous. (1900 pfwto) 



toward the world, the supernatural beings will 
be pleased and pour blessings on them. The 
Hopis do not so much ask for blessings as fulfill 
part of the contract with the deities, maintaining 
harmony in the world so that the blessings can 
flow freely. 

There are several types of spiritual beings, 
but the most important are the gods and the 
kachinas. The gods and goddesses of the Hopi 
pantheon include such figures as Masau, the god 
of the earth and the underworld of the dead; 
Muingwa, the young corn god; and Talautumsi, 
the mother of the game animals. These deities 
are worshipped with prayers and offerings, and 
they might appear to someone, but they are gen- 
erally rather distant. 

The kachinas, on the other hand, are very 
close to people. Hopi legends recount that they 
once lived on earth and danced in the plaza for 
the delight of the villagers. But they took offense 
at human evil and corruption and left, promising 
to return in spirit whenever the kachina dances 
are held. They comeback to the village from their 
home in the San Francisco Peaks during the 
kachina season, bringing with them the clouds 
and moisture of the mountains. When a man 
dancing the part of the kachina puts on a mask, 



the spirit of that kachina enters his bodv. In this 
way the kachinas ha\'e remained with the Hopi 
people, entering the village when their dances 
are held and sending rain and other blessings. 
The kachinas, representative of all beaut\' and 
goodness, bring happiness and festivity when 
they dance. 

The kachinas take on many forms, each with 
its own character, from the majestic Ewtoto to the 
fearsome Soyoko, the beautiful and benevolent 
Niman, or the comical Mudheads, who are the 
bawdy and grotescjue kachina clowns. Some 
kachina forms are more popular than others and 
are more often portrayed in the dances. Prefer- 
ences change over time. This is also true lor 
kachina dolls, the small wooden dolls presented 
to girls and women by the kachina dancers at the 
dances. These dolls are made b\ men addressed 
as father — real fathers, men of the father's clan, 
and ceremonial or god fathers — for their 
"daughters." The doll is not a sacred object but a 
toy, one that the small girl- plays with and the 
older girl or woman displays on the wall. Since 
the kachinas bring abundance, thiM' dolls repre- 
sent a wish or prayer for the girl's fertility and a 
recognition of the older woman's successful 
motherhood. It is only fairly recently that the 



23 



24 



elaborate, expensive dolls have been made, to be 
treated as art objects as well as gift items. 

The kachina dances play an important part 
in the ceremonial \ear, but they are by no means 
the onl\- public ceremonies. The year begins in 
late November with VVuwucim, the ceremony 
that celebrates the emergence of the Hopi people 
from the underworld into the present world. The 
next important public ceremony, Soyal, takes 
place in early December. It celebrates the found- 
ing of the Hopi villages, and the village chief is its 
leader. 

Shortly after this, the kachinas come back to 
the village — the kachina dances begin. These 
winter dances are held at night in the kivas. They 
are awesome spectacles. People crowd in on 
benches at the sides and back of the kiva, a large 
dark chamber lit only by a small fire (nowadays 
in a Franklin stove). The tinkle of bells and the 
clank of rattles are heard as the dancers climb 
down a ladder from the roof into the chamber. If 
it is snowing heavily, the dancers are covered 
with soft downy flakes and appear, for a mo- 
ment, like voung eagles. They form a line along 
three walls. On signal from the dance leader, 
they shake their rattles in unison, stamp their 
feet in rhythm, and sing the songs that tell about 
butterflies, flowers, ripening corn, rain and 
clouds, and all the objects in the world that speak 
of life, vitality, and abundance. The masks act as 
resonators, giving the voices a full, rich, other- 
worldly quality. At the end of the song they leave 
to visit another kiva, while a different set of dan- 
cers representing some other kachina comes to 
perform its dance set. Four or five different sets 
may be performed in one evening. When it is all 
over the spectators, lulled into a dreamy state by 
the warmth and darkness of the kiva and the 
beautiful singing, are sharply brought to alert- 
ness as thev go out into the crisp, cold night air. 

The third major ceremony, Powamuya, is 
the great kachina festival. Occurring in mid- 
February, it anticipates the planting of crops. 
Beans are sprouted in the kivas, and each partic- 
ipant takes home a bundle of bean sprouts from 
which a special soup is made. The festival itself 
consists of several separate rituals. The most 
dramatic is the great kachina parade, when many 
different kachinas march through the village. 
The costumes are splendid, each dancer doing 
his best to represent the inner beauty or gran- 
deur of the kachina by constructing his mask and 
painting his body with great care and ornament- 
ing himself with elegant turquoise jewelry, 
feathers, and other paraphernalia. 

Sometime after Powamuya, when the 
weather permits, the kachina dances are held 
out-of-doors in the plaza instead of in the kivas. 
By mid-July it is time for the kachinas to leave. 




Ninnvi kachina doll, female form 

The Niman is a farewell dance; but the mood 
is not sad, for the kachinas have promised to 
return. Thev show their concern for the people 
bv distributing to the spectators early ripening 
melons and other good things. 

The dances of late summer and fall are put 
on bv individual religious societies. The Flute 
Dance, a light-hearted dance celebrating life and 
fertility, alternates annually with the Snake 
Dance, a somber reminder of warfare and death. 
The former is performed by the Blue and Gray 
Flute Societies, the latter by the Snake and An- 
telope Societies. The three women's societies 
take their turns putting on ceremonies in Sep- 
tember and October. These recognize Mother 
Earth, from whose body come all wild and 
domesticated plants and all game animals. 

The production of such an elaborate cere- 
monial cvcle makes great demands on people's 
resources. Everyone in the village is involved at 
some point as a participant or contributor of food 
to feed the dancers or distribute among the on- 



lookers. The ceremonial participants must pray, 
fast, and piiritN' themsoKes for several da\s be- 
fore and after the ceremonies, spending long 
hours in the ki\a for this purpose. Cooperation, 
self-discipline, and the cheerful assumption of 
responsibility, the highest Hopi virtues, are ct)n- 
stantly put to the test. Life may be difficult, but 
effort is expended for a good purpose. Through 
hard work men and women provide for their 
children and make them happy. Through the 
self-discipline and self-denial of ceremonial par- 
ticipation, delight and gaiety are brought to the 
village. By maintaining harmony in the village 
the kachinas are pleased and shower their 
blessings on the people. In these ways, through- 
out his or her daily life, each Hopi contributes to 
the well-being of others and puts himself in 
touch with the spiritual beings. This is the root of 
Hopi self-respect and dignity and the belief that 
his life has purpose and meaning. "We are all 
part of the pattern," it is said. 

The Hopi Today 

We now skip to the 1980s. Much of the tradi- 
tional pattern has changed. Men still farm, but 
wage labor and commercial ranching are more 
important economically. Women also hold jobs, 
and hand-ground corn is replaced by machine- 
ground meal and purchased foods. Children are 
in school, many going on to college or for techni- 
cal training. The independent village councils 
still exist but have been superseded in impor- 
tance by a tribal council elected by popular vote 
from all villages. A tribal court settles disputes 
and tribal police help maintain order. Young 
families want houses of their own — neat cin- 
derblock structures with plumbing and electric- 
ity, instead of the small, simple stone dwellings. 
These changes in the economic and political 
life of the tribe have brought many social changes 
in their wake. The Hopi see some of them, such 
as better health and education and larger scope 
for individual advancement, as good. Other 
changes, as in family roles and relations, are 
confusing and can cause much unhappiness. 
The ceremonies are recognized for their impor- 
tance in expressing and preserving the old values 
of cooperation and brotherhc^od, and people still 
participate in them actively — although now they 
are held on weekends so as not to conflict with 
emplovment. The tribe is fortunate to have a 
number of educated individuals who are very 
conscious of the importance of Hopi traditions 
and are able to communicate them to the outside 
world and to the younger generation of Hopis. 
The Hopis wish to be part of the modern world, 
but to be soon their own terms. Pantani — let it 
be so. D 




A kachina doll rcpm'scnting Ihc Nimaii kachnui. The earn of 
corn painted on the headpiece symbolize the promise of an 
abundant hanvst to come. 



Suggested Reading 

James, Harry C. 1974. Pasfe> From llopi History Tucson: 

University of Arizona Press. 
Schlegel, Alice. 1973. "The Adolescent Sociali/.ition of 

the Hopi Girl." Ethnology 12:449-462. 

Simmons, Leo. 1942, Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a 
Hopi Indian. New Haven: Yale University Press. 

Titiev, Mischa. 1944. Old Oraibt: A Study of the Hopi 
Indians of Third Mesa. Papers of the Peabody 
Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnoi(i(;y, 
vol. 22, no. I. 



15 



METEORnESiVntinuid from p. 3 
or out on the prairies. Some of these did indeed 
yield ne\s' finds. Also, of course, he was quickly 
on the scene of any new meteorite fall anywhere 
he could get to fast, once a report came in. At any 
rate, as time went on the collection became better 
and bigger and grew to be the most preeminent 
meteorite collection in the world. 

About 1914 he went to work on a book about 
them. It was finished by 1915, but no publishing 
company was interested; in those days there was 
little market for such a book. So Farrington did 
the next best thing — ho paid to haye it printed 
and bound by Chicago's Donnelley Press and 
gave copies to libraries and the small group of 
astronomers, geologists, collectors, physicists, 
and other assorted scientists who were then 
interested in this obscure subject.* 

Farrington not onl\- built the collection, he 
began a program of research on meteorites that 
still goes on in the Museum today. On top of 
that, he did what a good curator is supposed to 
do, make samples readily ayailable to research 
workers and laboratories all over the world to 
study, measure, and glean from these ancient 
objects what they have to reveal about the mar- 
velous history and evolution of the planets, 
especially the one we love best. Earth. This pro- 
cess also still goes on today. 

As time went on, that small body of re- 
searchers and meteorite hunters decided to 
band together. They groped about for a name 
for themselves. Now the word "meteorite" 
comes from the Greek meteor, a word that refers 

'Meteorites, by Oliver C. Farrington, Donnelley Press, 
Chicago, 1915. 



toflm/ phenomenon that takes place in the sky 

— rain, snow, falling rocks, comets, tornadoes, 
aurora, sun dogs, rainbows, and soon. The 
people who were interested in the loeather had 
already grabbed off the obvious word, meteorol- 
og}/, meaning the study of things that go on in the 
sky. So, Oliver Farrington coined the word, 
meteoritics. In 1932 The Meteoritical Society was 
founded by Farrington and friends at a meeting 
here in the Field Museum. This society has 
grown over the past fifty years to include an 
international coterie of scientists from many dis- 
ciplines. That, too, is another whole story. 

In the meantime, the collection sat, was 
used, and grew, but meteorites and meteoritics 
remained a fairly obscure specialty. Oliver Far- 
rington died in 1934. 

The study of meteorites and the collecting 
of meteorites both continued at a slack pace 
for twenty more years. Then in 1957 the USSR 
launched Sputnik I. and an era was started that 
has accelerated through lunar landings, films of 
volcanoes going off on one of the moons of Jupi- 
ter, closeup views of those fantastic and complex 
rings of Saturn, Martian landscapes, and the 
recently launched Space Shuttle. Suddenly 
everyone wanted to know about space: What's 
out there? How long has the Solar System been 
around? Is the sun running down? How did it all 
evolve? The sleepy collection of meteorites, the 
specialty of a few, suddenly became glamorous 

— glamorous and valuable. Meteorite specimens 
were sought by a rapidh- growing group of scien- 
tists, from many specialties, to crush, dissolve, 
extract, separate, and push through a host of 
complex electronic machines to measure every- 



l]ion&emboimerItdngefalleimmi4ai"Por(?^nfifhrin 



^.sii^Jfi 



Early woodcut de- 
picting fall of mctco- i = 
rite at Ensishcim. 
26 Germany, in 1492. 





This 22-ton iron mete- 
orite, discovered on a 
farm near Baeuhirito, 
Mexico, in 1876, xoas 
dug out by the crew of 
sombrerocd men . Today 
it is on exhibit in a 
museum in Culiacan, 
Mexico, but ive have a 
pieceofit in the Fiehi 
Museum. 



thing that could be measured, and then some. 
The results are startling (but, again, that is a 
whole other story). 

Ten years before, a visitor getting a tour 
of the Museum storerooms might have asked 
with some justification, "Why do you keep all 
those heavy, ugly meteorites? They just take up 
space and no one ever looks at them." All that- 
changed. Until the late 1950s a meteorite speci- 
men might sell for anywhere from 0.1 cents per 
gram up to 10 cents per gram (about 45 cents per 
pound to 45 dollars per pound). By the mid-1960s 
prices had risen to as high as $25 per gram 
($11,300 per pound)! It's common today to dis- 
cover, in an old catalog, a specimen the Museum 
purchased for $4 or $5 that is now worth 
thousands. 

Today the meteorite collection of the Field 
Museum is one of its major assets. There are only 
five other large collections in the world: British 
Museum (Natural History), American Museum 
of Natural History, the United States National 
Museum, Arizona State University (Tempe), 
Naturhistorisches Museum-Wien. Between 
these collections and that of Field Museum, al- 
most all of the world's meteorites are in safekeep- 
ing for research, study, teaching, and exhibition. 

The question often arises where the Field 
Museum collection ranks among these six. That's 
a tough one to answer. If you decide to rate 
meteorite collections on the basis of weight, then 
the collection of the American Museum of 
Natural History in New York City is the largest: it 
has a single specimen weighing 32 tons! If it had 
no other meteorite, its collection would still be 
the largest on that basis. If, however, you decide 
to rate collections on the basis of the highest 
percentage of representation of the world's 



known meteorites, then there are several private 
collections that would beat out any of the six 
major collections. One private collector has a 
very large percentage representation; however, 
most of his specimens are chips not much larger 
than sand grains — clearly a useless collection. 
Some sort of formula could be worked out, prob- 
ably, that would take into account useful size as 
well as numbers represented. But this would not 
be a simple exercise nor would it be worth the 
effort. 

It is enough to say that the Field Museum 
meteorite collection is among the six best in the 
world. When Oliver Farrington began to build 
this collection in 1894, he started something that 
has grown beyond his wildest expectations. He 
would be pleased. 




Mr. Hanh'y Mecvers 
ptoses with a 49-kg 
(W8-Ib.) iron meteorite 
found near Mapleton, 
Iowa, in 1939. Almost 
the entire object is in 
the Field Museum 
collection. 



27 



ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY 
SURVEY LIB R^• 196 
NATURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 
URBANA ILL 61801 



June andjuly at Field Museum 



June 16 lhrou<fhJuly 15 



New Exhibits 

■■HopiK.achina:SpiritofLife" and "The Yearofthe Hon." These 
exhibits celebrate America's oldest continuously suni\ing 
culture. "Hopi Kachina: Spirit of" Life" features Hopi art 
and artifacts and large-.-^cale models of Hopi religious cere- 
monies. "Tiie Year of the Hopi"" includes rare photographs 
taken b\' Joseph Mora in the first decade of this centur\', 
Viefore cameras were banned from Hojii public dances. E.x- 
hibits curator: James VanStonc; designer: Clifford Abrams. 




Contemporary Hopi bowl 



Continuing E.\hibits 

HALLOFlNDiANSOFTHESourmN'ESTER.NUNiTEDSTATES. This perma- 
nent exhibit is an excellent supplement to the Museum"s 
special exhibits on the Hopi. In addition to displa\-s on Hopi 
rituals, the hall contains an e.xhibit of kachina dolls and 
archeological materials showing the development of cultures 
in the Southwest, beginning with the Cochise culture, ca. 
5000 B.C. Hall 7. mahi floor. 



tember 8. The dav"s festi\'ities are planned in conjunction 
with the Baca\i Community School of Hote\'illa, Arizona. 
The Hopi school children perform social dances in full tra- 
ditional dress. Traditional crafts such as basket-wea\ing, 
belt-making, and kachina carving are demonstrated by Hopi 
artists. Visitors ma\' watch nati\e foods being prepared and 
sample piki bread and parched corn. Other features of the 
dav include mini-tours of the Museum"s permanent South- 
west collections, film programs on hidian culture, and a 
2 p.m. slide-lecture, "Prehistoric Hopi on the Colorado Pla- 
teau,"" b\- Professor Fred T. Plog of Arizona State Universit}'. 
Saturday, June 27, 10 a.m. -4 p.m. 

Weekend Discovery Programs. Participate in a \'ariet\'of free 
tours, demonstrations, and films e\'er\- Saturday and Sunda] 
bet^\'een 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Check the Weekend Sheet at 
Museum entrances for film titles, locations, and additional 
programs. 

RavA. KrocEn'\iroxmen't.al Field TRir~;. These one-day trips to 
local areas of ecological and biological significance continui 
on weekends through June. For information, call 322-8854. 

Courses FOR Adults begin the week ofjune 15, focusing on such 
varied topics as dinosaurs, Asian medical systems, sociobiol- 
og\', and science writing. The Learning Museunt course, "Na- 
ti\'e American Challengers of the Southwest,"" will explore a 
unique segment of American heritage. Participants will 
learn about the Hopi, the Xa\ajo, and the Zuni, as well as 
man\' other groups that ha\'e inhabitated the Southwest. 
Adwince registration bv mail is required. For information, 
call 322-8855. 

Summer Fun. Children ages 5 to 12 can explore the world of 
natural histon- through workshops on 25 different topics, 
from Indian sand painting to African flute-inaking. Tues- 
da\'s through Saturda\-s injulv, beglnningjuh- 7. For infor- 
mation, call 322-8854. 



Continuing Programs 

VoLLiNTEEROprwRTUNiTiES. Indi\iduals with scientific interests 
and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum 
departments. Contact the Volunteer Coordinator, 922-9410, 
ext.360. 



New Programs 

SoiTH\s-EST Indian Her-.age Day. A day-long celebration of Na- 
tive American cultuip !rom the Southwest . This event com- 
plements the current special exhibits, ''Hopi Kachina: Spirit 
of Life"" and "The Year of the Hopi,"" on view through Sep- 



JuNE andJuly Hours. The Museum is open from 9 a.m. -6 p.m. 
Saturda\-Thursdav: 9 a.m. -9 p.m., Friday throughout the 
year. 

The Museum Library is open weekda\s 9 a.m. -4 p.m. Obtain a 
pass at the reception desk, main floor. Closed July 3 for 
Fourth ofjuh-. 



Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



-J I -"o: 



r 



52 Field Museum of Natural History Bulle hn 

NAiiJRAL Hi^ORY SURVEY 

JUL 9 1981 Jul.v/Au,.,.s,1.81 



\ mm 



n 




Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



Published by- 
Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded l«y3 



President: E. Leland Webber 
Director Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Editor I Designer: David M. VValsfen 
Production: Martha Poulter 
Calendar: Mar\' Cassai 
Stajf Photograpiher: Ron Testa 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

ihairman 
Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gordon Bent 
Bowen Blair 

Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O.C. Davis 

William R Dickinson, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley II 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy Jr. 
James J O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert H Strotz 
John W Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webtwr 
JubanB Wilkins 
Blaine J Yarrington 

LifeTrusteis 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N. Field 
Paul W Gsxidrich 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull. Jr. 
William VKahler 
William H. Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



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Museum membership :■ 

are their own and do not ntc...- 

manuscripts .ire welcome. Mus- 

form 3S7^ to Field Museum of Natut. 



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CONTENTS 

July /August 1981 
Volume 52, Number 7 



The Frasnian-Famennian Extinctions 

A Search for Extraterrestrial Causes 

by George R. McGliee, jr., visiting scientist 

William Henry Jackson 

Historian witJi a Third Eye 

by Audrey Hiller. Volunteer, Department of Education 

The Kohlman Amber Collection 

A Stained Glass Window to the Past 

by Gene Kritsky 

Field Museum Tours for Members 



Egypt in 1903: Travel Notes of Henry Isaac Hart 

by Gerda Frank, Vohuiteer, Department of Education 



July, August, and September at Field Museum 

Calendar of coming events 



COVER 

Upper Presque Isle River, Porcupine Mountains, in Michigan'. 
Upper Peninsula. Photo by Bob Brudd, ofTinley Park, Illinois. 



The Frasnian-Famennian Extinctions: 
A Search for Extraterrestrial Causes 



by GEOKC.i; R. MtGHi;i:,.)K. 
phntos byl.J. Ubifti 



Three hundred fifty-five million vears ago 
a crisis occurred in marine ecosystems 
throughout the world. Hundreds of 
species of marine organisms became extinct. 
Other groups of animals and plants, successful 
and numerous for millions of years, suffered 
severe decimatit>ns, through \s hich \erv few 
members survived. 

This crisis in the history of life is called tiie 
Frasnian-Famennian extinction event, or the 
"F-F" boundary extinction. The Frasnian and the 
Famennian are two epochs of geological time, 
which together comprise the Late Devonian — a 
period which spanned from 360 to 345 million 
years ago. Shallow tropical seas were wide- 
spread in the Frasnian epoch, climates were 
equable, and marine life flourished.' Reefs con- 
sisting of coral and stromatoporoids (an ancient 
group of peculiar sponges) spanned the world — 
indeed, the Devonian reef complexes may have 
been the largest and most widespread of all time, 
including the present. Warm shelf seas were 
populated with diverse and cosmopolitan faunas 
of brachiopods, ammonoids, trilobites, echino- 
derms, and molluscs. In contrast, only a tiny 
remnant of the diverse and abundant Frasnian 
marine life survived to be represented in the 
extremely impoverished fauna of the Famennian 
epoch — which immediatelv followed the 
Frasnian. 

All over the world, marine animals disap- 
peared on a colossal scale at the end of the Fras- 
nian. It has been estimated that over 60 percent 
of existing marine taxa (species and higher 
taxonomic units) were extinguished during the 
Frasnian-Famennian event.- Reef complexes, so 
numerous and widespread previously, suffered 
near-global termination. Benthic ecosystems 
(composed of animals and plants living on the 
sea bottom) uere particularly hard hit. The most 



George R. McGhcc, jr., asiistaiit professor of geological 
sciences, Rutgers University, is on leave at Field Museum 
under the Museum's Visiting Scientist Program. 



abundant forms of shellfish in the Frasnian were 
the brachiop(.)ds, or "lampshells." Appriiximate- 
ly 86 percent of all brachiopod species died in the 
F-F extinction event. Three entire superfamilies 
of brachiopods vanished from the earth. Trilo- 
bites — primitive marine arthropods — were al- 
most wiped out. All of the exotic and spiny trilo- 
bites were lost; only one superfamilv of rather 



^y^jjtSii 



T/iii'<: sequences of De- 
vonian shales are ex- 
posed in the Walnut 
Creek Gorge, near 
Silver Creek. Neu> 
York. 




,jt -K.'. -^ 




Phobos, one of the tico 
moons of Mars. The 
surface shoirn here, 
about 12 by 14 miles 
across, is possibly twice 
the size of the asteroid 
that may have impacted 
the Earth some 355 mil- 
lion years ago. (Photo- 
graphed at range of 380 
miles on Oct. 19, 197S. 
by Viking Orbiter I . ) 
Courtesy NASA. 



simple forms survived. Coral faunas were deci- 
mated in what was the single most fundamental 
change in reefal ecosystems in the Paleozoic era. 
The stromatoporoids and recepfaculitids (primi- 
tive marine plants) almost became extinct — onlv 
much later in the Carboniferous did the stro- 
matoporoids recover even a shadow of their 
former numbers, and receptaculitids remained 
rare throughout the remainder of the Paleozoic. 
Other bottom-dwelling mollusc and echinoderm 
groups also were affected by extinctions. 

Fxtinctions, while perhaps most severe in 
the benthos, affected the totality of Frasnian 
marine ecosysrems. In the zooplankton (animals 
which live in the v.-ater column) the cricoconarids 
were extremely abundant during the Frasnian. 
These small cone-shar ed fossils (of uncertain af- 
finity, perhaps related to modern pteropods, or 
"sea butterflies," a type of mollusc) can be found 
scattered by the hundreds across fossil bedding- 
plane surfaces of Frasnian age. By the end of 
the Frasnian they are extinct. Ostracodes, cono- 
donts, and chitinozoans also sustained high 



losses at this time. In the phytoplankton (mi- 
croscopic plants which live in the water column), 
the acritarchs suffer almost total decimation. 
In the nekton (larger animals which swim), the 
ammonoids, and early armored fishes lost many 
groups. In essence, the global marine ecosystem 
collapsed, or rather "crashed," at the end of the 
Frasnian epoch. 

Paleontologists have puzzled for years on 
the possible causes of such an abrupt and devas- 
tating deterioration of the ecosystem. Theories 
abound — it has been suggested that perhaps the 
level of the oceans of the world dropped sud- 
denly at the end of the Frasnian, shallow seas 
drained off of the continents and the global 
extermination of shallow marine animals and 
plants resulted. Widespread glaciation can 
cause abrupt (geologically speaking) marine 
regressions, yet there is no firm evidence for 
major glaciation during the Frasnian. 

Perhaps instead the Frasnian world under- 
went a period of global cooling and climatic dete- 
rioration, such that the diverse tropical faunas, 
unable to adapt, died out, to be replaced by the 
sparser, more hardy cold water biota of the 
higher latitudes. It has also been suggested that 
periodic extinctions in the phytoplankton de- 
creased rates of oxygen production from marine 
plants and drastically lowered oxygen levels in 
the world's oceans — or, alternately, that such 
large shallow seas were particularly susceptible 
to stagnation and, thus, oxygen depletion. The 
list of proposed causes is almost endless. 

Just over a decade ago, Canadian paleon- 
tologist D.]. McLaren, in a presidential address 
to the Paleontological Society, suggested that 
perhaps the earth was impacted at the close of 
the Frasnian by a giant meteorite.^ He reasoned 
that such a meteorite, falling into one of the Fras- 
nian oceans, could have generated an enormous 
tidal wave (perhaps on the order of one to two 
miles high). Such a shock would have been 
global in nature, and devastating in effect. 

At first ignored, or in some cases ridiculed as 
a return to catastrophism — this idea is now being 
taken quite seriously by a variety of scientists, 
though for an enhrelv different extinction event. 
Sixty-five million years ago, at the close of the 
Mesozoic era, well over half of the earth's species 
in the oceans and on the land abruptly disap- 
peared in the fossil record. This event, named 
the Cretaceous-Tertiary (or "C-T") boundary ex- 
tinction, has attracted considerable attention due 
to the well-known exHnction of the dinosaurs at 
this time. Unlike in the Frasnian, Cretaceous ter- 
restrial ecosystems were evolutionarily complex 
and well developed, and suffered simultaneous 
disruption with marine ecosystems at the C-T 
boundary. 



Several teams of scientists have nin\ mar- 
shalled geochemical evidence to suggest that the 
earth was indeed impacted bv a giant meteorite 
— an asteroid, in fact — exacth' at the end of the 
Cretaceous Period/ ' It is estimated that the as- 
teroid ma\' have been as large as 7 miles in diame- 
ter, hit the earth at roughly 60,000 miles per 
hour, and produced a pall of fallout and dust that 
would have shrouded the earth tor \ears." The 
effects on the biosphere of the earth would have 
been truly catastrophic. 

Evidence of such an impact consists in the 
enrichment — well beyond terrestrial standards 
— of particular trace elements in rocks which 
occur at the C-T boundary. These trace elements 
(iridium, osmium, gold, platinum, rhenium, and 
others) are reliable indicators c:)f meteorites; it 
was even found that their relative proportions in 
C-T boundary clays are virtually identical tt) 
those found in typical carbonaceous meteorites. 

The debate concerning an extraterrestrial 
cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction is by 
no means closed. It is still not clear just exactly 
how much ecological and climatic damage such 
an impact would produce. One way of testing 
the proposed connection between asteroid im- 
pacts and major extinchons would be to search 
for the geochemical signature of such an impact 
in association \Nith ant)ther major extinction 
event. 

Author Ci'orge R. McGhee stands oti the transitional con- 
tact between the Hanover Cray Shale and the Dunkirk Black 
Shale at the shore of Lake Erie in New York State. Within 
these strata lies Frasnian-Famennian boundary. 





Utterbedded layers of 
the Dunkirk Black 
Shale and Hanoi'er 
Cray Shale. Did an as- 
teroid strike the earth 
during the deposition 
of these shales and 
muds 355 million years 
ago? 



It is with this potential test in mind that 1, a 
paleontologist, and Edward J. Olsen, a metet)r- 
iticist and curator of mineralogy at Field 
Museum, recently travelled to western New 
York State to sample Devonian shales and 
mudstones which span the Frasnian-Famennian 
boundary. During the Late Devonian much of 
eastern North America was covered bv large 
shallow seas, and the ecology of these regions is 
well known. ' Chemical analyses of the field sam- 
ples are being conducted by R. Ganapathy of the 
J.T. Baker Chemical Company in Phillips- 
burg, New Jersey, who has previoush' analyzed 
samples from the Cretaceous-Tertiary bound- 
ary.' We hope soon to be able to answer the 
question posed by D.J. McLaren over 10 years 
ago: Was the Frasnian-Famennian ecological 
"crash" triggered by an asteroid impact? 



References 

1 McGhee, G.R., Jr. and Sutton. R G 1481. Late 
DevDnian marine ecok)gv and zungeographv oi the 
central Appalachians and New York. Lethaia, 14:27-43. 

2. Boucot, A.J. 1975. Evolution and Fxtinction Rate Con- 
trots. Elsevier Scientific Press, Amsterdam. 

3. McLaren, D.J. 1970. Time, life, and bnundaries. 
journal of Paleontology, 44:801-815. 

4. Alvarez, L.VV.; Alvarez, W.; Asaro, F.; and 
Michael, H.V. 1980. Extraterrestrial cause for the 
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. Scieme 208:1095-1108. 

5. Ganapathy, R. 1980. A ni.iinr nieteoriti' impact on 
the earth 65 million years ago: evidence from the Cre- 
tjceous-Tertiarv boundary clay. Science 209:921-923 

6. Kerr, R.A. 1980. Asteroid theory of extinctions 
strengthened. Science, 210:514-517. 



Sunday afternoon on 
the Colorado River 




"Fatherofthe Picture Postcard" is a dubious 
sobriquet at best, but to be hailed as a major 
inOuence in the establishment of the U.S. 
national park system is something else. Pio- 
neer photographer of the West, William Henn,' 
Jackson (1843-1942) earned both titles during his 
remarkable long, productive life. Jackson's be- 
ginnings and those of commercial photography 
were concurrent, and the development of cam- 
era technique, particularly in outdoor photogra- 
phy, is much indebted to Jackson's contribution. 
More than 100 photographic lantern slides 



by Jackson are in the archives of Field Museum; 
all or most date from before the Museum's found- 
ing in 1893. Because the slides are still in the 
binding of the W. H. Jackson Company, of Den- 
ver, their dates can be bracketed with certainty 
between 1879 and 1897, the period during which 
that firm was in business. Some of the shdes, 
however, may be from negatives he made when 
with the United States Survey Expedition in 1871 
or on earlier excursions along the newly laid rail- 
road lines of the West. 

The Museum's entire collection of lantern 



slides (the 3V4 x 4-inch glass slides used in earlv 
projecttirs before the advent of motion pictures) 
numbers about 10,000. Most are from photos 
taken during expeditions of various sites around 
the world, or of artifacts; and the great majority 
are still unclassified, uncataloged, and uncopied 
-^tasks that are not likely to be finished until 
special funding becomes available. 

Jackson is credited with being the first 
photographer to record Yelloustone's geological 
and scenic wonders, its hot springs and geysers. 
While accompanying the Hayden Geological and 
Geographic Survey through Wyoming in 1871, 
he documented for archeologists and geologists 
an almost inaccessible part of the West. His pho- 
tographs achieved great popularity in the 1870s, 
were widely copied as wood engravings, and 
sold to an enthusiastic public that was especially 
taken with his novel scenes. Portfolios of his 
Yellowstone prints sent to members of Congress 
played an important part not only in continuing 
and funding Hayden's survey of uncharted re- 
gions, but also in convincing Congress in 1872 to 
set aside Yellowstone as our first national park. 
In those years — during the very infancy of 
field photography — logisHcal and mechanical 
problems posed great difficulties. Using the then 
current collodion process, the photographer had 
to make his own sensitive plates in the field. As 
described in William H. Jackson * by Beaumont 
Newhall and Diana Edkins: "In a portable dark- 
room — usually a tent or wagon fitted out for the 
purpose — (the photographer) coated a glass 
plate with collodion, a viscous solution of nitro- 
cellulose to which a halide salt such as potassium 
iodide had been added. While the coating was 
still tacky, the plate was plunged into a solution 
of silver nitrate; within minutes, light-sensitive 
silver salts were formed in suspension in the 
collodion coating. The plate, while wet, was 
put into a light-tight holder and immediately 
exposed in the camera, which stood waiting on 
its tripod, already focused on the scene. With- 
out delay, the photographer dashed back to the 
dark tent and developed the latent image before 
the sensitive coating had dried. He then fixed 
and washed tfie plate." 

Jackson's equipment for routine work weighed 
300 pounds and was carried by a mule; but when, 
in 1869, he toured the West for three months 
along the newly laid rails of the Union Pacific, he 
had a ton of equipment, including two cameras: 
one for 8 x 10 negatives and the other for stereo- 
scopic pictures. It is probably on these stereo- 
scopic views that Jackson's picture postcard fame 



•New York and Fort Worth, 1974 




rests. Following this trip, he sold 10,000 stereo- 
scopic photos to one New York firm alone. 

The mountains, canyons, cowboys and 
Indians, captured by Jackson's camera, could 
be viewed in living 3D. Before the halftone meth- 
od of photo reproduction came into use, stereo 
views in postcard format were the rage. Every 
home had its hand-held stereopticon for viewing 
the cards. 

Jackson was at the right place and time 
— at the transcontinental joining, in Utah, in 
1869, of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific 
railroads — to record what the miner, farmer, 
or cattleman might see in the vast, little known 
region of the West. Jackson's work caught the 
attention of Ferdinand V. Hayden, the geologist 
in charge of the geographic survey being under- 
taken at this Hme by the U.S. government. 
Jackson's association with Hayden lasted 
eight highly productive years. 

Before joining Hayden's team, Jackson 
was not a landscape photographer and had no 
particular scientific or esthetic interests. Born 
in Vermont in 1843 of an artistic mother, who 
taught him his basic art skills, he worked for a 
photo studio in Rutland, Vermont, before enlist- 
ing in the Union army. During the Civil War, 
which he spent in Washington, D.C., his duties 
included sketching camp life. With the war's end 
(which coincided with a brt)ken romance), he 
headed west, first hoping to be a prospector, 
then signed on as an ox-team driver in a train 
of westbound freight wagons. This marked his 
introduction to the West. 

With Omaha as a base, he and a brother 
went into business as photographers, shooting 
everything in range: portraits, Indian lodges, 
storefronts, whatever the public would buy; and 



Williiim Henry 
Jackson in his later 
years. 







^ 9 d. . 



-^> 



«,.Vv>» 



■Tj:;-*^- 



l/r<' encampment 



M 




10 



he came to realize that his true calling was that of 
outdoor photographer. With A. C. Hull as a 
partner, along the new railroad routes, he began 
oper .;ing as a self-styled "journalist working 
with a camera." 

With much of its fascinating detail, Jackson's 
own autobiography* reads like a history of the 
American West He recounts missing a train 
out of Omaha because his time and that of the 
railroad were out of sync; there was then no 



'Time Expcsurc, the Autobiography of William Henry 
Jackson. New York, 1940. 



"standard time." U.S. time zones were not estab- 
lished until 1883, at which time representatives of 
35 railroad companies met to resolve the matter 
in Chicago. Within a year, private businesses 
also adopted the efficient system worked out by 
the railroads, with city and state government 
falling in line shortly thereafter. 

Having learned of Jackson's work, Hayden 
visited him at his Omaha headquarters. Deter- 
mined to "inform Americans about America," as 
he put it, the head of the Geological Survey saw 
Jackson's photos of the railroads and the Ameri- 
can Indians as a way of doing just that. 

Hayden could not immediately afford to hire 
Jackson, but the photographer joined his team 




t^s -' 



r \ 



Mountain of the Holy Cross (1873). To take this shot Jackson lugged his photo equipment on his own 
back up the last 1,500 feet of neighboring Notch Mountain. He processed his negatives on the spot, 
using melted snow for wash water. 



anyway, as a volunteer, in 1870. The toiJuwing 
year he was added tt) the payroll. Jackson later 
termed his survey experience from 1871 to 1879 
as "priceless — it gave me a career." 

Also on Hayden's team were artists — first 
S. R. Gifford, then Thomas Moran — who helped 
Jackson sharpen his own esthetic sensibilities. 
For scale and other effects, he learned to pose 
figures in his landscapes, and Moran appears as 
that figure in some of Jackson's work. Intrigued 
bv tales of a legendary "Mount of the Hoh' 
Cross," Jackson went in search of it in 1873 \s hile 
on a survey trip across the eastern slope of the 
Rockies. He found the peak: a H.OOO-footer \\ ith 
two main fissures that intersected, like a cross. 



gleaming w hite with miow in w inter. 

He shot a spectacular \ie\s from the summit 
of neighboring Notch Mountain, but only alter 
lugging the camera equipment w ithout the aid of 
pack animals, up the last 1,500 feet. Once atop 
Notch Mountain, Jackson was again thwarted. 
Clouds rolled in and he was obliged to wait until 
morning to snap his shutter. But the results are 
among Jackson's most memorable. Jackson took 
eight glass plate shots of the mountain (from 
stereos to 1 1 \ 14-inch) and pri)cesseci the nega- 
ti\es on the spot, using melted snt)\\ ft)r wash 
water 1 iioiiias Mt)ran's painting of the Hoi' 
Cross based on Jackson's \\ ork added to llu 
fame of the photographs. 




12 



During that era, photo enlargers were not 
generally available, so most nineteenth-century 
prirL-: -vere contacts, i.e., the same size as the 
negati' •:. That Jackson was able to transport 
these hugf, brittle plates (sometimes even 
28 X 36-inch plates!) under the most difficult 
circumstances makes his achievement all the 
more remarkable. 

Jackson had two opportunities to photo- 
graph Indian tribes: earl) \u his career, near 
Omaha, and later in 1874 vsith the Hayden 
Survey, when he visited the Los Pinos Indian 
agency. He also recorded the remnants of lost 
Indian civilizations and their cliff dwellings in 



the Southwest in 1874 and 1875. In 1875 he 
photographed the Moquis pueblos. 

When the Hayden Survey ended in 1879, 
Jackson struck out on his own, establishing the 
Jackson Photographic Company, in Denver. To 
stimulate travel, western railroads hired him 
to take pictures along their routes — a 15-year 
involvement during which he produced 30,000 
negatives. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 
provided him with a special train with a flat car 
as a photo- taking platform. He photographed 
mining towns — Leadville, Telluride, Cripple 
Creek — and the railroads that competed to serve 
the mining areas until the mines ran out. 




During this time he began making photo- 
graphic enlargements. Experimenting with new- 
equipment was typical of Jackson throughout his 
career. He photographed Chicago's Columbian 
Exposition in 1893 and toured the world in 1894 
for the World Transportation Commission. 
Jackson left Denver for Detroit when he siild his 
negatives to the Detroit Publishing Company, 
becoming a partner in the firm. Estimates of 
his total accumulation of negatives have been 
set at 80,000. 

In his later years, Jackson worked and 
traveled for the Oregon Trail Memorial Associa- 
tion as its research secretary, revisiting his old 



haunts and giving talks at meetings trom New 
York to Oregon. Now in his eighties, he had 
progressed lo a smaller "veslpocket" camera, as 
he called it, doing paintings from these photos 
when he returned to his home base in Washing- 
ton, D.C. In his final vears, he was hired by the 
I^epartmi'nf of the Interior to plan and supervise 
the painting of a series of murals for its new 
building in Washington, murals memorializing 
four ma|or survev parties in the West. 

Before dying at age 99 in 1942, Jackson 
attributed his long life to inheriting a sturd> 
constitution, doing interesting things and look- 
ing forward to doing more. D 



13 



The Kohlman Amber Collection 



Su'arm of flies, 
family Sciaridac 



% ^ 




A Stained Glass Window to the Past 



bv GENE KRITSKY 



The author with 

portion of the Kohlman 

Collection, mounted 

on slides. 



Fossilized resin, commonly known as 
amber, is prized for its gem value, but the 
scientific importance of this beautiful burnt- 
orange substance is primarily for the tiny plants 
and animals that we occasionally find in it; the 
anatomical details of such fossils may be pre- 
served with remarkable clarity and fidelity. 




Dave Walsten 



Field Museum's Kohlman Amber Collec- 
tion, numbering about 2,200 original pieces (be- 
fore some were fragmented for better analysis) 
and purchased by the Museum in 1953, is one 
of the finest collections of amber fossils in the 
world. Originally the collection was assembled 
by A. F. Kohlman, a railroad dispatcher who 
lived in Milwaukee and later Racine, Wisconsin. 
Kohlman acquired the collection between 1900 
and 1915, a conclusion we have drawn from 
newspapers, letters, and various notes found in 
the boxes containing the specimens. We also 
know from these papers that Kohlman obtained 
the amber from W. Herrin, of St. Louis. Herrin 
was also the source of the other major amber 
collection in the United States: that of Harvard 
University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. 

Following Kohlman's death, his sisters 
placed his other personal effects up for public 
auction, but they were obviously unaware of the 
scientific value of the collection, and had even 
thought of throwing it away. By a stroke of good 
luck, however, a Racine high school science 
teacher, F. E. Trinklein, discovered the boxes of 
"trash" when he attended the auction to bid on 



Gene Kritski/ is associate professor of biology at Tri-State 
Universiti/, Angola, IN. 




Crane flit (Tipulidaf^ 



Kohlman's microscope. For a small amount t)f 
money he was able to buy the entire collection. 

In 1953 Trinklein offered the amber for sale 
to the Field Museum, which promptly purchased 
it. Trinklein used the cash to buy science equip- 
ment for his high school and the Museum was 
able to provide permanent safekeeping for a fos- 
sil collection of great value. 

Of immediate, primaryinterest to Field Mu- 
seum scienHsts was the question of the amber's 
geographic origin and its age. It is known that 
amber deposits occur throughout the world and 
that they date from a variety of geologic periods. 
The oldest true amber occurs in Denmark in 
strata of Jurassic age (at least 135 million years 
old). Cretaceous ambers (135 million-63 million 
years old) are found in North America, Siberia, 
and Europe. Physical and chemical tests made on 
the Kohlman amber indicated that it is from the 
southern Baltic region (the source of 90 percent of 
all known amber) and is of Eocene age — about 40 
million years old. The likelihood that this is Baltic 
amber is further supported by the fact that Hcr- 
rin is known to have been a collector of amber 
from this region. 

Amber is seldom found at its place of origin. 
In ages past it was sometimes carried away by 
streams and rivers — often great distances from 



its place of origin. It is this displacement and 
burial under protective layers of earth that has 
made it possible for amber to survive in its origi- 
nal state for many millions of \ears. Once amber 
is removed from its bed of earth, sand, or gravel, 
it may be exposed to conditions that can alter it in 
t>ne way or another and eventualK' di'strov the 
imbedded ft)ssil. 

This vulnerability is a real headache for the 
museum curatiir, who has been obliged to e\per- 
imi'nt \\ ith all sorts of preservation techniques, 
such as storing the amber in water; in oil; in dry, 
cotton-plugged vials; and mounting the fossils 
on microscope slides. But each of these methods 
has its drawback. Water, when combined with 
amber, provides a good medium for bacterial 
growth; antibacterial agents added to the water 
to counteract this problem mav dissolve the 
amber. Mineral oil is a popular storage mi'dium 
for amber because the two substances have a 
similar refractive indi-x; stored over a long time, 
however, the oil discolors the amber. Amber 
stored in plugged vials eventually dries out and 
cracks. Mounting on miirnsi opi' slidi-s is proba- 
bly the bi'st preservatiiui li'chnii|ue, but spec i 
mens mounted in this way can be viewed tr\ m 
c>nl\' t\Mi sides This is a small price, h tor 

maximum protection. 



15 



Cricket, family 
Gryllidac 







V 


1 


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r 


.. "S 


sx 


HHV<3^ 




fei 


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1 

t 

• 








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5^^ 


w 


1 






^^ 



Although the collection had been carefully 
assembled bv Kohlman, it had been the victim of 
neglect before being acquired by the Museum. 
Many slide-mounted specimens had come loose 
and been separated from the identifying labels 
originally placed with them. During the past 
three years I have examined the almost 3,000 
pieces of amber with insect inclusions in the 
Kohlman collection, remounting or highly 
polishing close to 1,500 specimens. The remain- 
der of the fossils had been cut in order to make 



Fly, family Empidac 
16 




them easier to examine for identification, but 
were not permanentlv mounted to allow future 
researchers studying the fossils to make the deci- 
sion as to what sides should be polished and 
mounted. 

In general content, the Kohlman Amber Col- 
lection is much like other collections of Baltic 
amber: About 65 percent of the inclusions are 
Diptera, or true flies, with the family Dolicho- 
podidae the best represented (20 percent of the 
entire collection). Other dominant dipteran 
families are the Sciaridae, Mycetophilidae, Chi- 
ronomidae, Tipulidae, and Empidae. In all, 17 
families of Diptera have been identified. The 
Araneida, or spiders, comprising 8 percent of 
the fossils, are the second largest group in the 
collection. 

The insect order Hymenoptera accounts for 
7 percent, the ants being the most common of 
that group; the Chalcidoidea, a group of parasitic 
wasps, are also well represented. 

An additional fourteen arthropod groups 
make up the rest of the collection. The insect 
orders Trichoptera, Coleoptera, and Homoptera, 
and the Acari (ticks and mites) each comprise 
from 2 to 4.5 percent. The remaining ten arthro- 
pod groups are represented by only a few speci- 
mens in each case. 

The scientific importance of the Kohlman 




collection has been underscored bv the research 
so far done on it. It has yielded, for example, 
previously unknown and extinct species; and we 
have gained a better understanding of the envi- 
ronment of the forests which produced the resin. 
Groups of sciarid flies, which are known to 
swarm in the spring — and presumablv'did so 
during Eocene times — are found in the amber, st> 
we can make the assumption that the resin that 
later transformed into amber also flowed during 
that season of the year. 

Specimens in the collection also give us 
some insight into their behavior during life: fos- 





Clockwise, trum tup 
left: hi-illc (MorJfl- 
liiiac). fly (Aiitulac). 
iinl (Fiirmiiidai'). fly 
(DoliihofwiUdact. 



sils of the Psychidae, or bagworms — a famih' of 
moths, show that some of these made their lar\al 
cases out of tiny hairlike structures found on 
certain oak leaves. 

The Kohlman Amber Collection of the 
Field Museum now passes into an mnportant 
phase: The specimens having been curated and, 
in most cases, identified diiwn to famih', genus, 
or species, will be studied b\' specialists in order 
to gain a clearer picture of the evolution of the 
insects and spiders that inhabited the furi'Sls of 
l;urt)pe 40 million years ago. 3 




TOURS FOR MEMBERS 





r^ 



John \Vhitf((il>ove)and Eli While will introdiu-e you to Xiitii't' Anwriain life slyte (hiriiiv, FieliL\Iu.<:eiw fs e.iriting Native Airiencim Crafts 'Retreat, 
Audits/ 2-7, at Ktiiupsville. Illiuoi$. The Whites will demonstrate Iww wild foods werefora'fed, processed, and cooked, usin^r tools (you will make)of 
stotie, clay, hark, and wood. If you have never eaten acorn pancakes or .■^teamed duck potatoes, now's your chance! Per person, irwluding 
transportation from Chicago: $315.00. For additional information or re.<ien'at ions call tlw Tours Office: 332-8862 now. 

Field ,\hiseum's 15-day tour to Baja, Cidifornia leaves Feb. 6, 1982, with .space for 30 Members. The group will be quartered aboard the 
comfortable M. V. Pacific Northwest Explorer, built in 1980. Tbur leader-lecturer will he Dr. Robert K.John.son, chairman of the Department of 
Zoology. Write or call now to he placed on mailing list for fined itinerary (322-8862). 





^ IB ID 11 11 « ■* 



G 



.» 1 I 



I J I 



TOURS FOR MEMBERS 




Village fnlimi on thorn of Lake Tilieaea in 

Boliiin- [\irvm nrtir costunifs lirohiiii inu(i^ 
tirrwrd friuu Ov iitku'iit iin of Tuihuiiruifa, tin 
rmpirr lluil rulr.t liir vu/ilirni Aiulrs IMO iriira 



Peru and Bolivia 

OcIoIkt ir)-No\vmlK'i- 1 
Tour Price: $3,100 

Tliis tour iiiihiilrs t)ie fdsciiuilin^ciliex 
()/ I.ifiui, CllZ^^(), Vujilln. Puiio, ii tniiii 
trip to I'dhiiloiis Miuhit I'iii hit. font full 
(tin's ill Iji I'tiz.tiiiti ii liydrofoil rule on 
Uike Titicacu. Dr. Alan L. Ki^Litu, visit- 
ing tissuitiiiit curtitor of South Aiiwri- 
cun nrrlieolo}!^' iiiitl rlliitolof^; nill lur- 
coinpiiny tlw tour incuilxTs duriii\^ tlv 
entire trip. Dr. Micluiel C Moselei: ivi- 
soiiate curntor of hlidiile anil Soiitli 
Aiiieriiiin tinheolo\jf unit rthnolo\^; 
H'lio for tlw piist ten Wiir.'i luL-i ilinYteil 
/(ifjJ'-.-icn/c projects on tlw north lOtist 
of Peru, ti'ill join tlw \^oup ii'/uvi iir 
vuiit /ii.'i urea of re.-ienrch. l\'e tn// ii/.«) 
haw an opfx>rtuiiit)' to .lee and leant 
almut Dr. Kolata's work at Tiahuan- 
aeo. For more information call or n'rite 
Field Mu.'ieum tours. Direct teleplione 
line: 322-Sm2. 



M.uhu l\;hu 



Egj'pt (nith \ile Cruise) 

Fel)itiaiT G-23, 1982 
Price to Ik" announced 

This is one of Field Mu.-ieuni's i>eivn- 
nially popular tours — alti'ays fully 
iHxiked (.-io make irser\-ations notv.'). 
Kmpha.fis on tlw major historical sites: 
the Pyramids at Giza. Memphis, 
Ain'dos. tlw ValUyofthe Kinff., Kumak, 
AsitviJi. and Ahu Simh-t. FJnrn nis^tls 
alxuird a delu.te Nile Kiwrcrui.ser. Ibur 
Icctiiivrs art' I'S. Fi^'ptologists. Uroup 
limited to 30. Write or nit! ,'.;■ Tburs 
Office (322-8iU;2) for h-. 



19 



Egypt in 1903: 
TVavel Notes of 
Henry Isaac Hart 




20 



b}' Gerda Frank 

Field Museum Vnhinteer 

"Today the United States holds a respected place 
in Hgyptological scholarship. ... It was not so one 
hundred years ago, when there was no Ameri- 
can to match the scholars of France, Germany 
and Great Britain. Americans were concerned 
with their own future in their own land, were 
engrossed in the struggle between North and 
South, and had only slight curiosity abtiut Egypt 
as a land which figured, rather unpleasantly, 
in the Bible. Authors like Mark Twain . . . and 
wealthy tourists, who might spend a winter on 
the Nile, did nothing to dispel the feeling that 
Egypt was a strange and different land which 
could do nothing for the American .... What 
were the pyramids and the sphinx to people who 
still had not learned their own incredible West?" 
— So wrote John Wilson in 1964 in Si^ns and 
Wonders upon Pharaoh (Universit)' of Chicago 
Press). 

The state of affairs described b\' Wilson was 
not much changed at the turn of the century, 
when Egypt was visited by Henry Isaac Hart, a 
young American. Hart's impressions of Egypt 
survive for us in the form of a few letters and 
fragmentary journals; but Hart had a sharp eye 
for detail and even within the scope of his brief 
reports we find a good deal of information about 
thewayoflifeinEgyptat that time. His observa- 
tions also pose an interestmg contrast with those 



Photos courtesy Mclva Keller 

of Judith Perrin, who wrote in the October 1980 
Bulletin of her experiences in Egypt ("Travels in 
an Antique Land") while with a Field Museum 
tour of that country. 

Hart was born to pioneer parents in Wiscon- 
sin. His father had come from England and mar- 
ried a Vermont girl. The young couple went west 
and staked out land in central Wisconsin, built a 
log cabin, began to farm, and founded a family. 
Then, for several years. Hart's father was away 
as a Union soldier in the Civil War. In 1875 Henry 
was born in the log cabin, the youngest of five 
children. The children were able to attend school 
just in the fall and winter, for during the rest of 
the year their help was needed on the farm. 

Henry was the only one of the Hart children 
to go on to high school, even though it required a 
30-mile ride each way from the farm. After he 
finished high school, his parents financed his 
e'ducation at the Universit\' of Wisconsin, in 
Madison, where he graduated from law school 
in 1901. 

Instead of settling doun to a conventional 
career as a lawyer, Henry vieided to a burning 
curiosity to see the world. Unable to afford 
traveling on his own, he contacted the interna- 
tional publishing firm of Underwtjod & Under- 
wood, which sent photographers to all corners 
of the globe to take stereoscopic photographs. 



These pictures were organized into collections 
and sold to schools and other educational institu- 
tions as well as to persons who enjoyed "arm- 
chair travelling." 

Underwood & Underwood hired the young 
graduate. His challenging first assignment was 
to travel around the world, taking photographs 
and selling stereoscopic photo collections and 
stereoscopes, or viewers. Leaving the United 
States within months after graduation. Hart 
spent the first year in England. After some time 
on the continent, he was to proceed to Egypt, 
then to India and points east. Hart got imly as far 
as India, where he was accidentally killed, in 
October, 1903, while hunting with a friend. 
Hart's body was buried there, but subsequently 
sent back to the United States and reburied in his 
home community of Wild Rose, Wisconsin, 
some 125 miles northwest of Milwaukee. 

Hart's Underwood & Underwood assign- 
ment is vividly described in a qewspaper clip- 
ping from Calcutta, where he was interviewed 
shortly after his arrival there. (The clipping is 
among Hart's papers; unfortunately the name 
and date of the paper are missing.): 

Wc have another American invasion of Calcutta upon us of a 
very pleasant kind. The invader, Mr H. I. Hart, is a student 
from the States, bent on spending a season in that large 
University without a name, which widens the powers of 
observation and broadens the culture of its students by send- 
ing them through a curriculum of travel in all lands, invest- 
ing them all the time ivith grit and self-reliance, and those 
other manly qualities which make up that outfit of character 
•which is so improving the breed of the outplanted stock of the 
Anglo-Saxon race as successive generations succeed one 
another .... Mr. Hart pays his way and more as he goes 
along. And this is the way he docs it. He enables \/ou to sit in 
your room and, at little expense, enjoy a travel through 
almost any country in the loorld you have a fancy to see. 
With a neat aluminum stereoscope and eighty five views, you 
can have a tour through the Holy Land any ez'cning before 
going to bed. In the same way you can tour through Italy, or 
Russia, or go to South Africa, or China, or the Philippines, 
or to almost any country under the sun and see actual scenes 
in these countries with youro'wn eyes. The educational value 
of these scenes is so great that the American Cowrnment 
have provided the Military Academy at West Point and the 
Library of Congress at Washington each with a complete 
series. 

My suggestion is that the managers and Governors of 
all our educational establishments in Calcutta should pro- 
vide the Institutions under their care with sets of these vieios 
for the use of the scholars. By that means, they would 
convert the study of history and geography into very 
pleasurable pursuits and add greatly to the enjoyment of the 
young people. I hope it goes without saying that His K.xcel- 
lency will give instructions to have the Imperial Library in 
Calcutta provided with a complete set of these views, along 
with a number of the stereoscopes, so that the great rank and 
file of those who frequent the library, and who cannot, by 
reason of their limitations, go far from their homes, may 
have an opportunity, on a spare afternoon or evening, of 
enjoying an imaginative visit to the ends of the earth. Those 
who can afford to purchase the views for themselves will find 
them a good ini'estment. 






.//' 




//„./.> 


'/>f'f^>^/ 1 


' //f/fA}//'f'fn/ 



Henry Isaac Hart, 1902 photo, taken in London. His calling 
card, likeiL'ise (from "Madison, America"), ivas printed in 
London. 



After Hart's death, his few belongings were 
sent home to his family. Some of these personal 
effects — diaries, letters, pictures, and Hart's 
stereoscopic camera — have come into the pos- 
session of Hart's niece, Mrs. Melva Keller, a 
Chicago resident. 

Hart had left Europe by way of Piraievs, 
Greece, aboard the steamship Tzar, bound for 
Alexandria. "We have landed in Egypt at last!" 
he writes. ("Egypt at last!" writes Mrs. Perrin.) 
Hart had no special knowledge of Egyptian his- 
tory or art, and travelled only with three young 
colleagues. There was no preparatory literature 
available. 

He was as well prepared to see Egypt as 
could be expected of any alert young American in 
1903: halfway between the time when Champol- 
lion deciphered hieroglyphic writing, and th. 
present. 

"Egypt, as you arc undoubtedh' aware," he 
writes to his pioneer parents with the presump- 



21 



tic)n of yc>uth, "consists only of a narrow strip of 
land, from 4 to 10 miles wide, stretching along 
either bank of the Nile for nearly a thousand 
miles. It is said that the amount of arable land is 
doubled every year since the English have pos- 
session." And, following up with his knowledge 
of farming, when he reaches Upper Egypt, he 
notes: "At this place, no one has ever seen a 
cloud. The sky is perfectly clear every day, and 
the sun shines every day alike. Notwithstanding 
this, the fields are covered with luxuriant crops 
and grasses, which are watered by artificial 
means as well as being overflowed once a year by 
the inundation of the Nile." 

"Alexandria," he writes "is a flourishing 
city, but is very commonplace, aside from the 
interest one cannot help but take in one's first 

glimpse of orientalism Pompey's pillar is 

worth seeing, situated as it is on the top of a small 
hill, in a deserted part of the city. The filth is the 

most noticeable part of the surroundings We 

have been for a walk through some of the streets 
and watched the darkskinned Arabs with their 
peculiar costumes. The men wear all kinds of 
outfits, some wear white robes, looking as 
though they were out in their nightshirts . . . ." 

But he is enthusiastic about Cairo. "To 



spend two weeks in Cairo during the month of 
February," he writes in his diary, "is a privilege 
of a lifetime. There are thousands of things of 
interest, but the one overshadowing feature of 
the place is the daily life. To wander through the 
Bazzars [sic], not to buy but just to look, is an 
occupation most fascinating, and one of which a 
person will never grow weary." 

There is no reference to the Cairo Museum. 
The original storehouse for Egyptian antiquities, 
started by Mariette in 1857, was known as the 
"Boulak Museum," and on the banks of the Nile; 
subsequently it was flooded. The present Cairo 
Museum building was constructed between 1897 
and 1902. 

Hart experiences, too, some of the annoy- 
ances of the modern traveller who is not pro- 
tected by a group leader: "All travellers in Egypt 
are continually beset by young Arabs who want 
to act as a guide," Hart writes, "and it is almost 
impossible to get rid of them, unless one threat- 
ens them in a savage tone of voice. They look on 
every foreigner as legitimate prev, and use every 
means in their power to get his money away from 
him . They will ask 10 times as much for an article 
as it is worth, and will follow a stranger around 
for hours, trying to induce him to buy; always 
offering it for less and less money, until the 
stranger will buy it to get rid of the fellow. We 
had a fellow follow us around for a long time 



22 




Hart's stereoscopic camera, 

now in the possession of his 

niece, Mrs. Melva Keller. 




Abovi-: I umrarv Irmple of Hat- 
^hrpaul s/inii • / card acquired 

^V Hart ' I the ti-niplc ha> 

I'll f! ' I ifiiiicd. Bel(>v\ nh- 

' ..t.ru'ood & UtuI, w- ' 

Dial may well hir 
t'ork of Henry Hart . 23 



today, in spite of the fact that we teild him re- 
peatedly that his services were not required and 
that we wanted him to leave us. We got on a 
streetcar, and he came right on v\ith us, and of 
course wanted us to pay his fare." But Hart en- 
joys the teeming life of Cairo: "In the evening," 



exists. "I will send you a feather which I got out 
there," writes Hart to his family. The interest in 
ostrich feathers continued the ancient tradition 
of hunting wild ostriches, with which we are 
familiar from the 1977 Tutankhamun exhibit, 
where we saw the gold relief of the young king 





'STU!!S 




--Wa<fe ft)f Arou^ 



m^eti Bros Suez., •-.,■. ,: , ^ -^ ^ 



Postcard sent by Hart from Suez, Egypt, tohisfamily in W'ildRose. Wisconsin, onFeb. 24, 1903: "DearFolksat 
Home: 1 go on board ship to-night and start for India tomorrow morning. Wish I loere starting for America. Will 
lorite again as soon as I reach Bombay. Don't expect a letter for 4 lueeks. Am in the best of health. Lovetoall, 
Henry." 



he notes, "up to any hour you like, there is the 
fishmarket." 

Unfortunately, most of Hart's photographic 
negatives and prints have been lost and the 
prints that survive have faded beyond recogni- 
tion. But Hart also collected picture postcards 
that show Egyptian scenes of 1903. One of these 
is of an ostrich farm, near Cairo, which no longer 



hunting ostriches, and one of his ornate ostrich 
feather fans. 

For those who love Hatshepsut's temple, 
there is a postcard showing what the temple 
looked like 80 years ago. The two ramps we see 
todav are missing, and there is instead a massive 
wall connecting the tops of the lower two levels. 
Was this a structure erected by the earliest exca- 




H?^^ 



^^J^ 






24 



.\ntruches k Matarieh. 



Ostrich farm near Cairo (from postcard) 



vators? Tho tup luvcl of the tuniple was still 
buried by sand and debris. Today, two long 
ramps, leading to the first and second level, have 
been reconstructed and are being finished with 
fragments of the original structure, that had not 
yet been found in 1903. A Polish-Egyptian team 



the Nile. One wonders how this water agreed 
with the consumers! "On the way up, our assis- 
tants will encourage him to work hard and beat 
the t)thers, as eversbody seems going up the 
pyramids.' If one gets ahead of the others, he is 
flattered by such remarks as Master is very 




Water carriers fill bags zcith water from the Nile (from postcard). 



is still occupied with excavation and reconstruc- 
tion on the third, top level. 

Hart undertakes the climb of the Great 
Pyramid w ith his friends. "We are four of us 
going out to the Pyramids tonight," he writes on 
February 14, 1903, "to see them bv moonlight. 
There is almost a full moon here now, and we are 
going to watch it rise from the top of the Great 
Pyramid. These [sic] are about 8 miles from here, 
and we are coming back about 11 o'clock, on 
donkeys. Donkeys are used here in place of cabs, 
and afford a convenient, but inelegant way of 
getting around." After the excursion. Hart de- 
scribes the experience: "We have been out to the 
Pyramids and climbed to the top of the highest 
one. This is nearly 500 feet high and is built of 
solid blocks of stone about 8 feet long and 4 feet 
wide and 4 feet thick. How these huge blocks 
were ever raised to such a height is a mystery." 
(Today we know it was done with ramps.) 
"These pyramids are said to be over 5000 years 

old When one ascends the Great Pyramid, 

one is assisted by three Bedouin Arabs, one 
ahold of each hand, and one following behind to 
give an occasional boost at a difficult stone. There 
is also a fourth, a bt)y who carries water and to 
whom one must give "baksheesh," whether one 
drinks or not." He also buys a postcard showing 
water carriers, filling their large leather bags in 



strong,' etc. etc. As the top is neared, they begin 
to tell how much baksheesh others have given 
them, and Master must give more for they have 
worked extra hard and made Master beat all the 
others.'" 

Hart continues that he gave a fellow some 
extra money "to run from the top of the Great 
Pyramid to the top of the second in 10 minutes. 
After he had accomplished this feat and had 
come down from the top of the second Pyramid, 
he had procured a small piece of stone for each of 
us . . . ," which, if actually from the top, explains 
why the pyramids have been getting shorter, 
and certainly proves that souvenir hunting 
was popular! Hart concludes: "This was the 
same fellow that climbed this pyramid with 




25 



Mark Twain." (See: hnuKcnts Abroad, Vol. II, 
Chapter XXXI.) Today, climbing the pyramids 
is prohibited, 

Mark Twain describes his own climb up the 
Great Pyramid when he was 32 years old, obvi- 
ously in bad physical shape and in ill humor. He 
writes with a good deal less enthusiasm than 



is brief: "The trip on donkeys to the tombs of the 
Kings is interesting, but fatiguing." There prob- 
ably was not much he found worthwhile to 
photograph in all the desolation. Theodor Davis 
began his successful excavations there only in 
1903, and the tomb of Tutankhamun was not to 
be discovered until 20 years later. 




Ascension de la grande Pyramide. 



233 



Tourists climbing a pi/ramid the easy way (from piostcard). 



26 



Hart: "Why try to call up the tradition of van- 
ished Egyptian grandeur; why try to fancy Egypt 
follovving dead Ramses to his tomb in the 
Pyrarmc Then follows the account of the Arab 
sprinting t^' the top of the second Pyramid and 
back. Mark T wain did not travel any further 
south, but Hart somehow makes his way to 
Luxor. "I have been on. a trip up the Nile River," 
he writes, "and have seen some of the seven 
wonders of the world. The old temples around 
Luxor are unsurpassable in size and grandeur . 
. . . The temple at Karnak is so vast that one is 
bewildered when attempting to comprehend it." 
Hart's description of the Valley of the Kings 



After Hart's return to Cairo, he made a last 
excursion to Sakhara, where "we saw the tombs 
of the sacred bulls, which is an enormous dug- 
out, and is most suffocating when inside 

Went from Sakhara to Gizeh across the desert on 
donkeys, 9 nrules. At sundown my donkey boy 
stopped to pray and I never saw him again." 
Hart's last diary entry from Egypt describes that 
he arrived back "just in time to see the procession 
of the Holy Carpet, as it started for Mecca. Also 
saw Khedive and Sir VVingate." 

From Egypt, Hart travelled directly to India, 
where six months later he met his death at the 
age of 28. n 



Jiih', August ^v September at Field Miiseiiui 



.litty Hi U) Si-plnnluT 15 



New Exhibits 

"Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life" and "The Year of The 
HOPI." For the first time in its history ofofTering traveling 
exhibits to the public. Field Museum has two special ex- 
hibits running simultaneously, both on the Hopi Indian. 
"Hopi Kachina: Spirit olLite" features Hopi art and arti- 
facts, including two of the oldest and finest examples of 
Native American mural art. The exhibit also includes two 
large-scale models of Hopi religious ceremonies. "The 
Year of the Hopi" presents haunting photographs and 
delicate watercolors bv Joseph Mora, dating back to the 
first decade of this century, belbre cameras were banned 
from Hopi public dances. Exhibits curator: James Van- 
Stone; designer: Clifford Abrams. Through September fi. 
Halls 26 and 27, second floor. 

Continuing; Exhibit.s 

Hall of Indians of the Sou ihwes fern United States. 
This permanent exhibit is an excellent supplement to the 
Museum's special exhibits on the Hopi. In addition to 
displavs on Hopi rituals, the hall contains an exhibit of 
kachina dolls from Field Museum's own collections. This 
hall also includes archeological materials showing the 
development of cultures in the Southwest, beginning 
with the Cochise culture, ca 500U B.C. Hall 7, main floor. 

Neu Projjrams 

Asia Festtval. Bring the whole family for a day-long fes- 
tival celebrating the beaut}' and diversity of the cultures 
of Asia. Through films, slide programs, tours, crafi dem- 
onstrations, and performances, you'll get a fascinating 
look at the land and peoples of China,Japan, India, and 
Southeast Asia. Watch the story-dramas of India unfold 
through Bharata-Natyam temple dances performed by 



the Nel\'akalala\'am School. Witness an e.xciungiieinon- 
stration of Kalarippa\etl, a South Indian martial art from 
Kerala. Other s]3ecial performances feature traditional 
Cambodian music, Chinese ballet g\-mnaslics, Japane.se 
and Thai classical dance, and "The Brides ol Iiiilia," a 
show of traditional bridal dress. The day's activities in- 
clude fiemonstrations of calligraphy, Indian bread- 
making, batik aiul u-ea\'ing, origami, shiatsu, sumi-e, 
children's games from China, acui>uncture, liie art of 
bonsai, and more. Sunday,July 19, 11 a.m. -5 p.m. 

Lii.L Stree T Gai.i.f.kv Port erv I)r..\ioNSTRy\TiON. Eric Jen- 
sen, an artist from the Lill Street Studio, uses traditional 
haiui-building techniques to create everyday pottery and 
sculjitures in cla\'. This free jiresentation is ofTered in 
celebration ofCityArts Week organi/A-d by the Chicago 
Council on Fine Arts. Stanley Field Hall. Saturday, July 11, 
2 p.m. 

rs'/\jWA Dance Corps. Enjoy an evening of traditional Afri- 
can tribal dance and fire dancing from the Bahamas. The 
Najwa Dance Corps presents "African Suite with a Taste 
of the Islands." This free perfiirniaiice is ofi'ered in con- 
junction with CityArts Week organized by the Chicago 
Council on Fine Arts. James Simpson Theatre. Friday, July 
17, 8 p.m. 

Highlight ToL'KS. The Education Department offers 
special weekday tours focusing on the Museum's most 
popular exhibits. You can learn about the religious prac- 
tices of ancient Eg^-jit and the significance of American 
Indian rituals, or observe animal life at an African wa- 
ter hole. The.se one-hour guided tours meet at the North 
Information Booth, Stanley Field Hall, at 1 p.m. Monday 
through Thursday. No tours on Friday. 

(Coiiliiiurd itti liiuk cnwr) 



-ISie'Ori;%*«*!^ 




27 



ILLINOIS NflTUPAL HISTORY 
SURVEY LIB RM 196 
NATURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 
URBAMA ILL 61801 



Juh, August 6"? September at Field Museum 



(Continued from irh^ide cover) 



Summer Journey. The self-guided tour, "The Mtmy Faces 
of the Southwest," tiikes you on a journey to a land of arid 
deserts, deep canvons, and cool mountain forests. Learn 
how the native plants, animals, and people have adapted 
and continue to thrive in these extreme environments. 
Free journe\' pamphlets are a\'ailable at Museum 
entrances. 

Weekend Disco\xk\' Programs. Participate in a 
variety of free tours, demonstrations, and films every 
Saturdav and Sunday benveen 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Check 
the Weekend Sheet at Museum entrances tor locations 
and additional programs. 



Saturdav, August 15: "Make Your Own Kiichina Doll" 

craft project, 1-3 p.m. 
Saturdav, August 22: "Color a Kachina" story-telling and 

craft project, 2 p.m. 

Saturdav, August 29: "The Year of the Hopi: A Tour for 
Children," 3:30 p.m. 

Saturdav, Sept. 5; "American Indian Dress" tour, 

11:30 a.m. 
Saturdav, Sept. 12: "Preparation for After-Life in Egv^pt" 

tour, 12:30 p.m. 

Sundav, Sept. 13: "China through the Ages" tour and slide 

presentation, 1:30 p.m. 
Sundav, Sept. 13: "Life in Ancient Eg^-pt" tour, 2:00 p.m. 



Saturdav,Julv 18: "A Desert Place" film feature, 1 p.m. 

Saturdav.JuK- 18: "Malvina Hoffman" film and tour, 
2 p.m. 

Saturda\-,Jul\' 25: "The Wandering Dunes" film feature, 
1 p.m. 

SaturdaVjJuly 25: "New-World Origins of Everyday 
Foods" tour, 2 p.m. 

Sunday,July 26: "Chinese Ceramic Traditi^j^our, 

^^^^^^ 

Saturday, August 1: "Tibetan Cultui c /»^ 

Sunday,August 2: "Egypt after Ale.xa:, •^ , .'" tour, 

1:30 p.m! " ■-•^' 



Saturday, August 8: "Native American Foods tour, 
11:30a.m. 





Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportunities. Indi\-iduals with scientific 
interests and backgrounds are needed to work in various 
Museum departments. Contact the Volunteer Coor- 
dinator, 922-9410, e.xt. 360. 

July, August, and September Hours. Through July and 
August, the Museum is open from 9 a.m. -6 p.m., 
Saturda\'-Thursday; beginning in September, until 5 p.m. 
The Museum is open 9 a.m. -9 p.m. Fridays throughout 
the year. 

The Museum Libr.-\r\' is open weekdays 9 a.m. -4 p.m. 
Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. Clo.sed 
September 7, Labor Day. 

Museum TELEPHONE: (312) 922-9410 



^^^° ^S^^^ OF Natural History Bulletix 



SEP 21 1981 

LIH ^ i^' ^ ^ 



September 1981 




'^////^/^/yy//// ^////////y/M/- ^J//r/ ■" 



rrtiH'iiiLi's riiiJimis i... 



Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 

Published bv 

Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 



President: Willard L. Boyd 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Editor/ Designer: David M. Walsten 
Production: Martha PouUer 
Calendar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chairman 
Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gorden Bent 
Bowen Blair 
Willard L Boyd 
Mrs Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R Cook 
O C. Davis 

William R Dickinson, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley 11 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy, Jr. 
Lorin ] Nevling, Jr 
James J. O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S Runnells 
William L, Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert H. Strotz 
|ohn W Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. LeUnd Webber 
Julian B Wilkins 
Blaine J. Yamngton 



Life Trustees 

Harry O.Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
loseph N. Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C Gregg 
Samuellnsull. Ir. 
William \' Kahler 
William H v!.. SpM 
John M. Sip 
J Howard \s 



CONTENTS 

September 1981 
Volume 52, Number 8 



Lungfishes — Alive and Extinct 

by K.S.W. Campbell 



Planned Giving 

A Program to Augment Field Museum's 

Endowment Fund 

by Clifford Buzard, associate Development officer 



Our Environment 



11 



Hummingbirds 

by Alex Hiam 



12 



Fourth Annual Festival of Anthropology on Film 

September 26 and 27 17 



Field Museum Tours for Members 



25 



Giovanni Belzoni 

King of the Tomb Robbers 

by Peter Gayford, ivlnnteer in Anthropology 28 



Honor Roll of Donors 



34 



September and October at Field Museum 

Calendar of Coming Events 35 



COVER 

Painting of ruby-throated hummingbirds by John James Audu- 
bon (1785-1851). It was executed betiveen'l827 and 1830 and 
first published in his The Birds of America. The reproduction 
on the cover is from Field Museum's rare four-volume set of this 
work, issued in London between 1827 and 1838, and on perma- 
nent view in the North Lounge, second floor. The set was given 
to the Museum in 1970 by Mrs. Clive Runnells. For more on 
hummingbirds, see "Hummingbirds," by Alex Hiam, page 12 . 



Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combined 
July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, 
Chicago, n. 60605. Subscriptions: $6 00 annually. $3.00 for schools Museum membership 
includes Bulletin sutjsoiption Opmions expressed bv authors are their own and do not 
necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum, Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Museum 
phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send from 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History. 
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, II, 60605. lSSN:0015-0703. Second class postage 
paid at Chicago, II. 



Lungfishes — 
Alive and Extinct 



BVK.S.VV. CAMPBELL 



There are onlv three li\inj; lungfish gener.i, ime 
on each of the soutlierii continents excepting 
Antarctica. All are restricted to life in freshwater 
environments. Some live for long periods in 
pools where predators are few and the environ- 
ment is uniform, but others live in periodically 
drying streams where thev can survive buried in 
the mud. The Australian species, Neoceratodu> 
forsteri, has been known to live in aquaria for at 
least 48 years, the length of time that Chicago's 
Shedd Aquarium has had two specimens, a male 
anda female. 

As a group, lungfish have the characteristics 
of slowly evolving organisms, and indeed, the 
recent discovery of tooth plates indistinguisha- 
ble from those of N. forsteri in the Cretaceous 
(140,000,000-65,000,000 years ago) of Australia 
has provoked A. Kemp and R. Molnar of the 
University of Queensland to suggest that this is 
the longest surviving vertebrate. 

But lungfishes were not always like that. 
On the contrary, early in their history they 
evolved at rates that are considered to be excep- 




Detail of head of fosail /u/i^;//.-./; (Uranolophus wyo- 
mingensis) in the Field Museum collection. Entire speci- 
men is shown beloio. 



K.S.W. Campbell, currentli/ at Field Museum under the 
Visiting Scientist Program, is a reader in geology at the 
Australian National University (Canberra), where he was 
formerly head of the Department of Geology and dean of the 
Science Faculty. 



Fossil lungfish specimen (Uranolophus wyomingensis) 
of the early Dei'oiiian period found in Wyoming shale, w the 
Field Museum collection. 




Lower jaw of 

extinct North 

American luiigfish 

(Uranolophus 

wyomingensis). 




tionallvhigh. VVorkbvT. S. Westoll of Newcastle 
University, England, as long ago as 1948, indi- 
cated that evolutionary rates increased exponen- 
tially back to the Devonian, about 400,000,000 
years ago. Discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s 
have emphasized the correctness of WestoU's 
views, but in addition have provided us with a 
mass of new morphological data. These dis- 
coveries were of two skulls and jaws of the genus 
Dipnorhynchiis in limestones of Early Devonian 
age on the Murrumbidgee River near Canberra. 
These specimens, etched from the limestone 
using acetic acid, revealed intricate details of the 
nerve and blood systems, previously quite un- 
known in vertebrates so old. Then, in Wyoming, 
Fresen'ea spectmai numerous specimens of the genus Urauolovhus 
of South American j r un u u .. 4 

lungfish (Lepidosiren ^^''^ ^O""'^ •" slightly older siltstones and 
paradoxa) in the Field shales. Though these specimens are badly 

XUiseum collection, crushed, they have the advantage of possessing 



not only skulls and jaws, but also much of the 
post-cranial material as well. Finally, in the Gogc 
region of N.W. Australia, the most magnificentl\ 
preserved Devonian vertebrates ever found wer( 
recovered in great numbers from limestone 
nodules. These specimens also can be etched 
from the matrix, and are so unaltered that when 
completely prepared for study they have the ap 
pearance of clean, white, recent bone. Among tl 
wealth of species recovered from this formation 
are four lungfishes, and from two of these we 
now have more information than from any 
lungfish other than the three living ones. 

So what can we learn from all this? In the 
first place, both Australian occurrences were 
undoubtedly in marine rocks, and the preserva- 
tion indicates that the animals were living where 
they were entombed. They did not exist else- 
where only to be transported into the sea prior to 




burial. The c'n\ ironmont ot the Wyoming occur- 
rence is not unequi\ocal, but it lias been deter- 
mined as marginal marine. Ihis mtormation 
provides a caution to those inclined to postulate 
thecharacteristicsof organisms oft he past on the 
basis ot generally distributed characters in living 
representatives. Modern lungfishes lack the 
physiological capacitx' to cope with sea water; 
hence, this has been assumed to be a feature ot 
their common ancestor. It now appears that the 
remote ancestors had one oi the currenth' kno\\ ii 
methods or scmie as \et unknown method of 
maintaining a salt balance in their bodies. 

Secondly, although the oldest lungfish 
species known ha\e in comnion many features 
that are not shared with \ ounger species, they 
ne\ertheless belong to two evolutionar\' lines 
which continue through the Carboniferous and 
Permian (340,000,000-230,000,000 years ago). 
These lines are characterized by the peculiar 
ways in which the animals chewed. Lungfishes 
do not have marginal bones around their 
mouths; hence, they do not have tooth rows like 
other fishes or later vertebrates. Instead, they 
develop dentine-covered ridges and denticles on 
the palate and the inner bones of the lower jaw. 
In one evoking line, ridges on the palate and jaw 
complement each other and food is crushed and 
pulverized between them, the jaw action being 
dependent on powerful adductor muscles. In the 
other line no crushing ridges are developed. 
Rather, there are ridges around the edge of the 
palate and jaws, but these do not even meet 
when the mouth is clamped shut. Instead of hav- 
ing a crushing function, these ridges hold the 
food in the mouth while it is rasped by a series of 
denticles that line the mouth and cover a very 
strong mobile rod formed from the basal part of 
the gill arches. This rod moves back and forth in 
the mouth as the gills open and close. The jaw 
muscles are weak, but the gill muscles are very 
strong. Thus, it becomes a problem to define the 
characters of the ancestral group that gave rise to 
both these t\'pes 




Finally, the old view that the lungfishes are 
the closest fish\' relati\es of the land-dwelling 
vertebrates, or tetrapods, has reared its head 
again. After four decades of general acceptance 
of the view that an extinct group of lobe-finned 
fishes, the rhipidistians, ga\e rise to the earh' 
amphibians, an influential group of British and 
American paleontologists, using a large number 
of new and reinterpreted old criteria, has resur- 
rected the hypothesis espoused by comparative 
anatomists as far back as the 1830s. In these cir- 
cumstances the establishment of the characteris- 
tics of the earliest lungfishes becomes of prime 
importance. 

During mv current stay at Field Museum 
under the X'isiting Scientist Program, 1 hope to 
contribute to the discussion of the evolutionary 
problems outlined above. I will be describing 
primitive material discovered in the last couple of 
years in the Australian Devonian, and attempt- 
ing to establish previously undescribed features 
of the primitive American species ilraiioloi'hu^ 
U'i/oiiiiu;^cn<is. This species was first described in 
1968 by Robert Denison, a former curator of fossil 
fishes at the Field Museum, which has the only 
collection of this material in the world G 



Skull of Auslrahati 
luiij^fiah (Gripho- 
gnathus)/rciwi late 
Dcx'oiiian liiiit-iloih'. 
The speamcn unii 
etched from the 
lime>toiie matrix 
with acetic acid. 
About natural 
size. 



Australian lui>};fish 
(Neoceratodus 
forstcri). This male 
Sfvcimeii. abiuit 40 
inches in lens^th. has 
been on exhibit at 
Chua\;o's /(Win G 
Shedd Aquarium since 
I9.^.V Photo courtcs\/ 
Shedd Aquarium 

SoCh-tV 




FIELD BRIEFS 




WilhndL. Box/d 

Boyd Installed as President 

Field Museum's new president, Willard L. 
Boyd, assumed his duties as the Mu- 
seum's chief executive officers on Sep- 
tember 1, succeeding E. Leiand Webber. 

Bovd's appointment, announced ear- 
lier this year, concluded a year-long search 
for a successor to Webber, who had an- 
nounced in 1980 his wish to retire from the 
post, which he had held since 1962. Bovd, 
a native of Minnesota, has served as pres- 
ident of the University of Iowa since 1969 
Webber, who retires after more than 31 
years' service to Field Museum, will con- 
tinue to be associated with the Museum in 
a nonmanagement capacity, working on 
special projects. 



Department of Education 

Nina M. Haake, of Evanston, has been 
named geology instructor. She is a recent 
graduate of DePauw University, Green- 
castle, IN, where she earned her B.A. in 
earth science. Jack MacRae, formerly of 
Harrington, IL, is the Education Depart- 
ment's new resource coordinator for Har- 
ris Extension, which provides loans of 
portable wildlife and other natural history 
exhibits to Chicago-area schools. MacRae 
holds a B.S. in biological science from 
Southern Illinois University. He succeeds 
, Ray Bernard, who resigned the post. 



Research Grants 

Ongoing research projects in the depart- 
ments of Botany, Geology, and An- 
thropology have recently been given con- 
tinued support through grants awarded 
bv the National Science Foundation (NSF) 
and the Federick Henry Prince Testamen- 
tary Trust. 

"Flora of Costa Rica," a continuing 
project under the direction of William C. 
Burger, chairman of the Department of 
Botany, has received an NSF grant of 
$28,074. "Phylogenetic Relationships of 
the Marsupialia," a project directed by 
Larry G. Marshall, assistant curator of fos- 
sil mammals, has been awarded an NSF 
grant of $27,300. The continuing project 
on prehistoric and contemporary irriga- 
tion systems in Peru's Moche River Valley, 
directed by Michael E. Moseley, associate 
curator of Middle and South American ar- 
cheology and ethnology, has been granted 
support by the Prince Trust for the fourth 
consecutive year; this year's award is for 
$15,000. 



Public Relations Counsel Honored 

Mary Cassai, Field Museum public rela- 
tions counsel, was recently honored by 
the Publicity Club of Chicago at its annual 
awards luncheon. Cassai was presented 
the "Golden Trumpet Award" for her out- 
standing publicity achievement bv an in- 
dividual in promotion of "The Great 
Bronze Age of China," the special exhibit 
on view at Field Museum August 20 
through October 29, 1980. This was the 
first time in the history of the award, 
which is open to public relations and ad- 
vertising professionals in the Midwest, 
that a Museum staff person has been 
selected. 



Visiting Scientist Program 

Since the inception of Field Museum's 
Visiting Scientist Program in 1979, sixteen 
geologists and paleontologists from other 
institutions have utilized the Museum's 
collections and research facilities in pur- 



Hopi kachina doll on I'ietc in Hall 26. The Hopn exhibits are open through September 8. 




suit of their particular research interests. 
Their periods of tenure have varied from 
two weeks to about six months, depend- 
ing on individual research requirements. 
Under provisions of the Museum's Carl G . 
Kropff Fund, a stipend goes to each 
of those accepted under this continuing 
program. 

The sixteen ha\'e come from colleges, 
universities, and museums in the United 
States, Canada, Australia, England (2), 
Scotland, France, and West Germany, 
where each holds a regular staff position. 

Currently, three scientists are in resi- 
dence under the program: W.D. Ian Rolfe, 
deputy director of the Hunterian Mu- 
seum, University of Glasgow; K.S.VV. 
Campbell, reader in geology (and former 
head of the Department of Geologv and 
dean of the Science Facultv)-at the Austra- 
lian National University (Canberra); and 
Glen K. Merrill, associate professor of 
geology, the College of Charleston, Char- 
leston, S.C. 

Rolfe is investigating pod-shrimps of 
Mazon Creek, Illinois, and of Mecca shale, 
Indiana; he is also initiating work on De- 
vonian microarthropods of New York 
state. Campbell is studying the evolution 
of early lungfishes (see pp. 3-5), and Mer- 
rill is investigating black shales. 



The Energy Crisis and Field Museum: 
A New Five- Acre Roof 

The energy crisis that has come to the 
forefront in recent years has also been of 
particular concern to those of us at Field 
Museum. We now know that nonrenew- 
able energy sources can, when in short 
supply, greatlv affect energy costs, as was 
amply demonstrated during the 1973-74 
oil embargo. 

Museum operating expenditures 
have increased drastically as the direct 
consequence of the varied and extremely 
close tolerances in heating/cooling/hu- 
midity requirements of our collection stor- 
age. Energy management and utilization, 
then, is of critical importance to us, and we 
are now in the process of implementing, 
or have already implemented, some ex- 
tremely cost-effective energy savings 
projects. 

One of these current projects is the 
installation of an insulated roof, replacing 
the badly deteriorated built-up roof 
(layers of asphalt-impregnated roofing 
felt) installed in the 1940s. The new roof 
consists of a one-inch-thick layer of 
polyurethane foam covered by a 30 mil 
(3/100" thick) silicone membrane. The 
foam is an excellent insulator and the 
seamless silicone surface filters out ul- 
traviolet, thus protecting the foam. The 
roof covers more than five acres (220,000 
sq. ft., or 20,439 sq. m.). The project is 
being completed by means of Museum 
modernization funds. — Norman P. Radtke, 
manager, Pliysical Plant 




Display in the Hopi Shop. HaU17. adiciccitt to the current exhibit, "TheYearof the Hopi." This 
special exhibit, together with "Hopi Kachina: Spirit of Life," in Hall 16 will he on viciv until 
September 8 . The Hopi Shop, open for the duration of the two exhibits, features arts and crafts of the 
Hopi: silver jeu'eln/, ceramics, wicker and yucca basketrxj, textiles, and kachina dolls. (The life-size 
Alva reproduction shown in this display is of the Indian Ben Black Elk, sculpted by Joanna Kendall.) 
An excellent selection of books on Hopi life and culture, as well as on Southwest Indian culture in 
general, is also available. The main Museum shop, on the first floor carries additional Southwest 
Indian items. 




Dale Vermillion, equipment manager of Field Museum's Security and Visitor Seri'ices 
members of the Clarendon Hills, II, Exp'lorer Post #357, of the Boy Scouts of America. The- 
Vermillion's recent talk, given at the Clarendon Hills Village Hall, was security measi^n- 
Museum. The post is sponsored by the Clarendon Hills Police Department. 



Planned Giving 

A New Program to Augment 
Field Museum's Endowment Fund 



by Clifford Buzani, Associate Development Officer 



Anew <)pportunit\' for Members to help ensure 
the tiiiancial future of'Fieki Museum has been 
initiated by the Museum's Board of Trustees. It is 
a long-range program called "Planned Gi\'ing," 
designed to strengthen the inflation-weakened 
Kndou-ment Fund, tiirough a series of special giffs 
and bccjuesls. 

An increased Endowincnt Fund, according 
to Board Chairman William G. Swartchild.Jn, is 
among Field Museum's greatest financial needs. 

"Up to 19,^()^ Swartchild explains, "the 
Museums F^ndowment income sujjported as 
much as 80 percent of an annual budget; today? the 
EndouTncnt income sustains only 20 percent or less 
of annual budget. Thisis the result of the decreasing 
jiurchasing jiower of the dollar brought about bv 
continued inflation since the 1960s.'" 

The new program has been designed to appeal 
to indiviihuils and families who would like to make 
substantial coiUributions to the Museum, but prefer 
to defer their gilt to a future date. The\' ma\' decide 
to su[iport tlie Mu.seum through their lifetime with 
annual donations, then {)erpetuate their gi\ing 



through bequests. Or the\' mav permanently sup- 
port a special interest, such as a collection or area of 
research, bv restricting their bequest accordingly. In 
recent months, Field Museum has received bequests 
of $25,000 and $30,000 from two Members who had 
contributed a stead\' stream of small donations each 
YCiiT during their lifetime of acti\'e membership. 

In addition to seeking bequests, the Museum's 
"Planned Giving" program will offer to Members 
various forms of life income instruments such as 
"life income trusts" and a "Pooled Income Fund." 

Life income gifts are immediate transfers of 
property (usually cash or securities) to the Museum 
through a trust agreement whereby the donor or 
named beneficiar\' receives a lifetime income from 
the trust. The Museum recei\'es the remaining 
amount of the gift upon the donor's death. 

Field Museum has been the beneficiary of such 
income trusts since the 1920s, although such a vehi- 
cle for planned giNing did not come into \'ogue until 
established as a "Unitrust," or "Charitable Annuity 
Trust," in the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1969. In 1923, 
Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, an attorney and Trustee of 




Marsliall FieUi I 
6 <( 



Edward E. Aver 



Martin A. Rwrsoii 



tlie Museum, established sucli a trust wiili life in- 
comes L^oiiiu; to three j)ersons. I'pon tiie lieaih ol'ihe 
last benelician' in 1970, the Museum receiwd the 
remaining j)rincipal. Mr. Rverson also set up a simi- 
lar "Testamentary' Trust" gi\ing life income to his 
wile and a niece; upon their deaths, the remainder 
came to the Museum. These trusts demonstrated 
not only his concern for his tamilv, but also his 
public-spirited imagination and foresight. 

Life income trusts toda\' benefit the donor in 
several ways in addition to pro\iding lifi' income: 
n If'low-yielding growth stocks are used to make 
the gifl, the donor can usually obtain a highcr-vield 
income through the trust. 
D If'these are appreciated stocks, the donor is 
exempted from an\- ca|)ital gains tax. 
□ Such a gilt in trust giws the donor an immediate 
income tiLX deduction lor a portion nf'the total 
amount of the gift. 

n The trust is deducted fiom \aluation of Ihe 
donor's estiite for estate tax purposes. 

One of the more popular forms of life income 
gi^ig is the Pooled Income Fuud: an "unibrella" 
trust agreement covering a number of donors. A 
person ma\' })articij)ate in such a fund at anv time; 
his gift credits him with a certain number of ""unit,';" 
in the fund, which, in turn, proportionally return to 
him a life income. 

The Pooled Income Fund at Field Museum has 
been aiipnn-ed b\' both the iRS and the sec. Like 
various other forms of trusts, it is a\ailable tlirougli 
the Museum for life incomes covering one or more 
li\'es. 

Gifts received b\- the Mu.seum from a will or an 
income trust instrument customarily go into the 
Museum's General Endowment Fund, unless the 



donor has restricted the gill, in writing, to .some 
special interest within the institution. 

Gifts and betjuests tan be either restncted or 
uniTstricted. Unrestricted gifls enable the Miuseum 
otlicers to apply the monies wherever (he neetl is 
greatest. .Some donors ])ietc'r, ho\\ever, to sup|H)rl 
an area of special interest bv means of their gills. 

The original benefactor, Marshall Field I, 
made the founding of Field Museum jx)ssible. In 
1893 he made his first gifi of one million >lollars to 
establish the Mu.seum at the |)ersuasion of Edward 
Ayer. Mr. Ayi'r showed Mr. Field how he wcjuld 
•iia\f tiie ])ri\ilege of being the education host of 
imiiilil millions of people." His vision materialized 
with the opening of the Mu.seum during the Worltfs 
Columbian Exposition. Marshall Field acce|)ted the 
challenge of this x'ision: he beiiuealhed liinds to 
begin an Endowment Fund and to construct the 
present building. Since its opening in 1921, the 
present Mu.seum building has .served more than 80 
million \'isitors. 

Main' major benefactors over the \ears ha\'e 
followed the lead ofMarshall Field; they ha\'e |X'r- 
petuated their annual giwng to the Museum through 
generous bequests to the Mu.seum's Endowment. 
Among them were Marshall Field III, a Mu.seum 
Trustee from 1914 until his death in 195(;and f()un- 
dcr of Field Enterprises, Inc., which includes owner- 
ship of the Chicago Sun-Times; and Chester Dudley 
Tripp, a longtime friend of and generous contri- 
butor to the Mu.seum, who at his death in 1974 left 
.$1 million to establish an Endownieiil Fund in 
his name. 

Some of the most important and popular pro- 
grams at Field Mu.seum function today because an 
interested Member \'ears ago decided to fulfill a 




Marsliall Iwld 111 



Clicstcr Uiutlcy iripj 



personal desire to sen'C education and science. 
Man\' programs and exhibits were so established, 
and the list of such donors is long. 

The "Edward E. Aver Film Lecture" series, en- 
dowed b\- one of the Museum's major founders, is 
an example of such "special interest gi\ing." Estab- 
lished in 1921, these free spring and fall programs 
remain among the most popular of the Museum's 
offerings, attracting up to 1,000 persons for each 
Saturday afternoon performance. 

Norman Waite Harris, thunder of the Harris 
Trust and Savings Bank, saw an opportunit\' for the 
Museum to "extend" itself into the public schools: 
his idea was to provide portable exhibits of animal 
habitats and environments to Chicago schools on a 
circulating basis, exposing students to wonders 
the\- might otherwise never see. He endowed the N. 
W. Harris Public School Extension of Field Museum 
in 1911, and todav these mini-exhibits continue to 
circulate cveiT twenr\' davs among 350 Chicago 
schools during the vear. The exhibits are also avail- 
able as special loans to Chicago and suburban 
schools. 

Because of the inspiration of Anna Louise 
RavTnond, hundreds of thousands of school chil- 
dren who visit the Museum each vear receive sup- 
plementary instruction, guided tours, lectures, and 
workshops. In 1925, Mrs. RavTTiond established this 
program in memon' of her husband, James Nelson 
RiUTiiond. Since then, the James Nelson and Anna 
Loui.>;e Rivmond Foundation has served more than 
6 million children. 

In recent years, major gifts from Mr. Rav 
A. Kroc, founder of McDonald's restaurants, and 
Mrs. Kroc, and from the late Mrs. John L. Kellogg, 
have made possible the "Man in his Environment" 



(Hall 18) and the John L. and Helen Kellogg Hall of 
Chinese Jades (Hall 30) exhibits, respectively. Addi- 
tional gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Kroc initiated the 
environmental education program conducted by 
the Museum's Department of Education; this pro- 
gram includes ecologv- field trips for adults as well 
as a variety of in-house learning activities. 

The John Searle Herbarium, in the Department 
of Botany, memorializes the former chairman of G. 
D. Searle &= Co., pharmaceuticals manufacturer, 
who for many years was a Field Museum Trustee. 
Throughout his association with Field Museum, 
Mr. Searle, grandson of the company's founder, 
made generous major gifts to the Museum. He per- 
petuated his charitable giving by establishing three 
trusts with the Chicago Communitv Trust during 
his lifetime and through his will. Field Museum, 
among others, is a beneficiary of those funds. 

The "Planned Giving Program" itself is the 
third of a three-pronged plan begun in 1976 to meet 
long-term financial needs of the Museum. The total 
plan, known to Members as "Commitment to Dis- 
tinction," was activated in 1976 first through an 
ongoing program that seeks gifts and multivear 
pledges to the annual Operating Fund from indi- 
viduals, corporations, and foundations. Part two 
of the plan has been to obtain increased funding 
from all levels of government, as well as sources 
of earned income. Part three. Planned Giving, is 
designed to augment the Museum's Endowment 
Fund. The three parallel programs are continuous. 

Members who wish to learn more about the 
program are invited to write Planned Giving Pro- 
gram, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt 
Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, 
or telephone (312) 922-9410, ext^858. D 




Anna L. Raitm 
10 



Rav A. Kroc 



John G. Searle 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Habitat Management Key to 
Kirtland's Warbler Recovery 

It has been sixteen months since the Mack 
Lake Fire in the Huron Xational Forest in 
Michigan. As the 13th Kirtland's warbler 
census approaches, let us look at the et- 
fects of that fire on last \ear's census and 
the factors responsible for the current 
status of the species. 

On May 3, 1980, a prescribed burn 
planned for 200 acres of Kirtland's \\ arbler 
(Dciuiroica kirtliiiuiii) habitat \sont out of 
control because of gusting- winds, and 
burned approximately 25,000 acres. One 
firefighter was killed, and 41 homes were 
destroyed or damaged. Some 280 acres 
which had been occupied by about 14 pairs 
of warblers in 1979 were burned. The fire 
was contained the next day. 

Although this fire received a great 
deal of notoriety, prescribed burning is a 
routine habitat management practice. In- 
deed, prescribed burns have been con- 
ducted successfully by the U.S. Forest 
Service in thousands of cases nationwide. 
Developed in the 1930s, the forest man- 
agement technique of prescribed burning 
is essential to the survival of the Kirtland's 
warbler. 

Specialized Habitat 

The Kirtland's warbler does not adapt to a 
variety of environmental conditions. This 
bird has never been found nesting any- 
where except in northern Lower Michi- 
gan. Since the nesting grounds were dis- 
covered in 1903, 90 percent of all nests 
found have been in the drainage of the Au 
Sable River. Typically, the warbler is found 
only among young jack pines occurring in 
dense stands of 80 acres or more, growing 
on Grayling sand. For thousands of years, 
this type of habitat was created only 
through wildfires. Fire serves to clear the 
land for new growth and also pops open 
the cones of the jack pine, scattering seeds 
to renew the habitat. 

Now, modern management practices 
such as prescribed burns and plantings 
are used to create suitable warbler habitat. 
(It is not known whether the warblers will 
continue to use land that is burned once 
and repeatedly clear-cut and replanted 
without the continued use of fire.) 

The Kirtland's warbler occupies only 
areas where the jack pines are about 8-20 
years old. They set their nests in the Gray- 
ling sand which is extremely pervious to 
water. This prevents flooding during 
summer showers. 

The specialized habitat of the Kirt- 
land's warbler has been reduced by forest 
fire control and by forest management 




Kirtland's warbler perched in jack pine 



practices that encourage the conversion of 
jack pine to red pine or hardwoods. 

Cowbird Parasitism 

Another threat to the warbler has been 
parasitism of nests by the brown-headed 
cowbird (Molothrus atcr). Cowbirds have 
been in the warbler's breeding range since 
the late 1800s but have only posed a seri- 
ous threat to its reproductive efforts in the 
past 70 years. According to an examina- 
tion of warbler nests from 1966-71, 69 per- 
cent had been parasitized. 

Beginning in the spring of 1972, a 
ct)wbird removal program was initiated 
with the cooperation oi the Fish and 
Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of 
Natural Resources (DNR), Michigan Audu- 
bon Society, and the U.S. Forest Service. 
In 1980, a total of 2,961 cowbirds were 
trapped. This program of systematic con- 
trol trapping has been an unqualified suc- 
cess in reducing parasitism and increasing 
the yield oi young warblers, according to 
the Fish and Wildlife Service-appointed 
Kirtland's Warbler Recovery Team. 



1980 Census 

According to the results of the 1980 census 
of the Kirtland's warbler, this fragile spe- 



cies has shown a 15 percent increase over 
1979. (The census is the responsibility of 
the Kirtland's Warbler Recovery Team, 
which has delegated coordination to the 
Wildlife Division, DNR.) The census tallied 
243 singing males in 1980, (including one 
male found in Wisconsin and not accom- 
panied by a female), compared to 211 in 
1979. Assuming one female is present for 
the remaining males, the total breeding 
population would be 242 pairs, or 484 
birds. If all of these Kirtland's warblers 
could be gathered up and placed on a 
scale, their combined weights wciuld come 
to only about l.S pounds. 

In 1980, the Kirtland's warbler was 
found in six .Michigan counties; Crawford 
(93), Oscoda (58), Ogemaw (46), Kalkaska 
(38), Roscommon (4), and Iosco (3) Num- 
bers increased in all counties except Os- 
coda, the site of the Mack Lake fire. 

Previously, one warbler was found in 
Ontario and Quebec in both 1977 and 1978. 
In Wisconsin, prior to 1980, two males 
were found in 1978 and one in 1979. None 
apparently were accompanied by a fe- 
male. Although the increased popul.il!  
is welcome news, the numbers ari' --l i 
below those from 1951 (432) and 1'" 
the first two years of a decennial 

The Kirtland's warbler i*- 



Com' 



11 



J 



Hummingbirds 

The feediniJ habits of these delightful creatures and their 
sMiibiotic relationship with nectar-producing flowers are 

as remarkable as their flight 



b;' AlexHiam 



A lovely little creature moving on humming winglets through the air, suspended as if by magic in it, flitting from 
one flower to another. — John James Audubon 



12 



Hummingbirds, which more than deserve 
Audubon's flattering description, constitute the 
New World family Trocliilidac. This family is a 
showcase of color, from iridescent greens and 
blues to brilliant patches of ruby, \aolet and 
emerald. 

The ruby-throated hummingbird {Archilo- 
chus colubris) is the only member of the family 
which breeds in North America east of the Mis- 
sissippi, but in the west twelve additional species 
mav be found, including the widespread rufous 
hummingbird (Sclasphorus rufus) and the calliope 
hummingbird (Stellula calliope), which is the 
smallest bird to breed in this country. Less than 
three inches long, the calliope is metallic green 
above, white below; the male has a striped bib of 
white and iridescent purple feathers. In many 
hummingbirds, including the ruby-throat, it is 
the male which has the most brilliant plumage, 
while females are of more subtle greens and 
whites. 

Hummingbirds are a predominantlv tropical 
family, and their numbers increase dramatically 
to the south. In Central America are found about 
60 species; in South America there is a dazzling 
menagerie of over 250 species, which includes 
birds with such evocative names as the ruby- 
topaz hummingbird, the tufted coquette, the 
veivet-browed brilliant, the green-tailed golden- 
throat, as well as the odd sickle-billed humming- 
bird. This rare species from montane forests has 
a bill which is almost as long as its four-inch body 
md curves downward in a semicircle. The bill is 
used to probe curving, tubular orchids whose 
nectar is inaccessible to most birds and insects. 
Flower nectar is a main source of food for all 



hummingbirds. However, few people realize 
that hummingbirds also feed on small insects 
and spiders, from which they derive much of 
their protein. 

While insects are an important secondary 
food, it is nectar feeding which has been of pri- 
mary importance in shaping the forms and habits 
of hummingbirds through natural selection. 
Many of the attributes which make hum- 
mingbirds unique, including their long bills, 
high metabolism, and ability to hover motionless 
or even fly backward, are specializations for nec- 
tar feeding. When a hummingbird feeds on the 
nectar of a flower, it inadvertenfly picks up pol- 
len in the feathers of its forehead or throat and 
carries it to other flowers, cross-pollinating them 
in the process. By mixing the parents' genes, 
cross-pollination increases the genetic variability 
of the offspring. Therefore, the plants, as well as 
the hummingbirds, benefit when hummingbirds 
feed on nectar. This symbiotic relationship has 
also influenced the flowers which are pollinated 
primarily by hummingbirds to develop certain 
distinctive specializations, such as red colora- 
tion, long floral tubes, and copious supplies of 
nectar. Neither the hummingbirds nor the bird- 
pollinated flowers could have evolved without 
the other, and to understand the evolution of 
either group, both must be studied. 

A wide variety of birds will occasionally visit 
flowers for their nectar, although most do not 
polhnate them. It is thought that an ancestor of 
the hummingbirds, probably an insectivorous 
bird resembling the modern day swifts and with 
the same abihty to catch insects while flying, 
began to visit flowers on a casual basis. This may 



VTli 



'''•""■ '•'■'•I..V.X1J 




'// "1'^'"' ' y' /I HI HI/ lit/ /i/ 

' "■ \\'..Vl* III IfVK L.llU^ 



Rufous liumiiiiiigbird 
(Sol.isphiirus rufus), 

I'lllillfil hv johil lil>nr< 
Auitulkm. (Cu- 

usfdl'f^Aiti! 
lav to ;/■( 
Aiiirr, 



Ruby- throated lull': 
mingbird (female) . 
petuin.i 




14 



have been to catch insects within the tlowers as 
well as to feed on nectar. Or it could have been to 
drink the drops of water that accumulate in flow- 
ers. Many tropical and desert birds are known to 
find water in this way. In any event, the ances- 
tors of hummingbirds presumably came to cer- 
tain flowers with enough regularity that they 
began to cross-pollinate them. 

There existed at the time a system of highly 
evolved insect pollination, indicating that there 
was strong competition among plants for pol- 
linators. If competition for the attention of insect 
pollinators was strong, casual pollination by 
birds would have led to selection favoring 
further development of characters that made 
flowers attractive to birds, and of characters 
which brought cross-pollination by birds. As a 
result of such selection, certain flowers, which 
had at first been pollinated by birds infrequently, 
soon developed specializations which made 
them dependent on birds. These specializations 
are unique to flowers which are pollinated by 
birds, a combination known as the ornithophil- 
ous syndrome. This syndrome is especially easy 
to describe in North America, because here 
bird-pollinated flowers are more similar to one 
another than in the tropics. But while there is 
more variety in the length of the floral tube and 
the color of the flowers in the tropics, these flow- 
ers also share many of the basic traits of bird- 
pollinated flowers. 

Examples of hummingbird-pollinated flow- 
ers from our region include the bee-balms of the 
i,-en'.!s Monsrda, 3 number of sages in the genus 
S  -aerous Indian paint brushes in west- 

t America (genus Castilleja), also many 

beard-tongues of the genus Penstemon, two 
lobelias, and the trumpet-creeper (Campsi's radi- 
cans). The latter species, with its large, orange 
and scarlet, funnel-shaped flowers, is one of the 



most beautiful of our cultivated plants and is 
native to eastern North America. Through culti- 
vation its range has been extended from the 
southeastern states northward into northern 
New England, and it is a common source of nec- 
tar for the rubv-throated hummingbird in these 
areas. 

Like most flowers which are pollinated 
primarily by hummingbirds, the trumpet- 
creeper is red, funnel-shaped, and has thick 
petals. It also produces a large quantity of watery 
nectar. These characters and a number of less 
obvious ones evolved in response to pollination 
by birds, and serve various functions which in- 
clude attraction of hummingbirds, exclusion of 
other nectar feeders, and protection of the re- 
productive organs from the sharp bills of the 
hummingbirds. Bird-pollinated flowers have 
also developed mechanisms which function to 
make transportation of pollen and fertilization of 
the flowers more efficient. 

Attractive mechanisms reflect the fact that 
although hummingbirds have a poor sense of 
smell, they are able to perceive colors in roughly 
the same spectrum as humans. Hummingbird 
flowers seldom have strong scents, but are usu- 
ally colored bright red or scarlet, so that they 
stand out clearly against a background of green- 
ery. Bees do not perceive light in the red end of 
the spectrum, so the color red has the double 
advantage of being conspicuous to humming- 
birds and inconspicuous to bees. Bee-pollinated 
flowers are not red, are scented, and many have 
ultraviolet markings which are visible to bees but 
invisible to birds. 

Selection favors characteristics of a flower 
which limit access to nectar only to those animals 
which are most likely to pick up pollen while 
feeding and carry it to another flower of the same 
species. For this reason the red coloration of bird 
flowers, making them inconspicuous to insects, 
has been favored through selection as an exclu- 
sive, as well as an attractive, mechanism. There 
is one further selective advantage for those flow- 
ers which have converged on red as their adver- 
tising color. If most flowers use the same signal to 
attract hummingbirds, then it is easier for the 
hummingbirds to recognize them. 

Some of the most interesting examples of 
the advantages of red coloration are found in 
groups where a bird-pollinated species can be 
compared with closely related species that are 
pollinated by insects. The buckeye trees of the 
genus Aesculus include the imported horse- 
chestnut and the native Ohio and sweet buck- 
eyes. They typically have white or yellow, cup- 
shaped flowers which are bee-pollinated. How- 
ever, the red buckeye (A. pavia) has bright red, 
tubular flowers which are pollinated by the 



ruby-throated hummingbird. Thi' iMrdinal 
flower (Lobelia o!n/»w//s) is also unique in its 
genus because it is bird pollinated. Other lobelias 
are bee pollinated and their flowers are blue, but 
the cardinal flower's longer, tubular flower is a 
striking red. 

It is easier to explain the present functions ot 
red color in these two flowers than to imagine 
how this trait could ha\e first e\ol\ed. Howe\er 
owing to the nature of the pigmentation m the 
flowers of these two genera, a small, accidental 
mutation could easily have produced the first red 
flower, which if it had been pollinated bv hum- 
mingbirds could have passed its color on to its 
offspring. Further changes in response to bird 
pollination could then have developed. 

Most yellow flowers, including those of the 
buckeyes, have structures called chromoplasts, 
which contain carotenoid pigments; it is these 
pigments which are responsible for the yellow 
color. Chromoplasts with a similar carotenoid 
pigment, are also found in some red flowers, so 
the actual differences between a red and a yellow 
flower may be fewer than their appearances 
would suggest. 

Most blue flowers, including the lobelias, 
are colored by anthocyanin pigments which are 
dissolved in the cell sap. These pigments owe 
their color to the acidity of the cell sap, being blue 
or violet when alkaline, and red when acid. In 
this case also a subtle chemical change could 
have produced a dramatic change in color. Be- 
cause many blue- and yellow-flowered species 
happen to have a capacity for evolving into red- 
flowered forms, thev ha\e what is termed a 





Indian paint brush 



preadaptation for hummingbird pollination. 
Therefore it is not surprising that many hum- 
mingbird flowers belong to groups whose pre- 
dominant color is blue or vellow. 

Nectar is the reward a hummingbird re- 
ceives once it has been attracted to a flower, and 
flowers must have plenty of nectar to be attrac- 
tive to hummingbirds. The sensiti\it\' of hum- 
mingbirds to the amount of nectar in a flower 
was demonstrated in a recent study. Ruby- 
throated and black-chinned hummingbirds (Ar- 
chilochus alexamin), feeding on the flowers of 
Malvaviscus arboreus in Texas, were found to pre- 
fer new flowers to the two-day-old flowers, 
which had slightly less nectar. 

The nectar of bird flowers differs from that 
of other flowers in sexeral ways. Most ob\ious, 
there is more of it. This reflects the fact that 
hummingbirds are much larger than most in- 
sects, and need more food. The energy cost to 
a hummingbird of \isiting many flowers with 
small amounts of nectar in them could be pro- 
hibitive. For the hummingbird, a single flower 
with gallons of nectar would be ideal, but such an 
arrangement would not be to the advantage of 
the flower, because the hummingbird would not 
spread its pollen. 

Selection has favored a balance between the 
reproductive advantages for the plant which 
arise if the pollinator visits more plants, and the 
energetic costs to the pollinator of having to visit 
more plants, and this balance is different for dif- 
ferent pollinators. Insect-pollinated flowers 



15 



Salvia 



Cardinal lobelui 




rarely have more than 5 milliliters of nectar, but 
bird-pollinated flowers usually have more than 
10 milliliters. Some have considerably more than 
this. For example the coral tree's flowers contain 
about 15 milliliters, or Vz ounce, of nectar, and the 
spear lily {Doiyanthus) produces 30 or more mil- 
liliters of nectar a day. The nectar of bird flowers 
contains less sugar and more water than the nec- 
tar of other flowers. Bird flower nectar averages 
about 30 percent sugar by weight, while insect 
flower nectar may be twice this concentration. 
This may be related to the high metabolism of 
hummingbirds, which is among the highest of 
any warm-blooded vertebrates, requiring a large 
amount of water for thermoregulation. The 
lower sugar content of bird flowers also acts as an 
exclusive mechanism, making them less attrac- 
tive to insects. 

In hummingbird flowers, nectar is located at 
the base of a long, narrow floral tube, which is 
out of reach to most insects but easily reached by 
hummingbirds with their long tongues and bills. 
The only insects able to reach this nectar are the 
occasional bees which chew through the corolla 
to steal nectar, and some of the longer tongued 
butterflies and diurnal moths. It is the exclusive 
function of these long floral tubes which has 
mads them a common feature of all humming- 
bird-rollinated flowers. 
Opposite: Ocreatus "^''^ importance of a long floral tube may 

underwoodii./ciHnrf explain why a disproportionate number of 
ill South America. hummingbird llowers in North America are 
Photo by David synipetalous dicotyledons. The flowers of this 

Willard. group, which have a basic tubular structure, re- 

16 quired little modification to become bird flowers. 



Flowers which do not have a sympetalous corolla 
required greater modification to reach the typical 
structure of a bird flower. In the fire pink (Silene 
virginica), for example, there is a long, tubular 
calyx which holds the petals together to form a 
tube. In the columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) the 
petals have developed long spurs pointing up- 
ward, each containing nectar at the top, so in 
effect this flower has five floral tubes in which 
hummingbirds can probe for nectar. 

The bill of a bird is capable of doing serious 
damage to a flower, and hummingbird flowers 
have had to evolve ways of protecting them- 
selves from damage by feeding birds. For this 
purpose the ovary is usually separated from the 
nectary, and is beneath the floral chamber, or 
placed on a stalk separating it from the nectaries, 
or protected by a wall made from the bases of the 
stamens. In hummingbird flowers of the genus 
Pcnstemon (the beard-tongues) the nectaries are 
located at the bases of the two upper stamens, 
and the thickened stamen bases are between the 
ovary and the nectaries, protecting the ovary 
from damage by feeding birds. Fifteen species of 
beard-tongues are pollinated by hummingbirds 
in western North America. The eastern species of 
the genus are bee pollinated, and have the nec- 
taries located in the more usual position, at the 
base of the ovary. In contrast to the red coloration 
of bird-pollinated species, the eastern species are 
blue and white. 

Another general adaptation to bird pollina- 
tion is the development of thicker, stronger flow- 
ers. The petals of bird flowers are thick, and the 
pistil and stamens are usually very strong. A 
fascinating adaptation to bird pollination is 
found in many orchids of the American tropics. 
Species which evolved from bee-pollinated an- 

Continued on p. 21 




Fourth Annual 



Festival of 
Anthropology 
On Film ^ 




Field Museum of Natural History 

West Lntrance 

Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27, 1981 
10:30 a.m. -5:00 p.m. 



V 




6 

r'**^ 



A special mvitation to explore the rich 
diversity^ of world culture on film 







Over^rvnted pmuj i^ W-'4puhlicily still for film Moana. Pixitu courtes) the Koben & Frances Flah, rty Study r, nu-r 



Ki V, ill siEAKhK for tliis year's Film Festival i.s Muuica 
Flaherty Frassetto, who will appear in .simp^c m Theatre on 
Saturday, Sept. 26, at 1:00 pm. Daughter of Rt)bt.-ri flaherty. 
the brilliant documentary' filmmaker (Nanook of the 
North, Mncvia, Man of ArcinJ.*\\s Flaherty Fra.ssetto has 
been involved since iy"> in tlevcloping an authentic 
soundtrack for her fathe r s 1926 siler\t ma-sterptece-Uoa/M 
nfthc South Seas. With the assistance of some of the film s 
original Samoan participants, she has recorded and >\n- 
chronized the natural sounds, chants, and dance music i( > 
match .l/o««rtX' sparkling visuals. 

There is a special screening on Saturd;iy ot the ^^e\\ 
.sound version ui Moana at I oo p.m. in James Simpson 
Theatre. Special scrceiiing.s ol Xatiook of the North ;uhI 
Man of Aran are :ilso featured on Saturda\-. 

In addition, the Festival includes film.s groupeii into 
eight subject areas: Religitjus Phenomena and Ritual. 



Performing /^fts,A^tllropologicalMethod^ 1 leidwork \u 
stralia: Tiu- Outback and Down I'luli r, The First A:; . ri 
cans, anil Huni.ir, Irony and Parodv Iht-re i^ ,i pcual 
daylong program Sunday in James Simpsi i h iirc cnt 
tieti The llorderlands of Science" whuh cj(*niine 
pseudosneniific topics — the Iringes of nnihr. ip, )|rig\ 
\\ ilh such films as The StinniiiofTltrin Ks.'j' u>i. / uu> and 
Caheni^oTheJoloScrfhiiiHancilL'rs e. — ' ^ 

films are scn-eiied in lames - rhe;itri-. ui " "* 

lecture Hall I (A MuntgomePi' Ward H;iJI) ukI m I. ^luiv 
Hall 2, all at the West Fntraiue of the Museum Hk Ke.siival 
schedule is subject to change Consult linni cb-e ! ' )r 
exact lime a^ location Please usi 
fourth page of this program annouii  i,: i , 
kets. A final Him .schedule will :(i nm.iri' ;! 
maik-d to you. Complete "l-'ilm ~ ul.iiili- .■■ 

l-esiivai. Call (31- i -122-88^ . i. .r K- 



17 



^ < 



Saturday. September 26, 1981 

10:3U am - 5:0Opr)i Simpson Theatre 

I The Flaherty Genius 

Sanook of the Sorlh ( 1922 ) 6-i min. 

Robcn Flahern- 

(.inc i)f the greniesi dotumcniarics ever made, this rcstDrcd version i>f 

Sauodk is a timeless, heauiiful saga of an Eskimo family pitting their 

>irength against the mhospitable arctic 

Moana of the South Seas (special 1:00 p.m. screening) 85 min. 
Ri>lx'n I'laherty 

.\ new sound version of the classic by Monica Flahern- Frassetto. A/oamj 
is afxjut Samoan culture xs it was in 1923 on the island of .Savai'i The 
ircatmeni of village life is authentic, with fixnage on tunle fishing, boar 
hunting, canoe handling, fire making, tattooing and tapa cloth making. 
Monica Flahert\' Kras,setto (daughter of Robert Flaherr. ) has created a 
new soundtrack and di.scu,s.ses how the project evolved, the challenges 
she faced, and the reaction of the original film ca.st to the new version. 

Man of Aran (1934) 77 min. 

Robert Flahern- 

The people of .van. a barren island off the coast of Ireland, engage in a 

daih battle to sur%ive — def\ing thunderous seas for fish, and raising 

potatoes in seaweed In the courage and siniplicit>' of their lives is an epic 

stor\ of human struggle 

10 W am Lecture Hall 1 (A. Montgomery Ward Hall) 

II Reugious Phenomena and Ritual 

The Eleten Powers (1978) 48 min. 

I.arr\' Gartenstein 

Bali was the scene of one of the most spectacular and sacred festivals to 

iKcur in this centun.-. Once everv 100 years the Festival of the Eleven 

Powers is held to restore the balance berween good and evil 

Spirit Possession of Alejandro Mamani (1976) 30 min. 

Hubert Smith 

This award-winning film ponrays an Aymara Indian of Bolivia as he faces 

old age and death. Blessed with w ealth but not happiness, he believes he 

is possessed by evil spirits. 

l.es Maitres Tons (The Mad Masters) ( 1955) 35 min. 

jean Rouch 

Rouch w as asked by the Hauka sect of Viest .\frica to film their annual 

religious ceremony in which they enter trance and are possessed by the 

spirits of Vtestern technology and colonial power A remarkable film. 

Via Dolorosa ( 19''8) 10 min. 

Georges Payrastre 

Each year in Guatemala, the passion of Christ is celebrated by decorating 

the streets with colored sawdust and flower carpets as the people take 

turns carrying the image of their faith along The Painful Way" 

Manifestations of Shiva 60 min. 

.Malcolm Leigh 

A beautiful film showing the worship of the Hindu god Shiva on a 

personal level through dance, an, music, and ritual. Without narration. 

Bronx Baptism (1980) 24 min. 

Dee Dee Hal leek 

A non-narrated film that records the dramatic emotional responses to 

baptismal rituals of Hispanic Catholics involved in New York City's largest 

Pentecostal church 

Kaiaragaina A God for All Seasons 00 min. 

A captivating film on ecstatic religion and burial preparations in Sri Lanka 

2:30pm Lecture Hall I (A. Montgomery Ward Hall) 

III Folklore and Mythology 

Arrow to the Sun 12 min. 

Gerald McOermott 

An animated legend from the Acoma Pueblo Indians. 



Black Pairn 20 min. 

A superbK animated Haitian folktale with emphasis on music, histor\', art, 

and folklore 

Tlx-Bird. The Fox. and the hull Moon 11 min. 

Etluardi) Darino 

A folk tale from Simth America 

I Ain't l.yinf>: l-'olktalesfroni Mississippi 22 min. 

The Center for Southern Folklore 

Tales of gravediggers and rich old ladies, preachers and alligators and 

brotherly meetings in hell 

The Golden Lizard: A Folktale from Mexico 19 min. 
An award-winning dramatization of a Mexican folktale. 

The Story of Good King Huemac (1979) 21 min. 

Richard Fichter 

Puppet animation of a Toltec legend. 

Koroclyan, the Little Bear 1 1 min. 

Elizabeth Graf 

AJapanese fain' tale for children. 

Native Ameiican Myths 24 min. 

.\lan P Sloan 

Five animated Native American legends. 

How Death Came to Earth (19^2) 14 min. 

Ba.sed on an E.isi Indian fable, this film combines a limited number of 
narrated pass.iges with shimmering animation to tell the ston- of how- 
death was brought to earth. 

10:30 am Lecture Hall 2 

IV Anthropological Methods: Fieldwork 

A Man Called "Bee:" Studying the Yanomamo (1974) 40 min. 
Tim()th\- Asch and Napoleon Chagnt)n 

Shows Chagnon engaged in fieldwork with the Yanomamo of Venezuela 
— collecting data, interacting with the people, filming their lives. 

Knud {\96&) b\ m\n. 

Brought up on the stories of the arctic. Knud Rasmussen fulfilled 
childhood dreams and became a femous arctic explorer He became 
fluent in Eskimo languages and discovered a fresh view of life in their ideas. 

Other People's Garbage (1980) 60 min. 

Ann Peck 

Historical archeologists use unique combinations of resources including 

oral history, public records, and excavations, to uncover Americas recent 

past. 

2:30pm Lecture Hall 2 

V artists AND Performers 

The Stilt Dancers of Long Bote Village ( 1981) 2^ min. 
Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon 

A remarkable film that diKuments the revival of stilt dancing in a rural 
Chinese village Banned for nearly ten years during the Cultural 
Revolution, the dancing is a traditional Chinese folk art that combines 
iTiuh. history, contemporarv- politics, and daily village life. 

Adama. The Fulani Magician 22 min 

Jim Rosellini 

.\n entrancing film ponrait of renowned deaf .African street performer 

and practitioner of the ancient Yantaori magic tradition. 

Tlie Royal Dancers and Musicians oftlje Kingdom of Bhutan 
30 min. The A.sia Societ\-, New York 

Dix-umenis the spectacular dance-dramas of Bhutan, a remote Himala>-an 
mountain kingdom Ornate costumes and masks are u.sed to enact stories 
from Bhuddist legend and Bhutanese folklore. 



18 



Maxwell Street Blues (1980) 56 min. 

>X'ilIiams and Zarit.sk>' 

Explore the traditkin of blues and gospel music as still played in 

Chicago's Maxwell Street open air market. 

Quilts in Women's Lires (1980) 28 min 

Pat Ferrero 

The lives and an of seven women who make quilts This award-winning 

film presents the w\)men's views on the inspirations of family, tradition, 

and the creative process that go into the an of quilt-making. 



The Silent Witness SS min 
David ^X'. Rolfe 

My.ster\ and speculation haM -uruamded the Shroud of TXirin since Its 
discoven in the 14th century Is it Christ's burial shroud or a masterful 
medieval forgen'? 

Thejolo Serpent Handlers. 40 mm. 

Karen Kramer 

A group of Fundamentalists in Appalachia handle poisonous snakes and 

drink sin chninc during religious services to demoastrate their belief in 

the proof of God. 



Simpson Theatre 



Sunday, September 27, 1981 

10:30 am -5:00 pm 

VI The Borderlands of Science 

Left Brain, Right Brain 56 min. 

This fascinating exploration discu.s.ses the geography of the brain, the 
asymmetrical evolution of the brain from primates to human beings and 
neurological phenomena. 

Potu and Cabetigo T"" min. 
Jean-Pierre Gorin 

Poto and Cabengo are two California sisters wht) speak in a private 
language understandable only to themselves. Scientists have been 
studying their speech patterns to try to determine how and why they 
communicate in this way. 

Koko, A Talking Gorilla 85 min. 

Barbet Schroeder 

Koko, a six-year-old gorilla, has been taught to express herself through 

sign language. A moving .speculation about the tenuousness of 

humanity's separation from the world it exploits. 

Bigfoot 60 min. 

Explore the arguments about manlike monsters as well as the 
psychological and muhcjiogical influences that affect our perceptions of 
them in this intriguing, sometimes far-fetched film. 



The Case of the Ancient Astronauts 57 min. 
Have ancient astronauts already visited us on earth? Did they erea the 
p\ raniids of Eg\pt and the monoliths on Easter Island? nova takes a hard 
look at the theories of Erich von Daniken, author of Chariots of iIm; Gods 



10:30 am Lecture Hall 1 (A. Montgomery Ward Hall) 

VII Scenes from Native American Life 

The Chaco Legacy ( 1980) 58 min. 

Graham Chedd 

The history and archeology of Chaco Canyon. New Mexico, where 

ancient architects undertook one of the most comprehensive building 

projects ever An extensive water control system, a road network 

connecting 70 pueblos, and the 800 room Pueblo Bonito were built 900 

years ago by the inhabitants of Chaco Can\on 

Neshnabek. The People (1979) 30 min. 

Documents [he daily life and ceremonial activities of the Neshnabek — 
the Prairie Band Potowatomi of Kansas — through footage taken in the 
1930s and the people's own stories and conversations 

Shinnecock: The Story of a People (1976) 20 min. 

Joseph E. Miller 

The Indians of the East Coast regions were the first to come in contact 

with the white settlers as they arrived from Europe. Consequently, they 

were the first to lose much of their own culture The film attempts to 

bring back some of that lost heritage. 



Monica Flaherty Frassetto (rt.) and two local chiefs in 1975 on Samoan island ofSaiai'i. Chief Taulealea Usumai (left) appeared in the film Moana 
Conrtes)' Sarali Hudson. 




19 




Monica Flahem- Frassetto (left) and older sister Barbara in Samoa in 
1924 Courtes}' the Robert & Frances Flaherty Study Center. 

Aufiuslu (\')18) V mm. 

Ann Whcclcr 

The siory- of Augusta Evans, daughter of a Shusw^p chief; she was 

kidnapped at age four and sent to a Catholic niLssion where only English 

was spoken She later married a white man, losing her Indian status. This 

film includes an interview with Augusta in her 80's. 

Crotv Dog's Paradise (1979) 

Two contemporan' expressions of Native American life: a traditional 
Dakota Sioux medicine man and his son. an active member of the 
American Indian Movement. 

Tlx Diiided Trail. A Native American Odyssey (1978) 33 min. 
Jerr\' Aronson 

1\vo Chippewas (brother and sister) and friend migrate from a Wisconsin 
reservation to the Chicago slums. 1979 Academy Award nominee. 



1:00pm Lecture Hall 1 (A. Montgomery Ward Hall) 

Vlll AUSTRALIA: THE OUTBACK AND DOWN UNDER 

Waiting for Harry (1980) 57 min. 

Kim MacKenzie 

In July, 1978, a group of Aborigines of northern Australia prepared an 

elaborate funeral ceremony for an esteemed tribe member. 

Narritjin at Dfarrakpi (1980) 50 min. 

Ian Dunlop 

Narritjin, chief of his aborigine clan, is a well known painter. 

My Sunnval as an Aboriginal 50 min. 

Es.sie Coffey 

Autobiographical film about an aboriginal woman struggling to preserve 

her peoples rights. 



10:30 am Lecture Hall 2 

IX Humor, Irony and Parody 

Banana I (1978) 4 min. 

Norman Magden 

An absurdist lecture, conjugating the nonexistent verb "banar" 

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980) 51 min. 

Le.s Blank 

"Fight Mouthwash ... Eat Garlic." A film on the history, consummation, 

culture, curative powers, and culinary an of eating garlic. Gastronomical 

anthropology at its best. 

Time 4 min. 

National Film Board of Canada 

Animated film about a man who has four minutes to live . and the five 

emotional stages through which he passes — denial, anger, depression, 

preparatory grief, and acceptance. 

Rich' and Rock)' (1973) 18 min. 
Jeff kreines and Tom Palazzolo 
A backyard "surprise" bridal shower filmed as cinema verite. 

Possum Living (1980) 29 min. 

Nancy Schreiber 

20-year-old Dolly Freed supports herself and her father in a Philadelphia 

suburb on less than $2,000 a year by practicing her own home-grown 

economic plan. And the last thing she thinks about is a nine-to-five job. 



Fourth Annual Festival of Anthropology on Film 

September 26 and 27, 1981 



Street 



Zip 



Phone: Daytime 



D Memb*:r 



Evening 



D Nonmeinber 



20 



Members: one day: $6.00; series: $10.00 

Nonmembers: one dav: $700; series: $12.00 

Students with current college I.D. are admined at Members' prices. 

Saturday only D Sunday only d Entire series □ 

Amount enclosed: $ (check payable to Field Museum) 

Please use west entrance for free admission to Museum. Confirmation will 
be mailed* upon receipt of check Please include self-addressed, stamped 
envelope. Mail to: 

Film Festival 

Field Museum of Natural History 
Roo.sevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Drive 
Chicago, U 60601 

•If coupon and check are received one week or less before the program, 
reservations will be held in your name at the west door. 



HUMMINGBIRDS 
Continued from p. 16 



cestors have a bump, or callus, on the inside ol 
the floral tube which forces the bird's bill against 
the column and into the nectarv, so that it cannot 
damage other parts of the tlou er in the process of 
feeding. Interestingly, this is not found in those 
orchids which developed into bird flowers from 
butterfly-pollinated ancestors. These species are 
often pollinated by both butterflies and hum- 
mingbirds, as is the case with Epidcudrinti fccuii- 
diini, and this ma\' be one reason whv they do not 
show the dramatic modifications of the orchids 
which de\'eloped from bee-pollinated ancestors. 

All plants which are pollinated bv animals, 
in contrast to wind-pollinated flowers, for exam- 
ple, have sticky pollen. In typical bee flowers this 
pollen is brushed onto the back of the visiting 
insect as it crawls into the flower to feed. But 
because pollen sticks better to feathers than to 
bills, the pistil and stamens of bird flowers must 
project beyond the flower to contact the head of a 
visiting bird. 

A good example of this trait is found in the 
cardinal flower, which bears beautiful red flow- 
ers in wet meadows and stream banks of the 
eastern states in l^te summer. Long stamens 
project from a split in the upper lip of this flower, 
forming a long conical stalk, with a tight group of 
anthers at the end. The anthers form a tuft of 
bristles, which a hummingbird must push be- 
yond to extract nectar from the flower. In the 
process, pollen is transferred to the forehead of 
the bird. As the flower ages and the pollen is 
dispersed, stigmas at the end of a long style 
enclosed by the stamens will protrude beyond 
the anthers to collect pollen from the heads of 
birds which have visited younger flowers and 
picked up pollen. This pollen will then travel 
down the style and into the concealed ovary. 
Because the stamens in this flower mature first 
and their pollen is dispersed before the stigma is 
mature, there is little chance that a flower will be 
fertilized by its own pollen. 

The cardinal flower is an excellent example 
of a typical North American hummingbird 
flower, and has many of the other characteristics 
of ornithophilous flowers as well. It has a larger, 
stronger, and longer-tubed flower than other 
lobelias, and is red in comparison to, for exam- 
ple, the blue of its close relative the great lobelia 
{Lobelia syphilitica), which is pollinated by long- 
tongued bees. These two species illustrate one 
final distinguishing feature of hummingbird 
flowers. The great lobelia's petals form a sturdy 
landing platform for visiting bees, but this is 
lacking in the cardinal flower. Bird flowers which 
evolved from bee-pollinated ancestors have lost 



these landing platforms, perhaps as an exclusive 
mechanism. Hummingbirds, of course, do not 
need landing platforms, because they feed while 
hovering in tront of the flower. 

As hummingbird flowers developed their 
special features, so too did the hummingbirds. 
The primary adaptation for nectar feeding was 
clearlv the development of a long tubular tongue 
and long hill. The hummingbird tongue is made 
up of two overlapping segments which form a 
long tube to suck nectar from flowers. Hum- 
mingbird bills are also unique and important 
in nectar feeding. The shape ot bills has been 
determined by the shape of the flowers upon 
which the hummingbirds feed. Hummingbird 
bills are long and thin, and the majority of them 
curve downward slightly at the end, as the corol- 
las of many hummingbird flowers are slightly 
curved. Some hummingbirds have fairly short 
bills, but most are close to an inch in length, 
which is fairly long considering that hum- 
mingbirds average only three or four inches in 
length. There are, however, many examples of 
long and oddly shaped bills. For instance, the 
swordbilled hummingbird {Ensifcra eiisifcra) has a 
bill 12 or 13 centimeters long, while the bird is 
only 21 centimeters, or 8 inches, in length, in- 
cluding the bill and tail. Also unique is the fiery- 
tailed awlbill {Avocctluhi recurvirostris), one of the 
few hummingbirds with an upturned bill. 

Hummingbirds are remarkable in their 
ability to hover at flowers, ore\en fl\' backwards 
when necessary, and their unique flight seems 
related to their habit of feeding at flowers. If the 
aerod\'namics of an ordinar\' bird wing resem- 
bles that ot an airplane wing, the hummingbird 
wing has more in common with the rotary of a 
helicopter. The hummingbird wing has been 
modified so that it beats sidewa\s more than 
up and down, and the wing itself is held in an 
almost \ertical plane. With each forward MMi 
backward stroke the wings generate lift, while 
other birds' wings give lift only on the down- 
stroke. Further, the outer portion of a hum- 
mingbird's wing, bevond the wrist joint, is usu- 
ally long compared to the inner portion of the 
wing. In manv other birds the relativeh' motion- 
less inner section gives lilt for gliding flight; but 
in the hummingbirds, which do not glide, the 
inner portion moves with the rest ot the wing. 
Hummingbirds also have a unique shi>ulder 
socket which allows the wing great mobility. 
These adaptations have given the hum- 
mingbird the abilitv to hover at flowers, and to 
make a fast getawav al up to thirlv miles per 
hour. But hummingbird flight is energy inten- 
sive, requiring relatively enormous flight mus- 
cles and wing beats so fast (nearly H(1 beats pi-r 
second in some species) they are a blur to the eye. 



21 



Their unique flight, coupled with small body 
size, necessitates a very high metabolism; and 
without large quantities of nectar along with the 
protein from insects and spiders, this metab- 
olism cannot be maintained for more than a 
few hours. 

To survive periods of scarce food, bad 
weather, or a cold night, hummingbirds are able 
to enter a state of torpor in which the heart beats 
slowly and metabolic needs are greatly reduced. 
Crawford H. Greenewalt (author oi Hummiitg- 
binh, New York, 1960), who has studied the flight 
of hummingbirds for years, made some calcula- 
tions which make it easier to comprehend the 
remarkable nature of hummingbird metabolism. 
He figured that, "If a 170-pound man led the 
equivalent of a hummingbird's life, he would 
burn up 153,000 calories a day and evaporate 
about 100 pounds of perspiration an hour. If his 
water suppl\- ran out, his skin temperature 
would soar above the melting point of lead, and 
he would probably ignite." 

The relationship of a tube-shaped tongue 
and long bill to nectar feeding is obvious, and the 
effects of nectar feeding on size, metabolism, and 



22 Great blue lolh 




John H Gerard 



flight are also fairly clear. But it is far more dif- 
ficult to see how this could have affected other 
characteristics of hummingbirds, such as the fact 
that no male hummingbirds contribute to nest 
building or care of the young, and that the males 
are brightly colored compared with the cryptic 
(adapted for concealment) coloration of the 
females in most hummingbirds. Some males, 
as is true in the scissor-tailed hummingbird 
(Hylonympha marcocerca), and the racket-tailed 
coquette (Discosura longkauda) , have elongated, 
decorative tail feathers in addition to their bright 
plumage. However, it is possible that even these 
characters are related to the symbiosis between 
hummingbirds and their flowers. A broad over- 
view of other groups of small birds which like the 
hummingbirds are predominantlv tropical re- 
veals some patterns that help to explain the pat- 
tern found in hummingbirds. 

In the flvcatchers (Ti/rannidac), whose pri- 
mary food is insects, the males and females are 
both dull in color. Both participate in nesting and 
caring for the young, and food needed by the 
family in the nesting period is gathered from a 
defended nesting territory. It is thought that the 
requirements of insect feeding necessitate this 
lifestyle, for edible insects are concealed or cryp- 
tic and one bird alone could not gather enough to 
raise the young. Further, it is likely that by de- 
fending a territory with which they become 
familiar, flycatchers can forage more efficiently 
than if they wandered over unfamiliar areas for 
food. 

The opposite pattern of reproduction is 
found in fruit-eating birds of the tropics, such as 
the cotingas {Cotiiigidae) and manakins (Pipridae). 
These species have symbiotic relationships with 
plants similar to that of the hummingbirds; ex- 
cept that thev disperse seeds instead of cross- 
pollinate flowers. Selection has favored fruit 
which is conspicuous and easy for the birds to 
gather, so fruit-eating birds-must spend far less 
time looking for their food than do insect-eating 
birds. This means that a female fruit eater is 
capable of finding enough food to raise young by 
herself, and a second bird would not be only 
unnecessary, but would make the nest and 
voung more conspicuous to predators. In these 
fruit eaters, in which the male does not help raise 
the young, males are brightly colored and often 
have decorative plumage. The nature of the food 
resources in flvcatchers and fruit eaters has made 
some forms of reproduction impossible and 
others advantageous. It is possible that nectar 
feeding has a similar influence on hummingbirds. 

Hummingbirds have a symbiotic relation- 
ship with their food source which is similar to the 
relationship of fruit eaters to their fruit, and con- 
trasts with the predatory relationship of 




Ldt: Eulampsis 
jugulans, nalti'f lo 
LtNMT All I tiles: ny/i.' 



IctJ. I'll0lo>ili/ Uui/iii 

Willard. 



flycatchers to insects. The availability of nectar 
means that a single hummingbird can easily 
gather enough food to raise young, and makes it 
possible for males to be promiscuous instead of 
helping at the nest. If males do not tend the nest, 
they are not subject to the selective pressure to 
maintain cryptic coloration, a device favoring 
nest concealment. Therefore, nectar feeding 
made possible the divergence in male and female 
plumages. It is clear that nectar feeding has had a 
profound influence on the evolution of hum- 
mingbirds, even though it is not ahva\'s clear 
how direct or immediate this influence has been. 

It is likely that further research will find a 
stronger influence on some characters than is 
considered to be the case today. For example, 
little research has addressed the question of why 
hummingbirds have iridescent patches of certain 
colors, but there is a pattern to the distribution of 
these colors which suggests that this may also be 
related to the flowers which hummingbirds feed 
on. Those hummingbirds which breed in North 
America have red or purple throat patches, while 
in Central and South America many birds have 
patches of bright blue, gold, or orange, as well 
as red. This difference echoes differences in the 
coloration of hummingbird flowers. In North 
America, hummingbird flowers are predomi- 
nantly red, but in the tropics there are more 
flowers of other bright colors. No good reason for 
this parallel has been proposed. 

The dependent relationship of humming- 
birds and their flowers has produced through 
natural selection a series of specializations, some 
directly related to nectar feeding and pollination, 
and some only related indirectly. But no aspect 
of the life of these flowers and birds is entirely 
beyond the influence of this relationship, and 
its importance is demonstrated by the occurrence 
of similar adaptations in ornithophilous flowers 



and nectar-feeding birds from other parts of 
the world. 

Approximately one third of the 300 or so 
families of flowering plants ha\e some species in 
them which are pollinated primaril)' b\ birds, 
and there are many more species which are pol- 
linated casualh' by birds, and have insects for 
primary pollinators. About 85 percent of the 
bird-pollinated flowers throughout the world are 
red, and most also share the tubular shape and 
some of the other structural adaptations which 
characterize the bird flowers. There are eight 
families of birds in which are found o\'er 1,600 
species with special tongue and bill adaptations 
for feeding at flowers. These birds include the 
brush-tongued parrots (P.si7/fltii/iU'), humming- 
birds (Trochilidae), flower-peckers (Dicacidae), 
sunbirds {Ntxtanniidai'), white-eves (Zostcrop'i- 
dae), honey eaters (Meiipiliagidac), honeycreepers 
and flower-piercers (Emberizidae). and Hawaiian 
honeycreepers (Drcpanididae). 

Many of these species have long bills <\n{.i 
tubular tongues, similar to those of humming- 
birds. This is true of the honeycreepers, 
Hawaiian hone\creepers, and sunbirds. The 
brush-tongued parrots of Australia have tongues 
adapted to feeding on the pollen of flowers. 
Flower-piercers of South America ha\e bills \Mth 
downturned, sharp tips, and they pierce the pet- 
als of flowers near their bases, taking nectar 
without cross-pollinating tlu' flow ers. However, 
most species effect cross-pollination while feed- 
ing on the nectar of flowers. 

A striking example of convergent evolution 
is found in the sunbirds of the African and Asian 
tropics. They have tongues and bills like the 
hummingbirds, and are almost as small. The 
males are brightly colored and iridescent, the 
females duller, as in hummingbirds, and their 
colors are similar to those found in the hum- 



i3 




Left to right: red buck- mingbirds; but they do not hover at tlowers. 



eye, trumpet honey- 
suckle, trumpet vine. 

John H Gerard 



24 



Nectar-feeding birds will sometimes feed at 
flowers which are insect-pollinated, just as some 
insects can be seen feeding at ornithophilous 
flowers. For example, the ruby-throated hum- 
mingbird feeds on a variety of cultivars which are 
not primarily bird pollinated. Birds often feed on 
introduced cultivars, which obviously could not 
have evolved to be pollinated by hummingbirds. 
For example, they feed on the odd, pompom- 
shaped flowers of the albizzia [Albizzia julibrissin) , 
often mistakenly called "mimosa," an Asian tree 
which may have been pollinated bv other birds in 
its natural habitat. The introduced honeysuckle 
(Lonicera japonica) is frequently visited by hum- 
mingbirds, although its white and yellow flow- 
ers are usually pollinated by bees. The native 
trumpet honeysuckle (L. sempervirens), on the 
other hand, has typical ornithophilous flowers 
which are tubular, bright red on the outside, and 
yellow on the inside. A number of North Ameri- 
can bird flowers share this characteristic of hav- 
ing bright yellow in the interior of a red flower. 

Some cultivated species have been bred by 
researchers in such ways that they resemble in 
color and shape an ornithophilous flower, but 
may still lack the appropriate mechanisms to en- 
sure that birds pollinate them. An example of 
this is found in members of the genus Gladiolus. 
Impatiens is not specifically adapted to bird polli- 
nation either, but hummingbirds are attracted to 
a red Impatiens form, which is often planted. 
Such plants as these often attract hummingbirds 
to gardens, where they are easy to observe. Be- 
cause of their speed of flight, they safely tolerate 
close human approach before fleeing. 



There are also a number of common and 
attractive cultivars which are true ornithophilous 
tlowers. Bee-balm {Monarda didyma), a widely 
cultivated native of North America partial to wet 
stream banks in the wild, has a cluster of bright 
red flowers and below these many dark red 
bracts, helping to make the plant more conspicu- 
ous to hummingbirds. Salvia splcndens, the scar- 
let sage, is a typical hummingbird flower, and 
often attracts them to gardens. 

The trumpet creeper is also a widely culti- 
vated hummingbird flower, and shows many of 
the typical adaptations to bird pollination. Bees 
are a secondary pollinator of this flower, and so 
both bees and hummingbirds can be seen feed- 
ing at it. 

There is even more of interest to this plant 
than its adaptations to bird pollination, however. 
In addition to its floral nectaries, it has four ex- 
trafloral systems of smaller nectaries which are 
found on the petiole, corolla, calyx, and fruit. 
Various species of ants can be found feeding at 
these nectaries, and they defend the plant from 
insects which might feed on its fruit or rob nectar 
by chewing through the base of the corolla. 
Many plants, including Impatiens, have such ex- 
trafloral systems of nectaries, and these seem to 
be special adaptations to a symbiotic relationship 
with ants, in which ants feed on the nectar and 
defend the plant from its predators. 

The coevolution of these plants with a 
number of ant genera has resulted in. . .well, 
that's another story in itself. There are many 
cases like this of symbiosis and coevolution, of 
which hummingbirds and their flowers are just 
one of the more visible examples. D 



TOURS FOR MEMBERS 



Peru and Bolivia 

OctobiT IS-XovenibcT 1 
Tour Price: $3,100 



This tour includes the fascinating 
cities of Lima, Cuzco, Trujillo, Puno, 
a train trip to fabulous Machu Picchu, 
four full days in La Paz, and a hy- 
drofoil ride on Lake Titicaca. Dr. Alan 
L. Kolata, visiting assistant curator of 
South American archeology and 
ethnolog\', will accompany the tour 
members during the entire trip. Dr. 
Michael E. Moseley, associate curator 
of Middle and South American ar- 
cheology' and ethnolog\', who for the 
past ten years has directed large-scale 
projects on the north coast of Peru, 
will join the group when we visit his 
area of research. We will also have an 
opportunity to see and learn about Dr. 
Kolata's work at Tiahuanaco. For 
more information call or uTite Field 
Museum tours. Direct telephone line: 
322-8862. 




VitlafTe festival on shores of Lake Titicara in 
Bolivia. Dancers wear costumes beanrif^ images 
derived from the ancient art of Tuihuaruico, an 
empire tluit ruled the southern Andes IJj(X) wars 
ago. 



1982 Tours 

Watch for coming aniiouiKX'iin-iil> (ui 
1982 rield Mii.seiim Tours lo Alaslui 
(suninier), Australia (Icill), Kcina 
Scychcllfs (tall), the Galapagos 
(winter), and India (winter). If tou 
wisli lo be on the mailing list for com- 
ing brochures on anv of lliese lours, 
plc;isc WTitc or call llie Tours Ollice, 
r22-miV2. 




TOURS FOR MEMBERS 



Baja 
California 

Februiin- 6-20, 1982 



LESS THAN 50 MILES SOUTH of tfw 
U.S.-Mexico border begins a peaceful 
world of subtropical beauty — the 
Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). 
Over 600 miles long, this gulf is a 
paradise for marine vertebrate and 
invertebrate life— and for those of us 
who enjoy its stud}'. Field Museum 
members will have tlie opportunit}' 
to know this sea of wonders in a 
I'oyage that will all but complete the 
circumnavigation of the peninsula of 
BajaCcdifornia. 

The tour will be led by Dr. 
Robert K.Johnson , associate curator 
of Fishes and chairman of the De- 
partment ofZoolugi'. Special Expedi- 
tions, a division of Lindblad Travel, 
operators of the ship to be used, will 
provide sei'eral additional natural- 
ists whose expertise will further en- 
rich our experience . Our home for the 
voyage is the one-class, fully air- 
conditioned 143.5-foot MV Pacific 
Northwest Explorer, built i/z 1980. 

Thirty persons can be accom- 
modated; rates depend on the type of 
stateroom. For further information, 
including itinerary, write or call the 
Tours Office (322-8862). 



1982 Tours 

Watch for coming announcements on 
1982 Field N'useiim Tours to Alaska 
(summer), Austr.xiia (fall), Kenya/ 
Seychelles u'all), the Galapagos 
(winterl. and India (Nvinter). If you. 
wish to bt? on the mailing list for com- 
ing brochures on anv of tliese tours, 
please write r call the Tours Office, 
322-8862. 




The 



M. V. Pacific Northwest E.rpIorer in the Sea of Cortez. Photo courtesy Sven-Olof Lindhlacl. 



Viewingsea lionsatLos Islotes. Sea ofCortc: Photo courtesy Sven-OIofLmdblad. 



26 




OUR EN^'IRO^ME^T 

Con't from p. 1 1 



songbird to haw had its entire populatinn 
censused. The census has been conducted 
on an annual basis since 1971, when the 
count for singing males plummeted to 201. 
The census occurs from mid-Mav to mid- 
June. During this period cooperators 
spot-check areas that appear to contain 
habitat suitable for the presence oi singing 
male warblers. The areas that are found to 
have birds present are censused during a 
10-day period in mid-)une (June 6 to 15 in 
1980). Because some males have been ob- 
served to change location during the 
summer, a short census period is used to 
avoid duplication. 

The census is a cooperative effort of 
DNR, Forest Service, and Fish and Wild- 
life Service. Also, local Audubon Society 
members and independent cooper- 
ators take part. In all, a record 58 observers 
participated in the 1980 census. 

The census takers attempt to group the 
warblers into colonies. Singing males are 
considered to be in the same colonv if, and 
only if, when observed on the census they 
are no more than 1,034 meters from at least 
one other singing male. This at least pro- 
vides a framework for discussing the spa- 
tial distribution of singing males. 

Wintering Grounds 

Very little is known about the Kirtland's 
warbler outside its nesting range. In mi- 
gration, the bird enters and leaves the con- 
tinent at the coast of North and South 
Carolina. Apparently, the warbler's win- 
tering range is limited to the Bahama Is- 
lands. Between October 29 and April 12 it 
has never been seen anywhere else. In the 
late 1800s, specimens were taken on 
nearly all the larger islands in the 
Bahamas, and there have been many sub- 
sequent chance sitings bv tourists. With 
700 main islands and about 2,400 cays and 
rocks, studying the Kirtland's warbler's 
behavior and habitat requirements on the 
wintering grounds is a difficult task at 
best. 



Endangered Cui-ui on Recovery Road 

Historically, springtime marked the annual 
migration of the cui-ui (Chasmistes cujus) 
from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, upstream 
into the lower Truckee River to spawn. For 
centuries this event attracted the 
neighboring Paiute Indians from miles 
around, who came to harvest cui-ui (most 
commonly pronounced "kwee-wee") 
which they regarded highly as food. In 
recent years, however, spawning runs of 
the endangered fish became precariously 
low, bringing an end to this native Ameri- 
can tradition. In 1969, the Paiute Indians 



ceased all harvest of the cui-ui, and now 
the Pvramid Lake species is protected 
under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. 
Imperilment of the cui-ui resulted 
primarily from Derby Dam and the New- 
lands Project, one of the earliest (1905) 
Federal land reclamation efforts. Derby 
Dam, which was constructed 40 miles up- 
stream from the mouth of the Truckee 
River, caused the diversion of water down 
a transbasinal canal (Truckee Canal) into 
the Carson Basin and, thence, to agricul- 
tural lands. The resulting enormous an- 
nual drawoff caused Pvramid Lake to sub- 
side, and an extensive delta to form at the 
mouth of the Truckee River. Water levels 
decreased until, except in occasional years 
with abnormally high spring run-off, 
adult fish were unable to traverse the shal- 
low delta to the Truckee River. 

The drought of the 1930s had an addi- 
tional detrimental impact on Pyramid 
Lake fish species. During that decade, 
both the cui-ui and the Pyramid Lake 
Lahontan cutthroat trout (Salmo darki hcn- 
shaun) were denied access to the Truckee 
River. The cui-ui, because of its longevity 
(thev have been aged to 18 vears) and 
ability to reproduce successfully in the few- 
fresh water interfaces of saline Pyramid 
Lake, was able to maintain at least a 
marginal population. The Pvramid Lake 
strain of cutthroat trout, however, became 
extinct. 

To ensure the survival of the cui-ui, 
the Pyramid Lake Paiutes and the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service together initi- 
ated a program at Dunn Hatchery on the 
Paiute Indian Reservation to artificially 
propagate cui-ui. Fish reared at Dunn 
Hatchery have been periodically released 
into the lower Truckee River since shortly 
after the program began in 1973. Since 
1977, the cui-ui hatchery program has 
been operated independently by the 
Pyramid Lake Tribe. 

In 1976, the Bureau of Reclamation 
(now the Water and Power Resources Ser- 
vice) completed a 3-mile long fishway, 
which includes four fish ladders, along the 
Truckee River to again permit cui-ui 
spawners access to the river. The ladders 
were easily traversed by (stocked) Lahon- 
tan cutthroat trout, but water velocities 
proved too great for the lesser swimming 
ability of the cui-ui. No cui-ui used the 
fishway for the first two years of its opera- 
tion. (The service handles the fishway 
operations.) 

In 1978, one ladder was partially mod- 
ified to reduce water velocity; as a result, 
33 cui-ui traversed the entire fishway and 
were captured upstream in the Marble 
Bluff Fish Handling Facility In 1979, the 
same ladder was further modified, and 146 
smaller cui-ui traversed the entire fish- 
way. These fish, plus an additional 149 
spawners collected in the fishway canal, 
were released in the lower Truckee River 
to spawn. A second ladder was modified 
for the 1980 cui-ui run, and the results 



were again gratifying; nearly 5,000 
spawners were collected at Marble Bluff 
These fishes along with the additional 
1,114 spawners were released in the lower 
Truckee. Recently, the remaming two lad- 
ders have been modified, and even larger 
releases of cui-ui into the lower Truckee 
Riverare anticipated for the 1981 season. I( 
appears now that cui-ui are "up the river 
to recovery." 

To help ensure the recovery of the 
species, the service has developed the 
Cui-ui Recovery Plan which has as its 
primary objective to restore the species to 
a nonendangered status and reclassify it 
from endangered to threatened Biologists 
from the Nevada Department of Wildlife, 
the University of Michigan, and the 
Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Tribe assisted 
in the development of the plan. 

Information called for in the plan is 
being researched jointly bv the service's 
National Fishery Research Laboratory in 
Seattle, and the Fisheries Assistance Of- 
fice in Reno. As directed by the plan 
guidelines, these two service groups in- 
tend to study the Truckee River life history 
phase of the cui-ui, document natural re- 
production in the greatlv man-altered 
lower Truckee Ri\er, and then develop the 
baseline information needed to maximi/e 
recruitment of cui-ui to Pvramid Lake De- 
termining tlou requirements for optimal 
fish passage, spawning, incubation, and 
nursery habitat are integral to the study, 
and are emphasized in the recovery plan. 

This team approach between research 
and operations should help assure that 
this unique species will recover suffi- 
ciently to allow reclassification and resto- 
ration of the cherished cui-ui Ksherv. 
— C. Gary Scoppcttonc 



Geese for Weed Control 

Over a year ago, the Idaho Seed Co., of 
Burley, Idaho, bought some Chinese 
weeder geese, a strain developed over the 
past 2,000 years for weed control in China, 
to use in place of chemical herbicides on 
their seed-producing farms. Today the 
companv has more than 80,tKX1 geese for 
use on 1,000 acres of carrots, peas, 
potatoes, onions, and lentils, and enough 
geese left over to lease to 20 neighboring 
farms where thev have been used to con- 
trol weeds on 1(1, OlX) acres of crops. The 
cost of maintaining the fliK'k equals the 
cost of the chemicals it's replaced, but fuel 
and application costs have been elimi- 
nated and excess geese are marketed. The 
firm has received many inquiries about the 
geese, including one (rom the National 
Park Service concerning the feasibilil\ ■>( 
using weeder geese in wilderness .iii .i 
where chemicals are banned. 



Cor 



J 7 



Giovanni Belzoni 
King of the Tbmb Robbers 



by Peter Gayford 




28 



Belzoni in Arab dress 



f B J !:c history of Egyptology appears before 

Jj^ us as an epic on a grand scale — a panorama 
peopled witb a range of personalities who, in 
their individual ways, excavated the length and 
breadth of the Nile Valley. Perhaps the most col- 
orful — and among the less scrupulous — of these 
was the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Bel- 
zoni (1778-1823). 



A multitalented, colorful figure who might 
have gone far in some respectable profession, 
Belzoni was little more than a highly skilled 
grave robber. The antiquities he acquired were. 



Peter Gayford is volunteer assistant. Middle Eastern 
archeology. 







Biflzoni as the 
Palagoiiian Samson 



/ 




riDnt'theless, among the most spectacular, and 
significant, to find their way into the great collec- 
tions of Europe — notably that of the British 
Museum. 

As a grave robber, Belzoni was hardly 
unique, for the profession dates back to antiquity 
and persists, regrettably, today- Belzoni is excep- 
tional, however, in that he admitted — took pride 
in — his misdeeds, documenting them in a jour- 
nal, published in 1820: Narrative of the Operations 
ami Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, 
Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia and a 
lourney to the Coast of the Red Sea in Search of the 
Ancient Bcrenica; and Another to the Coast of the 
Jupiter Amnion. 

From beginning to end, Belzoni's narrative 
reads like an adventure yarn, with full accounts 



of his various trials and tribulations, his failures 
and triumphs with officials and petty bureau- 
crats, the military, native workers, and — most 
of all — with his competitors in the search for 
antiquities. 

Craving notoriety and recognition even 
more than financial gain, Belzoni was openly 
candid about his activities in hgypt, confessing 
that "the purpose of my researches was to rob the 
Egyptians of their papyri." 

Our disapprobation, even disgust, for 
Belzoni's methods are only slightly mitigated by 
the knowledge that some of the treasures he 
purloined would have been forever lost to the 
destructive processes of development in the Nile 
Valley. We must bear in mind, too, that in Bel- 
zoni's time the collecting of antiquities by any 



29 



Belzoiii removing:; Die 

head of Ramases 11 at 

Thebes. 



means was dc rigucur, whether by members of the 
academic community or by those in the employ 
of European governments. In fact, the acquisi- 
tion of archeological materials during the 19th 
and even into the early 20th century was at times 
a game of one-upmanship played by private 
museums, foreign governments, and scholars — 
with prestige as the big prize. All manner of 
equipment beLame standard tools of the trade: 



Belzoni's proposal for a water-lifting device that 
would be six times as efficient as the traditional 
Egyptian contraption. But after nearly a year's 
work to develop his machine, the scheme fell 
through; Belzoni was left without a livelihood 
and without funds. 

This state of affairs, was temporary, how- 
ever. The interest on the part of Europeans in 
Egyptian antiquities, which had begun with the 










Ji^viiV-'V? 



30 



gunpowder, battering rams, intrigue, as well as 
violence of every sort. 

Belzoni was born in Padua in 1778. At the 
age of 16 he went to Rome to study hydraulic 
engineering — knowledge which he later applied 
to considerable advantage in the breaking and 
entering of tombs. In 1803, when he was 25, 
Belzoni immigrated to England, not as an en- 
gineer, but as a strong man on the theater circuit, 
for he had grown to a height of six and a half feet 
and was enormously strong. "The Patagonian 
Samson," as he was billed, toured the stage for 
nine years, achieving considerable renown, not 
only as a strongman, but as a mime, a conjuror, 
and as a designer of fantastic displays. 

In 1812, with his wife Sarah (1783-1870), 
Belzoni set off for Turkey, with the intention of 
entertaining the sultan; but during a stopover on 
Malta, Belzoni made the acquaintance of an 
agent for the Eg)'ptian pasha, who convinced 
him that Belzoni's knowledge of hydraulics 
would be \vorth a great deal to the Egyptians. 
Belzoni cancelled plans to entertain the sultan 
and headed for Egypt. 

The pasha was much impressed with 



discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, was com- 
ing into vogue. Henry Salt, the British consul in 
Cairo, was instructed to acquire some antiqui- 
ties; he, in turn, put Belzoni in charge of the field 
work. 

It was a fascinating — but dirty — enterprise. 
Tomb-exploring posed particular difficulties for 
the Italian giant. In his journal he remarked on 
some of these: 

Many persons could not withstand the suffocating air, 
which causes fai)iting. A imst quantity of dust rises, so 
fine that it enters the throat and nostrils, and chokes 
the nose and mouth to such a degree that it requires 
great power ofhuigs to resist it and the strong effluvia 

of the mummies In some places there is not more 

than a vacancy of afoot left, which you must contrive 
to pass through in a creeping posture. . . .After getting 
through these passages, some of them two or three 
hundred yards long, you generally find a more com- 
modious place. . .but what a place! Surrounded by 
bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions. . . .1 
sought a resti)ig place, found one ami contrived to sit; 
but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, 
it crushed like a hat box. I naturally had recourse to 
my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no 



better support; so that I sunk altogether among the 
broken mummies, ivitli a crash of bones, rags, and 
wooden cases. 

In June, 1816, Belzoni — armed with a dig- 
ging permit horn the pasha himself — sailed up 
the Nile to Luxor to examine the colossal stone 
head of Rameses II. It was indeed a collectible — 
but the immensitude of the piece! 

There were no materials or equipment im- 
mediately at hand for the job, and the annual 
flooding of the Nile — on which the head had to 
be rafted — was only weeks away. Furthermore, 
it was nearh' the time of Ramadan, the month ot 
fasting when strenuous work bv Muslim laborers 
would be particularly difficult. Then there VNcre 
to be problems with the officials in charge of the 
u ork force. These officials had already been em- 
ployed by the French consul in Cairo, Bernardino 
Drovetti, destined to become Belzoni's archrival 
in the collecting of antiquities. The corruptible 
officials were to play both ends against the mid- 
dle, hoping not only for payment from Belzoni, 
but for extra bakshish and other rewards from the 
French consul for whatever work slowdowns 
they could bring about. 

Not to be discouraged, Belzoni had a plat- 
form of palm logs constructed and the gigantic 
head was levered onto.it. Sheer manpower then 
coaxed the ponderous load toward the river on 
rollers, also of palm wood. Two ancient columns, 
which stood in the way of the platform, were 
smashed aside. 

After seventeen days of entreaty, exhaus- 
tion, and frustration, the head of Rameses II was 
finally brought to the water's edge. By 
November, five months after Belzoni's arrival at 
Luxor, the giant piece was on its way to the 
British Museum. 

Although the pasha granted separate dig- 
ging rights to the English and the French, the 
bitter rivalry between Belzoni and Drovetti 
continued. At one point an agent of Drovetti 
threatened to cut Belzoni's throat if he did not 
cease competing with the French consul. 

Belzoni again ran afoul of Drovetti's agents 
on the island of Philae, where Belzoni had as- 
sembled a group of sixteen carved blocks from 
a temple. Since the blocks were too large to be 
floated on the Nile, he left orders for them to be 
trimmed down. Upon returning to Philae, two 
month later, Belzoni found that the blocks had 
been defaced by vandals; on one was freshly 
inscribed: "Operation Manquee." 

During Belzoni's second journey up the 
Nile, in 1817, he excavated the great temple of 
Rameses II at Abu Simbel, discovered six royal 
tombs in the Valley of the Kings, opened the 
pyramid of Khafre, and found the lost Roman 
city of Berenice. 




Belzoni in Arab drea 



During this period, word of his accom- 
plishments had been spreading, but it was 
Henry Salt who received the acclaim in Lurope 
and the financial rewards. For Belzoni this was 
intolerable. At his insistence, the two men drew 
up a formal contract: Belzoni was to work "under 
the auspices" of Salt and be properly compen- 
sated for his endeavors. But the contract was full 
of loopholes, and in the end it was still Henry 
Salt who reaped the greater benefits. 

Shortly before Belzoni's three years in Egypt 
drew to a close, Drovetti, the intransigent Egyp- 
tians, and the unfavorable elements of nature all 
seemed to conspire against him in his experience 
with a twenty-two foot stone obelisk. 

Though Belzoni had laid formal claim to 
the obelisk in the name of the British consul, 
Drovetti attempted to make off with it while 
Belzoni was away. A dispute abt>ut o\vnership 
of the obelisk ensued, a situation that was simply 
resolved by Belzoni's presenting a fine gold 
watch to one of the local functionaries. 

With the aid of rollers and lexers, the obelisk 
and its inscribed base were successfully moved 
from its original site to the banks of the Nile. A 
jetty for k)ading the obelisk to a boat was con- 
structed and the obelisk eased onto it. But the 
flimsy jetty collapsed, and the i>belisk, noted 
Belzoni, "majestically descended into the river." 
He remained in a state of shock for some min- 
utes, he wrote, standing "stiffas a post." A great 
deal was at stake: the loss of a priceless work 
of antiquity in which a considerable sum had 
already been invested, plus — most important of 
all — Belzoni's reputation. 



31 



Egyptian Hall at 
Piccadilly 




< V. — .. . 




i 



1 "!'"''" iAlffir ^^  





32 



But in a matter of days Belzoni and crew 
succeeded in raising the giant relic. By means of 
a bridge of palm logs, which had served in the 
transport of Rameses II's head, they loaded the 
obelisk onto a boat without incident. 

It was Drovetti's machinations, it seems, 
that finally drove Belzoni and his wife from 
Egypt in September, 1819: "We embarked, thank 
God! for Europe: not that I disliked the country I 
was in, for, on the contrary, I have reason to be 
grateful; nor do I complain of the Turks or Arabs 
in general, but of some Europeans who are in 
that country, whose conduct and mode of think- 
ing are a disgrace to human nature." 

He returned to a London that was in love 
with him; he was toasted everywhere and wel- 
comed in every salon. Moving among the rich 
and powerful, he received the attention he had 
so long coveted. 

At the Egyptian Hall, on Piccadilly Square, 
Belzoni exhibited his "curious remains of an- 
tiquity." Belzoni, the explorer, the adventurer, 
himself was now a near-legendary figure. "The 
Starving mountebank became one of the most 
illustrious men in Europe," remarked Charles 
Dickens, "an encouraging example to those, who 
have not only sound heads to project, but stout 
hearts to execute." 

Belzoni's financial affairs, meanwhile, were 
in a state of crisis; the British museums would 
pay but little for the antiquities he had labored 
so hard to bring back. In 1823, Belzoni left the 
London salons for another exotic adventure, 
this time lured by tales of the fabled city of 
Timbuktu and driven by a fierce desire to find 



the source of the Niger River. 

Arriving on the Portuguese coast of Africa 
early in November, he began his upriver journey, 
reaching Benin four days later. No sooner had he 
arrived, however, than the 45-year-old former 
strong man fell victim to tropical fever. In a week 
he was dead. 

What did Giovanni Belzoni accomplish? 
Howard Carter, famed discoverer of the tomb of 
Tutankhamun, saw in Belzoni "the most remark- 
able man in the whole history of Egyptology." 
A British historian has seen fit to credit the 
Italian with laying the foundation of Egyptian 
Egyptology. 

Belzoni was a man of his age — pompous, 
colorful, romantic, but he was also an example 
of the kind of rash irresponsibility that long 
plagued archeology. His indifference to schol- 
arship, his disregard for scientific procedure, his 
spirit of unflagging self-aggrandizement and 
need for personal notoriety cast an enduring pall 
over Egyptology and the entire matter of acquir- 
ing antiquities — whatever the purpose. 

With the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb 
in 1922, a full century after Belzoni's death, the 
first workable antiquities laws came into being. 
More recently, UNESCO adopted, in 1970, a con- 
vention for prohibiting and preventing the illicit 
import, export, and transfer of ownership of 
cultural property; museums, in turn, have 
established rigorous codes for the acquisition of 
antiquities. Had these existed in Belzoni's time, 
it is unlikely that he would have been lured from 
show business — a profession for which his 
temperament was eminently suited. 



Om ENMROXMENT 

Ci'ti't frotii I' 27 



Loggerhead Sanctuary Established 

Future generations of loggerhead turtles 
mav have a better chance of survival now 
that the nation's first sea turtle sanctuary 
has begun along a 20-mile stretch on the 
North Carolina coast. Regulations govern- 
ing the sanctuar\- prohibit commercial 
fishing inside an F-shaped area that ex- 
tends as far as three-quarters of a mile into 
the ocean between Hammocks and 
Onslow beaches. 

The ban lasts from June through 
August, according to Frank J. Schwartz, 
professor of zoology at the University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute of 
Marine Sciences. 

Schwartz says that approximately 85 
percent of the female loggerheads that 
crawl onto North Carolina beaches lay 
their eggs within that 20-mile stretch. Bv 
September, all of the hatching turtles that 
survive a hazardous sprint to the surf will 
be in the water headed for the Gulf 
Stream. 

"The sanctuarv is an experiment to 
see if we can improve the chances of the 
females making it to shore to lay their eggs 
and the hatchlings making it to the open 
sea," he savs. "It's to give them a little 
advantage if possible." 

Even though sea turtles are protected 
under the federal Rare and Endangered 
Species Act of 1978, manv drown when 
caught up accidentally in fishing nets be- 
cause thev can't hold their breath for 
hours while the nets are being towed. 

A typical loggerhead nest contains 
approximately 120 eggs that resemble ping 
pong balls. Between 65 and 85 percent of 
those will eventuallv hatch on their own, 
depending on a variet\' of factors such as 
temperature and ground humidity. But 
only one or two of the baby turtles, on the 
average, will survive the crabs, vultures, 
and raccoons that feed on them before 
they reach the water. In unprotected 
areas, it is not uncommon for the hatch- 
lings to fall into ruts left by beach buggies 
and to perish in the hot sun. Schwartz and 
his colleagues have been trying to im- 
prove the turtles' survival odds by digging 
up and incubating some of the eggs. 
When the baby loggerheads begin feeding 
im their own, usually after about four 
days, the scienctists release them into the 
water 

"How many of those survive preda- 
tors like sharks, I can't say," says 
Schwartz. "If we can keep them for a year, 
I'd be willing to bet that a least half will 
survive the more than 14 years it takes 
them to mature." 

The large reptiles are more than |ust a 
natural heritage that should be passed 
down intact to future generations, he 



says. They also help man bv keeping 
down the jellvfish population. 

"Jellyfish seem to be one of their favo- 
rite foods," he notes. "You can put a 
hatchling that has never seen a jellyfish 
before in a pool with one, and he'll swim 
right over and slurp it up." 



Kangaroo Import Ban 1 ifted 

A ban on the coninuTLial uiiporlation of 
the red kangaroo ( Mc^^alcui rufiil. eastern 
gra\' kangaroo (Macropuf ^i^aiitciis), and 
western gray kangaroo (Macropiis fiili^i- 
no>u>). has been lifted bv the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service. According to the service, 
four Australian states have established 
that their management programs are ef- 
fective and that commercial importation 
of kangaroos, and their parts or products, 
will not be detrimental to the species. 

The importation ban had been in ef- 
fect since December 30, 1974, when these 
species were listed as threatened. At that 
time the service stated that it would re- 
quire a certificate fri)m the Australian 
Government ensuring that a state had de- 
veloped an effective sustained-yield man- 
agement program, and that taking would 
not be detrimental to the species, before 
allowing commercial importation of anv 
such \% ildlife originating from that state 

Although kangaroo populations ap- 
pear to be abundant now, the service 
maintains that a threatened classification 
is still warranted. Previouslv, all three of 
these species seem to have been over- 
exploited, a condition which could con- 
ceivably occur again. Also, it is not un- 
usual for all three species to experience 
periods of great abundance followed by 
periods of relative scarcitv. In addition, 
none of these species are protected under 
anv international trade control. These fac- 
tors led the service to continue its 
threatened listing of these kangaroos. 

The Australian states in question 
(Queensland, New South Wales, South 
Australia, and Western Australia) have all 
complied with (he service requirements. 
To coordinate the management programs 
of these four states, the Australian Na- 
tional Parks and Wildlife Service reviews 
all recommendatit)ns for harvest ijuotas 
from each state. 

Current kangaroo population esti- 
mates for these states are: Queensland, 
2.5,000,000; South Australia, 1,400,000; 
New South Wales, 5,000,000; Western 
Australia, 1,125,000. These figures are 
based onlv on the adult population and 
only include numbers in commercial 
zones, in states which make such a desig- 
nation. Therefore, the service considers a 
total population estimate of 32 million to 
be verv conservative. Australia estab- 
lished the nationwide kill quota for 1980 at 
2 8 million kangaroos 

Ihe pri)posal to lift this ban, which 



was published on June 16, 1980, drew a lot 
of opposition from conservation groups 
and private individuals. One of the major 
legal points of the opposition was that 
allowing commercial importation was 
contrary to the protection granted to a 
threatened species under the l-ndangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended. 

In its final ruling to lift the ban on 
commercial impcirlation of kangaroos, 
and their parts and products, the service 
ri'spondi'd thai these kangaroos represent 
an unusual case where a species may at 
some time in the future be vulnerable be- 
cause of potential threats, vet presently 
occurs in such numbers as to require con- 
trol measures. The service is of Ihe opin- 
ion that because of the current abundance 
of kangaroos and the potential indiscrimi- 
nate use of poisons by ranchers to reduce 
their numbers, a regulated commercial 
harvest by licensed private hunters is the 
most acceptable wav to control popula- 
tions and avoid greater threats posed by 
other control methods. 

After two years, the service w ill again 
review the entire situation and determine 
whether the importation ban should be 
reimposed. Unless the best available sci- 
entific and commercial data at that time 
suggests otherwise, commercial import of 
kangaroos, and their parts and products, 
will continue w ithout a requirement for a 
permit from the United Stales for indi- 
\'idual shipments. 



Pest Resistance to Insecticides 

Researchers at the University of Illinois 
have found that 414 insect pests are resis- 
tent to one or more insecticides, and 100 
species are resistant to everv class of insec- 
ticide know n. 



Miihigan Bottle Ban Rosulls 

Miihigan through a petilion drive spear- 
hi'aded h\ the Michigan United Conserva- 
tion t lubs, succeeded last year in gaining 
o\erw helming voter approval for a Kitlle 
bill." which created a ban on throw aw ay 
containers. 

\\ ith one \ear behind them here are 
some results: 

• Beverage container litliT has de- 
creased 84 percent from Ihe previous year. 

• All forms ol litter are down 41 jht- 
ii^nl 

• Miihigan disposaliostsshow aiit'- 
timated saving ol $18 million through r. 
duclion in solid x\asle. 

• Some 72 million cans and 2 Oi^ 
ol aluminum and steel were r< • 
Ihe stale. 

• The aesthetic value> . 
sured in thi' gri'allv improve, 
of Michigan landscape. 



HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 



Major Coutrilmtious in Support of Field Museum's Programs 
of Research, Education, and Exhibition 



Field Museum of Natural History is deeply grateful 
to its many donors — indi\'iduals, corporations, 
and foundations — who annually support the 
work of the Museum. Their gifts help ensure that 
programs of exhibition and education remain at 
the levels of excellence that the public has come 
to expect. Donor support also underlies the work 
of the Museum's 35 curator-scientists who make 
original contributions in basic research in the fields 



of anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology. 

We wish to recognize those generous 
donors who have helped so far in 1981 to meet the 
current budget. By way of recognition, we place on 
the Honor Roll of Donors the following who have 
contributed $1,000 or _more during the period 
January 1 through June 30, 1981, and extend to each 
our heartfelt thanks. 



Individuals — $5,000 and over 

Mr. and Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 

William H. Barnes (bequest) 

James J. Daly (bequest) 

Paul J. Gerstley 

Frank D. I luth (bequest) 

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Leslie 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Murphy, Jr. 

Pritzker Foundation, Inc. 

(Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Pritzker) 
Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation 
Ellen Thorne Smith (bequest) 
Mr. and Mrs. JackC. Staehle 
Evelyn Marshall Suarez 

Foundation (bequest) 
Chester D. Tripp Trust 

Individuals — $l,000-$4,999 

Anonymous 

Mrs. Lester Armour 

Mr. and Mrs. Gar\' Bahr 

Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Bass 

Mr. and Mrs. Roger O. Brown 

Dr. and Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 

O. Paul Decker Memorial Foundation 

(Mrs. Edwin N. Asmann) 
Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord Donnelley 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Donnelley n 
Mrs. Harry Dunbaugh 
Mrs. Burton W. Hales 
The H. Earl Hoover Foundation 

(H. Ear! Hoover) 
Oscar Kottman, Jr. 
Mrs. Arthur Moulding 
Mrs. Arthur Nielsen. Sr. 
The Offield Family Foundation 

(Wriglcy Offield) 
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Rosett 
34 Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Sahbns 



The Siragusa Foundation 

(Ross Siragusa) 
Mr. and Mrs. Irving Solomon 
The Bolton Sullivan Fund 

(Bolton Sullivan) 
Edmund B. Thornton Family 

Foundation 

(Mrs. George A. Thornton) 
Howard L. Willett Foundation, Inc. 

(Mrs. Howard L. Willett, Jr.) 

Corporations and Foundations 
$5,000 and over 

The Allstate Foundation 
Barker Welfare Foundation 
Chicago Community Trust 
Consolidated Foods Corporation 
Esmark, Inc. Foundation 
Ford Motor Company Fund 
Inland Steel-Ryerson Foundation 
McGraw Foundation 
The Northern Trust Company 
Peoples Energy Corporation 
Frederick Henry Prince Trust 4/9/47 
Sahara Coal Company 
Santa Fe Industries 
United States Gypsum 

Foundation, Inc. 
Western Electric Fund 



Corporations and Foundations 
$l,000-$4,999 

AT & T Long Lines 

Alcoa Foundation 

American National Bank and Trust 

Company of Chicago Foundation 
A. G. Becker- Warburg Paribas 

Becker Foundation 



Leo Burnett Company, Inc. 
Carson Pirie Scott Foundation 
Chemical New York Corporation-USA 
Chicago Bridge & Iron Foundation 
Chicago Tribune Foundation 
Continental Bank Foundation 
Crane Packing Company 
Crum and Forster Foundation 
Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. 
Dana Corporation Foundation 
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company 
General American Transportation 

Corporation 
General Motors Corporate Fund 
James C. Hemphill Foundation 
Walter E. Heller Foundation 
Household Finance Corporation 
Interlake Foundation 

Fred S. James & Co., Inc. 
Kemper Educational & 

Charitable Fund 
Kirkland & Ellis 
John Mohr & Sons 
The L. E. Myers Company 
National Boulevard Foundation 
New York Life Foundation 
Gust K. Newberg Construction 

Company 
Ogilvy & Mather, Inc. 
Power Systems, Inc. 
Price Waterhouse & Co. 
The Prudential Foundation 
Quaker Oats Foundation 
Reliable Electric 
Rockwell International 
Shell Companies Foundation 
Touche Ross & Company 
United States Steel Foundation, Inc. 
Wheelabrator-Fyre, Inc. Foundation 



September and October at Field Museum 



September 16 to October 15 



Continuing Exhibits 

Hall of Minerals, Meteorites, and the Moon. 
Examine minerals displayed according to system- 
atic ckissilication based on chemical composition 
and cn'stal structure. Of special interest are sev- 
eral large cn'stals from the William J. Chalmers 
collection. Riidioactive and tliu)rescent minerals 
are also showTi. A selection of meteorites repre- 
sents Field Museum's collection, one of the world's 
largest. A 19-foot motiel of the moon donated to 
the Museum in 1898 dominates the west enti of 
the hall. Hall 35, second floor. 

Cultures of the Vast Pacific (Polynesia and 
MiCRONESLM. Start at the large mural maj) which 
shows the \'arious cultural areas of the Pacific. 
Polynesia covers a triangular area extending from 
Easter Island to Hawaii to New Zealand. Explore 
the Samoan artifacts in conjunction with the spe- 
cial screening of "Moana of the South Seas" during 
the 4th Annual Festi\'al of Anthropology' on Film 
(Sept. 26-27). From the Hawaiian Islands see the 
display of feather objects, including a cape given 
to England's King George TV by King Kamehameha 
II in 1824. From New Zealand there is a collection 
of intricately carved wooden boxes used to store 
the feathers from the now extinct Huia bird. Hall 
F. Ground Floor. 



New Programs 

Fourth Annual Festival of anthropology ok 
Film. Come experience the cultures of the world in 
one weekend! Fifty-one fascinating films range 
from the classic silent documentaries of Robert 
Flaherty to the coverage oi'toj)ics on the fringes ol 
anthropology-. Highlights of the festival will be a 
special screening of the new sound version ol 
Flaherty's "Moana of the South Sea.s" and the key- 
note speech of Monica Flaherty Frassetto, who lias 
added the sound to her father's silent masterpiece. 
Order your tickets in advance from the Education 
Department, or purchase them at the West Door 
on the davs of the festival. Saiurd.n- and Sunday, 
September 2G and 27. 10:30 a.m. -5 p.m. (both 
days). Tickets: one day: Members $6, nonmem- 
bers $7; both days; Members $10, nonnuinbers 
$12. For film schedules see pp. 18-20. 

WEEKEND Discovery Progr/\ms. On &iturda\'s and 
Sunda\'s between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. you can i)ar- 
licipatc in a variety of free tours, demonstrations. 



and films on natural hislon' topics. Check the 
Weekend Siieet at liie Mu.seum entrances lc)r 
location and additional programs. 

D Saturday, Sept. 19. "The World of Dinosaurs" 

tour, 2 p.m. 
D Sunday, Sept. 20: "Clay Dinns.nnV cralt 

project, 11 a.m. 

n Saturda\-, Sept. 2G: "Ancient Egs'pt" tour. 

11:30 a.m. 
n Sunday, Sept. 27: "Fireballs and Shooting Stars: 

Ke\'s to the Universe" tour, 1:30 p.m. 
n Saturday, Oct . 3: "American Indian Dress" tour. 

11:30 a.m. 
D Saturday, Oct. 3: "Dangerous Animals" tour, 

1:30 p.m. 
D St'iturday Oct. 3: "Chinese Ceramic Traditions" 

tour, 2 p.m. 
D Sundiiv Oct . 4: "Prehistoric People in the Illinois 

Valley" tour, 1:30 p.m. 
D Saturday Oct. 10: "Bighorn"— Magnificent 

Mammals series film, 1 p.m. 
D Sunday, Oct. 11: Highlight Tour— "Spotlight on 

Animals" tour, 1:30 p.m. 

Continued on back cover 



Horicon Marsh-Kettle Moraine 

Birdwatching and Geological Field Trip 

October 17-18 

Horicon Marsh is a birdwatcher's delight. Located 
titty miles northwest ot Milwaukee, it is a refuge 
that is visited annually by more than a million mi- 
gratory watertowl. This overnight field trip will 
leave Field Museum by bus early Saturday morn- 
ing, October 17, for Horicon Marsh and return the 

next day. 

Saturday will be spent at the marsh, under ttie 
leadership of Peter \V. Bergstrom, University ot 
Chicago Ph.D. candidate whose research has cen- 
tered on the Canada goose. Saturday night we will 
be accommodated at a motel in the Kettle Mora:ne 
area, 35 miles from Horicon. Sunday, under the 
leadership ot Dr l-.dward Olsen, curator of miner- 
alogy, we will view the area's well-preserved glacial 
features that remain from the Creat Ice Age which 
ended 10,000 years ago. 

Cost of the tour, per person (double occu- 
pancy), is $130. tX). For reservations or additional 
information please write or call the Tours Office 



iS 



ILLINOIS NATURAL ^TSTORY 
SURVETY LIB R"^ 19fi 
NATURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 
URBAMA ILL 61801 



September and October at Field Museum 



Continued from in^de back cover 



R.\v A. Kkuc Ewikonmental Field Trips. You can 
take a one-day field trip with a knowledgeable 
leader to a local area of biological and ecological 
interest. Tiiese trips are ottered eacli weekend in 
September and October. Details are available in 
pamphlet mailed to all members. Early registra- 
tion In' mail is strongh' ad\ised. 

Courses for Adults. Enroll now for courses be- 
ginning October 12. From the largest selection of 
courses ever offered in this program, \'ou mav 
choose to learn about such subjects as Mazon 
Creek tbssils, Chinese alchem\', Eg\'ptolog\', or 
urban insects. The Learning Museum course is 
"Rugs of the Orient: Threads of Time," which 
sur\'eys Oriental Rugs and the cultures which 
produced thein. All courses are noncredit, and 
require ad\'ance registration. Phone reser\'ations 
by VISA/^L\STERC/\RD are accepted. Call 322-8854. 



October and November at 2:30 p.m. in the James 
Simpson Theatre. Narrated bv the filmmakers 
themseh'es, these free 90-minute film/lectures are 
recommended for adults. Admission is through 
the West Door; Members receive priority seating. 
Oct. 3: "Once upon a Ro\'al Ri\'er," with Howard 
and Lucia Me\'ers. October 10: "Quebec, Whales, 
and Labrador Tales," with Tom Sterlina;. 



Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportltnities. hidi\'iduals with an 
interest in working with school groups, presenting 
tours, and participating in other educational pro- 
grams are asked to contact the Volunteer Coor- 
dinator at 922-9410, ext. 360. 



4th Annual Festival 
€)f Anthropology on Film 



*>re^ 



60 



f\V 



^^ 



September 26, 27 
see pages 17-20 



Fall JOURNEY: "Looking AND Seeing." Field 
Museum dioramas present a glimpse of a habitat 
frozen in time. With this self-guided tour you can 
examine the main themes of s"everal dioramas as 
v\'ell as disco\'er some half-hidden surprises in the 
detailed backgrounds. FreeJoume}> pamphlets 
available at Museum entrances. 

EDWARTi E. AVER FILM LECTURE SERIES. Explore 
distant comers of the world every Saturday during 



September AND October Hours. The Museum 
opens daily at 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. even' dav 
except Friday. On Friday's the Museum remains 
open until 9 p.m. throughout the year. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays from 9 
a.m. to 4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, 
main fioor. 

Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410. 



q^ Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 

ocri 



October 1981 



^ 198] 



'/t>n. 



Ute 




Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 



Published by 

Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded lvS^'3 



PresidcJit: WiUard L. Boyd 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Editor Dcsi;^iicr: David M. Walsten 
Catciidar: Man' Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Board OF Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chinmiau 
Mrs. T. Stanlon Armour 
George R, Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gorden Bent 
Bovven Bbir 
VVillard L. Boyd 
Mrs Robert VVells Carton 
Slanton R. Cook 
O.C. Davis 

William R. Dickinson, Jr. 
Thomas E. Donnelley D 
Marshall Field 
Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo]. Melvoin 
Charles F Murphy, Jr. 
Lorin I. Nevling, Jr 
James j. O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward B\Ton Smith 
Robert H.Strotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leiand Webber 
Julian B. WilKins 
Blaine J. Yarrington 



Life Trustees 



HarT\ ; ' ' 
William N! 
Joseph N. Fieii.1 
Paul W. Gciodnct' 
Clifford C. Gregg 
Samuel InsuU. |r. 
William V Kahler 
William H Mitchell 
John M. Simpson 
J . Howard Wood 



Elair 



CONTENTS 

October 1981 
Volume 52, Number 9 



Field Briefs 



Rugs of the Orient: Threads of Time 

NEH Learning Museum Program 
by Anthony Pfeiffer, project coordinator 



Searchingfor Meteorites: The Press Release Strategy 

b\i Paul Sipiera, research associate, Department of Geology 8 



Dinosaur Day 

Department of Education Program 



11 



Canoes of the Maritime Peoples 
of the Morthwest Coast 

In/ Ronald L. Weber, visituig assistant curator, 
Depyartment of Anthropology 



12 



Titbacco and Pipe Use among the Indians 
of the Northwest Coast 

by Daniel /. Joyce, staff member of the Maritime Peoples 
of the Northwest Coast Project 



14 



Edward E. Ayer FOm Lecture Series 



16 



Baja Circumnarigated 

by Robert K. Johnson, curator of fishes and chairman, 
Depart7)iait of Zoology ■** 



Field Museum Tours for Members 



Z4 



Our Enrironment 



26 



October and November at Field Museum 

Calendar of Coming Events 



27 



COVER 



Bearberry and juniper on South Manitou Island. Lake 
Michigan. Photo by Bob Brudd, Tinley Park, Illinois. 



Field Museum of Natural History Bulletm (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except combined 
July/ August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Uke Shore Drive, 
Chicago, n. 60605. Subscriptions: $6 00 annually. S3 OO for schools Museum membership 
includes Bulleltn subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not 
necessarily reflect the polic\' of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome Museum 
phone; {312) 922-9410. Postmaster; Please send ftom 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, 
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 11. 60605. 1SSN;0015-O703. Second class postage 
paid at Chicago. 11 



FIELD BRIEFS 



E. Leland Webber Honored 

August 31, 1981, was h. Lel.ind Webber's 
final day as president of Field Museum, 
before being succeeded in that office b\- 
VVillard L. Boyd. In recognition of Web- 
ber's more than 31 years' service to the 
Museum, the staff held a reception 
in his honor in Stanle\' Field Hall 
on the evening of August 27. Mas- 
ter of ceremonies was Lorin 1. 
Nevling, Jr., director of Field 
Museum, who presented gifts on 
behalf of the staff to Webber and 
delixered the following address: 

"Tonight we are here to cele- 
brate a Museum career. It is not the 
usual career, because Lee Webber's 
influence on the Field Museum 
has been the greatest since Stanle\' 
Field. Only a few of us have been 
here throughout this period, and 
therefore, I would like to review 
some of the highlights with vou. 

"Lee came to the Museum in 
1950. Prior to that he had received 
a bachelor of business administra- 
tion degree from the University of 
Cincinnati, spent three years in 
the United States Nav\', received 
his C.P.A., and worked for several 
years with the firm of Ernst and 
Ernst. In 1951 he was appointed 
executive assistant to the director 
at Field Museum; he became assis- 
tant director in 1960 and director in 
1962. In 1976 he also was appointed 
president and held this position as well as 
the directorship until 1980. Those are the 
bare bone statistics which one usually 
finds in a professional resume. 

"During this period Lee was also ac- 
tive on behalf of the Museum community, 
engaging in such outside activities as: 
member of the Board of Governors of 
State Colleges and Universities of Illinois 
and of the Illinois State Museum Board, 
founding member of the Association of 
Systematics Collections, member of the 
Joint Committee on Museums for the 
Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education 
and Culture, active participant in the 
American Association of Museums, and, 
notably, chairman of the Committee 
which prepared the Belmont Report on 
Museum needs. Fie has served the Na- 
tional Endowment for the Arts as a 
member of the Council and as a member of 
the Museum Advisory Panel; most re- 



centl)' he has been a member ol the Board 
of the Institute of Museum Services. All ol 
these efforts have been directed toward 
strengthening museums and museum ac- 
tivities, whether In education, exhibition, 
or research. All of these organizations, as 
well as Field Museum, have been greatl\' 




£. Leland Webbct 



strengthened bv his participation. 

"Following the death in 1964 of Stan- 
ley Field, who had headed the Museum 
for more than half a centur\', it was clear 
that a modernization program was called 
for The time since 1965 can be divided 
rt)Ughly into three distinct periods. The 
period 1965 through 1969 can be charac- 
terized as one of internal reorganization — 
a period in which the institution looked at 
itself in terms of its services to the com- 
munity, its own needs, and the way in 
which those needs might be met hnan- 
cially. Lee introduced long-range plan- 
ning and the Museum began to be run in a 
more businesslike fashion. In retrospect, 
this was an extraordinary breakthrough, 
for many of America's leading cultural in- 
stitutions still must go through this neces 
sary evolutionary step. 

"Nineteen seventy through 1974 was 
the period when we began to put our 



house in order physically. The key was the 
L^ond issue through the Chicago Park Dis- 
trict in which Lee plaved an absolutely 
critical role. I wonder how many thought 
at the beginning of this program thai it 
would be possible to raise the S12. 5 million 
of matching money required to lake full 
advantage of the bond issue. Work 
was begun and virlually every 
segment of the institution was af- 
fected. In spite of fears, the nega- 
tive impacts were minimal, and by 
and large the institution func- 
tioned at a normal pace. At the 
same time, the Board of Trustees 
was reorganized in order to be- 
come more effective. This reor- 
ganization led to the formation of a 
number of continuing active 
committees on which many staff 
members have served. 

"The period 1975 through the 
present can be characterized as 
one in which the pace ol public 
programming dramatically in- 
creased. There were a number of 
important events during this time, 
including the initiation of the 
.Adult Education classes, and re- 
ceipt of the Learning .Sluseum 
grant. But the outstanding event 
was unquestionably the spiecial 
ovhibit "The Treasures of Tutan- 
khamun." Tut signalled a new era 
tor us, for it initiated a new plateau 
of activity in all segments ol the 
institution and that spirit remains 
with us today. 
"Another less visible contribution 
which Lee has made involves the canng 
relationships which he has nurtured, 
often over a pteriod of many years, with 
individuals outside of the Field Museum 
tamily Inlused bv his spirit and limitless 
enthusiasm, these individuals have be- 
come ma)or supporters. 

"We are where we are today because 
ol all of you and because of the leadership 
of Lee Webber On behalt of all of us, 
thank \ou. Lee. lor a |ob well di>ne." 



Field Museum Tours 

lor iiitoniiiition on htclii yVI;/sfK»i( > 
f.vci7/)i>; toura to Baja California, 
Alaska, the Bahamas. Ihf 
c'd/d/iiiv'ds and iiuaJor. K 
Au^ltiiliii. ami India, turn ' 



Learning Museum continues with: 

Ru^ of the Orient 
Threads of Time 

by Anthony Pfeiffer 
Project Coordinator 

Made possible h\ a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency 



Hundreds of hi: . 

labor over sini} 

looms produce tlu 

diversity and qualit}' 

oftertilesfor which 

the Middle East is 

known. Circa 1927, in 

4 Af^uinistan . 



Fhing carpets are used for transport to strange 
and exotic places in The Arabian Mghts. a 
collection of ancient tales from Arabia, Persia, and 
India (a.d. 900). Although magic carpets may never 
have existed except in fable and in the imagination. 
Oriental rugs are kxiown all over the world for 
their beaut\' and craftsmanship. Thev are made 
throughout the Middle East, in Central Asia, India, 
and China. 

Rug-making origins are buried in the distant 
and unknowable past. Rug materials are more 
perishable than are those of the other design arts 
such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. The 
oldest surviving rug was discovered in a burial 
mound in 1947, preserved in perpetual ice on the 
U.S.S.R.-Mongolian border. The piece, known as 
the Paz\T\'k, after the valley in which it was found, 
was probably made in Persia. The Pazyryk showed 
that the art of knotting pile rugs had already been 



mastered in the fifth centun' B.C. 

Nearlv 2,000 vears separate the Pazm-k from 
the next oldest rugs to have been preserved. These 
are in the Museum of Islamic Art, Istanbul, and 
date from the thirteenth centur\'. Asia Minor was 
at that time, if not the onlv carpet producer, at 
least the largest one. Two centuries later Marco Polo 
described the rugs of Asia Minor as "the best 
and handsomest carpets in the world." 

The prehistory' of rug-making peoples is almost 
as obscure as the origin of rug manufacture itself. 
The Middle East has always been viewed bv the West 
as a nomadic backwater, an area distinguished only 
as a crossroads between important centers of civi- 
lization. Funded bv petrodollars and inspired by 
emerging national pride, hou-ever, recent archeo- 
logical expeditions in Saudi Arabia have unearthed 
7,000-vear-old village complexes. Such findings 
indicate large, settled populations and may suggest 





Desert eiirampiitenl in 
TmiisionUiii. 1\iK)of 
the nuiiiyfuiutions of 
rugx are illustntteii in 
this V)2& photo. Rugs 
draped ax-er the tent 
pnivide shaiL- itnthin 
theslnutun-: tlie}Tan 
■lut'ettas tiv 
A rugsus- 
luiiiirit Jtttin a nifie 
iiisiile the tent senses 
as a mow divider. 



an ancient tradiiiim m ihr .11 1 of rug nianiifaclure. 

The famiius carpets of historical times 
undoubtedlv required a settled and stable en\'i- 
ronment for their production. The Ardebil carpet, 
of Persia, was comp)leted in 1531, after four or five 
people had worked on it for 30 years. An extra- 
ordinary amount of effort went into making even 
less spectacular rugs. Consider, for example, this 
old Indian recipe for a rich red d\'e: 

Take lac color and cochineal. Steep from four 
to sir days in the sun. in hot weather for the /^'.s.spr 
period, stirring constantly, , till a rich deep color 
comes where some has stood for a few niiinttrs in a 
thin glass bottle and settled. Then .<itrain through 
tivo ch)ths. and put in pomegranate rind and good 
iron-filings water. Add mineral acid, steep the h'ooI 
for 36 hours, then boil for 3 hours, uyi.s/i well and 
dr\'. 



NEH Learning Mu.seum at Field iMu.seuni 

The XEH l-earniiig Museum program is a thrtr 
vear sequence of learning opportunities focu.scd on 
the Museum's oulstatuling e.iiiihils and coUcclious 
and de.-iigncd to give participants an opporlunily 
to c.vplorc a subject in depth. Kach unit of study 
consists of one or more .■iperial rvrnls. a Irrturr 
course, and a .seminar for advanced work. Sptriol 
events are lectures by renowned aulliorilies m 
interpretive performances and demon. •it rations 
Course members receive an annotated bil)ti<>\:, 
raphy, a specially developed guide to pertinent 
Museum exhibits, and sliuiy notes for related .s/jc 
cial events. In-depth, smalt group .■icminars allow 
more direct contact unth faculty and with Mu.'irum 
collections. 




A woman spitis wxxil 
in Al Qo.th , Afgfxanis- 

Ion., ill, I t'VM 



1-: 






Many holts of doth 
are available at mar- 
ket. The vendor, seated 
on a rug which is 
probably from Persia, 
baryiains xiith a 
potential customer. 
Circa 192S. 




K 



All this labor produced merelv one of the 
colors needed for a carpet. Multiply all the work 1)\' 
12 or even 15 and you have an idea of what it took tn 
produce masterpieces. 

Rugs such as the Ardebil and other famous 
examples of the craft were made for royalty. The 
common people made and used simpler rugs, as 
they do today, for a startling varietA' of purposes. 
Carpets are used as beds, wall hangings, for shade, 
to sit on, and to di\ide rooms. Special rugs are used 
for prayer and may be patterned after the ground 
plans of mosques. Some ma\' be made siniplv be- 
cause woven wool brings more money than 
raw wool. 

Rugs of The Orient: Thiruds of Time invites 
you to sur\'ey the full range of Oriental rugs — tidiii 
the ornate rugs of princes to the functional wea\- 
ings of desert nomads. The many t\pes of rugs and 
their uses, along with manufacture methods and 
materials are considered. Places and times of pro- 
duction are also discussed. E.\pk)re the symbols on 
carpets in terms of their practical, cultural, mysti- 
cal, or artistic significance. Fabulous Rigs of the 
court, commercial rugs made to cater to western 
tastes, and the everA'day rugs of village life are ex- 
amined. Lectures feature leading authorities on 
Oriental rugs from all over the United States. The 
course of study begins October 14, and details are 
available in the Fall, 1981, Courses for Adults 
brochure. 

You are also invited to attend Fabric of Culture 
Festival, a related special event, on November 15. 
1981. As the photos here show, rugs are simply one 
kind of splendid textile produced in the Easl. Fab- 
ric of Culture Festival celebrates many t\pes of tex- 
tiles, the fine art with which they are made, and 
the diverse peoples who use them. A full day of 




A colorful gmllftiuin 

i ■' !, , keti in and at rn>- 
. •.. till nuinntT of 
• It unit tr-Aliles. 

Cinii nrjji. 



activities includes spinning, weaving, dyeing, knit- 
ting, and man\' other demonstrations. E.xperts are 
on hand to comment on and evaluate your textiles. 
Turkish folk singing and films of the Middle East 
and its people are highlighted. Details are an- 
nounced in \\w Xoveniber Calendar of Li'eiits, 
sent to .Members. 




Searching for Meteorites 

The Press Release Strategy 

by Paul Sipiera 
Research Associate, Department ofGeologi' 



Some 4.6 billion years ago Earth and the other 
planets gradually formed from the cooling, 
condensing residue that remained after the birth 
of the Sun. We know this because the embry- 
onic stages of our solar system have been im- 
printed on the chemistry of minerals present in 
meteorites and in the general physical appear- 
ance of the meteorites themselves. 

Since its own formation. Earth has been 
bombarded by these fragments of rock and 
metal; and even now, thousands of meteors con- 
tinue to plunge into the Earth's atmosphere 
daily. The vast majority, however, burn up be- 
fore reaching the Earth's surface. Of those that 
do make it through, most are lost in the oceans. 
Meteorite finds, correspondingly, are rare; but 
everv one is of interest to science, since each 



carries unique clues to parts of the great cosmic 
puzzle of our solar system's origin. They are, in 
a sense, the poor man's space probe, yielding 
free information that is otherwise obtainable 
only by means of costlv man-made space vehicles. 
How does one go about finding meteorites 
for scientific study? There are a number of pos- 
sible approaches. The most productive is to 
search for them in the Antarctic icecap, where 
the dark-hued meteorites stand out boldly 
against the white of the ice. Because of move- 



Pun/ Sipiera is assistant professor of geology and astronomy 
at William Ramexi Harper College. 



Meteorite search . ^ 

members use iti: 
detector to locate iro 
meteorites. Left: Mike 
Matheson . riglit : I 
\'anc}' Caskei'. stu- 
dents at William , 
8 Rainey Harper College, j 




"f '■ 



-^ 






merit within this icecap, meteorites which have 
been accumulating for thousands of \ears and 
are buried w ithin the ice, are brought up lo thi' 
surface, where they await discovery. The main 
drawback to an Antarctic search is the simple 
one of economics; few researchers have funds 
for such a costly venture. The less fortunate — 
those without the resources to collect so far 
afield — must wait patienth' for the next meteor- 
ite to fall — in one's own backyard, so to speak — 
or await the report of the farmer who plows up 
an odd-looking rock in his field. 

But there is another, more productive 
approach, one which utilizes the special power 
of museums and other scientific institutions to 
educate the public about meteorites. Rarely 
locating meteorites by themselves, scientists 
rely almost exclusively on rockhounds and 
keen-eyed farmers to report their unusual finds. 

In April, 1976, the Field Museum in cooper- 
ation with William Rainey Harper College, of 
Palatine, Illinois, inaugurated a program of 
meteorite recover)-, modeling it after a similar, 
highly successful program conducted by UCLA 
in 1974. The Field Museum-Harper College ap- 
proach, like UCLA's, was to distribute a press 
release to newpapers around the country, offer- 
ing a $100 reward for the discoverv of a pre- 
viously unreported meteorite. 

From April 1, 1976, to March 31, 1980, the 
reward offer resulted in 1,453 inquiries about 
meteorites. Persons in 44 states and six coun- 
tries wrote or called in; most responses, as 
expected, were from Illinois and neighboring 
states; about half concerned actual specimens 
for identification. As a result of this effort, only 
two genuine meteorites were located: a tiny 
fragment of the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite 
was brought to the Museum during the first two 
weeks of the program, and two years later a 
small fragment of a meteorite that fell in Nakla, 
Egypt, came in from England. Both meteorites 
had long been known to us and, in fact, we 
already had specimens of them in the Field 
Museum collection. But no new meteorite 
specimens turned up, so the reward remained 
uncollected. 

Then, in the spring of 1977, we decided to 
change our tactic, sending search teams to areas 
where meteorite recover)' has historicalK' been 
good (see "In Search of Meteorites," by Paul 
Sipiera, in the September, 1977, Bulletin ). Search 
team members canvassed farmers in selected 
areas, describing to them what meteorites l(H)k 
like. It was during this time that we first heard 
from Walter E. Hollingsworth, a farmer living in 
Plainview, Texas, who wrote that he had seen 
our reward offer in the local newspaper. 
Hollingsworth had two or three meteorites lying 



.V 






i 



1 

/ i 



'•^'t^ 








around the house and wondered if we would like 
to see them. 

After a year of looking at hundreds of 
"meteor-wrongs," we were by then skeptical 
of such offers. So we were understandably 
excited when one of 1 lollingsw orth's specimens 
turned out to be the real thing; it was a 4.4-lb. 
ston\' meteorite he had plowed up almost forty 
years earlier On anahsis, it was shown lo be part 
of a large, known meteorite shower that had 
fallen around Plainview about 19tK) So I lollings- 
worth's find, regrettably, failed toqualitN- tor the 
reward. 

In 1980, three years after launching our pro- 
gram, we still had no new meteorites to show tor 
our efforts. Ihen we heard again from Hollings- 
wt)rth. He reported that since our 1977 \isit he 
had kept his eye out for meteorites while 
plowing This hail \ielded nothing; but a 
neighboring farmer had louiul what seemed like 
it could be a meteorite in his cotton stripper 
1 lollingsworth succeeded in obtaining the 
specimen and mailed it lo us. I le liati a winner! 
The three- pound, ten-ounce (1,641 gm) object 



Wiilu-rL. HuUiiiifs- 
Hiorth (Uji) receixrs 
$IUU dieckjbr nteieor- 
ite tiiscoirn-froni tlw 
author, ii'/io lioUU the 
RtJtk Creek, Ihvus, 
iiieUxjiile. 




Microphoto^raphic 

vneii's ofcliondrulcs in 

the Rock Creek , Texas , 

meteorite. Left xiew 

shows sewral chori- 

drules; H'Uith of field 

about Z. 5 mm. At riglit 

is a large, barred - 

olivine chondnde nnlh 

fiiv distinct rims. 

Chomirule diam . 

7mm. 



10 



was not only a genuine meteorite, it proved to be 
a new find, not part of a previously known 
shower. So HoUingsworth became the first 
recipient of the $100 reward. His meteorite has 
been given the name of Rock Creek, Texas, the 
town nearest the discovery sight. 

The Rock Creek meteorite is roughlv 
rectangular and its surface is highly oxidized, 
indicating exposure to Earth's weathering pro- 
cesses over a considerable length of time. Its 
interior also reveals weathering penetration 
fractures, small grains of metal, and an 
abundance of imbedded BB-like structures 
known as chondrules. In the opinion of experts, 
these light-hued structures are representative of 
the first solid objects to condense from the 
cooling solar nebula billions of years ago. In 
them, scientists believe they have the best 
■: > '■/'fnce for what the earliest conditions of the 
s. :„ system were like. 

A nevvly found meteorite is generally sub- 
jected to a battery of tests, including chemical 
analysis and mineral content determinahon; its 



age mav also be calculated. The ratio of metal to 
rock-forming minerals in the meteorite will 
classify it as a stony meteorite (80 percent rock, 20 
percent metal), a stony-iron meteorite (about 
half rock, half metal), or an iron meteorite (20 
percent or less of rock, 80 percent or more of 
metal). The Rock Creek meteorite belongs to the 
stonv group, and it is further classified as an 
"ordinary chondrite. " But the specimen is hardly 
ordinarv: Microscopic examination of its interior 
has revealed a wide variety of chondrules. 
Among the more interesting of these is a large 
(7mm diam.) barred-olivine chondrule with as 
many as five concentric rims, or shells. One rim 
is tv'pical in barred-olivine chondrules, but five is 
extraordinars'. 

We sfill have a great deal to learn about the 
processes which formed meteorites and how this 
informafion relates to the origin of planets; but 
this finv hunk of rock found in a Texas cotton 
stripper may provide answers to some of these 
cosmic questions. Walter HoUingsworth, thank 
you! n 



Dinosaur Day 




Suiiilav, November 8, 1981 

11:00 am-4:()() pill 



JOIN Us For a Day Of Fun devoted to tlu- 
incredible world of dinosaurs. Adults as 
well as children learn the tacts and find out 
what is fiction about some of the most fas- 
cmating creatures that ever li\'ed. Local scholars and 
Field Museum staff will conduct slide lectures, tours, 
and craft demonstrations througlmui the Museum. 
Visitors can make fossil rubbings of a n\Tng pterosaur, 
follow dinosaur footprints on a treasure himt, make 
dinosaur mobiles, draw murals of prehistoric life, create 
dinosaurs out of clav, or compare fossil specimens in 
"Dinosaur Show and Tell." 

Museum staff will demonstrate how dinosaur bones are transported 
from the field to the lab, and explain reconstruction technicjues. Special in-deplh tours, slide lectures, and 
mini-tours will present the stor\' of dinosaurs as shown through Museum exhibits in the Hall of Fossil 
Vertebrates. Join us for the "Ultrasaurus Storv " or learn about paleoinvertebrates — creatures that lived in the 
ocean long before the dinosaurs arose. Find out about dinosaur behavieir and locomotion and learn how tlu'\ 
are studied through fcxssil record. 

Special films acquaiiit vou witli the \'arious extinction theories, explain iiow fossil specimens art- 
collected, and show vou some of the dinosaurs' closest living relatives. 

The films "Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs," "The Asteroid and the Dinosaur," and "Dinosaurs: The Age ol 
Reptiles " will be screened in James Sim{)son Theatre at the Museum's barrier-free West Flntrance. Between 
films, paleontologists will discuss the \'arious dinosaur extinction theories and invite (luestions from tin- 




audience, 
program 

activities is 
call (312) 




"Dinosaur Da\" j)romises to bean exciting, information-packed dav for all ages. Tl; 
isfreewitii Museum admission — no tickets reijuired. A complete schedule ol 
available at the Museum iiitrances on the day of the event. For more information 
322-8854. 



Canoes 

Of The Maritime Peoples 
Of The Northwest Coast 



by Ronald L. Weber 

Visit iig Assistant Curator 

Department ofAnthropologi' 



Sixteen-foot canoe 

built for Field Museum 

by Lance Wilkie, a 

Makah Indian. At left, 

Wilkie poses with the 

recently completed 

canoe. The n;>'i.' r^im- 

shozi>s in the caiiL 

ious articles maiu 

Wilkte and by XU 

garet ln<ing, abo a 

Makah, which icill he 

placed in the canoe 

when it is exhibited at 

Field Museum. (Photos 

12 courtesy Ijince Wilkie.) 



Throughout the Pacific Northwest, Indians built 
large villages on the seashore or riverbanks, fac- 
ing the water. Oceans and rivers were not con- 
sidered barriers; they were, instead, roads of in- 
teraction. Many foods and other materials were 
accessible only by water; but even forest animals, 
berries, and edible roots were brought back to 
the village in boats whenever possible. Warriors, 
traders, hunters of land game, and collectors of 
forest products — all began their expeditions in 
canoes. Cargoes too heavy for one man to trans- 
port could be carried easily by water over long 
distances. 



It has been said that an essential factor in the 
ability of various early peoples to accumulate 
excess wealth and food was the wheel; but more 
often, efficient watercraft have carried the truly 
large loads. It was the efficient dugout canoe that 
made it possible for the dense populations on 
the Northwest Coast to gather in costal villages. 
Abundant food supplies and other status goods 
could be collected from diverse areas and 
brought back to the large permanent houses of 
the winter villages. 

Dugout canoes were built of single red 
cedar logs. These were hollowed out and filled 





Silhouettes ofNortlrwest Coast canoes. From top to bottom: Hauhi. Soolktui, and river ninoe XUulels of these ivill be on vuto m 
Hall 10, opening April. 1982. 



with a mixture of water and urine, which was 
heated by adding hot stt)nes. As the wood be- 
came pliable, the sides of the canoe were spread 
open and held with thwarts. The outer form of 
the canoe and inside details were then finished. 
To render the craft more seaworth\, bow and 
stem pieces were added. The largest canoes — 
up to 70 feet long and capable of carrying 50 to 
60 passengers — were used by warriors, traders, 
or people on their way to a ceremony at another 
village. Other types of canoes were designed for 
whaling, sealing, or for fishing, and each coastal 
group had its own particular style. Around the 
Queen Charlotte Islands, which lie just south ot 
the Alaskan panhandle, the Haidas made 
round-bottomed canoes with high, sweeping 
bows and sterns. The Nootkan (West Coast 
People) made tlat-bottomed canoes with blunt 
sterns and sweeping bows; the latter resembled 
the neck and head of a bird or wolf. Dugout 
canoes without raised bows or sterns were 
common among the Salish. 

The Field Museum had no tuil-sized North- 
west Coast canoes in its collection when it began 
developing plans for its new permanent exhibit 
of the Maritime Peoples of the Arctic and North- 



west Coast, scheduled to open in Hall 10 in April, 
1982. There were several kayaks which could be 
used in the Eskimo portion of the exhibit, but ii 
was also essential that a Northwest canoe be 
included in an exhibit emphasi/ing the Maritnne 
adaptations. 

Last year, to fill this need, Field Museum 
commissioned Lance W'ilkie, a Makah Indian ol 
Neah Bay, Washington, to build a canoe in the 
Nootkan style — specifically a salmon-fishing 
canoe, since salmiin are the niosl important food 
resource of the coast Indians. The seagoing, 16- 
foot canoe', with bird-shaped bow, was success- 
fully tested in the Pacific last April. On view in 
the salmon fishing section of the new exhibit, it 
will be equipped with paddles', bailers', water 
box*, salmon club\ hooks', and kelp fishline', all 
made by Lance Wilkie. Acanoe mat', tood bag", 
and fish pouch'", all made b\' Margaret lr\ing, 
alst)a Makah Indian, will be placed in the canoe. 



;. C<i/ii/(i,v 0204040. 2: 02ti4O.W, ,V- 02b4O.U, 4: 
§2t4042'. 5; 02b4O43. b: 02b4O4l. 7: 02b4O4i. S: 
0264045. 9: 0264046, 10: 02b4O39. 



13 




Tobacco and Pipe Use Among the 

Br DaitidJ.Jovce, staff'nieiuber of the Ma ritime 



1: HaiJa arjfillite pipe with 
Eurijpean and Indian 
motifs combined. Shown 
are figures of birds, hu- 
mans, and a whale; 
82673. 2: Tlingitpipe rep- 
resenting twoi/oung ra- 
vens waiting tobefed. The 
pipe has two mouth holes, 
one in each of the ravens' 
mouths. It has an iron 
bout 78850. 3: Tlingit 
(Tarku) stone pipe from 
Stevens passage, Alaska. 
Totemic figures represent 
a rai'eti and a raven's 
head: 78251. 4: Wooden 
pipe in form of killer 
whale, with another fig- 
ure superimposed. TTie 
bowl is made from a gun 
barrel: the eye is a car- 
tridge shell base': 14377. 5: 
Tlingit : -;K-a) feast pipe. 
The pipe rqiresents a sea 
otter on itc ''\ick in the 
water holding a t-:^r in its 
hind paws. The nafir,;- iv- 
terpretation is tha: ,-:: 
otter represents a cano:- 



14 



The history of tobacco use and its diffusion 
throughout the world began when Christopher 
Columbus's crew members first observed cigar 
smoking among the natives of what is now Cuba . 
By 1600 tobacco was being widely cultivated in 
European countries and in their colonies abroad. 
Within a short time explorers had also brought 
the American Indian pipe to Europe. 
Eighteenth-century colonists introduced tobacco 
into areas where it had never been cultivated or 
smoked. The Russians brought it to the Alaskan 
Eskimos, while the British and French intro- 
duced it to most of the Sub Arctic Indians. The 
tobaccos disseminated in this manner were of 
two species: Nicotiatia tahacum and N. rustica. 

Europeans first came to the Northwest 
Coast in 1741, when Vitus Bering, a Danish 
navigator in the employ of the Russians, sought a 
land bridge between North America and 
Kamchatka Peninsula, which extends south- 
westward from easternmost Siberia. 

On this voyage, Bering had two ships, 
V hich became separated in a storm, and Bering 
died after being shipwrecked on an island be- 
tween Aiaska and Siberia. His crewmen, how- 
ever, survived by eating sea otters, and after their 
rescue they took samples of otter pelts back to 



Russia. The sleek fur was immediately in de- 
mand, and the Northwest coastal area was soon 
overrun with pelt-seekers from the east and 
west. The resident Indians, from southern 
Alaska to southern Oregon, adopted many of the 
newcomers' ways, including tobacco smoking 
and the use of pipes. 

In prehistoric times, tubular, trumpet- 
shaped pipes (a style introduced by Indians of 
the Plateau area to the southeast) were smoked 
in the vicinity of what is now the city of 
Vancouver, British Columbia, and to the north- 
east on the upper Eraser River; but pipes discov- 
ered at archeological sites in these areas are few. 
When the first European arrived, pipe smoking 
had not been practiced in these areas for some 
four centuries. The fact that pipes have never 
been found in prehistoric sites north of 
Vancouver Island may simply be because until 
now relatively little archeological investigation 
has been conducted there. 

In prehistoric times, the Tlingit and Haida, 
north of Vancouver, pulverized tobacco leaves, 
mixed them with pine bark or shell lime, and 
made them into pellets, which were dissolved in 
the mouth. Recent analysis of tobacco collected 
in 1787 by the English explorer George Dixon has 




^ 



'^^rr 




\ ^t% 



10 





Indians of the Northwest Coast 



Peoples of tlw Arctic ciud Xortluvcst (ahisI Project 

shown the tobacco species to be Nicotiana quad- 
rivalvus. 

Some anthropologists suggest that the 
chewingof tobacco came to the Northwest Coast 
Indians from lime-chewing tribes of southern 
California, Mesoamerica, or even Andean South 
America. The fact that tobacco was chewed but 
rarely smoked before the arrival of Whites is also 
indicated by the journals of Lewis and Clark in 
the early 1800s. 

Each Northwest coast family associated it- 
self with a particular animal or animals, such as 
the raven, eagle, or beaver, and representatiims 
of these are recurrent in the high!)' developed art 
style of the region. A great variety of everyday 
goods were decorated with such motifs, and it 
was natural that they were also used on the new 
smoking pipes, such as those shown here. 

Northwest Coast pipes are of two basic 
types, both markedly different from the calumet, 
or "peace pipe," of the Plains Indians. One type, 
created bv Haida craftsmen of argillite, a car- 
bonaceous shale, was made for trade with 
Whites, and often had European and Indian 
motifs in combination. The second type, made 
by tribes other than the Haida, was of wood, 
stone, or bone, decorated onh with Indian 



motifs, and used primariK' b\ the Indians them- 
selves. Many of the latter t\pe were inlaid with, 
shell, bone, ivory, or even cartridge shell bases. 
Some were carved from gunstocks, and gun bar- 
rel sections were frequentU' used as pipe bo\sl 
liners. 

In contrast to tribal customs elsewhere in the 
Americas, Northwest Coast pipe smoking was 
generally not used in religious ceremonies; 
ritualized smoking, however, became common 
in certain nonreligious rites. 

The Northwest Coast is largely a lush rain 
forest, which was a bountiful source of food and 
the other essentials of life. Its residents, then, 
were involved to a lesser extent with subsistence 
activities and more with the creation of their var- 
ious art forms; their art readily incorporated new 
materials brought in by the Europeans. The ac- 
culturation of the Northwest Coast Indian is 
exemplified bv their quick adoption of pipe 
smoking and the application ol their art form to 
the smoking pipes shown here 



A (»iWi(iyni/'/ii/ I'd the suhjccl of this article is ohtaiiiablc 
hy uTi/iMv; tlif alitor. 



tum/iMij a tfar Ihe 
Irwiijfular .•ifr^'S IftUYfn 
Ihe btar an J the h>u>/ sym • 
Mtze u<at<fs On other 
iiiie IS d yrrti( tiS'h and 
octopui leiiljilei The 
pipe hm. ii ioifier l\tu4iinJ 
IS inlaiJ uilh Cahtomu 
lialuite<.iJiell.78:4S.6: 
Ttnijiil (Sill^lpipeol 
u«>j lanrd lo rqtreseni 
ihe Jm/hs'i Pie toi r i.- a 
lutwk'i. and Ihe lenlailei 
are on llie nJes ll i.< 
omamenleJ wilh hrass, 
78:S.^ 7:HatJailuel 
KaJawak s f>i;v i>f 
hjrJiiwd lunvii lo repre- 
x-nl (lis iTo/, a liii^'fish, 
and inlaid utih atvlone 
ihell Ihe pif>e is smoked 
■uilh Ihe tish upsidedimii. 
79Sfl.^ 8: Wttodeti pipe in 
form ol lai'Oi > head. The 
howl i.s m>ii, M.W.' "»• 
;7iin;i( (Sfici/i.v 
Wrangel)h(^':, 
Ivu'l h'v 

7*t5; ;- ■•« 

made '• 
deer ,1 



15 



Edward E. Ayer Film Lecture Series 



October and November 
James Simpson Theatre 

Saturdays, Z:30PM 

Tlu' Edward E. Aver Film Lectures are held each Saturdiiy in October and November at 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson 
Theatre. Admission is free at the Museum's West Entrance. Doors open at 1:45 p.m. Members must bring their 
membership cards for priority' seating privileges. When the theatre has reached full seating capacity, the doors will be 
closed hv Seciirit\- [KTsonnel in compliance with fire regulations. Field Museum is a barrier-free institution. 




October 3 ( >iuc upon a Rin'al Riivr 

bv Howard and Lucia Meyers 

This film presents a glounng pictorial pageant of the glorious days 
of France when kings and queens, princes and paramours, lived 
and loved bv the banks of the Loire, the longest river in France. It 
affords entree to the great roval houses of Medieval and Renais- 
sance France and a rare introduction to their titled owners. 




October tO Quebec, Whales , and Labrador Tales 
b\' Tom Sterling 

Visit Tadoussac. she French trading post established in IGOO 
and located at tht < rnfluence of the Saguenav and St. Lawrence 
rivers. Then we procetr, ,;astward along the north shore of the St. 
LawTence, traveling thusjii,h verdant farmlands, then north to 
the tundra and boreal fore*? "-iirmu'iding the mining to^vn of 
Scheffen\ille. Our journey end . , : ! i a closeup view of giant 
finback, humpback, and snow-wi;ii.^ beluga whales off the 
1 (, shore at Tadoussac. 




October 17 Egi'pt: Open Borders 
bv William Sylvester 

Our tour of Egvpt begins with a flight to Abu Simbel, the greatest 
moving project ever accomplished. Ne.\t we take a cruise on the 
Nile for a closeup view of activiU' along the river banks. After a 
brief look at life in a typical Egyptian village, visit the Valley of the 
Queens, King Tilt's tomb, and the temple complex at Luxor and 
Karnak. Our trip concludes with a tour of Cairo, Africa's largest 
citv, and Ale.xandria, Egypt's second largest city. 









1 






11 


* 


9&m 




^9 


^M 



October 24 Austrui — Heart of the IVrul 
h\ William S\'lvester 

Racing glacier streams, cows in gala dress, pageantry', festivals, 
and villagers in their daily lives highlight this whirlwind tour to 
Austria — Heart of the TVrol. Visit Salzburg, city of music, and 
Imperial Vienna, now capital of the Republic. In Innsbruck watch 
Austria's Olympic ski team train on the summer snow. Our visit 
concludes with the annual Talfest. the valley celebration heralding 
winters approach. 




October 31 Vi/v;, .,s7,n7<i Afirr YVfo 
by Frank Klicar 

Frank Klicar has filmed his ancestral country' «ith insight and 
devotion. Daily life on a Croatian farm; Yugoslavians in cil\- and 
\illage, at school and at work, all pictured «ilh a personal touch. 
Here is Yugoslavia al its finest . . . charming islands, ihe Dalmatian 
coast, sunlit seas, ancient architecture, frescoes, modern cities, 
and rural marketplaces. Yugoslavia presented as a unique 
combination of natural beauty and lix ing folklore. 




Noxeniber 7 



Thr Mfclili'minnii! 
hv William Madsen 



We are taken outside the metropolitan centers of the Mediter- 
ranean to discover the places and people of the past and the 
cultures thev inherited. In Spain \\c \isit Llche, site of F.urope's 
most important palm forest, then on to the island of Majorca and 
a vi.sit with a t\pical famih. Oete, with the Plateau of Lassithi 
and its thnu.sands of windmills, and Knossos, legendar\- love of 
the Minotaur and seal of Minoan culture, is our next port of call. 
We conclude our trip in Morocco and with a look at Tangier. 




November 14 Lucky Auslrahu 

by Ken Armstrong 

Our trip begins at Rottreat Island, Weslcrn Australia, the landing 
site of the Dutch in l(i9(; and liome of the (juokka, an unusual 
marsupial. After slopping in Perth anri Paraburdoo, ifs on to 
Sydney with its Captain Cook Memorial, Melbourne with its 
picturesque parks, and Brisbane with a side trip to the Love 
Pine Sanctuan' to \isit the platypuses, koalas and kangaroos. 
Our trip concludes with a trip to Uluru National P.irk in the 
Northern Territory- and a \isit to Ayer's Rock. 




November 21 Spain u ta Carli- 
by Ric Dougherty 

Spain is divided by histor>' and geography into six zones of cooking. 
See all of Spanish culture depicted in a colorful slon' that takes you 
step by step through food preparation in its nalural .setting. The 
exciting stor\- of Spaiifs history and historical places around which 
developed those distinctively diderenl diets is told as we lour 
throughout this fascinating counIr\'. 




.\ii\ I'liibrr ~U 



Hi uttuit K 

1 IV Willis Buller 



Mr. Buller l.ikes uson .i visit lo modern IXmiii 
500 neighboring islands. Kn|oy the peacefiil • 
four-hundred-year-old inns, and ihe piclurewiue : 
Climb ihe sand dunes and walk through the nv" 
in colorful Copenhagen with a visil lo the world ' 
Gardens. 



&u- 



17 



BAJA CIRCUMNAVIGATED 

by Robert K.Johnson 
Curator of Fishes and Cliciirnian of the Department of Zoology 

Photos by the author 



To Sail in Tropical Seas, to walk on 
desert-rimmed shores, to explore islands 
uninhabited by humans but rich in subtropical 
life forms — such is the stuff of naturalists' 
dreams. Especially when the month is February 
and the naturalists involved live in the Midwest. 
Those persons who shared in the 1981 Field 



18 



Sea of Cor lez from 
summit ridge at Isia 
Partida 




Museum "Baja Circumnavigated" Tour 
experienced the reality of this dream. 

Departure from Chicago was on the last 
Saturday of January; our intermediate goal was 
San Diego. Here we were to meet other members 
of the tour party organized by Sven Lindblad's 
Special Expeditions organization. Our vessel 
was in San Felipe and transport to that northern 
gulf village was by chartered motor coach. As 
the chaparral-clad western face of the Lagunas 
Mountains was replaced by the much more sere 
vegetation of the eastern slope and Salton Sink, 
we felt ourselves entering the magic of the Cortez 
rift valley. 

The Gulf of California, also known as the 
Vermilion Sea and the Sea of Cortez, forms a 
long rectangle some 680 miles long and 60 to 130 
miles wide. Lying in a northwest-to-southeast 
line, the gulf is bounded by the peninsula of Baja 
California and the Mexican mainland states of 
Sonoraand Sinaloa. Formed along the line of the 
East Pacific Rise and its terrestrial extension, the 
San Andreas Fault, much of the gulf fills the void 
left by the splitting of the Baja Peninsula from the 
Mexican mainland. The Imperial and Coachella 
valleys of California, into which our bus was now 
descending, represent a structural continuation 
of the gulf basin. The waters of the gulf once 
extended to near Mt. San Gorgonio, north of 
Palm Springs in southern California; but the gulf 
is now cut off from California b\' thousands of 
feet of deltaic deposits from the Colorado River. 

Some miles to the south of the busy agri- 
cultural city of Mexicali, mud-lined channels and 
extensive salt flats indicated the nearness of the 
sea. Tides in the upper gulf are among the most 
impressive in the v\orld, with a 20-to-30-foot 
range between high and low. A phenomenon 
now essentially lost to the northern gulf was the 
large tidal bore of the Colorado, described as 
sometimes forming a rolling comber, 6 to 9 feet 
high, rushing inland 15 or more miles. With 
diversion of the river's waters for irrigation and 
other purposes and a consequent reduction in 
average yearly discharge rates to about one 
percent of the natural flow, the bore is gone but 
the tides remain spectacular. As we waited on a 
beach at San Felipe for transportation by small 



inflatable boats, the "Humbers," to our expe- 
dition vessel, the almost fulK exposed pier rising 
25 feet above us dramatically demonstrated the 
great tidal range. 

Our vessel, the Pacific MorthuY>t Explorer. 
143 Vi feet in length, departed shortly after ue 
boarded. She was to be our himie and vehule tor 
nearly two weeks as we sailed down the length 
of the Baja Peninsula and up the outer coast to 
San Diego, a distance of more than 1,400 miles. 
Integral to Field Museum Tours and the Special 
Expeditions operation is pro\ision of an inter- 
pretive naturalist staff. As an ichthyologist and a 
graduate of the Scripps Institution of Oceanog- 
raphy, various aspects of the marine environ- 
ment were to be my responsibility. Our 
experience was to be unique in that this was the 
first time a natural history tour had attempted 
the near-circumnavigation of Baja California — 
our trip was the maiden voyage for the tour 
program and, indeed, for the ship. 

The overnight passage carried us across 
the relatively shallow basin of the northern gulf. 
In the morning we made landfall at the northern 
tip of Isla Angel de la Guardia. Second only to 
Tiburon in size amt)ng the gulf islands, it is 42 
miles long, volcanic in origin, and, reputedly, 
second to none in abundance of rattlesnakes. 
Nearly encircling and forming the protected 
anchorage of Puerto Refugio are a series of 
small islands. 

The relati\'e shallow draft and high maneu- 
verabilitx' of our ship allowed a safe but very 
close approach to Isla Guanito, where on ever\' 
side we were greeted b\' cacophonous sea lions 
{Arctocqjhalus californianus) while overhead were 
pelicans, gulls, and brown boobies. Our first 
"wet landing" and chance to explore beaches, 
valleys, and hills was on nearby Isla Meija. The 
more than 100 islands of the gulf contribute 
greatly to its biological interest, for the\- exhibit a 
wide diversity of age, recency of connection to 
mainland ("oceanic" vs "land-bridge" Islands), 
size, topography, and consequentK' faunal 
distincHveness. Species such as the rattleless 
rattlesnake (Crotaltis catalincusis), found only on 
Santa Catalina Island, exemplif\' the uniqueness 
of the insular fauna. 

Separating Angel de la Guardia from Baja 
California is the8-to-13-mile-wide Canal de 
Ballenas. Part of the so-called Midriff Region, the 
gulf's narrowest segment, the Canal de Ballenas 
is exposed to the full force of the spring tides. 
With depths to 1,000m, the canal churns and 
foams with the passage of the waters. Such 
mixing has the beneficial effect of renewing 
nutrients in the well-lit surface waters. Such 
renewal results in rich blooms oi ph\ toplank- 
ton, the microscopic plants that are the base of 





deepwater food chains. I he ruhness i-, attested 
to b\an extrat)rdinar\ abundance ol game fishes 
and by the occurrence of a resident population 
of fin whales (Biilnciioftcra /Wii/sfl/is). The latter, 
now a sadK' depleted species elsewhere, is 
second in body size onh' to the blue whale 
among rorquals — the great baleen \\hales. 

Fins are probabK the fastest of all baleen 
whales, reportedly cruising at about 8 knots and 
capable of doing better than 20. Despite their 
speed, the concentration of this population in thi- 
Canal de Ballenas was such that there was a good 
chance we might see them. And sie them we did! 
For more than an hour the speed and maneu- 
verabilitx' of our boat allowed us to observe at 
fairls' close range a large pod, or herd, of lin 
whales. A combination of blue but w hitecapped 
sea, lowering and I ragg\' volcanic cliffs in huesol 
red, orange, and purple, and tin- continuing high 
spouts of more than thirty of these magnificent 



.\i \ r.Kiiu 

.N'orlhw est Explorer 
off Isla Mt'iia 



19 




r 



^ 




'*v 



Osprey, PandiL>n 

haliaetus, retuntitig 

to nest at central 

island. Islas San 

Bcnitos 



20 



creatures, made it an unturgettable afternoon. 
An evening ashore at Bahia de las Angeles and a 
meal provided there bv the establishment of Sr. 
Antero Diaz completed the perfection of the day. 
Well known to gulf visitors of every occupation 
and recreational persuasion, Sr. Diaz is a fount 
of information and legend. We were delighted 
when he consented to accompany us for the rest 
of the voyage. 

An overnight voyage put us at San Pedro 
Marhr, the most isolated of the gulf islands and, 
to mv mind, among the most wondrous. Rising 
almost vertically from the sea, this peak reaches 
1,052 feet in elevation and vet is less than a mile in 
diameter. From a distance I was reminded of the 
High Sierra, dark fir and white granite; the forest 
I saw, however, was not coniferous but com- 
prised of giant cardon cacti {Pachi/cereus) in rank 
after rank ascending the guano-stained cliff. 
The seabirds were magnificent — tropic birds, 



boobies, cormorants, frigates, and pelicans. 
Blue-footed boobies engaging in awkward 
yet stately courtship ritual were the stars of 
San Pedro Martir; their bright blue feet were 
absolutely startling on the stark white-tm- 
white rubble slopes. 

Each dav in the gulf was filled w ith magic, 
wonder, and at times humor — the latter ex- 
pressed, for example, in the faces of a partv of 
four in a lovely sailboat we found anchored at 
Caleta de San Juanico. Imagine awakening at 6 
a.m. in what last night was isolated and starlit 
wilderness onh' to find 60 pairs of binoculars 
temporarilv following vour everv movement. 
1 hope they forgave us. 

At Bahia de Agua Verde, Sr. Diaz and Mr. 
Carlos Nagel, a volunteer and highlv valued 
member of the naturalist staff, obtained per- 
mission for us to visit the small but complete 
fishing and ranching communitv. The appeals of 
this timelessly tranquil \'illage to a modern urban 
dweller can be known onlv through experience. 
Merely mentioned in this narrative, but greatly 
appreciated, were thebeautvof Isla del Carmen, 
the beach at Isla Danzante — where we swam and 
snorkeled in delightfully warm water, and to our 
west, the vertical, rugged, wonder of Baja's 
Sierra de la Giganta — for long a reputed home of 
Amazons. 

Famous for its giant barrel cacti and that 
endemic rattleless rattlesnake is Isla Santa 
Catalina — we saw an abundance of the former 
but none of the latter,. despite extensive search- 
ing (a result not displeasurable to all members of 
the companv). 

At La Paz, capital citv of Baja California 
de Sur, we brietl)' reentered the domain of 
20th-century civilization, exploring, shopping, 
and thoroughlv kning this vibrant cit\- of 
130,000. A sumptuous feast at the Estrella del 
Mar Restaurant was accompanied by a special 
performance of local traditional dancers. 

The next day we visited the large sea lion 
colony at Los Islotes, at the north end of Isla 
Partida. Some of us went snorkeling at a safe 
distance from the colony and were rewarded by 
underwater views of the gracefully swimming 
pinnipeds. Wesnorkelers were also rewarded by 
an introduction to the rich gulf ichthyofauna (an 
estimated 526 shorefish species). Mostly tropical 
(66 percent of the species range southward, to or 
bevond Panama), the gulf fish fauna is also fairly 
rich in endemics (ca. 17 percent), and contains 
warm-temperate forms (ca. 10 percent) rang- 
ing northw ard along the outer coast, often to 
southern California. A half-day hike up a dry 
canvon on Isla Partida immersed us in the gulf 
island wilderness, an experience immeasur- 
abl\ enhanced by the current richness of the 




EiitraiKi' lo Puerto 
Rtiu^io. hill Angel lie 
la Giiiirdui 



IUi(c-foolcii hooln/, 
Suld ncbouxii, at Isia 
Siiii Pedro Martir 



vegetation. Due to recent rains, everything 
seemed in green leaf and bright bloom. In this 
we were lucky, and we knew it. Late in the 
afternoon Isla Espiritu Santo, on our port side, 
seemed to flame, the reds and oranges of its hills 
and cliffs enhanced by the setting sun. 

The next morning we were at land's end: 
Cabo San Lucas, the fabled terminus of the Baja 
Peninsula and the halfway point in our voyage. 
Below the fantastic, last formations at Friars 
Rocks we bathed on a sandy beach, the southern- 
most in the gulf. A short walk led to the Pacific 
shore. Neither my diving companion. Gene 
Callahan, nor I will ever forget our opportunity 
to snorkle and fish-watch at the southernmost 
tip. The cape region of the gulf (La Paz to Cabo 
San Lucas) has very clear water and an essen- 
tially tropical fauna, including a number of 
warm water forms found nowhere else in the 
gulf. The fauna of this region may well be the 
richest nearshore fish fauna in the eastern 
Pacific. Our marvelous week in the gulf had 
come to an end, but we looked forward now to 
Magdalena Bay and our first sighting of the gray 
whale. 

Just inside the entrance at Punta Lntrada 
we saw them, spout after spout. To see at close 
range the gray whale, Eschrichtiu^ robustus, was a 
principle attraction of the voyage. The annual 
migration of the gray whale between summer 
feeding grounds in the Chukchi and western 
Bering seas of the far north and calving sites 
mainly in the lagoons of Baja, covers more than 
50 degrees of latitude. The yearly 10,000-mile 
roundtrip is longer than the migration of any 




Ashore at Calcta dc Stvi 
luaiiiiO 



nther mammal. In summer the whales feed on 
the abundant invertebrate life of the Bering 
Sea. By December the first migrants, pregnant 
females, arrive in the warm shallow lagoons of 
Baja California— Ojo de Liebre, Guerrero Negro, 
San Ignacio, and Bahia Magdalena. There they 
give birth and nurse their young. The return trip 
northward, with newborn calves accompanying 
their mothers, occurs February to June. Medium- 
sized (to 50 feet) among whales, no species is 
more commonly observed by man, because of 
the gray's habit of staying close to shore on the 
southward journey. We were able to spend two 
days inside the Magdalena system of lagoons, 
closely approaching whales in our Humbe'- boats 
and never tiring of these sightings. 

After a day spent mostly at sea, which pro- 
vided a chance to catch up on reading or much 
neglected writing of journals, we approached the 
entrance to Laguna San Ignacio. In the Bahia 
Ballenas we observed the spouts of many more 
gray whales, although not in the thrilling 
proximity we enjoyed at Magdalena Bay. 
Because of the popularity of "whale-watching," 
the Mexican government, on the whales' behalf, 
has begun to restrict the number of tour-boat 
entries to the lagunal systems. We were allowed 
entry to the enormous Magdalena system, while 
other tours were assigned other lagoons. 

The next morning we passed the often fog- 
bound coast of Cedros Island; we were now be- 




Northeni elephant » 
seals, Mirounga P^,^^^ 
angustirostris, 
"hauled-out" at San 
22 Beriitos 





I ! '^<- ftiwunler al San 



yond the tropics, in the cooler waters of the 
California Current. Anchoring in the lee of the 
Islas San Benitos, we marveled at that supreme 
statement of algal existence, the giant kelp, Mac- 
roa/stis, but were little prepared for the scene 
ashore. All along the rough, cobble-strewn 
beaches of San Benitos were large colonies of 
the northern elephant seal (Mirouiiga angustiros- 
tis). At 16 feet and two tons (males), the species 
is the second largest of all pinnipeds. Brutally 
hunted for its fattv blubber, it was nearly exter- 
minated by the 18'90s. Today, all 15,000 or so 
living northern elephant seals are thought to 
have descended from a single herd of some TOO 
that survived on remote Guadalupe Island 
(about 160 miles off northern Baja). Recovering 
\\ onderfullv under protection, the species now 
ranges widely in the eastern North Pacific but 
breeds only on rocky islands off the coast of 
southern California and Baja California. For the 
males, as we observed them, periods of breed- 
ing and fighting alternated with what seemed 
much longer periods of loafing and i^njoying the 
sun that occasionally burned through the mists. 
The much warier females were more disturbed 
by our presence, but if we kept still, they gener- 
ally ignored us. Not so with the sea lions of San 
Benitos, which wt)uld shuffle quickly into tin- 
surf as soon as the\' spi>tted us, raucously dec- 
laring their displeasure . Birdiife abounded at 



San Benitos, notably nesting ospreys. 

At Isla San Martin, just north of Cabo San 
Quintin, we made our final wet landing. From 
the sea, the rather benign appearance of this 
near-perfect volcanic cone belies an absolutely 
incredible and impenetrable thicket of caterpil- 
lar cactus and cholla cactus. Harbor seals (Phoca 
vituliiia) observed us with a seemingly shy, aloof 
demeanor. 

An overnight voyage to San Diego, a bit- 
tersweet bon voyage partv, and only the third 
gangway-assisted departure, marked the end of 
this verv special adxenture. In all we had seen 
and identified some 120 bird species, 14 marini- 
mammal species, 20 reptile species, more than 
70 native plant species and more than 100 
species of fishes. No talh' of numbers, however, 
expresses adei|uatel\' the wonder ot watching 
whales at close quarters, the silence of a desert 
uash at twilight, the soaring seabirds of San 
Pedro Martir, and the satistai tion ot unique 
experience. 



For diiiiib o)i Field AJ//sc///;/'.s next 
cxcitin^i tour to this ri\^ioii, phvse 
turn to pushes 24-25. 



TOURS FOR MEMBERS 




Snorkelin^ in tlw Baluimas 

Ecologx Tour of New 
Pro\i flour e and Andros Islands 

Marcli 7-14, WS2 

"The Pf rpotual Isles of June" was Christopher 
Colnmbuss name tor the Bahama archi- 
pelago, a group of more than 700 breath- 
takinglv beautiful islands. With clear blue 
skies and sea. and coral sand unmarked by 
silt or sediment, the islands straddle the 
Tntpic of Cancer; the result is a tremendous 
varieU' of tropical and subtropical fauna 
and flora. 

The first stop in our 8-dav tour will be 
Nassau, on the island of New Pro\idencc, a 
cit\' which grew as the Bahama's major port. 
We'll stavat a convcnientlv located first-class 
hotel (famed for its fine cuisine). The Pilot 
House, which overltxjks the upper harbor, 
where native sloops bring produce for 
dockiiide sales. 

But t his tour also includes areas that one 
would never be able to see on a conv-enlional 
Bahama tour. From Nassau, we'll flv (12- 
minute fiighll to the tranquillity of Andros 
Island, the largest and most sparselv popu- 
lated of the archipelago. Picture a desert is- 
land, a cabin facing a sandv beach, waws 
breaking over the barrier reef and washing 
slowU' shorewards, making the onl\' sound 
to be heard — this will be our location on 
■Andros. The Andros Field .Station has been 
24 made axailablc to Field Museum Tours for 



Bahamas Ministry of Tourism 



our Study of the marine environnu-ni, which 
will offer a. sense of adventure that most of us 
nc\'er experience. 

Our study of the barrier reefwill be done 
from speciallv designed boats; and with the 
aid of lifejackels, nonswimmers as well as 
swimmers will be able to enjoy snorkcling to 
e.xaiTiine the reefs submarine wonderland. 
The water temperature will be about 78 
degrees. The field station is not open to the 
public and our group will be the onlv \'isitors 
at this lime. The accommodations at the 
station are basic: The cabins are of stone or 
wood and sleep two to four [X'rsons. All have 
complete baths — but with cold water 
(warm by our standards!). Dining will be in 
the Coral Stone Lodge, which also has a 
lounge, lecture room, laboratorv, and soft- 
drink bar. You may bring your own alcoholic 
be\'eragcs for your own use from the low- 
priced Nassau stores. After Andros, we'll 
return to Nas.sau and The Pilot Hou.se. 

Margaret Rabley, a biologist with a spe- 
cial interest in ecologv, will Ix- our lecturer. 
Educated at Reading University, in England, 
she lived in the Bahamas for 14 \ears (1966- 
80) and has been to most of the populated 
islands in the group. During her last 10 years 
in Nas.sau. Mrs. Riiblev was science coor- 
dinator and lecturer at the College of the 
Bahamas. She has wxitten a book, T>U' Wilt! 
Flowers oftiie Btihtimas and Carihbfun 
(Collins), and coauthored three Bahamian 
wildlife field guides. Throughout the trip. 



many op|)orlunilies will Ik' o[x>n to us Ix-- 
causfofMrs. Riibley's intimate knowledge of 
I he islands and herclo.se as.social ion with the 
Bahamas National Tnist (she is past chair- 
[K-r.son of its Education Committee). 

If you are looking for a lour that com- 
bines the lii.\ur\'ofa first-class hotel with 
the contrast of disiovering an i.sland little 
changed from the time of Columbus, we 
inxite you to join us for a rewarding 
experience. 



Baja California 

Februar}' 6-20, 1982 

Le.ss than 50 Miles South of the U.S.-Mcxico 
border begins a peaceful world of subtropical 
beauty — the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of Califor- 
nia). Over 600 miles long, this gulf is a |)ara- 
dise for marine vertebrate and invertebrate 
life — and for those of us who enjoy its study. 
Field Museum members will haw the oppor- 
tunity to know this sea of wonders in a vovagc 
lliat will all but complete the circumnanga- 
lion ot the [x-ninsula of Baja California. 

The tour will he led b\- Dr. Robert K. 
John.son. curator of Fishes and chairman of 
the Department of Z<x)log\'. Sjjecial E.vjx'di- 
tions. a division of Lindblad Travel, operators 
of the .ship to be ii.sed. will provide several 
additional naturalists who.se e.xjx'rti.se will 
further enrich our experience. Our home for 
the vovage is the one-class, fuUv air-condi- 
tioned 143.5-foot .Vfl' Pacific Xorthn'est 
Explorer, built in 1980. 

There arc still a few reserv-ations lefl 
for this tour; rates depend on the t\pe of 
stateroom. 



Alaska Native Culture Toiu- 

June 19-July 1,1982 

This 1.3-dav tour begins with a flight from 
Seattle to Sitka, Ala.ska, where we will spend 
two davs and nights viewing old Russian set- 
tlement buildings, Sheldon Jackson Museum, 
and National Park Service exhibits. Our 
third, fourth, and fif)h nights will be aboard 
two yachts, which will take us to Admiralirv 



For tour prices, itineraries, or 
other tour information, please 
write the Tours Office, at Field 
Mu.'ieum, or call: 322-8862. We 
would be plea. "vd to put your name 
on our special niailinglist. 



TOURS FOR MEMBERS 




Tlw iucotiipurablc Taj Malin! 



Island. We will see Tenakee Hot Springs, the 
native x'illages of Angoon and Hoonah, and 
make a tour of Glacier Bav. 

Sightseeing in Juneau and its environs 
u-ill be our activit\' during the next two davs, 
followed b\' a da\' and night in Anchorage 
and a \isit bv motorcoach to Denali National 
Park (formerlv McKinlev National Park), 
where we will enjo\- the spectacular scenen' 
and new wildlife, spending two nights there. 
A dav and a night in Kotzebue, a dav in 
Nome, and a final da\' in Anchorage will 
round out the tour. 

All hotel accommodations will be first 
class; the two yachts will accommodate IG 
and 10 persons, respecti\'el\'. Tour rates to be 
announced. 

Ecuador and the Galapagos 

March 11-25,1982 

The Galapagos Islands affect our imagi- 
nation like no other place on earth. Field 
Museum is pleased to offer its members an 
opportunitv to nsit these remote islands 
under the expert guidance of Dr. John VV. 
Fitzpatrick, associate curator and head. Di\i- 
sion of Birds. If vou are a "birder" or a "pho- 
tographer" this tour is a Utopia. 

We'll see 500-pound tortoises, ferocious- 
looking land iguanas that eat cactus flowers, 
marine iguanas which are superb divers, 
penguins, flightless cormorants, colonies of 
.sea lions and fur seals, and many other exotic 
and uni(]ue birds, mammals, and reptiles. 
The plant life, with 40- foot cadi in coastal 
deserts and dense rain forests in the moun- 
tains, is just as interesting. 

In addition to the unitjue sightseeing 
and learning opjiortunities on the cruise, we 
will spend four nights in Quito, Ecuador, 
where well enjo\' old world ambience, along 
with the color of the centuries-old Indian 



m.irket and \-illages of Latacunga and 
Ambato — we'll overnight in Ambato. Our 
transfer from Quito to Guayaquil will gi\-e us 
a chance to see the countn-'s remarkable 
scener\-. Special attention will be paid to the 
unique bird lite. 

Our cruise ship, the 2,200-ton M. V. 
Buccaneer, meets the highest safety' require- 
ments. Originally designed to carr\' 250 pas- 
sengers, it was refurbished in the United 
States in 197G to carry only 90. and has re- 
cently been again refurbished. All cabins 
are outside and are equipped with private 
shower and toilet. The Buccaneer offers a 
comfortable, informal cruising emiron- 
ment. Although we'll be in the tropics, it will 
ne\'er be unpleasantly hot because of the 
cooling effect of the Humboldt Current. 

The price is $3,550 (per person, double 
occupancy). We hofic \'ou will join us in one of 
the greatest adventures in travel. 

India/Nepal and Sri Lanka 

Juiiua rr 2S-rchrua ly 2&, l'.)82 

Includes Sri Lanka extension 

Idcitrs teutatix'c) 

See India through the eyes of an American 
husband-and-wife team, educated at Michi- 
gan State University, xvho ha\'e lived in Nepal 
for the past 12 years, spending most of their 
time leading nature tours through India/ 
NepalanriSri Lanka (Cevlon). Boband Linda 
I'lemingare naturals to lead the Field 
Mu.seum tour since they have \m;c\\ so closeh' 
associateti with our \\-ork here. 

Bob's father was a member of the 
Museum's .scientific stafT and collected many 
sjx'cies of birds in India and Nep.il for the 
Mu.seum, dating back to the mid-.'iOs. Bol) 
spent a gfiod deal of time at the Mu.seum 
during his student years, working in the Bird 
Division. He and his fat her published a book. 



Biril.sofXefHd. it-ith Ki-fi-ivnce to Kashmir 
(111^/ .SiA;/c(>n. written. by RoIxtI L. Fleming, 
Sr., Robert L. Fleming, jr. and Lain Singh' 
Bangdel. Bob anil Linda have coauthoied 
a numlKT of other books, one on the Kiilh- 
mandu Valley, published by Kodansha Inler- 
national. He has al.so written a [took 
on theecolog\\ flora and fauna of Midland 
Nepal. 

The emphasis fiir this lour uill be orni- 
t hologv', but many a.s|X'cts of India will Ix- 
covered. We'll visit Bombay, with an e.xcur- 
sion to Elephanta Caves, Nagpur, and Kanha 
National Park, Delhi— old and new. Then 
we'll drive tojaiijur, slopjiing l()r lunch at 
Amber Palace and an cle|)hant ride. Our next 
stop will be Bharalpur for birdwatching. 
We'll continue on to Agra, visiting Fatehpur 
Sikri enroiite, then the incomparable Taj 
Mahal, ami the c'\Xy of Varanasi, seat of 
Buddliist culture. We'll spend several da\'s in 
Kalhmandu, and of cour.se we're going to 
Tigertops. An owrnight stop in the mountain 
citA' of Pokhara and an optional extensit>n to 
Sri Lanka for 7 days. Rates to be announced. 
Please call or write to be placed on mailing 
list. 



Field Museum Tours to Australia and to 
Kenya are also being de\elo)x'(i lor 1982. If 
you wish to receive details on ihe.se tours, 
v\'hen plans are completed, plea.se call the 
Tours OfTice (322-8862) or drop us a line, 
asking to be placed on the mailing list. 



Ownership, Management and Circulation 

Filing date: Sept, IS. 1481, Title: Fu-Ui Mus-tum <i Niiluml 
Hiilorv BulU-tni. Publication no 8'»8«4(1, Frequency' of 
publication: Monthh- except lor combined July August 
issue. Number of issues published annually: 11. An- 
nual subscription price: $6,00 Office: Roosevelt Rd. at 
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 111. 60605-2496, 

Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History. Editor: 
Da\id M, Walsten, Known bondholders, mortgages, 
and other security holders: none. Nonprofit status has 
not changed during the preceding 12 months. 



Ai\ no. Actual no. 

tvptcs CltpiW 

t'flcfi r.ssMc siH^i;/c issue 

preci'ding nean'sl lo 

12 nios. filing datv 

Total copies printed 47. 181 39,72'; 

Paid Circulation (sales 
through dealers, 

vendors, carriers) None None 

Paid circulation (mail 

subscriptions) 43,075 , , 36,050 

Total paid c-irculalion 43,075 , 36,050 

Free distributiiin 661 ,.,. 670 

Total distribution 43,736 ... 36,720 

Office use left over 3,445 ... 3,005 

Total .. 47,181 .19 725 

I certify that the statements made bv me above are 
correct and complete, Umn I. Nei'ting, U . director. 25 



OUR ENVIRONMENT 



Illinois Forest Cover Vanishing 

Illinois currently has the lowest percent- 
age of forest cover of any state east of the 
Mississippi River, and each year more for- 
est is displaced by agricultural, residen- 
tial, and industrial development. 

Only 10 percent, or 3.5 million acres, 
of the land area of Illinois presently is for- 
ested, according to the report "Illinois 
Forest Resources: Opportunity for Total 
Managment." This contrasts sharply with 
the situation in 1810, when 40 percent of 
Illinois had forest cover. 

Forest resources are valuable in many 
ways: trees reduce soil erosion, yield 
lumber, provide wildlife habitat, produce 
oxygen, and remove air and water pollut- 
ants. Forests also serve as recreation 
areas, and wood and wood products yield 
energy. 

About 93 percent of the forest land in 
Illinois is privately owned, the bulk of it by 
farmers. Forests are concentrated primar- 
ily in the southern third of the state, along 
the Mississippi. River and across the 
northern border of Illinois. 

But there are significant stands of 
trees in urbanized areas along streets, riv- 
ers, transportation corridors, power lines, 
and pipelines; and in parks, forest pre- 
serves, cemeteries, golf courses, vacant 
lots, and private yards. Forest manage- 
ment practices traditionally have focused 
on rural forest lands but largely have 
neglected urban tree standards, the report 
notes. 

If Illinois is to derive more benefit 
from its forest resources, the report rec- 
ommends, there must be an increased 
emphasis on cooperative forest manage- 
ment by private owners, the forest prod- 
ucts industry, federal and state agencies, 
and local governments. 

Besides making comprehensive use 
of existing forest resources, reforestation 
should be practiced more widely in Il- 
linois, according to the report. This might 
be accomplished, the report suggests, by 
the establishment of tax incentives which 
would encourage property owners to 
maintain or expand woodlots. Farmers, 
for ex. 'ple, might choose to dedicate 
marginal ~ds to tree production rather 
than crops 



The Endangered \ . jrring Crane: 
A Recent Develcpn.ent 

The first captive-reared whooping crane 
26 to be released into the wild is adjusting to 



her new environment — which includes a 
prospective mate — with apparent success, 
making U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sci- 
entists optimistic that another innovative 
means of propagating the endangered 
species has been found. Like many a 
mail-order bride in the heydey of the fron- 
tier, the three-year-old female has travel- 
led a long distance to begin a new life — 
from the service's cs'^tive flock at the 
Patuxent Wildlife R.^earch Center near 
Washington, DC co the remote Grays 
Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Idaho. 

Scientists hope she will mate with a 
male whooper that was hatched at Grays 
Lake in 1975, the first year of a continuing 
cross-fostering program in which sandhill 
cranes serve as surrogate parents. The 
young whoopers learn a migration route 
from the sandhills, a critical step in estab- 
lishing a second wild flock of whooping 
cranes. The female crane's successful 
adaptahon to the wild would encourage 
scientists who seek solutions to the short- 
age of females at Grays Lake, a problem 
that has slowed population growth. For 
unknown reasons, female cranes suffer a 
higher mortality rate than males in the 
first months of life. 

Each step in the female whooper's 
progress from her Patuxent pen to the 
Idaho wilderness has been carefully moni- 
tored bv researchers since this is the first 
attempt to release a captive-reared 
whooping crane into the wild. 

"Whooping cranes mate for life, and 
they're very selective,"said Scott Der- 
rickson, who heads Patuxent's crane 
propagation program. "The disappear- 
ance during the last migration of two lone 
males and the failure of another to stake 
out a breeding territory left just one possi- 
ble mate for the female." 

The behavior of the two young cranes 
so far has been encouraging to service sci- 
entists at both Patuxent and the Coopera- 
tive Wildlife Research Unit at the Univer- 
sity of Idaho. When the female arrived at 
Grays Lake, she was placed in a pen next 
to the male's territory, so the two could 
become accustomed to each other without 
risking her safety. After retreating from 
her handlers, the female began to forage 
for food. The male immediately flew near 
the pen, and the two appraised each other. 
Within several davs, he was spending 
considerable ttme close by, and the two 
were showing signs of bonding by syn- 
chronizing their everyday behavior, forag- 
ing, and preening at the same time. Then 
the eager female began practicing the 
species' spectacular premating ritual 
dance, and the male responded with 



graceful leaps and swirls. 

"There's no question of their mutual 
attraction," said Derrickson, though he 
cautioned that the real proof of the birds' 
pair bond is yet to come. A sturdy bond is 
shown by the distinctive dual calls for 
which the cranes are named, a duet com- 
posed of one note sounded by the male, 
followed by tw-o stacatto notes by the 
female. The two have begun calling to 
each other, but have not yet united in a 
duet. Meanwhile, the female has been re- 
leased from her pen, since the male ap- 
peared disturbed by the barrier. 

"We might have heard their 'unison 
call' by now if the male hadn't gotten 
sidetracked from courtship," said Der- 
rickson. "Suddenly, for an accountable 
reason, he began to trv to expand his terri- 
tory in two directions at once. However, 
he keeps returning to the female's roost, 
and we think that when his wing feathers 
molt and he can't fly, he won't be this 
aggressive. 

"If these whoopers form a bond, it's 
possible they could produce a chick as 
early as next spring," added Derrickson, 
who explained that females may become 
sexually mature at four years of age. The 
transplanted female is too young to breed 
this year, but is old enough to establish a 
lifetime pair bond. The male has shown 
his readiness for several years by his ter- 
ritorial behavior. 

Should the whoopers fail to establish 
a bond before the fall migration, the 
female will be sent back to Patuxent, since 
she could not survive without an experi- 
enced mate to guide her to wintering 
grounds at Bosque del Apache National 
Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. This 
870-mile migration route was imprinted 
on the male by his foster sandhill parents. 

"We learned from an experiment last 
year that captive-reared sandhill cranes 
transplanted to the wild must integrate 
with the other birds to know ivhen and 
where to migrate," emphasized Derrick- 
son. "This principle applies to whooping 
cranes, and we hope this female repre- 
sents the beginning of a new program to 
speed their reproduction." 

Transplanting captive-reared females 
could be the newest in a number of suc- 
cessful techniques that have restored the 
whooping crane from a low of 15 in 1941 to 
this year's record number of nearly 100 
birds in the wild and 24 in captivity. But, at 
the moment, scientists are listening for the 
raucous but welcome unison call that will 
signal the successful pairing of the two 
young cranes . . . and the prospect of new 
whoopers to come. 



October and November at Field Museum 



Ucluber IG through S'oivmher 15 



Continuing Exhibits 

Hall of Ancient Eg^ttians. The large stone sarcopliagi 
on either side of the entraiKe beckon \'ou into one of Field 
Museum's most popular I'xhibits. Four thousand years of 
ancient Egyptian culture are represented bv household 
objects, arts, crafts, and funeran' artifacts. Some of the 
highlights of the collection are the great cedar fuiierar\' 
ship from Dashur, the cast bronze cat sacred to Bast, and 
human and animal mummies. Hall J. Ground Floor. 

Pawnee Earth Lodge. Hall 5 contains a full-scale replica 
of a Pawnee earth lodge, the home and cereinonial cen- 
ter of Pawnee Indians in the mid- 1800s. Dail\- public 
programs pnnide opportunities to learn about Pawnee 
culture: Monda\'-Fridav 12:30 p.m.; Saturdays 11 a.m., 
12:15 p.m., and 1:15 p.m. Open House on Sunday from 
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The Place for Wonder. This galler\' prondes a "hands- 
on" approach to natural histon'. Feel the skin of a rattles- 
nake, tr\' on a bamboo backpack from China, examine a 
dinosaur bone, and more — this room is full of touchable 
exhibits. Trained \'olunteers help guide exploration and 
answer questions. Open weekdays 1 to 3 p.m.; weekends 
10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Ground Floor, near 
cafeteria. 



New Programs 

Parent-Child Workshops. Cooperating with your child on 
a project related to Field Museum's exhibits is the theme 
of these workshojjs. Participants can choose to fashion 
Chinese shadow puppets, dye batik T-shirts, make metal 
castings, learn to write in Egyptian hierogh-phs, play 
games from around the world, learn lemjile dances from 
India, make flutes, or study Indian lore. Preregistration is 
required. See October Calendar of Events for registration 
coupon and more information, or call 322-8854. Satm-- 
days, October 10 and 17. 

R/\Y A. Kroc Environmental Film Lixturj;. "Follow A 
Wild Dolphin." The close friendship between Dr. Horace 
Dobbs and a \\'ild dolphin is the subject of this informa- 
tive and entertaining film/lecture. Dr. Dobbs is an au- 
thor, naturalist, underwater photographer, documentar>' 
filmmaker and founder of International I)ol])hin W.itch, 
a British research program designed to help conserve the 
dolphin population. Tickets are $3 for Members; $5 for 
Nonmembers. Friday, October 23, at 8 p.m. j.imes 
Simpson Theatre. 



Dinosaur Day. A day of activities devoted to the l.u m-M 
and most successful animal thai ever lived. Participants 
will learn to distinguish between fact and fantasy 
through slide lectures, tours, demonstrations, and 
movies. The programs are free. A complete schedule of 
events will be available at Mu.seum entrances on the day 
of the event. For more information, call 322-8(154. Sun- 
day, November 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Fabric of Culture Festival. A day of activities related 
to textiles is planned in conjunction with the Learning 
Museum course, "Rugs of the Orient: Threads of Time." 
There will be sheep shearing, .spinning, silk streenuig 
and many other demonstrations. Visitors mav bring 
their textiles in for expert commentary' and evaluation. 
Sunday, November 15, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 



Edward E. Ayer Lecture Series. Explore distant corners 
of the world ever\- Saturda\' during October and Novem- 
ber at 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre. Narrated by 
the filmmakers themselves, these free 90-minule film/ 
lectures are recommended for adults. Admission is 
through the West Door; Members receive priority seating. 
Oct. 17: "Eg\pt: Open Borders" with William Stockdale. 
Oct. 24: "Austria — Heart of the TNtoI" with William 
Sylvester. Oct. 31: "Yugoslavia After Tito" with Frank 
Klicar. Nov. 7: "The Mediterranean" with William 
Madsen. Nov. 14: "Luck\' Australia" with Ken Armstrong. 

F.Al.LjOURNEV: "LOOKING AND SEEINt;." Field Mu.seum 
dioramas present a glimp.se of a habitat frozen in time. 
With this self-guided tour you can e.Xfimine the main 
themes of several dioramas as \\'ell as discover some 
half-hiddi'n surprises in the detaileil backgrounds. Free 
Journey pamphlets available at Museum entrances. 

Continued on bark an'er 



.\'^* 











>/-■ 



ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY 
SURVEY LIB RM 196 
NATURAL RESOURCES BUILDING 
URBAN A ILL 61801 



October and November at Field Museum 



Continued from inside back cover 



Continuing Programs 

Weekend Disco\^rv Programs. On Saturday and Sunday 
vou can participate in a variety of free programs on 
natural history- topics. This month's Film Features focus 
on "Magnificent Mammals." Check Weekend Sheet at en- 
trances for locations. 
Saturday, Oct. 17: "Ancient Eg^^it" tour covers evervday 

and ceremonial life. 11:30 a.m. 
Saturday, Oct. 17: "Saga of the Sea Otter," a Magnificent 

Mammal film. 1 p.m. 
Sunda\', Oct. 18: "The Great Tombs of Early Ancient 

Eg\'pt," slide program featuring old and new views 

of mastabas and p\Tamids. 1:30 p.m. 
Saturday, Oct. 24: "Mzima — Portrait of a Spring," 

a Magnificent Mammal film starring an African 

hippofiotamus. 1 p.m. 
Saturdav. Oct. 24: "Mahina Hoffman," a film program 

of her carlv expeditions is followed bv a tour of her 

bronze statues. 2 p.m. 
Sunday, Oct. 25: "Life in Ancient Egvpt," tour of objects 

illustrating Nile Valley life. 2:30 p.m. 
Saturday, Oct. 31: "Halloween Fun" films and tours. 11 

a.m. and 3:30 p.m. 
Saturday, Oct. 31: "Death of a Legend," a Magnificent 

Mammal film examining wolves. 1 p.m. 
Sunday, Nov. 1: "Preparation for Afterlife in Ancient 

Egvpt" tour reviews ancient Egyptian beliefs about 

eternal life. 12 noon. 





/ f.. 



# ^^ -^' 



Sunday, Nov. 1: "Champollion in Eg\'pt," slide program 

about an early expedition as seen through Champoll- 

ion's draudngs. 1:30 p.m. 
Sunda\% Nov. 1: "New World Foods." Ho\\' plants from 

the Americas influenced cultures around the world. 

2:30 p.m. 
Saturdav, Nov. 7: "Native American Foods" tour 

covers diet and food gathering of native Americans. 

11:30 a.m. 
Saturda\', Nov. 7: "This Land," an American Heritage 

film on the evolution of the North American continent. 

1:30 p.m. 
Saturday, Nov. 14: "Ancient Eg\'pt," tour of ever\'day and 

ceremonial life. 11:30 a.m. 
Saturday, Nov. 14: "The First Americans," an American 

Heritage film about the first men to inhabit this conti- 
nent. 1:30 p.m. 

Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals interested in 
working with school groups, presenting tours, and par- 
ticipating in other educational programs are asked to 
contact the volunteer coordinator at 922-9410, ext. 360. 

October AND November Hours. The Museum opens 
daily at 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. beginning 
November 1) ever\' day except Frida\'. On Frida\'s the 
Museum remains open until 9 p.m. throughout the year. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 
4 p.m. Obtain a pass at the reception desk, main floor. 

Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



:ld MrsEi'M OF Nati^ral History Bi lletix 

NOV 1 6 1981 ^•o^.•tMl..■l mi 




Ancient Egypt 

l)vu(isivVlhi)ibsi)iHiii'(i to V'lrw 



Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 

Published by 

Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 



Presidatt: Willard L. Boyd 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Editor/ Designer: Da\'id M. Walsten 
Calaidar: Mary Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chatrnum 
Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 
George R. Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gorden Bent 
Bowcn Blair 
WUUrd L. Boyd 
Mrs. Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
O.C. Davis 

William R. Dickir«on, Jr. 
Thomas E Donnelley D 
Marshall Field 



Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F. Murphy, Jr 
Lorin I. Nevling, jr. 
JamesJ O'Connor 
James H Ransom 
John S. Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert H.'Strotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R. Telling 
Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B Wilkms 
Blaine J. Yarrington 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blaii 
Joseph N, Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Clifford C Gregg 
Samuel InsulJ, Jr 
William V. Kahler 
William H. Mitchell 
JohnM. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



FteU Mustum of .Vulumi History Bulletm (USPS 898-940) is published monthly, except 
combined July August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at 
Late Shore Drive, Chicago, 11 60605 Subscriptions: SA 00 annually, S3 00 for schools. 
Museum membersfiip includes Bulletin sut>scription- Opinions expressed by authors 
are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum, Unsolicited 
manuscripts are welcome Museum phone: (312) 922-9410 Postmaster: Please send 
form 3579 to Field Museum oi Natural Historv. Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, 
Chicago, U. 60605. ISSN:0015-0703. Second diss postage paid at Chicago. U. 



Heim- S. [h'bas 

1915-19S1 

It is with regret that we announce the death, on October 5, of Henr\' 
D\-bas, curator emeritus. Insects, following a long Ulness. He had 
been retired only a little more than one year. Dr. Lh'bas was as- 
sociated with Field Museum for more than 4,5 vears; from 1941 to 
1980 he served successively as assistant, assistant curator, associate 
curator and curator of Insects, and from 1971 to 1974 as head of the 
Di\ision of Insects. 

Henr\' Ch-bas was totally dedicated to the Museum and made 
many important contributions to the programs of the Division of 
Insects, the Department of Zoolog\'. and to the Museum as a whole. 
He was an outstanding field collector and biologist, and carried out 
field work in Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Micronesia, Canada, and 
the United States. His Pacific collections sen'ed as the impetus for 
an e.xtensive sur\'ey and resulting volumes of Insects of Micronesia . 

His research interests centered on the svstematics, ecolog\, 
population biolog\\ and evolution of periodical cicadas and of 
Ptiliidae, the smallest known beetles. (He was recognized as the 
world authority on this family.) In recognition of his scientific 
contributions, he was honored in November, 1980, hv a special 
symposium and an Sc.D. degree by Tri-State Uni\-ersity, Angola, 
Indiana. 

Dr. D\'bas is suni\'ed by his wife, Milada, his daughters. Dr. 
Linda Lhtias and Ms. Marcia Carr, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Martin 
Ehbas, his sister Mrs. Evc1\ti Thomas, his nephew, Brian Baumruk, 
and his niece Karen Heaton. His career and contributions will be 
more extensively treated in a future i.s.sue of theBi(//rt(/!. 



CONTENTS 

Nov'ember 1981 
Volume 52, Number 10 



In the Shadow of the PvTamid: An Introduction to 
the Exhibit, opening Xovember 21 

by Donald IVhitcomb 



Pred}nastic Egfjtt 

by Pete r Lacova ra 



Paintings from the Tomb ofXakht at Thebes 

bv William J. Mumane 



The Tomb Chapels of \'etjer-user and Unis-ankh 

by B nice Willia rns 2i 



Edward E. Aver and W.M. Flinders Petrie: 'Founding 
Fathers' of the Egyptian Collection 

bv Judith Cottle 3. 





0)^^ 
©B^^ 



COVER 

Eg^'ptian stone vessels in the Field Museum collection: A) limestone 
vase iiith separately made rim. Archaic period, #173261: B) lapii 
lazuli vase, Naqada II, #30704; C) serpentine vase with gold han- 
dles, Archaic period, #30702: D) flint lunate scraper of the type 
used to holloiv out stone vases, Fayum neolithic period, #216417; E] 
diorite unfinished stone vessel, dmastic, #31557; V) malachite vase. 
Naqadalll, #30712; G) serpentine miniature lentoid flask, #30748: 
H) red breccia vase, Naqada III. #31750; I) imperial porphyry jar. 
\'(U]ada III. #30677;]) diorite jar. Archaic period. #30686; K) red 
breccia jar. Naqada II, #105154: L) basalt vase with trumpet foot. 
Naqada I, #31742; MJ limestone c\'lindrical vase. Archaic period, 
#173287; N) quartz-diorite bowl, Arclmic period, #30671. (For 
e-rplanation of historic periods, see time line, page 4, and discussion 
in ''Predynastic E^'pt," pp. 7-12, bv Peter Lacovara.) Photo bv Ron 
Testa. 



In the Shadow of the P\ raiiiid 

An Introduction to the Exhibit 



hv Donald W'MiTCOMB 



For Many Visitors to the Field Museum, iluisf who 
were brought bv their parents and now bring their 
own children, the display of EgN-ptian antiquities 
in the Field Museum has taken on a permanence 
and unchangeablit}' which is ver\' appropriate for 
ancient Eg>pt. Indeed, most of the Eg\plian Hall. 
Hall J, has not changed in content or style of display 
since the 1930s. 

However, the science of Egv^ptologv' has pro- 
gressed enormoush- in the last fifty years; likewise, 
there ha\'e been major developments in both the 
style and aims of exhibition techniques. The mo(i- 
ern museum has become a much more educational 
facilir^' than its antecedent of several generations 
ago. When Field Museum's EgN'ptian Hall was first 
organized, it was assumed that the public would 



Donald Whitcomb is a researchfellow at tixe Smithsouiau 
Iiistitutiuii ami ir«,s furnwrly assistant curator of Middle 
Eastern archri ilu'A' cil Fii'lil Miisfuni. 



come and "appreciate" the objects, enjoWng their 
esthetic qualities and the opportunity' of seeing rare 
historic artifacts. Today this is not enough; we .seek 
to iorm an understanding of what we look al, and 
tiy to comprehend the life of these ancient peoples 
as reflected in the objects and monuments which 
they left. 

Thus, when E. Leland Webber (then Field 
Museum president) approached me almost one 
year ago with a longstanding dream of opening 
Field Museum's two Old Kingdom tomb chapels 
from Sacjqara, near Djoser's step p\Tamid, I greeted 
the project unth enthusiasm. Such a reinstallation 
would give us the opportunity to modernize at last 
the archaic displa\s of predvnastic through Old 
Kingdom materials in Field Museum's EgV'ptian 
Collection. 

This reinstallation consists of two parts. First, 
glass is placed directly in front of the reliefs on the 
chapel walls so that wherever possible the rooms 
cin l)f opt'iuil 1(1 I he public. B\' ai Ui.ilK cjilrriiiti 





"■^i^-^ - y*^, 








I'lif sli-p in'rtimid of 
1 »(().s«T, lit Siui<i<tra, 
::\fl>t.huilt llllritig 
:>}-ruislylll.Arrim' 
I /(iiivr (ivj^if slum's 
H Ilium 111 tiiiiihuf 
nis-iinkh. I'pikT 
tl itrnnv iiuliailes 
Hitluiiiiiflotnhof 
.■(•t;frii.«T. Ihirlinns 
I Itiilh liinihs Hvrr 
i iiuirni by rirlit 
liiseiiiii III V.xi'> iinit 



'"  ^^ J Vluilnln'Uiiitrs II 



:r^' 



Ancient Egypt 5000-2200 B.C. 



Dynasty 



2200 B.C. 



3000 B.C. 



3150 B.C. 



VI 



IV 



• Unis-ankh tomb chapel 
• Netjer-user tomb chapel • '-'"'^ 



3500 B.C. 



4000 B.C. 



4500 B.C. 



5000 B.C. 



• Menkaure ^ Khafre • Sphinx 



• Khufu 



• Step pyramid • Djoser 



• Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt 



MAADI 



MERIMDE 



FAYUM 
NEOLITHIC 



Lower Egypt 



NAQADAIII 

(Late Gerzean) 



NAQADA II 
(Gerzean) 



• Field Museum 
predynastic bunal 



NAQADA I 

(Amratian) 



BADARIAN 



Upper Egypt 



Alexuidna 





■^ 



The FAYUUM, a fertile \ 
hasin which is nch with ^^^ 
wildlife and planis, is fed bv *" - 
an arm of the Nile .\round 5000 
BC an early Predynastic culture 
developed on the lakeshore 




MEMPHIS was the capital and rc 
residence of a unified Epvpt from 
the First Dynasty through the 
Old Kingdom and much of the 
Middle Kingdom It was situated 
near modern-day Cairo, near the 
boundary' between Upper and 
Lower Egypt Th5s^^ea^d 
importance of Memphis is reflected in 
the many bunal grounds such as 
Dashur Saqtjara, Abusir Zawiyet 
elArvan Giza and AbuRoash 

The best known ot the necropoli, cities 
(he dead, of Memphis wasGiza Pnvate 
lombs of the First Dvnastv were built in the 
area and remains of a Predynastic town 
have been found Ths site reached its 
greatest importance in the Fourth Dynasty 
with the construction o( the pyramids and 
Sphin). 

The most important Memphile cemetery wa 
Saqqara, with tombs of every penod in Egyptian 
histor>' from the First Dynasty to the Roman Era 
Mtisl impiirtanl of these is the Step Pyramid of 
D)oser, Third Dynasty, the first monumental 
building in history 



MAHASNA, the site of pro- 
vincial Predynastic town and cemeler\' 

ABYDOS, one of the most important cull 
centers in Egypt, associated with the bunal " 
place of Osins, god of the underworld 
Several Predynastic cemetenes were found 
here, and it was the bunal place of the kings 
of the First Dynasty 

HU, a later capital of the 7th 

nome, or province, of Upper Egypt Site of a 

large Predynastic cemetery 



GEBELEIN, site of a nch Predynastic 
cemetery where fragments o( linen 
tapestries depicting boat scenes were 
recovered from excavations, along wit h 

vessels, sculptures, and palettes. 

HIERAKONPOLIS, one of the most ' 

important Predynastic sites in Egypt and 
source of the most important archeological 
finds of this period, including the Narmer 
Palette, the Decorated Tomb, and King 
Scorpion Macehead 



BALLAS, site of 
. Predynashc town and 
cemetery, a modern 
pottery center 

NAQADA, anareaof 

several Predynastic 

cemetencsand a town 

WM Flinders Petne's 

work established the 

Luxor classification for the 

Predynastic periods 



ELKABwasthesileola 

ti-mplc and (own that 
lasted throughout the 
dynastic penod 



the rooms of the tomb chapels, the 
Museum \'isitor will gain a much better 
understanding of the tomb as architec- 
tural space. 

The second part of the reinstallation 
focuses on the objects in the collection. 
The artifacts from Ancient EgN-jit in the 
EgNptian Hall have long been arranged in 
a sort of typology with, for instance, all the 
alabaster vases in one case, all the usheb- 
ties (servant figurines placed in the tombs) 
in another, canopicjars in another, and so 
forth. This st\'le of presentation is useful 
for the archeologist who uses stylistic 
trends for chronological and regional dif- 
ferentiations, but such an arrangement 
also removes the objects from their origi- 
nal, natural association with one another. 
The Oriental Institute Museum of the Uni- 
versity' of Chicago has a ven' handsome 
tA'pological display from which the student 
of Egyjitian archeolog\' mav learn much. 
The purpose of the Field Museum Eg^-jjlian 
Hall, however, is not to teach archeology 
but to explore and explain for the \newer 
the environmental and cultural history of 
this part of the ancient world. The two 
approaches are complementarv, and ideal- 
ly the Field Museum, with its great collec- 
tions of fauna and flora as well as artifacts, 
is ideally suited to studv the broad inter- 
connections of land and people. This goal 
can be simply realized bv pro\iding a large 
map of Egv'pt and a time line chart to 
orient the visitor geographicallv and 
chronologicalh'. Likewise, in the rein- 
stalled exhibit , a photo of the Step P\Tamid 
of E|joser with two arrows indicating the 
two Field Museum tomb sites dramaticalh' 
demonstrates the relationship of this p\Ta- 
mid with the tombs, which were located 
almost literallv in the p\Tamid"s 
sliadow. 

The exhibition begins with the prehis- 
toric period, before the unification of all of 
Eg}'})! under one ruler, when groujxs .settled 
in villages along the Nile, adding irrigation 
agriculture to hunting and fishing econo- 
mies. During this predNiiastic period, the 
characteristic Egj^ptian culture w ould 
coalesce and ])olitical unitv under the 
j)hara()h began to de\'clop. hi the pre- 
dvnastic alcove one sees a naturally mum- 
mified burial. Natural mummification 
led, indirecth', to the art of mummifica- 
tion. The alcove's potter}' and stone vessels 
reflect the high standards of crafbmanshij) 
and art which led to elaborate Old Kingdom 
lombs, just as the ideas and hieroglyphic 
sNiTibols of this earlv period antic-it)ate 5 




Above: Tunib seffneiits. 

dismantled, ready for 

shipment to the United 

States. About 1909. 



Bt'knv: Portion of the 

Ei^'ptian Hall, in the 

Museum's original 

huildiu^i;. in Jackson 

Park. About 1900. Since 

tluit time, museum 

e.vhil)its luive been 

designed to histruct, 

rattier than simply 

entertain , please the 

nniseum-goer's e\'e. and 

.•iatisfi' his curiosity: 



the Old Kingdom concepts of kingship and diWne 
order. The predvnastic alcove is a necessan- prelude 
to understanding the tombs of the Old Kingdom. 

The two Field Museum tombs are offering 
chapels, not actual burial chambers. The reliefs 
are mainh' of offering processions, with the good 
things of this life piled in abundance for the eternal 
happiness of the deceased. To facilitate the \dsitor"s 
understanding of this ritual, the heiroghphic in- 
scriptions, both pravers and captions above the 
figures, are translated into English wherever possi- 
ble. In addition, objects dating to the Old Kingdom 
— man\' actualh' identical with ones depicted on 
the walls of the tombs — have been placed in the 
tomb chapels of Nerjer-user and Unis-ankh. 

Such tomb chapels, as an expression of the 




development of the state in Old Kingdom Eg^'pt, 
are an official art resulting from a highly complex, 
stratified socien'. While these chapels and the royal 
pyramids are svmbolic of the height of power, they 
also serve as a qualitative contrast to the basic cul- 
ture of Eg^Tst. This basic culture is embodied in the 
rural agricultural village culture, which has con- 
tinued from ancient times almost to the present 
day. This agricultural setting, tied with the annual 
flood of the Nile, is the focus of one of the newly 
organized cases adjoining the Old Kingdom tomb 
chapels. Aspects of this life along the Nile are de- 
picted in manv tombs. Touchable plaster casts of 
two such reliefs from the tomb of Ptah-hotep (also 
from Saqqara and approximately contemporary 
with Netjer-user) have been included in the 
reinstallation to alleviate the frustration of visitors 
to the glass-protected tomb chapels. The first 
Ptah-hotep relief depicts actixities which took 
place on the river edge: papvTus boatmaking, rope- 
making, and fish drying. The second relief shows a 
mock combat as frivolous boatmen try to knock 
each other into the water; meanwhile, the sculptor 
of the tomb enjoys the tableau and takes some re- 
freshment after his labors. The scenes are a cele- 
bration of the well-ordered life of work and bounty 
which the Nile has provided for millennia. 

The purpose of the reinstallment of the pre- 
d\-nastic and Old Kingdom artifacts and the open- 
ing of the tombs is twofold: First, to bring about an 
understanding of this remote and mysterious cul- 
ture, which has intrigued and e.xcited the imagina- 
tion since the arrival of the first ancient Greek 
tourists in Eg\pt. Secondh', we hope to enhance the 
appreciation of ancient Eg^-ptian craftsmanship 
and artistr\' — we come to praise the ancient Egyp- 
tians. The tomb chapels nov\' can be \isited and, 
therebv, as Unis-ankh and Netjer-user had in- 
tended, their memon- is preserved. In a way, their 
li\'es and accomplishments are celebrated by a 
posteriU' whom they could scarcely have imagined. 
The dignitv and rhythm of their lives on the banks 
of the Nile have, in a mysterious way, an effect on 
the qualitv of our own lives; there is a deepening 
and broadening of our experience through the 
continuing existence of these monuments and 
artifacts. 

The exhibition, then, is a reorganization of the 
Field Museum artifacts of the predvnastic period 
and the Old Kingdom, centered around the tombs. 
It is our hope that this will eventually be followed 
b\- the reorganization of the entire Eg^-ptian hall, 
with a progression of chronological sections and 
predominant cultural themes such as religion and 
politics. It is hoped that the vision of E. Leland 
Webber and the manv specialists who have worked 
on this project might find its fruit in a new under- 
standing of ancient EgApt on the part of members 
and visitors to the Field Museum. D 



Predynastic Egypt 



by Peter Lacovara 



Egypt, For Most People, brings to jiiiiui Cleopatra, 
Tiiiankhamun, or the Sphiiix and P\Tami(ls; how- 
ever, the most significant period in the develop- 
ment of Egx-ptian civilization, greath' antedating 
these, was probably the two thousand \'ears that 
preceded the unification of Eg\'pt into a single 
state, which occurred about 3150 B.C. 

Though the Nile Vallev was home to a number 
of Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic peoples, soine of 
them quite advanced, the connection between 
these groups and the Neolithic cultures of the pre- 
dynastic period remains a mvsten,'. It has been 




suggested that severe floods ma\' have decimated 
the indigenous population, leaving the valley open 
to migrants from the west or elsewhere. 

Whatever the case, between 5000 and 4500 
B.C., several settled agricultural communities ap- 
peared in the areas of the Delta, Fa\aim, and Upper 
(southern) Eg^'pt. Much more is known about the 
area of Upper Egvpt because of the concentration 
of archeological work in that area. 

Our picture of the pred\aiastic period is based 
principallv on the work of Sir Flinders Petrie and 
another English archeologist, Guy Brunton. At the 



Peter Lacovara is a doctoral candidate in Es^'p(o/qtji' at 
the Universitt' of Chicago. 



end of the last centun- Petrie e.xcavaled the site of 
Nacjada, near modern Luxor, and ewntually real- 
ized that the objects he had uncovered predated 
any period that was previously recognized in Egypt. 
By organizing the potter}' from individual burials 
on the basis of style and technological development 
he was able to place the grave groups in chronolog- 
ical order and successfulh- date them long before 
the development of modern methods of absolute 
dating such as Carbon 14. 

The predynastic period in Upper Egvpt has 
been di\aded into four main stages. Stage I is 
known as the Badarian [ca. 4800-4200 B.C.) and 
is characterized by black-topped bowls with a 
carefully polished surface and household potterv 
which shows Nubian influence. 

Stage II, the Nacjada I, or Amratian Period (ca. 
4200-3700 B.C.), continued Badarian traditions; 
these included potter\' with a polished red surface 
and black band around the mouth in a new variety' 
of shapes and forms (fig. 3) as well as plain red 
potters', which was occasionallv decorated with 
white pigment. 

The black top on the polten' resulted from 
firing in a simple "lionfire kiln": Sun-dried pots 
were stacked upside down in a sheltered area 
with a strong draft (fig. 1) and covered with a 
pile of animal dung that served both as the kiln 
superstructure and the fuel itself. Since the mouth 
of the pot rested in the ashes, it w;is not o.xidized 
(luring firing but remained black, while the carbon 
was burnt ouf of the exposed surface, which turned 
red. This techni(|ue was no doubt accidental at 




\. (Above) Sun-dried 
pots ii'ere stacked 
upside-down in a 
sheltered area ti'ilh a 
slroiiii draft and co\ •- 
ered with a pile of 
aniniid (hin^f thai 
served both as llw 
kibi superstructure 
anil as thefiwi itself. 



2. IBelow) Tempera- 
ture re^dation in the 
primitive kilns was 
difficult, ,so that over- 
fi rin^r occu rred . p ro- 
ducing pa rticdly 
melted pots, or 
"wasters." 7 




3. (Above) Black- 
topped I'Hse n'itli in- 
dented rim from 
Naqcida. Gift of 
Sir Flinders Petrie. 
Early \'aqada. 
Hei^t 16 cm . 
#31467. 



4.1 Right) Cylindrical 

black-topped vase 

from Abydos, \'aqada 

II. Hei^t25.5cm. 

#173999. 



first, but became intentional because of the pleas- 
ing color combination that resulted. Temperature 
regulation was difficult in these kilns, so that over- 
firing occurred, producing partial!}' melted pots, or 
"wasters" I fig. 2). 

Ceramic production became more sophisti- 
cated in stage III, the Naqada II, or Gerzean Period 
(m. 3700-3300 B.C.). Black-topped potter}' contin- 
ued to be produced but in more complex forms 
with constricted mouths and rolled rims (fig. 4). 
In addition to Nile mud a new tv'pe of clav, derived 
from desert marls, came into use. This clay, when 
fired, produced a tan or buff surface that was 
sometimes decorated with representational and 
abstract designs in red paint (fig. 5). More sophisti- 
cated kilns were developed, and in Naqada III 
(stage rV) we see beginnings of mass production in 
rough straw-tempered wares (fig. 6). Pots some- 
times were marked with signs which may have 
indicated ownership, intended use, or place of pro- 
duLtion. The rims of some were occasionally 
turned on a mat or rotating base, then joined to the 
hand-made body of the pot. Wheel- made pottery 
does no( appear in quantity until the Old Kingdom, 
with rhe finely made vessels of the so-called 
"Meydum \\'are" (fig. 7). 



Potter}' was eventually overtaken by the pro- 
ducers of stone vessels. Although they occur in ear- 
lier periods, stone vessels were never as common as 
in the Gerzean (stage I) nor were they found in as 
many different shapes or materials (see front 

cover) . 

Even though stone vessels were made from 
e.xtremely hard stones such as basalt, porphxT}', 
and granite, metal tools were not generally used to 
work the stones. The desired shape was roughed 
out with a pick and the surface smoothed down 
and polished with a quartz sand abrasive. The inte- 
rior was hollowed out with a lunate-shaped flint 
attached to a drill with weights; these provided 
added pressure and increased momentum as the 
drill was turned (fig. 10). After drilling the interior 
was sometimes trimmed down further by scraping 
and, in the case of plates and bowls, polished 
smooth. 

The refinement of the stone-carving craft is 




L- 



illustrali'il by ilif nunuroii.s iliiii-walled plates ami 
bowls produci-il in ilu- latt- j)rftl\nasiii- aiul archaii 
periods. Vessels were uccasionally produced wiih 
rims or bases cut from a separate piece ofstone 
and fitted exactly to the bod\- ol'ilie vessel. 

While they are occasioiiallv touiul in .settle- 
ments, the majorit}' of these vessels appear to have 
been made entirely for funeran- purposes; as nianx' 
as 40,000 were found in a single slorerooni ol llie 
Step pyramid at Sacjcjara. 

Not only \\'ere stone \ases made specilitalK' as 
grave goods, so were certain kinils ol poller\- and 
flint tools. The elaborate iiiu.il surrounding burial 
in the predynaslic period loreshadows the funeran 
customs of dynastic Kg\-pt. 

Jewelr)', weapons, cosmetic palettes, animal 
and human figurines, and foodslufls, as well as 
stone vessels and poiieiy, were often included in 
predsTiastic graves. The corpse was interred in a 
fetal position, most ofien on the left side and facing 
west; occasionally it was wrapped in a stra\\- mat 
or a linen sheet and placed in an oval grave, whicli 
was then covered with a simple mound of earth 
and stones. Village cemeteries, as todav, were usu- 
ally located on the desert edge of the valley (fig. 12). 
Tht)ugh remarkably well preserved, the bodies so 
interred were not mummified, and their condition 
is due entirely to the dr^'ness of the climate and 
the dessicating sands of the desert. 

Even afier well over a century of excavation, 
we still know far less about how the ancient Eg\'p- 
tians lived than how they were buried. A t'vw small 
villages of various periods have been discovered, 
but thev are far from representative of what a flood- 
plain town must have been like. Houses were built 
on a framework of posts against which mud plas- 




5.lAl)u\'fl Htilf t\'(irf liir ixilli sfnrtit clrsii^i in red l>i\piiriil . 
.\'(uitidu II. 'Hfi^u'l6.5 cm. #31472.' B. {Heltiwi rxm^x 
stniw-tfinperfd wuif vuse ivith pintilfd bust. NiufiuLi III. 
Heiy)it u;.5 (III. #:il47U. 




10 





-^-J:^^"^ 




lered reed mats were sel. These houses most iif un 
consisted of a single room xsith an open courfvard 
in front (fig. 9). Cooking and most domestic activ- 
ities were conducted outside, with the interior o( 
the hut reserved for sleeping and possibly animal 
keeping. More substantial structures of brick and 
limber have recently been uncovered at Hierakon- 
polis, the site of the largest surviving town of the 
prcd\Tiastic period. 

Most of these villages were agricultural, wheal 
and barlcv being the principal crops. Farming de- 
pended on the annual flooding of the Nile, which 
occurred fromjuh' to December. When the river 
retreated, the water left in low-hnng areas provided 
for continued irrigation. Crops were harvested in 
the spring and seed grain was stored until the ne.xt 
\s-inter planting. The soil was tilled \\'ilh wooden 
hoes set with flint blades, and grain was harvested 
with wooden sickles set with serrated flint blades 
(fig. 8). Additional objects of flint included arrow- 
heads of various tv-jjcs, adzes, knives, and even rep- 
resentations of birds and animals. The most im- 
pressive productions of the flint knap|)er's art were 
the beautifully ripi)le-flaked knives of the late i)re- 
dynastic period. These knives were chipped to 
roughU- the desired shape and then ground smooth 
and seriallv pressure flaked along one side to form 
Ihe rippled surface (fig. 11). That these knives 
were often set with gold or ivor^■ handles indicaii > 
the high value placed upon them. Eventually the 



7. lU'ft, ahu\'f> n'liffl-DuiiU- ifiliviitf .s/ynutfil iMni-t. Old 
Kingdom. Hi-ii^it lU cm. #.'Ja'«r. 8. tU-fh bi-law) I. to r.: 
reiiwarc bowl. \'(U\tuiit 111. if2S834i):' potten' jar tvilh 
plant motif. 03147.'i:flitil .■iiiklr blade set in reconstntctni 
Itatt. Fayum neolithic. 02UO4Z3; buff-Hxire .storage jar. 
Xiuiadti 111. 0.31483; flint lute blcuie. Fayum neoUthu . 
#219180. 

9. (Above) Reconstruction ofPredvnastic imttlr and daub 

hou.-ie. 10. IBchmOStoneva.'ie-maKiiig .■iiene from the mas- 
taba of Mereruhi . Saiiciara . 




11. Ripple flakr flint 

knife, 3300-3150 B.C. 

#30783. 




12. Predynaxtic burial 

scene, reconstructed. 

This naturalh'dessi- 

cated "niuninu" was 

pu rchcised in Eijl'pf by 

Edwa rd E . Ayer and 

is here ^rrouped with 

objects bought by Ayer 

and pottery excavated 

at Xaqada by n:M.F. 

Petrie. The objects 

date to the beginning 

of the Xcujada II 

period (ca . 3700 B.C.) 

and represent what a 

moderately wealthy 

grave group would 

contain. 



growing importance of metal tools eclipsed the 
chipped-stone industry, but flint tools continued 
to be made throughout much of dvnastic Eg^qat. 

Cereals, used in bread and beer, were the 
mainstay of the Egyptian diet and supplemented 
with fruits and vegetables, both cultivated and 
wild. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats were domes- 
ticated, and fish and game were hunted in the 
marshes and in the desert. Analysis of the contents 
of the stomach of a predynastic Egyptian body 
has disclosed a last meal which included cereals, 
a rodent, and insects. 

Besides farming, some predynastic towns 
engaged in trade and others became ceremonial 
centers. Larger settlements such as Abydos, 
Naqada, and Hierakonpolis must have exercised 
considerable influence, and indeed remained 



important religious centers throughout much of 
later Egyptian history. 

Community leaders and elites were buried 
in increasingly larger and more richly furnished 
tombs, indicating growing social stratification. As- 
sociated with some of these indi\'iduals were sym- 
bols later connected with the kingship in pharaonic 
Egypt, as for example the falcon, the red crown 
of lower Egypt, found at Naqada; and the white 
crown of Upper Egypt, found at Hierakonpolis. 

Eventually these groups were unified into a 
single state, probably by the pharaoh Narmer, who 
chose the area around modern Cairo for his new 
capital, Memphis. The founding of Memphis marks 
the end of the pred\'nastic period, the beginning of 
written histor\' in Egypt, and the creation of the 
dynastic state. 




Paintings 
From the Tomb of Nakht 

At Thebes 



Br WlLLAMj. Ml'RNANF. 



"Beautif}' I'our house in the ceineti'n;fiiruh your 
place ill the West." The ancient E^splians" belief in 
the continuit\- of htc aOer death is tlie basis lor this 
ad\ice; for even though they knew tliat "no one can 
return from there," they also lielicved that the next 
world could lx» enjoved on terms similar to those of 
the good lite of the deceased on earth. Decent bu- 
rial after "a good old age" was the fitting capstone 
of a successful career. This meant that a great deal 
of attention went into the proper outfitting of a 
tomb — for after all, "the house of death is for life." 

The earliest Eg\'ptian burials had been simple 
pits in the desert, into which the corp.se was [)laced 
along with a few personal possessions and a token 
offering of food. The ideas of {x^rsonal sur\-i\'al that 
underlay these jirimitive measures were refined in 
the religious thought developed during the oldest 
historic {)erio<ls. On the most basic le\el, the Eg}-]^)- 
lians believed in the resurrection ol the body; 
inummiticaticn prevented the corpse's dissolution 
once it had been remo\'ed from the dn-ing sands of 
the desert, and "reserve heads" — sculjjtured repli- 
cas — were kept in the tomb in case the deceased 
should lose his own. 

The Egyptians had no exact equivalent to 
our belief in the duality- of body and soul, but they 
believed in forces such as the Kri , a cosmic double, 
who came into existence at a person's birth and 
preserved the jx-rsonality after death; and also 
in theB« , a dvnamic intermediary' between the 
worlds ol the dead and the living. Egs-jJlians also 
came to believe that the dead iK-cami- idenlilied 
with Osiris, king ol the Netherworld, and could 
thus share his power over the forces in the realm 
be\'on(l de;ith. 

To ensure the well-being of these elements 
al\er death, the Eg\ptia:is also develojx?d incrcas- 



n'illi^imj. Munuiiif i.s llif </.^.m.s(«m( liimlor njthf Oni-n- 
Idl Institute's Epi^^ruphic Siin'ty. with hnulquarters in 
lAi.vor.E'^'pt. Hcis the aiitlior of Vn>tv(\ with Klemitv: .1 
Concise Guide to the Monuments ol Mediiiel H;il>uf J.'Wi; 
and Thf Penguin Guide to Ancient tgviit itu appear in 
19S2). 



ingly elaborate burial arraiigement.N. Virtually any 
.settlement in the Nile V'allev would Iwve its ceme- 
ter\' nearbv, usuallv on the western siiie ol the Nile: 
to the EgN'ptians, "the West" was .synonymous with 
the kind of the dead. High government oflicials, 
howe\er, prelerred to be buried near one ol the 
centers ol power — at Memphis, the ca()ital, and 
later in Thebes, in Upjx'r (southern) Eg\^^t. During 
the EgN-ptian New Kingdom (c. 1570-1070 B i: ), bu- 
rial in the Theban Necrojxjlis brought with it the 
prestige, not onl\- nl being in the "estate" of Amun, 
wlio at this time was wa.xing into the most inlluen- 
lial of Eg\'pl's main' gods, but al.so ol Ix-ingoii the 
fringes of the Valley of the kings, where all the 
rulers of this jx>riod had their tombs. 

The tomb of Nakht is a good e.viimple of one 
f^pe of rock-cut tomb built at Thebes during the 
New Kingdom. Such tombs characterLsiically had 
three parts: an outer courtA'ard, when- the last rites 



kt'l»r"<UK lloM> Kl .N.lKIlt Itiiild l».iliitlli^> >ii"^Mi 111 l)u> aj li, il ,411 

rriini Thi- Tiimb ufS'akhl ill TiielM-a. by Nonnaii deGiiri» Dan» 
lNe«' York: IHin' 




Ihmh of Nakht, lateral ivn- 



n 




Touil) of XdUil. irrliail vmw Lrtlcrs in decorated chamber correspond la ivall desi:j;iiatious in tc.cl and illuslrations 
of thiti article. 



14 



were held; a chapel cut into the mountainside, con- 
sisting of'a broad hall tbllowed by a long corridor, 
with a statue of the tomb owner placed in a niche 
or in another small room at the far end; and, deep 
underground, a burial chiimber, reached by a shaft 
dug into the floor of the court or branching off 
from somewhere inside the chapel. Scenes, inscrip- 
tions, and patterned decorations could be carved 
directly onto the walls; but (as in the tomb of 
Naklitl the decorators often preferred to coat the 
walls with plaster and complete the decoration in 
paint. 

The paintings that survive in the tomb of 
Nakht all come from the broad hall of his chapel; 
the other parts of his tomb were left unfinished. 
Themes such as the offering bearers who wait on 
the deceased, and his stela at the right end of the 
tomb (wall F) lay predictable stress on his mor- 
tuar\' cult. Many other scenes, however, portray 
Nakiit in the full vigor of life, watching the workers 
on his estate at the grain han'est (wall A), fishing 
and fowling in the marshes (wall D), and attending 
a banquet (wallE). 

To interpret these scenes merely as reflecting 
the ouilook of a leisured class would be misleading. 
Thrv- .' Quid be more accurately viewed as the tomb 
owner's "lite support systems" which, by ev'oking 
tliese ideas, would magically ensure that the de- 
ceased had enough to "live on" in his next life, that 



he would triumph over adv'erse forces found there, 
and continue to be remembered on earth. Such 
"scenes of daily life" are often as picturesque to us 
as thev are informati\'e; but they were as vital to 
the tomb owaier's survival as the religiovis and fu- 
nerary subjects usually found in the inner corridor 
of similar tombs. 

Nakht himself was not one of the great lumi- 
naries of his age. His sole claim to fame lies in the 
exquisite decoration of his tomb; and it is on the 
basis of tliese paintings" stvie that he is believed to 
have lived during the reigns of Amenhotep II (c. 
1453-1419 B.C.) or ThutmoserV(c.l419-138G B.C.], 
during the Eighteenth Dvaiastv'. His occupation, 
on the other hand, sets him apart from the other 
priests and government functionaries buried in the 
Theban Necropolis, for he was an astronomer — or, 
to translate his title more precisely, an "hour man," 
someone trained to observe the movements of the 
sun, moon, and stars and to schedule from this 
data the divine festivals the occurrence of which 
depended on these heavenly bodies. 

The other title he employs in his tomb, that 
of "scribe,"could be claimed by anyone who was 
literate; but his full service title, "astronomer of 
Amun," suggests that he was on the stafTof the 
great temple of Amun at Karnak, across the river, 
as was his wife Tawv- who, along with many other 
officials' wives of her class, was a "chantress of 



Aimiii." Ta«y s marriage to Naklit may luive Inrn 
at least lier second, for one of'the ollerinj; Ix-arers 
in the bantjuel scene (wallE) is described as "her 
son, Ainenojie." For the rest, we know nothing 
about tliese jHM)ple: tliev h\e as ihev \\-ished to U- 
immortahzed, through the paintings in their tomb. 

The tomb oINaklit (numlx-r 52 in the non- 
royal necrojxilis at Thebes) is located on an out- 
cropping of the Theban hills known as Sheikh 
Abd-el-Qurna. E\en though more than thirtv-thi re 
centuries haw passed since completion ot'tlii' 
paintings, they are in remark;ibl\- line condition. 
Some damage was done to them near the end ol 
the Eighteenth Ehiiasty (c. 134fi-1334 B c ). when 
agents ol'thc heretic phanioh /-Vkhenaien entered 
the tomb and erased the names ofAmun, some- 
times destroying those of Xaklit and his wife as 
well. Other areas of painted plaster have llaked olf 
since then, most seriously in the banquet scene 
( wallE). Otherwise, the scenes remain intact, with 
the colors seemingh' as lix'sh as when the\' were 
first ^winted. 

The tomb was discovered in or shortlv before 
1889; and it was copied for publication in 1915 bv 
N'orman DeGaris Da\ies and his wife, Nina, who 
later made tiie facsimile model for the Metropoli- 
tan Museum of Art, which is now on exhibit at 
Field Mu.seum. Today, the tomb of Nakht, in E_g\'})t, 
is one of the most frequently xisited of all the The- 
ban tombs. Visitors to the Field Museum who have 
not been to Egipt mav now \iew this full-size copy 
with the assurance that it faithfully reproduces 
the designs and brilliant coloring of the original 
monument. 

In the descriptions that follow, directions Cleft, 
right) and references to the \'arious walls (A-F) are 
made in terms of the diagram on page 14. In the 
translations gixen here, lost or damaged words are 
restored in brackets. 

Wall A 

This wall, di\'ided into two registers ol unequal 
height, falls also into two sejiarate scenes — that 
of the deceased, with his uife, oflering to the sun 
god ( not reprfKluced here): and the agricultural 
ngnettes, shouii on the fijllowing page. 

In the offering seme, Naklit stands bclbre a pile 
of offerings, onto which he |X)urs the contents of a 
jar of oil. Four more Jars rest on a mat on the upjxT 
left, with a bouquet drajx'd gracefully over each 
one. Varieties of fiKxi are stacked below — vege- 
tables (onions, ba.skels of fruit and flowers) pre- 
dominate on lop; cuts of meat and tiressed liiwi in 
the middle; and .several l>q)es of bread on the bot- 
tom. A pair of butchers are still working on t he 
carcass of a bull at tlie bottom right, while a third 
man ofTcrs a cup witli two cones of fat to the de- 
ceased. Behind Nakht stands TawT, his wife, her 




liair l)()un(i witii a chaplet of flowers. In her ngiit "'"" Udiriiuh 
hand, held against lier chest, she holds a necklace 
with its oblong counterweight; in her led hand, 
hanging at her side, is a rattle: both objects, besides 
being siicrcd to the "mistress of the Western Moun- 
tain," Hathor, were employed in the course of 
TawTS serwe at the temple. The eleven columns of 
hieroglvphs abo\'e the figures" heads de.scrilK' the 
occasion as an "oflt'ring of even' sort of gixKl and 
j)ure thing — bread, beer, oxen, fowl, long- and 
short-horned cattle — throu-n (?) ujxm the brazier 
to [Amun-Re. . . ; to ) Re-Honis the Horizon-dweller; 
to Osiris the Great CJod; to Hathor, chieltainess of 
the desert; (and) to Anubis on his mountain, by 
the astronomer of | Amun, the scrijlx' of Nak|kht, 
the triiimphjur;/;* (and b\) his si.ster.*' lii.s favorite 
beloved, the chantre.ss of (Amun, Taw}'), the 
triumphant." 

Notice lluit, lK)tii lieix-and in the ci)nx*s}x>nd- 
ingspot on wall B, Nakht iind his wile lace the 
doorway. This is a regular leature in the Thebiin 
tombs and e.vpres.-^es the ho[K' ol the dece.i.stnl that 
I lie\' might rise eve^^■ tiay aller death to Uisk in the 
lili'-gi\-iiig ravs of the sun. Note al.-io the piilternitl 
decoration that runs along the top of the wall: 
these ornaments, called klirkrni , represent wisps 
of straw projecting liom the lop ol the mud- 
daulx-d frame ol'a primiliw hou.se and Ixiiind to- 
gether liir decorative ellecl. Found in domestic ar- 
chitecture li-t)m e.irhest times, iIii.h feature w.is re- 
taiiu-d as an omamenlal motif in 8toiu* build ing.s 
down to the end ol ancient F-i^'juian civil iyjil ion. 

'An rxprexsioii lluK rff(iil"Hy folUM-s the (Irtnisftl'y 
iianir, iiuUaithiff llinl lit or she his Imtii cUttrtti of any 
wnmfitfiiufi hy thr ilixiiie trihwuil in the Vtultrworiii 
'•Ainijhtioiiiiirrtiiilirniism.lierrnteitiiiiifi'H'ift' 



15 



r; 






fe Wi % # # # M % m ® p ii 







Wall A 



w 1- Y -2'^'=s?=f x-s. ^; 1 a - 

Si cT-- c==^ ^ — -: f) - 7 — F"— t.-.j,- r- - ^- ». -r 




1 li. Vj.Tiiiiltural S««'ii»*»: Ttie^^ 


ni^i 




!' 




.1 


11 nil lll-.ll . 

liltMklllit II ; 

In iii.. .\ .il. 


ihm 


Ik 


../ni.'dr/iildii)' Willi I! 

• ,,!l,..«l..,„ll..ll,.., 

iLs clay, allow Mime • 
••■Ills thniiii;)) llu- suit- ..i 
I'liiaiiKJer I'lxil. Mtuh itir 
liRitl by llif skin U'.itiT Ui 
UT, Iruni wliiili \vr stf .i i : 
irli-n. 

Till- stHjuencf next inmt^' nji 
• 1 »• 1 lirtf .suliri-.nJsHTs oti i ! 

Ill llll- lowest o( lllfSf, IWI. 


Ml. 

.1 
ihr 



iiitivi- through lu'ldsor_H!^fii lUixdrttl. |nilluig 
' ip the sl.'ilk-s lor buniiling. The heanei m . .r I, , .f 
: i.irvx-st ing gram ls done !>>■ nieii wit I 
ti'^itl. followed bva woman wIioIkmhI- .i' ■>» u 

glean the bmken stalks lhe>' \ui\v (hro\»'n 
■side. 

In the middle of this row the ^rain 
IS [Kicked into a large Kisket: th- 'he 

I ight holds the end ol a stall v\lii> <t 

■n the right uses to cram down lite >i • 
1 imping up and l>eanngdimii on it ■• 
uill weight while al thes.ime tin iia 

irauTojM.'. The art LstV gill liirfii <-«i 

n his treatment oft he standing: •m: 

iiid his distaste liir this lionng u leiil 

:iom the unlinishetl state ol the grain and flax 
.1) the right and lell ends ol this nnv. 

The next stage, se|wiraling llie ears from 
I he stalks, is not shown here, but wedo>rr the 
winnowing that lollowetl m the up|i«-r row. 
Here, \iiuiig women tov- ihee.ir iir 

with wiNKleii M(K)p>, allowing '.: " 

larn' awav the iluill .ind leaMiig ili<- giain 
il^eirtiehind. (Jnegirhon tlielelt. i- U-iitling 
lowii to relill her M-oops, wluli •» 

l.tfjjs till- pile together with iw. d- 

brooms. 



11iehot,d..-- 


....rl .. 


' ■■MiWrfiillv 


e\'oke<ibvlhetl 




1 ihealliliKlr* 


ollheximngwi.! 




' • -.ind 


her Iwur with a i 




1 


ihe .iir. Ilie mii': 






: lin-^hini; (limr 







|)rolnle<l Ihe It.' 

other |xitentuil i 

llie lin.il epiMnle is ii 

twti men nv  ' ''  

liuckels, M 

nienls wen- ihm i jiimn-i; 

I'lVlkin-tl lor them, llie In 



17 



"iiiiiiiiiif^"'"" 




18 



WALL B 




iire (hen piled befoc* the lomb owner, wh 



U.ill l( 

liiMf.al lfll,aM>ni«vj//A,N'.ikhi.ii>,IT.v«t t ., .. 

I hi' iMiliT wiirUI and oiler 

rlu- IcJhlNtiUnv llieir Ite.'iil- ,-...^,.i !,.>"'> 

iiuttIi imcl iniviiM- on ilii- Iblnie' lo ilie Mine 

(livtnitifs luinuilon lhf(i| '   

i>lx'liiHlln'ilif|iroliiAhin •  

ilir rij^lil. Many nl llu- ilenL- ■! : 

.inil \x\nelahU'T. will Ix- lanuluii : 

liul llu- nuMiii licrv i> nuii> 

Ikirtic'iiLir llic ilrcNMtl ir.n  

iiiniaiiK- IcIliKf in llif nuckllr row 

W'luil apjK-an., al lir^l uLiiur, lo l>r an 
cLilhirau-lycolontl lisli |u»l lienralh ihe Irl- 
nice Ls in lad a |wiinlc(l bull's lie.Ki. Atldilkinal 
1 ilUTini;s an- liroiii^hl in In' ihe llirer nm> o( 
iH-an-rs Im-IuiuI Naklil anil TawT. enirrmg Inim 
I lif li'li . Oiu- nil >rf nolal lie lealun- ui I hi» Kme 
i.s the |in-.s«Txalion ol'lhe Ofui. drawn on llie 
wall in retl |>;iinl l>elore the liJ;un-^ were lir*! 
drawn ui roiinh draO and slill survivinj' aOrr 
the final |xunling ol ihe eniirv stent. 



19 



=3!i03L3J___^^!5^:^ ^ 







Wall C 




s^tM 




Willie 

llii Iwi! ivj;i.-li'i> ^llln^■ll lifif ilf|)iil varialiiiiiMil 
llic Siimi- llu'iiu-: llic dt-uMMtl and lii> wit'c, st'aifil 
w'ilhin llu' loiiili. ififiwolliTiiins lium iIicIimii,i;|i> 
(■nsuri-llicirainliniiftl «i-ll-lHMiif4. Iiic'(iiilra>l Willi 
llic |in'vioiis ivvo walls, (In- |>.'iinlin,i;s lien- Hrn- 
lU'xvr tinlslu-(l. TliL-i l-. niosily inii- lor ilu- ifxis 
which, u'lu-n I lu"i- an* pivsciH at all, were drawn 
(inly in uullinc and no) lllli'tl in. 

Nlost tillhf ligiirvs wen- linisheil in {Miint, bin 
lino details on I he olUTinjis and much <if I he couple 
on I lie upinTlelt side were newrcoinplelelvdone. 
In I he iipjier regisler, I wo rowsol iiien lirini; in ((khI 
and lHiu<|uels(fo;)' and j.irs ol'oil wilh wicksf^xjf  
ttmi). This lower uroup is led bv I he .Vrri - pnesi , 
wearinga leo|vinl-skin, who regularlv pi\-sided al 
Ei^pli.in liiner.ilsaiid is seen here slrelchiiif; out his 
riglit handandullerin^as|)ell. Nakhland I'awTare 
descrilnxl as "recleivjini* gil^sl oC. . . wilh which 
lAinunj, pre-eminent amung the holy ones. Is well 
iplied during ihecourseoCex'eri'day." 

In the lower register, the more conspicuous 
igure oCthe^Sc/M-priest was destroyed by agents ol 



.AkJieiiulen. )jerhii|ii> I > 



kin^rUinirMl )' 



tike 



be |>ure, t« 

Aslrononiei ;i< 

lower row are Ml 

anddrinkollenii,,., .i ..... 

lully ilrawn.aiid lIuTarei-umplelely : 
the rest ol this register. 

°I1h- tomb owner and hb> wile aiv k^iilnl al iIm 
lett end ot each i. 
Ilower ( incompi' 
l>elow he holds a Unujtu i. j > 
ence to lhesimilanl\' in th. 
.ind'hle" (Uilh !■ 
ihesi-ollering pi. - 
Ke;isl olthe Valle\', during ^■ 

relalixi-s visited the lomb. II. - , 

owner's statue with the Uiuquel orAniuii. A miiii- 
lar practice, acLipti**! to the Muslim religion. Kur- 
xix'es in EgX"]!! lo this diiy. 



21 



si S' Bi' W W 'M^'ia-' IT Wl 



Hi V 



pt3 jjjui ijBii li^^ t-^i KiSy ^^ 

fev ^^ M M /s^, MM 



ffWl 




V3IZI1_II II II I T ~ri  I ■—¥■—11 II 11 II 11 II ■■ZDTTJr 11 HTJirra-iTi 




%t 



o 







74 



PJ-?1.1^ 



F^ 




^ /./I 





I I i 









•■a 





i 



JUL 



T^ " // ^ 



^ 






WA 



IL\ 



r 



111;! /"^ihm^i: 



\ 






r^^ .i(. im 




y 



^1 1 
V 




ill 



\'^( 



I ■, ^^!' r 




22 



/ . Iv 





^K 



iW 



>r^^ 






/^ 



WALL D 






W"' 



W.ill I) 



•uTicm 



iir^iiihjntTLi u liirir 



"ir II 



" II ir-fi-'rrjiin 








'% 



1 1 



4 "rf .^>\ '7;^ib. /.-iAzi ^ 

'V-J 




^Aa.vvv 




Uiii., 
lllf> 



i-.irtli. Ai ilii- isiinu- ijim', i ' 

l<ir iiiilMiiiiiilt'd iKitiirt- \v.'i~ 

tiir (inii-rliiifM. K}ji|il, io. .■ 

|ir(i:.|KTily III I lit- MM 1..' , 

lull i-.\|iliiiiati(iii III il,. 

rill- rx-li.i, Willi ,,,.^. 

u'.i>. iilsii it llirtMli'iui. ; 

cliaii.s hflil swav. I In 
ri'liix-Nt-iilfd a \-iiii)r\ 

ili-ti-astil mii;lii nut-l in int-iu-\i wnrltl. Moit^nrr, 
lic-c'liaiiiifllint;iil imtcnlially ilf-iru. im , !■ inint* 
inliicijiislnalivf jwillis wasaii < ,ij, 

I lif cosmic luiriiiony iluil woiiMii. ..^ ...i ...,..„ ^.^idi. 
liunoflheiuiiverM-. 

rishin<iciiicl fowling in the ttiarsi:, ' v n in 

llii- iippiT ri-};i>ltT. In two rf|)rr»fmat ii- 

mirTor-ima.ni-xil'om-aiiolhiT.Nakhl itcI 

skill. Mi-mlx'i-s iil'his laiuily liiilil Inn 
graspiim his lfj;s ami iniiUtvlinii, .l- i Ii 

lri\(litl and wu-lds, aluiij; willi Iil- mu. ,•;•; 

ai^iiiiisl llu- slarlli-d liird.- «lni riM- in .. 
di-iisf ihiikiMs iirri-t-d.- and iwii'. ni- 
artisl «hii|iiiinlitllliisstv: , ilir 

liarjKxiii 1111 iJR- rii^lii. Inn I 
sitMi lieiiij; lilU'd Ihim ilu- wakT biMx\f«i i :  
IxKMs, whilf ilie li'.vi on the up|>fr riglf -• - 
N;iklil's "jx-ni-lraling the juxiLs and li .> 
niarslu-s. amiLsiiii; liiniscll (amil s|Xm 

Alxixv llu- sct'iif III! tllf \vt\, llu-  :■ 
"aniiLsin^liiiiix-H. wali'hiii. 1) 

(irat'liciiii; lit-ld sjxirls. con : |m- 

Mai-sli CiKiiicss. by lli. : iIm- 

risli-and Kiiwl-calch. : .|, 

llicschlic N'aklil, llic iriiiii: tin- 

cluiiim-ssol jAiiiiinl. llicl.K sIk" 

>ays: 'AnuL^fyoiiix-ll Willi  : ilif MjirtJi 

c;iKldi'>s! (/\s lor) lliciiuioj 

iiiiinu-nl isa|i|Miinltxl lorhiiu'" 

The diiv's catch is f^ihorvd up In < i  
on tluTiglil— nulf one oI'llMrin. Willi 
slrap|MHl lo liLsjinn- .• "  

loiiiliiiwiu-rsuiviap)'- :!«• 



ul LiH'. 
iiilo l! 

I- 

si nick 

11 II- I. 



lK^alls«■ I 111 

A I at. \\ II. • 11.11) I 
niiiiiili aKiiind ihf nn i 



1 Us 



tiijii unit Mill, ihc <.(iiiM<ii til /Uiiun. ll^il dii '.% :lir23 



iconoclasts" wrath onto il as well. 

Trapping birds in the swamp can be 
seen at the bottom right side of the lower 
register: a man, who had hidden nearb\', sig- 
nals his partners to draw shut a net placed in 
one ol the birds" tavorite pools. The Eg\'p- 
tians preti-rred to domesticate birds that sur- 
\'ived capture in this wav, but the less fortu- 
nate victims are seen being plucked and gut- 
ted on the left. Above this we see two 



episodes oi'viticulture: an elderh' \intner, ac- 
companied bv his younger assistant, selects 
the best bunches of grapes for wine-making 
and then supervises the treading of the 
grapes on the left. 

The final outcome of the process is 
suggested b\' the four jugs of wine, already 
with their sealed clav stoppers, above the 
master \intner"s head. At the opposite end, as 
in the register above, we see Kakht and his 
lad\' "seated in a kiosk in order to watch the 
pleasant things of Lower Eg\pt." 



Wall E 

One of the final rituals at the tomb was the 
funeral banquet. To the Egyptians, the con- 
tinuing close ties between the li\-ing and the 
dead was not onh' healthx- but necessan': only 
thus would the famih- keep a sense of its 
historic identity', reinforced bv the yearly 
\isits to the tombs during the Feast of the 
Valley and by the upkeep of the family mor- 
luan- cults. It was for this purpose that the 
deceased "shared" a final meal with their 
families, and this was also why the family 
continued to be present throughout eternirv 
on the walls of the tomb. 

While a good part of the banquet scene 
has been destroyed, its principal features can 
be easily made out. As usual, there are two 
registers, and in each one, at the right end. 




'A All E 



arc Naklit and his \^'ife. The (ieccased aiv 
sliown as bcinu; already in tlieir lonib: ii is no 
accident that here, as well as on Milts Cmui 
c, they are placed as close as (jossible to the 
door leading into the inner corridor. 

hi the iip|)er register the\- were servet) b\' 
two men. probably carrying trays ol IcKxi, 
troni which vine streamers hung. On the Ixil- 
tom, an oHering of (bod and "a bouquet, 
afler doing what i.s praised" is made by a 
man who is described as "her son, 
Amcnemope. the triumphant" — jx-rhaps. as 
we haw suggested already, Tavv-^^'s son b\' a 
preiious marriage. An intimate detail is sup- 
plii-d by the tomb owners' i)el cat, who oc- 
cupies its customai;)' place umier their chairs 
and is seen devouring, with the l'er(x-ious 
singlc-mindcdne.ss olits kind, a lish. 

The other guests — friends and members 
of the family — are sealed on the leih facing 
the tomb owners. The more imjiortant 
guests are seated on chairs, with the otliers 
(second row) squatting comfortably on 
mats. Women seem to outnumber men in 
this family giithering: only three of the de- 
ceased's male relatives can be detected with 
any certainn- (third noif). The guests are 
\\'aited on by servants, such as the practically 
nude young woman who adjusts one of the 
ladies' earrings (second row). The women 
wear long braided wigs, and both .sexes are 
outfitted with collars. Nearly all the guests 
hold flowers, and e\'er)-one at the purw u-ears 
on his or her head a cone of scented fat that 
was supposed to annoint the wearer as it 
melted. 

Supplies for the guests' enjo\inent are 
seen in the large jugs of liquid refreshment, 
ornamented with wne leaves (top roii'J; and 
in the additional fillets for the guests' hair 
and further supplies of ointment (third 
row). 

The picturesqueness of the scene is 

heightened by the musicians, who quite ap- 

jpropriateh' occupv the center of attention: 



the blind h.irpist {.snttnd non-J, a (mjueni 
[Kirticiivuit in similar scenes (rom other 
tombs, stiuals wiili Ins leet lucked under hi> 
legs anil sings for the guests. He ls accom- 
panied by three other jx^rlbrmers, lithe 
young women, who play on a tall standing 
harp, a lute, and a double-reed |)I|k': note the 
sense ol movement giwn to the almost nude 
lutLsl, as .she turns (practically liicing the 
newer, in defiance ol the customan' pr.ictice 
in Egvptian art ) to wliis|K'r something to her 
comixiiiion. It IS ;i pity that the whole scene Ls 
not belter pre.serx'ed. f.ven mi, it stands as one 
of the masterpieces of ancient Egi'pliiin arl. 



Wall I 

The bottom register, not sho\vn here, domi- 
nated by a pile of oflcrings, is presided owr 
by the Tree G<xidcss, a female figure who 
symbolized the Egyptian's hope for 
nourishment in the arid cemetert' area at the 
desert's edge. Behind her are two human of- 
fering bearers, «'hile above them are other 
figures who kneel as they present bread, wa- 
ter, and ointment, or beer, milk, and linen — 
the necessities of life — and utter spells: "You 
are pure as Horus is pure! You are pure eis 
Seth is pure!" The object of their devotion is a 
tablet, painted a mottled purplish-grey to 
simulate granite. This is the tomb owner's 
stela, his "false door" to and from the next 
world. It was from here that the Iki came on 
his errands to the land of the living, and it 
was here that the family serv'ed the tomb 
owner's mortuan' cult. The door's "lintel," in 
t he middle of t he tablet , is covered «Tt h mag- 
ical emblems — "the Wedjat"-cye for whole- 
ness (particularly important for the 
mummy); the circle, SNTnbolizing the eternal 
passage of the sun; and the cuj) of water, vital 
for the deceased's survival in the cemetery'. 
Naklit and TavvT are shown seated be- 




'■ "-'wl 

«'itii p 

(oriii 

back to If' 

cemeterv w 

king, wltu.i ,, 

would secuK- iiir jM..!.-viiun ul 11^ j;uai. "A 

rtnal oflering," the)- say. 

to Osiris-Wenriinefru , the Gnat God, 
U)rdofAb}flo.s,lluithfniayallntfcomini( 
and \f lint' tn lliecrmrtrn; Hiihuul titr IVj's 
beii(\{ hindemi from m4uiI it tUstrrs. 
to Aiiubis , iirreiniiimt in f /«• (/ii<irir kto»k . 
thit tw may \(runt spletidor Itefitrr Re 
in Iwuvrn, poiver brfurr Geh on earth 
aiui \>iridication before Wenennefru in the 
desert; 

to Amuii. preeminent amon)( the holy 
ones, tlie Gmit G<mI, chietufTiiebe:,, that 
lu- may allow crossinff (of tlie hxrrlto land 
at Kuniak , in order to eat food e\<ery dtty; 
land) to Re-Horus tlie Honzon-dntUer, 
that lie may allow his lieauty to be seen 
ei<er\> day. aiid j^oes forth on earth to lie- 
hoUi tlie sun's disk in the manner of one 
who ison earth— on Muilfuftlie Kaofthe 
Astronomer [ofAmun, <Vti)fc/il the 
trium[pliant]. 

Life on earth was sweet to the Eg^ptiaiu 
They could inwgine nothing licllcr, c\rn a(\er 
death. 



ThcC«'llln({ 

The idea of the tomb as an early Ei^vptian 
house is earned over onto ihe ceiling where, 
stretched between Ihe roof beams, «t se« 
gaily colored liangings, all in paint The de- 
signs are less elal>orate than in other lombt, 
but the e(l(?ct is lively and ple.ismg — value 
judgements that might well lie applied lo all 
the paintings m the lumbofNakiii. D 



2S 



The Tomb Chapels 

of 

Netjer-user and Unis-ankh 

by BRUCE Williams 

Hie reinstallation oftheEgyptian tomb chapels has been made possible by grants from the A. Montgomeri' Ward 

Foimdt:ition and an anonymous donor. 



Tlie tomb chapel of 

Netjer-user. north 

wall: Most of the 

decoration shoivs 

offering bea rers and 

the slaughtering of 

animals for meat 

offerings. Here, a man 

labelled "sharpenin: 

the knife" is shotvn iii 

the center and again 

on the right of the 

lower register: a 

bearer just ni»ht of 

center in the same 

register says to the 

butcher: "Give me 

the heart." 




26 



The Old Kingdom (often called the Pyramid Age: 
Dynasties IV, V, and VI, 2613-2181 B.C.), was the 
time of Egypt's most impressive and enduring 
achievements. An age that experienced neither 
doubt nor failure turned naturallv to the direct and 
commanding as modes of expression, particularly 
the tomb, which for many is the ultimate futilitv'. 
The Egyptians built pyramid tombs for their 



Bruce i\'iiiiams is research associate (assistant professor) 
at the Oriental Institute, the Uniivrsity of Chicago. 



pharaohs, who were to be united with the sun, as 
expressions of that union. Eminent, but mortal, 
men were entombed in other monuments, which 
provided not only protection for the body and grave 
goods, but also pro\'ided the means by which essen- 
tial worldl\' goods could again be made accessible 
in the naxt world. This reaccess was achieved by 
providing the facilities for ceremonies and for rep- 
resentations, on the tomb walls, of these cere- 
monies and offerings. 

The central feature of the reinstallation of the 
Egyptian Hall is the opening of the tomb chapels of 



</\\\\\\\\\\\\ V X X X V ^ Y . 



Netjer-user and Unis-ankh so that the reliefs the>' 
contain can be \ie\ved at dose haiui hv ilie visitor. 
The new xiewing is mudi like thai exiK-rieiKed hv 
an ancient priest or relative of the deceased making 
offerings there. The reliefs co\'ering the \\'alls do 
not represent the entire li\es of the decea.sed, nor 
even a major part of the mortuary' arrangements 
for them; they are onlv the most el.ilxiralc siir\ix- 
ing jxirt of a large comple.x that was intended 
to transfer into the next world the deceased's 
achievements, wealth, and sometimes serv.mts 
and relati\es. 

The fitted limestone bltxrks comprising tin- 
walls are the lining ol the tomb cha^K»l in which 
the needs of the dead were served bv Kii-servanis, 
or soil] priests. In exchange for the proceeds Irom 
a perpetual endowiiient made by the deceased, 
these servants presented certain material goods, 
particularly food, on offering tables at false doors 
in the tombs so that the counterparts ol these 
goods in the other world might l>e made available 
to the deceased. 

There were also special offerings made on 
feast davs. In the event that the Ka-servant or the 
endowment tailed, representations of these ofTer- 
ings, off en with other desirable life actinties, were 
put on the walls, with the appropriate f>ersons of- 
ficiating. These were accompanied b\' elaborate 
lists of offerings and shorter in\()cation offerings 
recited bv the Wsitor in order to make quantities 
of foodstuffs available to the deceased ("a thou- 
sand loaves of bread, a thousand jugs of beer, a 
thousand cakes, etc."). 

Chaf)els of this sort were attached to, or in 
the case of Netjer-user and Unis-ankh, built into 
rectangular stone structures usually now called 
mastabas, the Arabic term for the modern EgNp- 
tian brick bench which the\' resemble. Apart from 
their chapels and usually solid interior, the mas- 
taba complex contained the actual burial. Usually 
this was situated at the bottom of a deep vertical 
shaf^ cut from the top of the mastaba into the 



I 
3 



i 



main taise joo( 



glass partition 
(Of viewing 



J 

\\\\\\\\V 



...^ 



HallJ 

Tbnib chapel ofNetjer-usrr 

bedrock below, and placed in a plain rock-cut 
chamlwr so orienteii that it w.is below and to the 
west of the chapel's southern, or main, liilse door. 
This arrangement gave the deceased's spirit direct 
access to the offerings. Al.so geiierallv presi-nt were 
one or more senlabs — chamlK-rs with statues of 
the deceased that were intended as substitutes 
for the bod\' as a home for the K;i-soul; ihe.si' cham- 
bers were often arranged so llie statue coulil l<K)k 
through narrow apertures into the chajiel (No such 
chambers were found in the Neljer-u.ser or I'nLs- 
ankli mastabas.) 

Mastabas liad a long, complex history- in Egv-pt 
and were imjK)rtant in Egvj^)lian burial customs, 
e.spi'cialK' in the Archaic ami Old Kingdom pericxis 
(3150-2181 B.C.). They existed during the early First 
fhiiastv', when thev were the major burial structure 
for pluiraohs as well as liir the common people. 
Even then, royal mortuar\' .irrangements wen- 
complex, and arouiul the royal tombs were small 
bench-tombs of courtiers ;md artisans who would 
follow their master in death. Alreadv, during thus 






wwwwwwww /i ' ' '■' 



X in 



-w\\\y 



-gii^^ 



chapel 



vestibule 



I 

^ 



/^ eriiai ce '/ 



r 



^ 



w^ 






.iriidcial 

museum 
viewing only 



/ 



HaWJ 



tomb chapel of Unis-ankh 



27 




Tlw false door ofUnis-aiikh. The complex panelled false 
door was the main focus of the Eg^'ptian private tomb 
cluipel in the OhI Kini^dom. Offerings and libation were 
made before it to provide the deceased with food, drink, 
and clothing. Here, I lu- frame and panels give a jiinerar}' 
formula, with tlw name and titles of Unis-ankh, as well 
as his figure, shown sir times at the bottom. Above 
the doorway, Unis-ankh extends his liand to a table of 
offerings. 

period, some of these tiny mastabas had the two 
small niches in the east side; similar, nonroyal 
tombs, set apart from the roval ones, had tiny 
chajxils at the southern niche, some with offerings. 
Also in the First EKnasty, wealthy private citizens 
were already building large mastaba-tombs.. 

Between the First EAiiast}' and the time of 
Netjer-user and Unis-ankh, many changes occurred 
in the mastaba. Very early, stela (stones or slabs 
used as monuments or commemorative tablets) 
showing the deceased seated at a table of offerings 
became part ol the central focus of the funerary 
cull. By the late Third EX-nasty, the stela was 
marked with representations of the old offerings 
niches, making the false door. Walls in the chapels 



came to be decorated, primarily showing offering 
presentations, but also showing other special, 
daily-life events which the owners washed to be 
perpetuated. 

The chapel itself underwent major changes. 
Earlv in the Fourth Dynasty, under Khufu (2606- 
2583 B.C.], builder of the Great P\Tamid, the 
Pharaoh erected numerous large stone mastabas in 
neat rows near his own p\Tamid, giving them to his 
ta\'nrite courtiers and officials. However, chapels 
had to be added outside these mastabas, and a 
simple, L-shaped, brick structure was erected to 
house tlie stela and the offerings. Over a period of 
time, the owners and their families elaborated 
these chapels, modifying the deeply niched false 
doors of earlier times into shallower niches so they 
could be cut in the outer wall or in finer stone 
linings added to the chapel. (This shallower t\'pe 
ma\' be seen in the two Field Museum chapels.) 

Soon the chapel itself was erected in stone. 
Still later, cliapels were sometimes cut into the 
bodv of the mastaba and more chambers were 
added to the complex. Bv the Fifth Dynasty, many 
false doors (as in the chapel of Netjer-user) were 
deeply recessed, making, in effect, a longitudinal 
chamber approaching the main false door. 

Others continued using either the simple 
L-a.\is, or an elaborate version, such as that of 
Unis-ankli. In both, the walls by the false door 
were decorated with representations of the fu- 
nerarv repast, offerings, offering lists, and prepa- 
rations necessar\' for the offerings. Walls farther 
away showed scenes of life activities which so en- 
trance the modern visitor, but which were probably 
added according to the life span, resources, and 
plans of the owner. Such decorations were some- 
times abandoned, even with figures unfinished. 
The tombs of Natjer-user and Unis-ankh were dec- 
orated to the extent of the offerings and the prepa- 
ration of offerings, but thev had not yet received 
other decoration, if, indeed, planned. 

The useful function of many mastabas did 
not cease with the burial of the main owner and 
the establishment of his cult. After this complex 
with chapel, shaft, and serdabs was built, relatives, 
even in later generations, often sought burial there, 
adding shafts of their own, with new false doors 
in the same chapel complexes, or even new chapels 
and serdabs; sometimes they made additions to the 
basic structure itself. In extreme cases, the entire 
mastaba was hollowed out, creating a series of 
rooms and courts. 

The tomb-chapels of Netjer-user and Unis- 
ankh were acquired in 1908 bv the Field Museum, 
one of them through purchase from the Egyptian 
government, the other as the result of a gift from 
Trustee Martin A. Rverson. A vast number of lesser 
chapels were found during that period at Saqqara, 
and a number of these were acquired in this way 



by major nuisciims of the world. Wliat is on exliibi- 
tion is not the entire chapel complex, hut only 
major decorated surfaces. 

Netjer-iiser was a |K)\\erfiil courtier and oflj- 
cial in the mid-Finii D\nasty Ua. 2400 B.C.). /Vmong 
his most important titles were "roNal chamber- 
lain," "controller of scribes," "overseer of roval 
works," "supervisor ol masters of the king's 
largess," and "master of largess in the mansion of 
lilc." The last two indicate that he was resiH)nsible 
lor the redistribution ol ollenngs from the nuijor 
royal temples to other temples and private tombs, a 
position of considerable jx)wer and iiitluence ap;irt 
from his court position indicated bv the titles 
"royal chamberlain" and "controller of scribes." 
Like any acti\e courtier of his time. N'eljer-user 
collected a long string of titles, some representing 
actual functions, others purely honorific, that 
marked his progress in royal fa\'or through his 
career. 

After Netjer-user, his family did not e.xacth 
suffer eclipse, and we kno\\' a fair number ol his 
descendents, as assembled by Klaus Baer, ol the 
Oriental Institute of the University' of Chicago. In 
fact, it would appear that a grandson, Per-N'eb, 
was the owner ol the maslaba now in the Met- 
ropolitan Museum, in New York. 

The main chambers of Netjer-users mastaba 
included a rectangular outer court with ante- 
chamber and a two-part chapel, an outer chapel of 
the standard indirect axis, containing the second, 
or northern, false door, and a deep, long-axis 
chamber that extends to the west from the south- 
em end of the west wall. Such chambers were 
developed when the deepening of the southern, 
or major, false doors niche became so great that 
a new chamber was created. 

The decoration of Netjer-user's chapel had 
proceeded only as lar as the completion of the in- 
ner, longitudinal room and the second false door. 
On this door are identified both Netjer-user and hi.s 
wife Khenut. Her figure has l)een added in front of 
Netjer-user's on either side of the niche, Ibllowing 
completion of the original carving. Klienut mav 
have been an intended beneficiar\' of the ollerings 
lell at this outer d(xjr This liilse do(jr was also 
inscribed with Netjer-user's name and titles; the 
figure of Netjer-user, a_g;iin with his name and 
titles, is on the wall of the in.set on either side (as 
though this were a small chamber). His wife is 
described as "the eternal companion, his Ix-loxcd 
wife, the roval ladv-in-wailing, honored iH'lore 
Pharaoh, Klienut." 

The doorway leading to the inner ch.i[H'l w.is 
decorated with ollering bearers. VVilhiii the iniiei 
chapel, the major leature is the great lal.se d(x)r 
occupying the u'est wall. The qualit\' of the relief 
in the hierogh'phs and the figures nearest the west 
wall has been recognized as among the best from 






— f TV 



•^ir ^i 



w 




^- 3 

the period. 1 he lalse door Ls inscribed with Netjer- 
user's name and titles and Ix-gins with the invcKa- 
tion across the top "Ma\' the king gixe an ollering, 
and may Anubis, lijremost of the dixine booth, 
who is in the mummy wrappings, give an olfering 
so thiit he may be buried in the ir-cioikiIls at a 
good old age." 

On either side, on the north and south walls', 
is the figure of Netjer-user, with his name and ti- 
tles, seated in a chair with animal legs and wearing 
the leopard skin of a priest. He is three times larger 
than other human figures shown in the registers, or 
design piinels. (See illustration, ji. 30.) In the lowest 
registers ai-e butchering scenes, wit h a bo\ine on one 
side and an oryx on the other (this exotic animal 
was actually herded by the Egvptians at this time), 
ending with the insix'ctor of K;i-scr\ani- "bringing 
choice cuts." 




Portion of'Oit tturth 

iiullijfS'flirt .. 

iniirrciuifjel 

luM uffrruiji Ui:Ju-u. 

/it h^it.a nuiii uffirrs 

flaming incense. 



'Tlw tonibihapelx of Netjer-user and Unis-ankh are in- DixiiuintUn<i I 'uis 
stalled at Fielii Museum with tlie same compass orienta- ankh's tdmh.iitxmt 
linn IIS ill llu-ii ori'^iuil sires i » i,s 




'A 






.r. 

J 



_7 



K 








1 ■■■-.S ^1 Ml'- fc^Si. 






- ^  ^ 






-^^^fh '-^W^^^^' 






11^ 




^"^' 
^i^ 



V> 



■"^'■^i^l^i?"^' 





^^^y^^^lLW 




Tomb Chapel of Netjer-user, south wall 

30 Copy ofwaU iUustration reproduced from drawing inSaqqara Mastabas, Pari I, by Margaret A. Murray (London: 1905) 



Aiiii 



ni. Jwi. n% mm M. /a\\ m //wx /i\i nw m m /a\\ //^\ m m 




lJlUltl\ UJIJHlMtf Nf IJt-l-lLNfl .1: • - 

>liovviiig ollt-iuit; l»f.iix-i> Willi |irm . .11 

U-pes, which art* df|ii>sit«d — m pilt*, biii>kri»,}iin>, 
f\rn OH labU'.s and on curiouhtliiublr ^I:i• ' '  -r 
.\fl(iT-iu>fr. Ill adiliiitii) III Ikmi» kI IikkI 
I lalH'Iml "chDict" ihiiigh" ), ihtri* air buwU ol llu\v- 
fi>, luinniig iiufiiM*. and luilruti (umxJ u> inuiii- 
iiiilU'aliuii and it) |iuntk-aliun ril(*i>). 'I1tc pru- 
cfssions aiv U-d by iwo mhis, the Jir>t <u) "inh|it^.lor 
ol lay piifhis iuid M.ribf ul dtvrtvh in ihf prrnt-nttr 
(ililif king. . . Rashepsfb," ihc !*fund, ihc "wnior 
stnlK-" Nfi(iT-u.>it'r (Junior). Thb. mvoiuI Nfijrr- 
iist'iV name Ls not in tin- liigh-qiuiht)' rau^tl n*l»rl 
ot'the othiT signs but is hiinply cut inlu the wail, 
and, it wiuild ap|K-ar, added Liter. This hiinie kind 
ol iiiim>ive insertion occurs in the reguster Ik-1ow, 
where the K;i-s«.T\'anl Naklit is named. It serms 
that the s«in.s' name.s and NakJit's were addeil Liter 
a> a kind ol intrusion, not intended by the owner. 

Al)ove and in (roni olNctjer-usfr is an oller- 
ings list, a ver\- iniixirtant and staiuLirdizt-d p;irl 
ul tomb iii.scriptioii>. Behind the IlsI ls a regLsler 
shou-ing the daily ritual intended lor the tomb. 
The oflcring presentations continue, though much 
more |HH)rlv carved, on the east wall. Beside the 
dcKir are panels showing aninial.s lH*ing brought. 
One Ixnine has a deliberately ilelormed hum, an 
ellect achieveil by hanging a weight on it lor an 
extended [)eriod. 

A detail olspi-cial inleie.si is the border around 
1 he top of the wall. OiUed Uu-keru b\- the ancient 
Eg\i)Iians, this Uirder repre>ent> wisps ol straw 
lied in an ornanu-ntal lashion. In later times, a r\iw 
olthese was conventionally used to line the topola 
decorated wall, but this is one olllie earliot such 
e.xiimples ui a prixate tomb. I'he lombol .N'etjer- 
user also contained reliel olespecially line qualify. 
the U'si iH'ing in figures .md inscriptions by the 
iii.iin false diHii. 

The chafiel of UnLs-ankli, on the other liand, 
was decorated with less care in pLinningand 
e.uvution. UiiLs-ankli. who owned the .stxoiul 
lomb-chapel now in the Field .Mu.seum, hvf<l .lUuit 
two or three gener.ilions alU-r Nel(er-iu<'r, m tlie 
reign of I'liis, last pharaoh ol the Kiflh Ihiuisiy 
(24;i()-2-MKI H c ). w lu> was liLs lather. I'lite-ankhV 
most important titles were "kings son." "ovrrseer 
of I'pper Kgxpt." and "royal cliamberlam." Hi» 
lu.istaba w.is pLiced 111 the mvoiuI row K he 

iiiorluaiy temple ol I'lils and the gie.it . 'f 

Djoser, builder of the lirsl steppetl pvTamid. almidy 
.s<ver.il lenturies old 111 the time of T'nis. Tl>e m.i> 
taUis near I'niss pyramid were not built m the 
reguLir blockii set'ii earlier at Giza. lliex' are ar- 
r.inged insle.id. in loose straggling niws an<l cluis- 
teis, without .my ubviou.- uig.iiii/.ing principle 
ajvifl Jrom t he desin-ol the owner lol>e near the 
causeway and t< iiiple of the pliaraoh; Mime rrLitiw 
ranking within the c:ourl m.iy .ils" Iw"* b<^" •'" 
urgitnizing prmciple. 



31 



A papyrus boat 

brings meat and fowl 

to the tomb of Unis- 

ankh. The boatman , 

shoHm almost off 

balance, is in the act 

offo rving his fa rked 

pole into the mud 

to push the boat 

forward. 



32 



Traditionally, the mastaba-tomb was longer in 
the north-south axis, u-ith the entrv to the chajx-l 
complex on the east side. In the vast crowd of mas- 
tabas at Saqqara this plan often had to be mod- 
ified. In the restricted space next to the Unis com- 
plex, many courtiers built their mastabas on an 
east-west axis, parallel to the causeway; but some, 
such as Unis-ankh's, were jammed into tight spaces 
like modern townhouses and rclaiiH-d the north- 
south axis, but with the entri' on the south, facing 
the temple of the king. Inside, the mastaba con- 
tained a complex of six chamlx-rs arranged along 
the south and west sides of the building and a large 
courtvard in the .south-center, from which offerings 
could be taken to the chapels. The portions now in 
the Field Museum include the exterior entr^-wav, 
the \'estibule of the cha[)el, and the main chapel 
with its false door. 

The east, west, and south walls of the ante- 
chamber depict the progress of a funerary' offering 
procession to the tomb, carrs-ing produce from 
Unis-ankh's estates in Upper and Lower Eg\'pt. On 
the south wall are offering bearers, including men 
leading cattle. Part of the wall was left blank, be- 
cause the door, when open, would conceal it; 
at the rear of the procession, an awkward space 
was left bv the sculptor, but later filled with a 
painted figure. 

On the east and west walls, this procession 
is partly transferred to small, pap\Tus-stalk boats 
which fcrr\' the goods across the river (the registers 
are shorter on the east wall because of the door- 
way). As on the south wall, the comp)osition was 
not fully planned, for we can see that one of the 
bearers in the third register was not given enough 
room; his arm is folded awkwardly in front of his 
chest and the man in front seems to step on his 
foot. The boats and their cargo make the most 
interesting {lart of the decoration, and one of the 
boatmen on the west wall in the lowest register 
is poised on one foot at the moment of poling 
the skift" forward. This tN'pe of figure was much 
admired in ancient times and there are several 
other examples of men similarly posed. 

The processions with presentations end before 
Unis-ankh on both walls, and there is a shorter 
procession before him above the door on the north 
wall which leads to the main chap)el itself. 

Despite the fact that the chap)el of Unis-ankh 
was oriented north-south and that of Netjer-user 
east-west, the decorations are arranged in much 
the same way in both tombs. The subjects are 
much the same: butchering and processions of men 
carriing offerings to be heaf>ed before Unis-ankh, 
who is shown twice, seated to the north and to the 
south of his false door facing outward. As in the 
tomb of Netjer-user, Unis-ankh is seated before the 
requisite offering table, above which, again, is a 
list of offerings, identical in almost ever}' detail in 





\f '%it -P, "'''''■^' ^^"'- 



the two tombs. Also as in the tomb of Netjer-user, 
there are inscriptions below the table: "A thousand 
loaves of bread, a thousand jugs of beer, a thousand 
cattle, ..." invocation offerings to be spoken by any 
\isitor to the tomb. 

The registers of figures are organized so that 
the bearers An the east and north walls approach 
the figure of Unis-ankh north of the false door, 
and those on the south wall approach the figure 
to the south. 

This major false door occupies the center of 
the west wall and it is the focus of all of the decora- 
tion in the tomb complex. Here it is red, a color 
closely associated with the solar cult and inscribed 
with the in\'ocation of royal offering above and on 
the outer frame-panels. On the other vertical 
panels are the name and titles of Unis-ankh. A 
striding figure of him on the bottom of each acts 
as both a representation and as a determinative 
(a standardized representation that characterizes 
a word in Egs-ptian wTiting). 

Apart from their intrinsic interest as artifacts 
of ancient Eg\ptian life and civilization, these 
tomb chapels represent, less directly, asf)ects of so- 
cial relations in the Old Kingdom. One of the most 
interesting aspects is the recitation of long strings 
of titles, which mark the standard career for the 
higher orders of society in which wealth and power 
was approached in ro\'al senice and measured by 
the accumulation of the titles and the offices the\' 
represented. 

A second aspect is the presentation of 
offerings, derived bv reversion from temples, 
or from endowments by owners, as specified 
in the anteroom ot Unis-ankh. These endowments 
were a major source of support for those priests 
known as Ka-sen-ants. Scholars have inferred from 
the progressive removal of land from the estates of 
the pharaoh to his officials and the accumulated 
alienation of land to their endowments that these 
endouTnenis helped break down the concentration 
of roval power. The endowments thus played a role 
in the dismantling of roval control, which ended 
the greatest flowering of Eg\pt. D 



Edward E. A^er and 
W. M. Flinders Petrie: 
^Founding Fathers' 
of the Egyptian Collection 



By Judith Cottle 



Field Museum's Collection of Eg\ttian Artifac is 
came into being as the result of the interest and 
generosity- of Edward E. Aver (1841-1927), a Chicago 
businessman, and W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1923), 
an English archeologist. 

Edu'ard E. A\'er 

Born in Southport (Kenosha), Wisconsin, in 1841, 
Edward Ayer left home to make his way to Califor- 
nia in 1860: he returned to the Middle West, how- 
ever, finally settling down in Chicago. He became a 
leader in the citA-'s cultural growth, and \'igorously 
advocated the establishment of a natural histori' 
museum in Chicago, successfulh' persuading 
Marshall Field I to donate one million dollars 
for the project. 

The Columbian Museum, as it was first known, 
was incorporated in 1893. The following year its 
name was changed to the Field Columbian Muse- 
um, in recognition of Marshall Field's sponsorship, 
and in 1905 it became Field Museum of Natural 
Histor\'. (During the period December, 1943, to 
March, 1966, the institutic^n's name was Chicago 
Natural History Museum, after which it reverted to 
Field Museum of Natural Histon-.) Awr was the first 
president of the Museum, from 1894 to 1899, and 
served actively on its board until his death in 1927. 

In the autumn of 1894, while on a Mediterra- 
nean cruise, he \asited Eg\'jjt for the first time, plan- 
ning to remain only five days. But Ayer was so im- 
pressed with the many historic artifacts for sale in 
open-air markets that he decided to stav over and 
make a collection for his museum. 

Almost a quarter-centurs- later, in his privatelv 
published Reminiscerwes (1918), he describes meet- 



Judith Cottle is a volunteer in the Departiueut of 
Anthropology'. 



ingEmil Brugsch-Bey, Gizeh Museum director, to 

obtain assistance in putting together a collection: 

"Now, Mr. Bru'^sch-Bn' [Ayer quotes himself], 

there is nothin{fin tlie worUiymi can do forme 

individually; but I do not know anything I 

would not expect you to do here in Egi'pt to help 

in building up this new museum in llw United 

States. I do not suppose that any grown man 

ever came to Egypt so igtjorant of evervthing 

that is Egyptian as I am. I have collected a 

good deal in America and to some extent in 

Europe, but I am completely at sea liere . . . help 

me understand the situation here so I mar 

make as few mistakes as possible in securing 

articles here in Eg^'pt for our collection . ' 

First, I want you to go through your awn 
great museum with me and I want you to 
answer my qiwstinns ,so that I may gain an 
idea of wlint alt thf.-ic things mean and the 
relative value of the various articles. I want to 
know what all these things mean, what tlxev 
are here for, and how I can begin to make a 
suitable collection. Tlwn I want you to go up 
town with me., .while we look into the .-ihopsof 
tliese dealers in anticjuities and I W(uit you to 
tell me what these tilings are and ]vhat would 
be a fair price for them. After that I want you 
to show me the frauds so 1 nuiy guard myself 
against them as much as possible. A'e.vt. I 
want you to U't me buy anything in E^'pt 
whatsoever that I care to purchase, subject to 
your approval. And, finally, wlwn >ve get all 
through , I want to bring eveiything that I have 
bought to this museum and spread it on tables 
and I want you to come and look even'thing 
over and give me your opinion about it all." 
I .started right in and collected things all 
over town. Then I went up tlie Nile, got ac- 
quainted wit}\ the dealers up there and 
brought biuk a lot of .stuff. Mr. Brug.sch-Be}' 
looked over and checked e\'en'thing and was 



33 




Edn'cirdl.,. Ayci 
good eiiougli to SCI}' to nw tluil I had made a 
ven'good selection and that he ivas astonished 
to find nothing that did not apprcir genuine. I 
spent about twenU' lliousand dollars tlwrc in 
Egypt on this first trip and the stuff that I got 
would cost ten times that amount now. 



34 




ir. M. Flirider.'i I'etric 



Aver made more trips to Eg\'pt. each time 
ac(|iiiring additional material for the Museum. 
I'riends also donated artifacts and contributed 
funds for Ayer's purchases. Most of the additions to 
the collection ihrougli Aver, whether gifts or pur- 
chases, were made almost even" \'ear up through 
1914. (He also made gifts of a great many ethnologi- 
cal materials representing other cultures through- 
nut his 33-year association with the Museum.) The 
\lurn'um'sAnnu(d Report lor 1909 describes the ac- 
([uisition oflhc tombs of Netjer-user and Unis-ankh: 
The two large Maslaba tombs, e.\ca\'a ted under the 
<lirectiQn of Mr. Edward E. Aver at the necropolis of 
.Sakara (sic), one of them being the gift of Mr. Martin 
A. Ryerson,. . . were received at the Museum" the 
past year and given storage in a Sp)ecial brick room 
constructed at the east unused entrance of the 
Museum, as it was not considered advisable to erect 
the tombs in the present building. The tombs filled 
20R large cases, some of them ten feet in length, the 
total shipment weighing 96 tons " 

Aver took a proprietar}' interest in the Egyptian 
tollection as well, concerning himself with how the 
materials were actualK- presented on exhibit as well 
.IS their acquisition. A harried Museum adminis- 
trator wrote in desperation lojames Breasted, the 
University of Chicago's tamed Eg\ptologist: "I wish 
you would help get Mr. Aver off mv neck. He has 
been camped there for a long time, all becau.se we 
haw as yet no labels lor the big stone sarcophagus 
and 3 or 4 muinniies. I know you are very busv but if 
you can help us out on this we will be tremendouslv 
obliged." 

Aver fullyappreciated his good fortune in being 
able to follow his interests and create opportunities 
for the enlightenment of those who were not so 
pri\'ileged. He made his selection of artifacts alwavs 
with the idea in mind that thev were for the public. 
"I was determined, if m\- prosper! tv continued," 
Aver remarked, "to do something that would give 
t he boy coming after me a better chance for an 
education than I had been able to get. That has been 
the prime movnng thought in my work in the Nevv- 
berr}- Librarw the Field Museum of Natural Histon-, 
Mr. Thomas" orchestra. . . ." He found his greatest 
pleasure as a collector, he said, when the artifact 
was placed where the public had access to it. 

It must have been particularh' gratif\ing to 
Aver when he received on his seventieth birthdav 
this note from Breasted: "I took a class of 36 students 
through the Field Egyptian ct)llcction last Saturday 
and it was a pleasure to tell them who it was to 
whom we owe it." 



'Tlw mu.'ieum referred to liere >vas tijejacksoii Park build- 
ing (now occupied by the Museum of Science and Industry), 
which the Field Museum moved from in 1921. 



W. M. Flinders Petrie 

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. born in fLiigkind 
in 1853 and knighted in 1923, was an iniporiant 
fit^ure in the dewlopment ol'archcolojrN'. The bulk of 
his work was done in EgN^jt, but he spent his last 
years excavating in Palestine, where he died in 1942, 
at the age of 89. 

Petrie first went to Eg\'pt in the carlv 1880s to 
survey sites. Appalled at the looting and destruction 
there and conx-inced that the study of smaller objects 
such as potterv' was as important as that of much 
larger ones, he turned to excavation. Unlike his pre- 
decessors, he tried to carefully examine sites and all 
their contents and accurately record all available 
information. 

His work habits were unlike those of earlier 
archeologists in Eg\pt: he was always present on the 
site, putting in a full day with his workers. Working 
at the p\Tamid at Hawara in 1888, he found the 
passages clogged with mud, so he stripped off his 
clothing and slid through. The artifacts being waist 
deep in saltA- water, he dug them out with his feet. 
He described his cramped living quarters in a 
tent in the Fan-um as a "space 6 Va feet long and 
almost as wide as the length. ...Besides the bed I 
have 9 bo.xes in it, stores of all kinds, basin, cooking 
sto\'e and crocker\', tripod, stand... and some an- 
tiques; and in this I have to live, to sleep, to wash and 
to receive visitors." Petrie prided himself on his and 
his stafFs abilitv to rough it, and he ridiculed col- 
leagues who required luxuries. 

It was customar\' for him to work the winter in 
Eg\'pt and spend the spring and summer in En- 
gland, writing up his results for prompt publica- 
tion. The objects found during tlie winter e.xcava- 
tions were sent to be exhibited in Eg\-pt Hall in 
Picadilly. These exhibits were exceedingly well at- 
tended and caused public concern for the destruc- 
tion of the Eg\'])tian monuments. Amelia Edwards 
used his journals to write articles on his fieldwork 
for ihe London Times. Upon her death in 1892, she 
endowed the first professorship of Eg\'ptolog\' at 
the University of London, and Petrie was its first 
appointee. 

The accurate dating of objects was of critical 
importance to Petrie. At Naukratis, in 1885, he em- 
ployed the innovative technique of dating temples 
and other structures b\' means of coins and in- 
scribed objects found in the buildings' foundation 
levels. Petrie also used imported objects of a known 
age to date the archeological strata in which they 
were found. 

Petrie considered sequence dating — a method 
of differentiating earlier from later artifacts — one 
of his major contributions. He first used this method 
at Naqada, a large cemeter\' with burials filled with 
potten' and other grave goods found in 1894. Using 
material from this site, Petrie studied the gradual 



changes in shape and decoration of vessels. He 
traced various types of flints, pots, and stoneu'are, 
their period of use and gradual tiisuse. In I his way he 
set uj) a scale of setjuence dates of 1 to lOt). One to 30 
was a period of unknown iK-ginnings, 80 to 100 was 
a transition to dynastic stA'lcs. Each t\'j)e corre- 
sponded to a number in this rough chronolog\'. 

Petrie has been called the founder of systematic 
Near Eastern archeology, for he introducetl reputa- 
ble excavation melliods and greatly improved the 
standards of field archeolog\'. He was the first ar- 
cheologist in Egypt to insist on carefully recording 
all finds no matter how insignificant they seemed 
and lo stress the importance of a scientific method 
of dating. In addition, he established the British 
School of Archaeolog\' in Eg\'pt and trained a gener- 
ation of Eg\-ptologists, many ofwhom refined his 
techniques. Among his more disi inguished students 
were Howard Carter (discowrcr of Tlitankliamun's 
tomb), Ernest Gardner, Sir Alan Gardiner, Guy 
Brunton, and Gertrude Caton Thompson. 

He had a deep love for fieldwork. It was among 
the ruins, he remarked, that "the real tranquilit\- 
and room for quiet thought in this sort of life is 
refreshing. I live here and do not ha\'e lo scramble to 
fit myself to the requirements of others." 

Petrie's work was supported by museums 
throughout the world. In gratitude for its contri- 
butions, he presented a large number of artifacts to 
the Field Museum in 1897. Some of these pieces are 
currenth' on \ie\v in Hall J. □ 



Further Reading 

Egypt, General 

Baines, J.,andMalek, J., Atlas of Ancient E<j}'pt (Lon- 
don: 1980). 

Gardiner, A. H., £ip'pf of the Pluirtiohs (New York; 
1961). 

Fagan, B. , The Rape of the \'ile ( New York: 1979) . 

Predynastic 

Butzer, K. W., Early Hydraulie Civilizatiou in Eip'pf 
(Chicago: 1976) 

Emen',W. B., Archaic Egi'pt (New York: 1967). 

Hoffman, M. A., EQ'pt before the Pharaohs (New York: 
1980). 

Kees, H., Ancient Eg\'pt: A Cultural Topo^^raphy 
(Chicago: 1979). 
New Kingdom 

Ninis, C. F. Tliehes oftlw Pharaohs (London: 1965). 

Da\-ies, N. Dc C, The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes (New 
York: 1917). 
Old Kingdom 

Lauer, J. P., Saqqara (New York: 1979). 

Dunham, D..TlteE}^'plian Department cuul its Fj.icava- 
tions (Boston: new edition Ibrlhcoming) 

Smith, W. S., and Simpson, \V. K., The Art and Architec- 
ture of Ancient EQ'pt (New York: 1981). 

AVER and Petrie 

Lockwood, F. G., The Life of Edward E. Ayer (Chicago: 
1929) 

Petrie, W, M. F., Seventy Years in Arcltaeologi' (New 
York: 1932) 



35 



JVovember and December at Field Museum 



Xovcmbcr Id through December 15 



New Exhibits 

"In the Shauow of ihi; I^-ramid." Opens Nov. 21. A newly de- 
signed section of the Egv^Dtian Collection, Hall J, presents prehis- 
toric ;ind earK- hi.storic exhibits in projxr context. Visitors can 
walk through the tomb chapel ol'an Eg\ptian named Unis-ankh 
and \ievv the afterlife offerings in another tomb through a glass 
wall. Outside the entrance to the Egyptian Room the replica of 
the Tomb Chapel of Niiklit, on loan from the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, has been installed. The chapel walls are covered 
uith some of the finest known Egyptian tomb paintings. See 
"New Progi'ams," below, for tours in conjunction with this ex- 
hibit. Exhibit curator, Donald W'hitCDmb; designer, Clifford 
Abrams. Hall J, Ground Floor. 

New Programs 

Fabric of Culture Festival. How textiles are made and used in 
various cultures is the subject of this day-long event. Activities 
include sheep shearing, sari wrapping, spinning, weaving, dye- 
ing, knitting, silk screening, and more. Bring your own textiles in 
for evaluation and commentars- bv experts. Authentic Turkish 
music will be plaved and sung at 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Rounding out 
the program will be talks, tours, and films. Sunday, November 15, 
11 a.m. -4 p.m. 

EnwARn E. A\T.R Film Lecture Series. A culinan' trip through 
Spiin and travel to some of Denmark's 500 islands are featured. 
Narrated bv the filmmakers, these free 90-minute films are 
showTi in Simpson Theatre, Siiturdavs at 2:30 p.m. Admission is 
free through the West Door. Members recei\'e priority' seating. 
Nov. 21: "Spain a la Carte" by Ric Dohert\'. No\'. 28: "Denmark" by 
Willis Butler. 

Family Film Series. Films depicting family life in different parts of 
the world. These free mo\ies will be shown the first three Satur- 
days in December in Simpson Theatre at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. 
The Disco\-er\- Tours on each Saturda\- will be tied into the film's 
subject matter Dec. 5: "Yang Xin: Peasant Painters of China." 
Dec. 12: "Storm Boy," the adventure stor\' of a boy, an aborigine, 
and some pelicans in the outback of Australia. Dec. 19: "Serama's 
Mask." 

Gamei^\n Mini Concerts. Saturday, Dec. 5, 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.. 
Hall K. The Adult Education Class, Gamelan Repertory Ensem- 
ble, jierforms Javanese music on the Museum's 24-piece gamelan 
orchestra. Free, with Museum admission. 

Wind Songs. Come enjoy the delightful music of flute artist Doug- 
las Ewart and his group, In\entions, in a special free concert 
Sunday, Dec. 13, 2:00 p.m. It features Ewart and Hamid Hank 
Drake on winds and percussion, with dance by Nilaja Nivo^iu; 
also demonstrations of stales and origins of flute music, and flute 
construction. Free admission to the Museum. West Entrance, 



Weekend Discovery Programs. On Saturdays and Sundays yoi 
can participate in a variety of free programs. Check Weekenc 
Slieet at Museum entrances for location and additional programs 
n Sunday, Nov. 15: "New World Foods." How plants from th( 

Americas influenced cultures around the world. 1:30 p.m. 
D Saturday, Nov. 21: "The Shadow Catcher." From Our Americar 

Heritage series. Film about Edward S. Curtis, early photog 

rapher of American Indians. 1:30 p.m. 
n Sunday, Nov. 22: "Life in Ancient EgNpt." Tour focuses oi 

objects and practices (including mummification). 2 p.m. 
n Saturday, Nov. 28: "Audubon" From Our American Heritagi 

series. Film traces the travels of Audubon. 1:30 p.m. 

"Chinese Ceramic Traditions." Tour of Field Museum's collec 

tion covering 6,000 years of ceramic art. 2:30 p.m. 
n Sunday, Nov. 29: "Exploring Great Egyptian Pyramids." Slid 

presentation showing the de\elopment of pwamids and mas 

tabas. 1:30 p.m. 
n Simdav, Dec. 6: "Fireballs and Shooting Stars: Keys to th 

Universe." Tour explains the origins, r\pes, and importance o 

meteorites. 12 noon. 

"Stor}' of the Tomb of Nakht at Thebes." Slide presentatioi 

followed b\' tour. 
n Saturday, Dec. 12: "E.xploring Saqqara: Decorated Egyptiai 

Tombs from the 5th and 6th D}Tiasties." Slide presentatioi 

f bllo\\'ed by tour. 
n Simdav, Dec. 13: "Tra\-els with Plants." Tour of new worL 

foods explains how plants got from the Americas to Europe t 

our table. 1 p.m. 

"In the Shadow of the P\Tamids" 
Special Programs 

Saturday, November 21: 11 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 3 p.m.: Prepara 
tion of books in the style of the ancient Eg\ptians, includin 
preparing papvTus, hieroghph wTiting, scroll painting and ex 
planation of Egyptian wTiting. Hall J. 11:30 a.m.: "Ancient Egpt 
Tour. Hall J. 12 noon: "Old Kingdom Tombs at Field Museum - 
From Discoven' to Reopening." Slide lecture. Lecture Hall 1. 12:3l 
p.m.: "Why Mummies?" Tour. Hall J. 2 p.m.: "Eg\pt — Red Lane 
Black Land." Tour. Hall J. 2:30 p.m.: "Middle Eastern Dance an( 
Music." Demonstration by Dahlena's Middle Eastern Dancert 
Lecture Hall I. 3:30 p.m.: "Histon- of the Tomb of Nakht." Slid 
lecture. Lecture Hall I. 

November and December Hours. The Museum is open from 9 a.rr 
to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturda 
and Sunday; and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. , Friday. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m 
Closed Thanksgiving, Nov. 26. Obtain a pass at the receptioi 
desk, main floor. 

Museum Telephone: (312) 922-9410 



Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 



December 1981 





Field Museum 
of Natural History 
Bulletin 

Published b\ 

Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded 1893 

President: Willard L. Boyd 
Director: Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 

Editori Designer: David M. Walsten 
Calendar: Mar\' Cassai 
Staff Photographer: Ron Testa 



Board of Trustees 

William G. Swartchild, Jr., 

chatnrtan 
Mrs. T. Stanton Armour 
George R Baker 
Robert O Bass 
Gorden Bent 
Bowen Blair 
VViUardL Boyd 
Mrs Robert Wells Carton 
Stanton R. Cook 
OC Davis 

William R Dickinson, Jr 
Thomas E. Donnelley D 
Marshall Field 



Nicholas Galitzine 
Hugo J. Melvoin 
Charles F Murphy, ]r 
Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. 
James J O'Connor 
James H. Ransom 
John S Runnells 
William L. Searle 
Edward Byron Smith 
Robert HStrotz 
John W. Sullivan 
Edward R Telling 
Mrs Theodore D. Tieken 
E. Leland Webber 
Julian B. Wilkins 
Blaine J, Yarrington 



Life Trustees 

Harry O. Bercher 
William McCormick Blair 
Joseph N- Field 
Paul W. Goodrich 
Cbfford C. Gregg 
Samuel Insull, Jr. 
WiUiam V. Kahler 
William H. MitcheU 
John M. Simpson 
J. Howard Wood 



CONTENTS 

December 1981 
Volume 52, Number 11 



The Maritime Peoples of Alaska 
and the Northwest Coast 

by James W. VanStonc, curatorof North American 
archeology, and Ronald L. Weber, visiting assistant curator. 
Department of Anthropology 3 

Appointment Calendar for 1982 

Featuring masks of the Maritime people of Alaska and 
the Northwest Coast in the Field Museum collection 
Photography by Ron Testa, 
Field Museum photographer 4 

December and January at Field Museum 

Calendar of coming events 



Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (USPS 898-940) is published mcmlhly, except 
combined July August issue, bv Field Museum of Natural History. Roosevelt Road at 
l-dke Shore Drive, Chicago. II ti0605 Subscriptions: $6 (Kl annually. $3 IX) for schools 
Museum memtwrshlp Includes Bulletin subscription Opinions expressed by authors 
are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum Unsolicited 
manuscripts are welcome. Museum phone: (312) 922-9410. Postmaster: Please send 
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, 
Chicago. 11- 60605. ISSN:0OI5-0703- Second class postage paid at Chicago, II. 



COVER 

"Spirit of Winter" mask, Tsimshian (Skeena River, 
British Columbia). Cat. 18114. Photo by Ron Testa. 



FIELD MUSEUM TOURS to The Bahamas, Alaska, Galapagos and Ecuador 

For reservations, brochures, or tour details, please write or call the Tours Office: 322-8862, at Field Museum 



Ecology Tour of New 
Providence and Andros Islands 

March 7-14 

The Bahama islands are blessed with an exceptional variety 
of tropical and subtropical fauna and flora. The first stop in 
our 8-day tour will be Nassau, on New Providence Island. 
We'll stay at a first-class hotel, The Pilot House. From Nassau 
we'll fly to Andros Island. The Andros Field Station, not open 
to the public, will be our Andros home, with cabins sleeping 
2 or 4 persons. Our study of the barrier reef will be from 
specially designed boats; with the aid of lifejackets, even 
nonswimmers will enjoy snorkeling in this marine wonder- 
land. After Andros we'll return to the Pilot House. Biologist 
and ecologist Margaret Rabley, who lived in the Bahamas for 
14 years, will be our guide. She was science coordinator and 
lecturer at the College of the Bahamas and has written or 
coauthored several books on Bahamian wildlife. Tour price: 
$875 (per person, double occupancy). 

Alaska Native Culture Tour 

lune 19-lulv I, 1982 

This tour begins with a flight from Seattle to Sitka, where 
we'll spend two days. Our third, fourth, and fifth nights will 
be aboard two yachts, which will take us to Admiralty Island. 
We'll scf Tenakee Hot Springs, Angoon and Hoonah vil- 



lages, and tour Glacier Bay. Sightseeing in and around 
luneau will occupy us for 2 days, then to Anchorage, Denali 
National Park, Kotzebue, Nome, and again Anchorage. All 
hotel accommodations will be first class; the two yachts 
accommodate 16 and 10, respectively. Tour rates to be an- 
nounced. 

Ecuador and the Galapagos 

March 11-25, 1982 

The Galapagos Islands affect our imagination like no other 
place on earth. Field Museum is pleased to offer an oppor- 
tunity to visit them under the guidance of Dr. |ohn W. Fitz pat- 
rick, associate curator and head. Division of Birds. If you are 
a "birder" or a "photographer" this tour is Utopia. In addi- 
tion to the sightseeing and learning opportunities on the 
cruise, we will spend 4 nights in Quito, Ecuador, where we'll 
enjoy old world ambience, along with thecolor of the Indian 
market. We'll also visit nearby villages, paying special atten- 
tion to the unique bird life. Our cruise ship, the 2,200-ton 
MV Buccaneer, originally designed for 250 passengers, was 
refurbished in 1976 to carry 90, and has recently been again 
refurbished. All cabins are outside, with private bath. 
Though we'll be in the tropics, the cooling Humboldt Cur- 
rent will keep us comfortable. The tour price is $3,550 (per 
person, double occupancy). 



Maritime Peoples 

of the Arctic and the Northwest Coast 



Bi' James W. VanStone and Ronald L. Weber 



New Perinaiwnt Exhibit Opens in Hall W on April 24,1982 
Members' pre\ac\\'s April 22 and 23 



An important e\'ent to take place at Field 
Museum in 1982 will be the opening of a new 
permanent exhibit in April, depicting Indian and 
Eskimo cultures of the Pacific coast of North Amer- 
ica from the state of Washington to the Arctic 
Ocean. This vast maritime region encompasses a 
number of environmental zones, and the purpose 
of this new exhibit will be to show how the inhabi- 
tants of these zones have adapted to their einiron- 
ment. with special emphasis on their utilization of 
marine resources. 

It is the abundance offish and sea mammals 
tliat has made possible, in this area, a cultural 
complexit\' unitiue among the world's hunters and 
gatherers. Characteristic of the region is perma- 
nent or semipermanent residence in large coastal 
villages, a complex and highly efficient material 
culture related to subsistence, unique art styles, 
and the elaboration, by some groups, of religion, 
ceremonialism, and social organization. 

The new exhibit, located in Hall 10 on the main 
floor, will be divided into five .self-contained gal- 
leries: Intnjduclion; Fishing, Hunting, and Gather- 
ing; Village and Society; Spiritual World; and Art. 
The Introduction will summarize prehistory and 
historv of the north Pacific region and feature a 



dramatic diorama depicting the environment. In 
the four other galleries the exhibited material will 
be presented on three levels. There will be diorama.'- 
and other dramatic presentations intended to a|)- 
peal to casual visitors and those with limited tinn 
to view the exhibits. For interested visitors, the bulk 
of the specimens will be e.vhibited in their cultural 
context. Finallv, there will be study areas when 
serious visitors and students can examine nunu-i 
ous examples of important items of material cul- 
ture such as baskets and ceremf)nial masks, thus 
achieving an understanding and appreciation ol 
the many variations possible within a single cul- 
tural form. 

The ethnographic specimens which make up 
this new exhibit, many of them collected for the 
World's Columbian E.vposition in 1893, are among 
the finest in Field Mu.seum's North American In- 
dian collections. The 1982 calendar fcinin's 17 
Northwest Coast and Eskimo masks whicli repre- 
sent the range of stv'lcs found in the exhibit. D 



Jdiiirs H". ViiiiStoiir is curator of North Amrritaii 
archrolo^Q' diul rtliiiolo,'^': RiiikiIiI /.. l\'rhrr is i'i.si7in,v; 
assistant luratur. Drpdrtmrnt ufAiitlinipolo,^'. 



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LIBRARY 

ILLINO-IS NATURAL HIST SU-^^.VEIY 

607 E PEABODY 

CHAMPAIGN XL 61820 



December & January at Field Museum 



(December 15 throu'j;hJanuar\' 15) 



Continuing Exhibits 

"Opening the Egyptian Tombs: A Living Experience." A newly 
organized exhibit in the Egv'ptian Collection, Hall J, presents 
prehistoric and early historic Egyptian exhibits in their proper 
context. Visitors may walk through the tomb chapel rooms of 
EgN-ptian nobleman Uriis-ankh, who died 4,000 years ago. After- 
life offerings in the tomb chapel of another Egyptian nobleman, 
Netjer-user, mav also be viewed through a glass wall. Outside the 
entrance to the Egyptian Room, a replica of the Tomb Ciiapel of 
Nakht, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, displays 
facsimiles of some of the finest and most colorful Egyptian tomb 
paintings ever discovered. Hall J, Ground floor. 

"Portraits of Man." This excellent collection of lifelike bronze 
statues depicting mankind around the world is the work of 
Malvina Hoffman (1885-1966), who did some of her earlier work 
under Auguste Rodin. 2nd floor balcony and ground floor. 

American Indian Halls trace the anthropological histor\' and 
' cultural development of the original Americans, from the time of 
their arrival on the North American continent {before 20,000 
B.C.) to the present. Hall 5 contains a traditionally made Pav\'nee 
earth lodge — the home and ceremonial center of Pawnee Indians 
as it existed in the mid-1800s. Halls 4 through 10, main floor east. 

Hall of Asl^tic Mammals. Marco Polo's sheep, with their grace- 
fully sweeping horns, are among the first animals you encounter 
in this hall of fascinating habitat groups. Swamp deer stand in 
muddy ground, a snow leopard directs a piercing stare at visitors, 
and the Indian rhinoceros and the oxen of Southeast Asia startle 
one with their great size. Hall 17, first floor. 



New Programs 

Winter Fun. Children of all ages are invited to join in Field 
Museum's natural history workshops. Groups will meet on one or 
two Saturdays in January. Members will receive in the mail a 
brochure with more information and prices; nonmembers may 
call 322-8854 to request the brochure. 

n January 9, 10 a.m. -12 noon 

"Dinosaur Life." Craft project and tour for ages 4-5. 

"Costumes for the Sorcerers' Dance." Craft project and tour of 

Tibetan exhibit for ages 6-8. Continued on Januan' 16. 

"Journey Through Time." Craft project and film about geology for 

ages 6-8. 

D January 9, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. 

"nifferent Faces from Far-away Places." Craft project and tour for 

age. ; Continued on Januan' 16. 

"Egypu .  ':'lyphs." Craft project and tour for ages 9-12. 

"Dinosaiir Life." Craft project and tour for ages 4-5. 



n January- 16, 10 a.m. -12 noon 

"Arctic Journey." Craft project [will make mini-igloo, weather 

permitting) and tour for ages 4-5. 

"Costumes for the Sorcerers' Dance." Continuation of the Januan' 

9 workshop. 

"Metal Casting." Craft project and tour for ages 9-12. 

n Januan' 16, 1 p.m. -3 p.m. 

"Different Faces from Far-away Places." Continuation of the 

Januan' 9 workshop. 

"Indian Drums." Craft project and tour of Pawnee Earth Lodge 

for ages 6-8. 

"Metal Casting." Craft project and tour for ages 9-12. 

Family Film Series. Films depicting family life in different parts of 
the world are presented on the first three Saturdays in December. 
Weekend Discoven' Programs are planned in conjunction with 
these films. Free with Museum admission. Lecture Hall I at 11:30 
a.m. and 1:30 p.m. 

December 19: "Serama's Mask." A Balinese boy wants to partici- 
pate in his father's final dance; but first he must 
carve his own mask. 



Weekend Discoven' Program: 
Making" craft project, 2 p.m. 



'Indonesian Mask- 



Weekend Discovery Programs. On Saturdays and Sundays from 
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. you can participate in a variety of free tours, 
projects, and films on natural histon' topics. In December you can 
explore the Eg\'ptian p\Tamids, learn about fireballs and shoot- 
ing stars, and view films on the beginnings of China. Check the 
Weekend Sheet at Museum entrances for programs and locations 
or call 322-8854 for specific program information. In January, 
Film Features focuses on the histon' of China. 

Winter Journey "The Adventures of Marco Polo." In this self- 
guided tour, visitors can observe some of the animals that Marco 
Polo saw on his travels and read his own descriptions of them. 
Tveejounie}' pamphlets available at Museum entrances. 

Continuing Programs 

Volunteer Opportunities. Individuals with scientific interests 
and backgrounds are needed to work in various Museum de- 
partments. Con tact the Volunteer Coordinator: 922-9410, ext. 360. 

December andJanuary Hours. The Museum is open 9 a.m. -4 p.m. 
Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m. -5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday; and 9 
a.m. -9 p.m., Friday. Closed Christmas and New Year's. 

The Museum Library is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Obtain a 
pass at the reception desk, main floor. Closed December 24 and 
25, 1981, and January 1, 1982. 

Museum Phone: (312) 922-9410 



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