Points and Stones
Last weekend I attended an "Indian relic show" (that's what the managers call it) with my husband. It was quite amazing. George is an archaeologist and knows about this material, but he is not a private collector. He represents scientific archaeology; most material recovered from scientific digs ends up in museums and universities. But the private side continues to flourish. Most of this material has been collected from the surface of the ground, or nearly so. But some of it may have been excavated--many Indian burial mounds were destroyed, sadly, by private persons long ago, before the birth of academic archaeology in the late 19th century.
Many of these guys (and they are almost all guys) know a great deal about the subject and have huge collections, as you can see. This meeting happens just one day a year. Buying and selling does go on, but a big part of it is appreciation and "education", as they like to say.
Whatever one thinks of the politics of such collecting, one can't help but admire the fantastic art and craft of the indigenous peoples who occupied this continent before the coming of Europeans. It was quite a roomful!! This is just a sample of the images I shot. (Ceiling light reflections impossible to avoid!)
Points and Stones
Last weekend I attended an "Indian relic show" (that's what the managers call it) with my husband. It was quite amazing. George is an archaeologist and knows about this material, but he is not a private collector. He represents scientific archaeology; most material recovered from scientific digs ends up in museums and universities. But the private side continues to flourish. Most of this material has been collected from the surface of the ground, or nearly so. But some of it may have been excavated--many Indian burial mounds were destroyed, sadly, by private persons long ago, before the birth of academic archaeology in the late 19th century.
Many of these guys (and they are almost all guys) know a great deal about the subject and have huge collections, as you can see. This meeting happens just one day a year. Buying and selling does go on, but a big part of it is appreciation and "education", as they like to say.
Whatever one thinks of the politics of such collecting, one can't help but admire the fantastic art and craft of the indigenous peoples who occupied this continent before the coming of Europeans. It was quite a roomful!! This is just a sample of the images I shot. (Ceiling light reflections impossible to avoid!)