Timed tickets are recommended. Reserve your tickets here.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

anthropology

by

Costa Rican Archaeological Bowl

decorative clay bowl from Costa Rica

by Deb Harding

In the process of photographing all the archaeological pottery in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collection, this bowl caught my eye. It was purchased as part of a huge collection from an estate owner in the Central Valley of Costa Rica around 1903 while Carnegie Museum curator Carl V. Hartman was doing the first scientific archaeological excavations in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we do not have any information about the particular site or time period. This is the best example from a whole series of bowls that look like the pigs from Angry Birds™.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.

by

Carved Wooden Gope Board

Carved wooden board from Morigio Island depicting a human-like figure

Gope boards are carved wooden tablets made by groups in the Gulf of Papua. They represent ancestral spirits who protect members of the clan from bad luck, sickness, and death. This particular board from the museum’s hidden collection is from Morigio Island. The photographic scale in the image is about 8 inches long. It was photographed in the diagonal in order to best show the board’s details.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.

by

Wooden Sokar Falcon

carved and painted wooden falcon

This carved falcon from ancient Egypt is associated with two gods, Ptah (the creator god) and Osiris (the god of the dead), and is often written as Ptah-Sokar or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.

This particular carving is from the Late Period (664-332 BCE), right before the Greeks’ conquest of Egypt. The museum also has falcon mummies, which were given at temples as votive offerings by pilgrims.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.

by

Tunic Decoration from Egypt

woven decoration in dark brown and light brown threadby Deb Harding 

This woven decoration depicting a picture of a leopard is from an Egyptian tunic, possibly from 3–4th
century C.E.

It is part of the museum’s “Coptic textile” collection. “Coptic” is the Greek word for Egyptian, and “Coptic textiles” are not only associated with Coptic Christians, they were made and worn by Egyptians of all faiths in the post-pharaonic period.

Basic tunic-style shirts were decorated with geometric and figurative patches woven into the otherwise plain linen cloth. There might be a border around the neck with a medallion at the end or bands over the shoulders. Medallions might also appear on the shoulders and near the hems of the shirt. Placement and decoration type changed with fashion, as did the length of hem and sleeves, just like today’s fashions.

The museum purchased this collection in 1934 from the Goebelen-Munchener Manufaktur company. The company said they purchased it in 1929 from the impoverished widow of a Swedish archaeologist.

The illustration of tunic styles below is from Textiles from Medieval Egypt, A.D. 300-1300 by Thelma K. Thomas, published by Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1990. The leopard medallion is used as
the cover art for the booklet.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home
to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.

by

The Unseen Museum

Clay human-like face mask with black and red striped accents. Feathers and course fibers make up the hair, beard, and headdress.

The Unseen Museum: “Magician’s Mask”

This mask is part of a collection purchased in 1902 from Walther Karl, who lived in Matadi, Congo. There is very little information with the Karl collection, usually nothing more than the tribal name. There is no data about why he called this a “magician’s mask.” Dealers in that period often “enhanced” the name of an object to increase its salability. Much of the museum’s African collection came from retired missionaries and from artifact dealers.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.

by

Ancient Egyptian Column Shafts

by Erin Peters

Here at Antinoupolis, the Italian mission has been excavating since the 1930s and has a long and productive residence at
the site. There are a number of publications resulting from the mission’s work and two recent volumes that include scientific publications of the team’s work since 2000–for these resources and more, see The Antinoupolis Foundation’s bibliography. For this 2017 season, the mission has three active excavation areas open, and today I write about one that is in the east of the ancient city near what was once a monumental gate facing the Via Hadriana. Hadrian built this impressive road through the desert as a new trade route, which ran through Antinoupolis to the Nile for river transport.

The east gate was monumentalized by huge red granite columns, of which fragments are extant. Two column bases (one upright and one overturned) and three column shaft fragments were known before this season and are an impressive sight to see.

Ancient Egyptian column shafts partially uncovered in an archeology dig
Monumental fragments of red granite column bases and shafts at the east edge of the city

 

Under supervision of the mission’s architect, Peter Grossman, another section of a column shaft was unearthed this season. This shaft indicates there could be more fragments nearby, possibly under the 4-5th century CE church that Peter’s team is currently excavating, the remains of which you can see above.

 

Ancient columns being excavated in an archeology dig
View of column shaft fragment excavated this season

Hopefully some of these shafts will be more visible in the near future and draw visitors to the site as recorded in The Antinoupolis Foundation’s February 10 blog post. The mission’s director, Rosario Pintaudi, has put in an application to the Ministry of Antiquities to re-erect the column. If approved, perhaps the column shaft will be soaring at the east edge of the city by the time I return next year!

Partially burried columns in a row
Fallen column shaft fragments that may be re-erected in the near future

Erin Peters is an assistant curator of science and research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She recently traveled to Egypt for an archaeological research study. This is a series of blog posts she wrote while in the field. Check back for more!