Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Marshall College desk artifacts

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXII - A brown jug

In the right corner behind Dr. Jones you can see a brown vessel for a few moments.
Here rhe pictures:


(Click to enlarge)

It looks like vessels from Amlash in Northwestern Iran:

We'll come back to Amlash for another desk artifact.

But these are too rare items, so I thought it must be something more common like a red or brown glazed Chinese vase or something:

While I was looking for Chinese vases, I came across to these brown jugs, which are called 'Chinese Tiger Whisky' jugs or bottles'.
I think that's it, what Dr. Jones has under his desk. But take a look:

During the 1800’s great numbers of Chinese workers were brought to the United States to work on the railroads and other infrastructure projects. They carried with them or had imported distinctive pottery containers, such as this shown here. For years these bottles have been classified as Chinese “Tiger” whiskeys. No one seems quite sure, why they acquired that name but it may have been that early ones contained a paper label picturing a tiger.

More info here http://bottlesboozeandbackstories.blogspot.de/2010/06/what-were-chinese-drinking.html

There are a lot of them offered on ebay and other sites.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXIII - The Egyptian Alabaster Vase

While Indy is talking to Marcus, he turns around at the desk and reveals us the view to a white vase in the back.

I thought, that it is maybe a more modern piece.

But then our COW member 'mercat' came up with the idea, that it could be an Egyptian vase and posted these pictures:

And she was absolutely right!

This was a replica of one of Tutankhamun's albaster vases.

Here finally the exact matching piece from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo:

 

[Ash]

But wait... we need more information on the Dutch Bible... where is someone suppose to get their hands on one...


-Ash

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Chapter XVIII - Black pottery vessel

Ah yes, I see now. Thanks for the extra shots, they help a lot!

So I still think, that this vessel is not zoomorphic in any way. It's just a blackware pottery with two handles.
I think, it looks like this:
View attachment 626240

Strictly speaking that’s ‘at least two handles’ it could be more but we can’t see them. Quite a few hanging vessel types have three or four handle/suspension points. It’s a shame that damned headrest is in the way and we don’t get a clear view!

I didn’t find anything in my own library, but I have tomorrow off work and I plan on heading to the Royal Anthropological Institute’s library tomorrow and I’ll see what I can find in there. I’m doing some research for a completely different project, but I should have plenty of time for this too.

Unsupported handles seem quite rare, usually they’re joined to the neck. I only found one image in Google with had an unsupported handle loop, and that was on a jug from Italy with one handle. I do still wonder if it’s South American, the pre-Hispanic Colombians and Peruvians made a lot of ceramic blackware.

I did find a few Chimu vessels which have similar profiles to their main body with the steep initial section to the edge and then a more rounded bottom section, for example this frog-style stirrup vessel:



Oh and I also accidentally found the holy grail too:


It’s a part of the Georgia State University’s collection (accession number: 1.EC.27) and they list it as being a ‘Pottery Chalice’ from the Nariño Highlands of Ecuador. They dont mention if it was ever owned by a carpenter's son :lol

Chapter XXIII - The Egyptian Alabaster Vase

If you're curious about the object, this is a nice description of the symbolism - http://www.touregypt.net/museum/tutl66.htm

This is a very fun thread!

 

[Friendly flyer]

This thread is amazing!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

... a ‘Pottery Chalice’ from the Nariño Highlands of Ecuador.

Great find! I couldn't resist a little photoshopping:

 

[James Earl Cash]

But wait... we need more information on the Dutch Bible... where is someone suppose to get their hands on one...


-Ash

There are some out there, but very expensive. Here some links:

http://www.antiquemaps-fair.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4315_1681_4635_1249_1678&products_id=23077

http://greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bibles-books/bibles/d1002/

https://www.sotherans.co.uk/2080058

http://www.antiquariat-kunsthandel.de/Antiquarian-Books/Illustrated-Dutch-Bible-by-Nicolaas-Goetzee-Gorinchem-1748::311.html?language=en

It's interesting, that Franklin D. Roosevelt had a family Dutch Bible. I didn't know before, that the Roosevelt family had Dutch origins.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassythehague/8369526559

Roosevelt's Dutch Bible is now in the 'Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum' in Hyde Park, NY.

 

[James Earl Cash]

That 'Grail' cup from Ecuador is an interesting find. Thanks for sharing!
And nice photoshop work, Indy. :thumbsup

 

[James Earl Cash]

Ok, now we go back to the front of the table and take a look at the items on Indy's right side:

(Click to enlarge)

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXIV - The Calabash gourd



This object is round and brown.
It reminds me of a calabash gourd:

I found these ones: (1.Kongo (Mangbetu) - 2.Borneo (Dayak))

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXV - A white zoomorphic vessel

Ok, what we see first is a white or dusty brownish wide mouthed pottery with an extension in shape of an animal, a zoomorphic spout.
We also see some engraved lines on the vessel. Don't know what this is characteristic for, but zoomorphic vessels can be found in prehistoric Iran, like in Amlash.

Here some examples:




In the museum in Vienna I found these zoomorphic vessels from the Hallstatt Culture.
But these are black and a bit smaller than the one on Indys desk:


Another very interesting pottery is the one in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.
It's the bull vessel from Vác:


And another vessel from Amlash (Iran) in shape of deers:


I think, Indy's must be an Iranian zoomorphic vessel, but I couldn't find the exact artifact here again.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXVI - Ritual Spoon



If you look closely you can see two objects near the window.

The first object is a big wooden spoon.
You can find them all over the globe from trbes in Africa to Alaska.
Here are some examples for ritual spoons ( Papua New Guinea (Sepik) - Phillipines (Ifugao) - Africa (Chokwe) - Alaska )

We have a lot of African items in Indy's class room. So I think this one must be African, too.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXVII - Stag pottery sculpture



The second object besides the spoon is a deer or stag sculpture.
The stag has been a very important mythical symbol in nearly all cultures from Central Asia to Japan to Near East, Anatolia and Eastern Europe.
You can find many stag artifacts in this large area as pottery or metal work.

I think this object is a pottery.
A lot of these objects are again in Iran in Amlash as zoomorphic vessels.



There is also this pottery from Bulgaria:


And lets go to Ankara in Turkey to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations again.
There are these rhytons from Kültepe which look similar to Indy's artifact.


I can't decide, but to me the ones from Kültepe look more like Indys version.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXVIII - Seated African figure

This one could be a dwarf statue from Benin/Nigeria. They are about 50cm high and made of bronze.



But the one the desk is in sitting position, so I did more research on that characteristic.
I found this kneeling bronze statue from Nigeria. It's in the National Museum of Lagos in Nigeria.



But this one is more naturalistic and has better proportions than the one on Indy's desk.

So there is still a possibility, that this is a dwarf statue from Nigeria, which look a bit more clumsy like Indys statue.

But I haven't found a sitting dwarf statue yet.
Here a picture from the <British Benin Expedition 1897>:


You can see some dwarf statues on that picture.
Most pieces of the <Benin Bronzes> are in the British Museum.

I also found these seated African statues from the Yombe:



The cap of the left statue looks a bit like on Indys seated statue.
Only problem here is that these statues sit on a base and don't raise their arms.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXIX - Small terracotta animal figure



There is one very very small object in the right corner, which looks a bit like a rabbit.
It reminds me of the terracotta animal figures from the Indus Valley Culture:

But could be also Syro-Hittite terracotta figures:

We can't specify it again, because we don't have any details.

 

[Duncanator]

Wow! This thread is such a fun read. I clicked on it just out of curiosity, and found myself really drawn in to the research and history you've written.
I find that a lot of the joy of our hobby is in the quest to find out things, and not always in just the acquisition. You obviously know your stuff!

Great thread!

As someone whose career has been in the film biz, I think you are correct that the majority of the items used by the set dressers would have been tourist replicas, or stock set house rental pieces. Unless the script called for a very specific item, they would want to use inexpensive, easy to acquire items that they could get multiples of in case one got broken during filming.

 

[Jintosh]

Saw this scale head on eBay.
Search: Accurate Model of Original OLMEC GIANT HEAD 1

 

[Friendly flyer]

Chapter XXIX - Small terracotta animal figure


There is one very very small object in the right corner, which looks a bit like a rabbit.

They could really be anything. To me they look like they could be goddesses from Çatalhöyük:



Considering it is most likely a replica of something, it could conceivably be one of the many Mesolithic Venus figurines, as casts of a number of these are readily available. I'm thinking perhaps Kostenki, which had the right colour:



I'm not an archaeologist though, so I'm probably way off.

 

[Broilermaker]

^i wish people would quit making staues of my wife

 

[James Earl Cash]

Thanks everyone!

View attachment 627194

Saw this scale head on eBay.

The ebay Olmec head is bigger than the one on Indy's desk. But it seems to be a very nice piece.

They could really be anything.

Yes, it could be anything due to the lack of details in the picture. But I'm quite sure, that it must be an animal figure. We'll never know which animal.
Here two more examples from Mycenae:

^i wish people would quit making staues of my wife

One poster for you




Ok, let's continue! Two more left.