Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Marshall College desk artifacts

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXX - A cone-shaped object

This is the biggest object on Indys table with a lot of detail, but it's the hardest one.

What we see is a cone shaped object with a mostly white body and a reddish and hooded anthropomorphic head.
We notice two arms in the front, which hold a crescent shaped object and a fin-like extension on the back.

A pendant with maybe shells surrounds the middle part on the front of the object.
There is also a figural extension in this area.

On the base we see some markings. Besides the two lines and the row of semicircles two markings look like flowers.
On top is also one marking, which looks like a blossom.

So what can this be?

 

[James Earl Cash]

My first thought was, that it is some kind of conic hat. But I couldn't find one. So no hat.

Then I checked if it is a ceramic piece.
There are some anthropomorhic pottery works in the Mediterranean from the Minoan and from Mycenae.

But none of them fits.

We know from the Chimu vessel, that there are thousands and thousands anthropomorhic vessels from the Moche and Chimu.
But nothing in that size or shape. The only thing, which comes close to that object are the sarcophagi of the Chachapoyans.


But they are definitely too big.

In size the potteries from Mycenae would fit.
But when I look at the hooded figure on top, it looks to me South American.
Even the crescent, which the figure is holding, is a typical symbol.
The sun-moon dualism is much used in Andean art.
The coloring red and white or ivory indicates to Moche pottery.
But as I said I haven’t seen a Moche pottery in this size and the paintings on Moche vessels are much more elaborated and detailed than the one on Indys desk.



So I thought it's not a ceramic work.

I came back to the idea of a headdress or mask and I searched through many tribal masks from Africa to Oceania, but I couldn't find a matching piece. So no mask.

These markings reminded me of paintings on shaman drums.


But I also checked shaman clothings and headdresses and there is nothing similar to find.

It's not a hat, not a pottery, not a tribal mask and not a shaman clothing piece.
This was a really confusing and frustrating object to me. So much details but nothing fit together.
Or maybe it was just simple and I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Magnoli and Pedro told me, that I was on the wrong track and that this piece must be definitely a work of pottery.
Magnoli posted some pictures of artifacts from Boeotia (Greece):

There were some similar pieces also from prehistoric Cyprus.

While I visited Vienna last year, I had the opportunity to see the original artifacts in the ‘Museum of Fine Arts’.

They had these pieces from Boeotia and Cyprus.

But these are definitely to small.

The pieces from Cyprus were from the Cesnola Collection, which can be found in many museums from London, Berlin, Vienna to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where most of this collection is located.

 

[James Earl Cash]

By the way Luigi Palma di Cesnola has a very interesting and adventurous, but also controversial biography.

Cesnola was born in Sardinia (Italy) and followed his father’s steps and made a military career.
He participated the Italian War of Independence, the Crimean War and after immigrating to the USA the American Civil War, where he received the Medal of Honor.
In his postwar career he became a US consul in Cyprus in 1865.
Taking Schliemann as an example he started excavations on Cyprus.
Cesnola collected over 35.000 objects in Cyprus and got in trouble with Ottoman authorities, when it came up to ship out the artifacts.
Somehow he could ship them out.
The main part of his collection was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which he became the first director in 1879.
Now and then he was accused by archaeologists of looting Cypriot antiquities.

If anyone is interested here is more info about him:

Cesnola Wiki Link

Link to Cesnolas rare book about Cyprus and his collection

Link to an essay about his collection of the MetMuseum

Link to the history of his military career

Google Books Link to a passage about Cesnola from the book 'Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World'

 

[James Earl Cash]

However I went through many pictures of his collection in the internet


and also through the illustrated book of the Cesnola Collection,

but I couldn’t find a similar piece.

After Cesnola there was a very important Swedish Expedition in Cyprus in 1927. Wiki Link

A large number of those artifacts are in Stockholm in the Medelhavsmuseet (Mediterranean Museum).

I haven’t visited it yet, but from these pictures I can say, that Indy’s ceramic is not here.
The ones from Cyprus don’t look close to our searched artifact.
We won’t find it in the Near East or Mediterranean.
So I returned to the idea, that it is a piece from South America.

- - - Updated - - -

I was investigating about the Litjoko pottery dolls from an indigenous Amazon tribe in Brazil called Karaja,

when I came across these ceramics from Peru:

Some more of the one above. Click to enlarge:

 

[James Earl Cash]

These are works of Peruvian folk art and made in the Region Ayacucho in the town Quinua in southern Peru.

For comparison Indys ceramic with its characteristics:

I haven’t found an exact match, but we have following indications:

1. They have ceramics in the searched size.
2. The coloring with red and white matches.
3. The flower motive and other symbols match also.
4. They have some hooded anthropomorphic potteries.
5. The bag or basket in the back fits well too.
5. Some of the ceramics have protomes in shape of a flute playing person.

I’m pretty sure now, that this ceramic piece on Indy’s desk must be a pottery work from Ayacucho.

 

[Friendly flyer]

It make sense the object is South American, considering most of the other objects are South- and Meso-American. The figure has what looks like a Phrygian cap with long ear pieces, it's not entirely unlike like a traditional Andean cap:



The cap in the photo is of course recent, but the Peruvian pottery with their ox- and horse figurines is also fairly recent. There were no horses or cattle in South America between the natives exterminated the native mega-fauna 12.000 years ago and the introduction by European settlers. The capped figure looks a god bit older than the new pottery you posted, but it may not be ancient.

 

[Apollo]

That's the one sitting in the middle of one of my bullwhips, it's a nice piece! :thumbsup

View attachment 627194

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

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXXI - Mortar and pestle

(Click to enlarge)

I always thought it's a rolled up wall chart.
But behind the Ayacucho pottery it seems like there is a mortar and a pestle.

Here some examples

 

[James Earl Cash]

Still unidentified objects

There are probably 3 objects, we couldn't identify. These are located between the Ayacucho pottery and the Calabash gourd:

1. A female statuette
2. An object looking like a club
3. Another small statue?

 

[James Earl Cash]

Summary

We could identify 31 objects on and around Indy's desk. These are:

1. Aztec noble statue
2. Cypriot Idol
3. Chimu vessel
4. Ethiopian headrest
5. Bronze Tibet Lion
6. Aztec Grasshopper
7. Mayan Jade Mask
8. Metal votive figure
9. Tomahawk
10. Ritual Broom
11. Olmec head
12. Amber glass jug
13. Small terracotta jar
14. Shona female stone bust
15. Buddha figure
16. Amphora handle
17. Small bowl
18. Black pottery
19. Female Idol
20. Dutch Bible
21. African wooden statue
22. Brown glazed jug
23. Egyptian alabaster vase
24. Calabash gourd
25. Zoomorphic spout vessel
26. Ritual spoon
27. Stag pottery
28. African seated statue
29. Terracotta animal figure
30. Ayacucho pottery
31. Vintage Mortar and pestle

 

[James Earl Cash]

 

[Jintosh]

Love this thread.

I picked the Mayan Jade mask to make a replica of. But it'll still be 3 weeks before I get it mailed from Shapeways.
I chose to do it in porcelain, with a jade green glaze. It'll be a rich green color, I'll have to decide whether to paint over it or not.

 

[Jintosh]

I'm pretty happy with my Jade Mask from Shapeways. It should be noted that they do not glaze whatever is the "bottom" of your piece.

 

[Kylash]

Love this thread, good ole' RPF detective work, just like the old days.

 

[NagleIndustries]

Thanks for the entertaining read and great investigative work.

 

[Michael G]

stl Projekt

 

[Michael G]

stl Projekt