Volume 33 / Issue 2

Behind the Scenes

By: Lucy Fowler Williams

The University Museum has an exceptional collection of artifacts from the Calusa site at Key Marco, Florida. The pelican, wolf, and deer figureheads mentioned here (Figs. 5,8,4) traveled this year, in an unprece­dented loan of the Key Marco material, to the National Gallery of Art where they were exhibited as part of the Columbian Quincentenary […]

Reports from the Field

By: Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler and Julia C. Miller

Sylvanus G. Morley referred to the river cut through the Acro­polis at Copan, Honduras, as “the largest archaeological cross-section in the world” (The Ancient Maya 1948:324). Although perhaps overstated, these words certainly convey the magnitude of this fea­ture, known simply as the cortex (or “cut”). The cortex is the result of centuries of erosion by […]

By: Marianne L. Stoller

“When we plant corn we place seven or eight seeds in each hole. Of course, we don’t need to grow that many plants for ourselves, but one plant is for the mouse and two are for the crow. They need to eat, too, you know, and they like corn just as we do.” –Clifford Balenquah […]

Shields of the Plains and Southwest in The University Museum's Collections

In his article, Hall introduces the shield with a brief history of its use: “The round shield or target is the characteristic New World shield. Other forms occur, but among aboriginal American users of shields, this type is predominant, and the geographical limits of its distribution suggest that its use spread from one center, probably […]

By: Donald N. Brown

In April of 1974, just as the summer powwow dancing season was beginning, twenty-eight residents of central and western Oklahoma, including fourteen Indians, were arrested by agents of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for selling eagle and other migratory bird feathers. As reported by the Associated Press: A widespread operation centered in Oklahoma is […]

By: Albert H. Schroeder

Interpretation of prehistory is basically dependent upon ma­terial culture items recovered in association with features of different time periods and/or areas. Identifica­tion of the use of specific objects recovered from ruins to a great ex­tent draws on ethnological studies relating to similar objects. Another source for data of the latter type is archival material. Journals […]

By: Victoria Lindsay Levine

On May 18, 1539, the Span­iard Hernando de Soto em­barked on an expedition to explore what is now the southeastern United States. The journey was long and bloody. Before the expedition ended in September of 1543, several thousand Indians had been killed, as well as de Soto himself and half of his 600-man force. Ironically, […]