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Treasures in the cellar
Feb. 4th, 2005 02:51 pmWell, that certainly was the most interesting Cultural Anthropology class I had so far. To finish the semester, Prof. Schneider asked whether we were interested in visiting two of the twelve depots of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, and of course we were interested.
So he took us down into the African and the South Seas depot.
The African depot was really, really interesting; it is overcrowded because the room was only planned for half the stuff that is stored there now (the other half was in the cellar depot, but the Rhine is just around the corner and since the cellar was flooded in 1993 and 1995, all the stuff from there is now stored in the higher depots), which may be bad for the artefacts but is great for the atmosphere.
Rows and rows of shelves full of carved ostrich eggs, bowls, jewellery, wooden masks in all shapes and sizes, sculptures, pearl-covered chairs, cloaks made of shells... along the walls 1200 spears, 340 bows, along with arrows, ritual daggers, swords, axes; shields of all sorts; carved elephant tusks - one of them two meters long: I don't want to imagine how big the elephant must have been - and more than I can remember. And underneath the shelves lurk wanderlust and plot bunnies. Two wooden lions whose gilding is flaking in places have strayed here from Malaysia and watch over the collection.
The South Seas depot wasn't quite as interesting, because everything was packed up tidily in boxes and tissue paper (acid-free) so you couldn't really see much, except for the stuff currently open for restoration. However, there was a cupboard which contained 50 human skulls in different states of ornamentation from Indonesia and New Zealand. *twitch* Those were rather interesting. But they pose an ethic problem to the museum: On the one hand, they're really worth seeing; on the other hand, they don't dare to show the possibly sacred remains of humans to people who don't care for their spiritual value. Also, there's a law saying that remains of humans have to be returned to the tribes those humans belonged to; but apparently, no one wanted to have these skulls back.
In the lower exhibiton hall we could also see some stuff from the Asian depot, which was currently there for restoration: musicians with angel-wings from India and several components of a temple gate, elaborately carved; a long tapestry made out of the bark of one tree.
I would have loved to see the Asian or American depot, but apparently the former is so full that only one person can go in there at a time, and the American depot is in a terrible state because the responsible specialist's position has been cut out of the budget ten years ago.
But what little we got to see was already amazing.
- - -
( Die Schätze im Keller )
- - -
So he took us down into the African and the South Seas depot.
The African depot was really, really interesting; it is overcrowded because the room was only planned for half the stuff that is stored there now (the other half was in the cellar depot, but the Rhine is just around the corner and since the cellar was flooded in 1993 and 1995, all the stuff from there is now stored in the higher depots), which may be bad for the artefacts but is great for the atmosphere.
Rows and rows of shelves full of carved ostrich eggs, bowls, jewellery, wooden masks in all shapes and sizes, sculptures, pearl-covered chairs, cloaks made of shells... along the walls 1200 spears, 340 bows, along with arrows, ritual daggers, swords, axes; shields of all sorts; carved elephant tusks - one of them two meters long: I don't want to imagine how big the elephant must have been - and more than I can remember. And underneath the shelves lurk wanderlust and plot bunnies. Two wooden lions whose gilding is flaking in places have strayed here from Malaysia and watch over the collection.
The South Seas depot wasn't quite as interesting, because everything was packed up tidily in boxes and tissue paper (acid-free) so you couldn't really see much, except for the stuff currently open for restoration. However, there was a cupboard which contained 50 human skulls in different states of ornamentation from Indonesia and New Zealand. *twitch* Those were rather interesting. But they pose an ethic problem to the museum: On the one hand, they're really worth seeing; on the other hand, they don't dare to show the possibly sacred remains of humans to people who don't care for their spiritual value. Also, there's a law saying that remains of humans have to be returned to the tribes those humans belonged to; but apparently, no one wanted to have these skulls back.
In the lower exhibiton hall we could also see some stuff from the Asian depot, which was currently there for restoration: musicians with angel-wings from India and several components of a temple gate, elaborately carved; a long tapestry made out of the bark of one tree.
I would have loved to see the Asian or American depot, but apparently the former is so full that only one person can go in there at a time, and the American depot is in a terrible state because the responsible specialist's position has been cut out of the budget ten years ago.
But what little we got to see was already amazing.
- - -
( Die Schätze im Keller )
- - -
