The National Museum of the American Indian offers its visitors a lot of opportunities to visit its exhibitions in Washington DC, New York, and some traveling exhibitions both in person and online. On February 14th I have completed my online visit of the Céramica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, NY that would be held in New York, NY for the period of April 18, 2015 till May 20, 2018. This exhibition was developed by the national Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Latino Center, and had two curators: the lead curator, Ann McMullen of NMAI, and the guest curator, Alexander Benítez. It was a bilingual exhibition on heritage of the civilizations of Central Americas, and it represented over 150 pieces. They were object of art and everyday living, and depicted some achievements of people in the Central American region for the past thousands years. This exhibition concerned the peoples of Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, and South America, and the represented objects were selected out of over 12,000 showpieces for display.
The online version of the exhibition is located on a separate website, and for convenience of the visitors a special 3D artifact viewer for separate objects in the exhibition was developed. Seven regions were represented for the visitors: Belize, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The represented objects facilitated improved understanding of diverse cultures. Navigation through the collection is made through the map with schematic drawings of all seven cultures in the Central America region. After clicking on the respective image, the visitors is redirected to the page with description of the region and thumbnails of pictures for each of the relevant art object. The Maya region collection contains such objects as a Maya incense burner cover depicting a jaguar (a piece of Guatemalan pottery), a Maya human-monkey figure (a piece of Guatemalan pottery), Ulúa river incense burner with jaguar design (a piece of Honduras pottery), and a footed bowl with turtle and glyph design (a piece of Belize pottery), etc. Collection is supported with a concise description of Maya population and non-Maya groups of indigenous population.
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The Ulúa river region objects include a jar depicting two men (a piece of Honduras pottery), a Maya monkey stamp (a piece of Honduras pottery), a vessel with king vulture handles (a piece of Honduras pottery), and a vessel depicting dancers, etc. Most of the represented objects are made of clay and paint, while all of them are supported by the description of indigenous peoples who are part of Honduras. The Lempa River region section offers a video footage of the area except from photos of the objects. The displayed objects include a vessel depicting the god of fire (a piece of El Salvador pottery), a bowl with cormorant design, and a footed bowl, etc. All of the objects in the El Salvador collection are made of clay slip and paint.
The indigenous peoples of Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica are represented in the Greater Nicoya region part of the exhibition. The visitors are offered to see a tripod vessel in the form of a jaguar, a tripod bowl with human and harpy eagle design and effigy feet, and several Greater Nicoya female figures, etc., with all of the objects to be created of clay slip and paint. The Central Caribbean section provides photos of the exhibited objects and video clip in order to familiarize the viewers with the respective area. The photos of the objects include a tripod vessel in the form of a spectacled owl, a vessel in form of a tapir, and a trophy-head sculpture, etc. made of clay slip and paint.
The section for the Greater Chiriquí Region allows to explore the culture of the Guaymi peoples in the provinces of Panama. Among the represented objects one can find a seat-metate in the form of a jaguar made of stone, a tripod vessel made of clay slip, and a Greater Chiriquí king vulture whistle made of clay slip and paint, etc. The Greater Coclé region section reviews the indigenous peoples of Panama, and provides photos of such objects as a Greater Coclé footed plate with human crocodile design, and a Greater Coclé jar with centipede design, made of clay slip and paint, and a Greater Coclé staff with crocodile effigy made of animal bone, gold, and spondylus shell, etc. Each of the seven sections in the exhibition was developed with care, and strong desire and intention of archaeologists and museum workers to help the visitors to dive into the atmosphere of Central America could be sensed.
Overall, the online tour through the Céramica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, NY exhibition allowed not merely to see the collection of the displayed objects but even to feel how rich the history of the region was. Most of the exhibited objects were pottery made of clay slip and paint, but several object made of stone, animal bones, and gold were available to the viewers. Furthermore, the displayed objects were picked in the way that allowed to sense and evaluate great spirituality of the indigenous peoples of each of the regions, and to get connected with their history, heritage, and way of living, etc. the displayed objects facilitated better comprehension of social structure in the respective peoples, indicated their respect for authority with a vast collection of pieces demonstrating political power and wealth, etc. Respect to nature and deities was also shown in the forms of the created vessels, jars, and other daily-used objects. The reviewed collection left open a question of gender equality in different peoples, as some of the objects depicted female bodies, while no male sculptures were shown.
