The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-03-16
ANCIENT PERUVIAN RELICS.
British Museums New Collection Fin.
est in the World.

! The important accession to the Am
erican section OF the British Museum
merits somewhat detailed notice.
The anonymous donor is member of
the National Art Collections Fund. and
has made the gift through that body.
In spite of the picturesque terms in
which these ancient vases have been
described in some of the illustrated
| papers, and the very liberal estimate
! OF 1000 years as their age, there can
be no doubt of the Importance of the
find. As whole, they surpass in quail
lily the contents. OF any previously
discovered cemetery, and some of the
individual pieces can claim high rank
from the artistic standpoint. The ma
jority of them are water bottles of n
form characteristic of ancient Peru. a
more or less rounded body. while the
neck an arched tube with a vertical
mouthpiece, serves also as a handle.
In addition to these the collection
comprises also hunting or signal horns.
bowls and other forms. From the adj
mirable state of preservation in which
they still are, it would seem that the
whole of these pieces had never been
in actual use, but were either EXPRESS
ly made as funeral furniture, or at
any rate deposited in the grave when
new. The selection of $50 made for
the British Museum includes all the
types found I'm the collection. and I'm
addition a number of unique pieces.
l. CT
which these vases were found wac
discovered in searching for the buried
treasure of the Incas. Further. that
above the stratum in which these va
ses lay was another, in which were
found graves of the Incas. 1t was pre-
sumed, not unnaturally. that the
graves of the lower layers were older
than those above them, and this pre-
sumption was borne out by the fact
that whereas the human bones, the
woven stuffs, and even the metal tools
in the upper or Inca stratum were N
fairly good condition, those below
were in such state of decay as 70
make 1T impossible TO remove any #
them. on these facts were doubtless
founded both the somewhat problem
atical estimate of the age of the low
er series of graves and their attention
to the rather shadowy Chimu civiliZa-
ton However this may be, there can
be no question that the people who
made these vases, whether Chimu or
Inca, were artists and craftsmen OF
uncommon skill. 1t Is hardly neces-
sary to say that they were unacquains-
ed with the potter's wheel, and that
the admirably symmetrical finish that
is Characteristic of some of them is
the product of the unaided eye and
hand. Many. however do not aim ut
symmetry. but represent human heads
or figures, in a great number of in
stances unquestionably portraits and
IL may well be of the individuals
whose graves they furnished. Some
are grotesque ard fanciful in treat
nifed, and. within their limitations Of
material, as well done as the portrait
Of a Dutch burgomaster of the 18th
century. One large vase, nearly two
feet in height, clearly represents n
parsonage, and in it's calm steady
gaze and rather naughty pose, recalls
an Egyptian statue of the earlier dy-
nasties. 1t is, in fact, not a little GU
rious that some of the painted de-
signs, representing friezes of birds,
warriors, fishermen or merely con-
ventional ornament, have strange ST.
milarity TO the archaic ware of tho
Aegean.-London Times.