Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-02-13
ANCIENT PERUVIAN RELICS.
British Museums New Collection Fin
est in the World.

The important accession to the
American section Of the British Muse
I'm merits Il somewhat detailed no.
ticc. The anonymous donor is
m, mber of the National Art Collect
ions Fund. and has made the gift
through tlat body. In spite of the
picturesque terms in which these an
cient WAGES have been described In
some of the illustrated papers. and the
very liberal estimate of 1000 years AZ
their age. there can be no doubt of the
Importance Of the find. AS a whole,
they surpaSs in quality the contents OF
any previously discovered cemetery.
and some of the individual pieces can
claim high rank from the artistic
standpoint. The majority of them are
water bottles of form characteristic
OF ancient Peru, 4 more or less round
/ ed body, while the neck, an arched
| tube with vertical mouthpiece.
| serves also as handle. In addition
| to these the collection comprises also
| hunting or signal horns. bowls, and
other forms. From the admirable
| state of preservation in which they are
still, it would seem, that the whole
Oh. the pieces had never been In
actual use, but We're either expressly
| made as funeral furniture. or at any
rate deposited in the grave when new.
| The selection of 80 made for the
| British Museum includes all the types
| found in the collection, and in addition
| Il number OF unique pieces.
1t is stated that the cemetery in
| which these vases were found vas dis
! covered III searching for the buried
| rta nj 10
| above the statum in which these vases
| lay was another. in which We're found
| graves Of the Incas. It was presumed.
not unnaturally that the graves OF the
lower layer were older than those
| above them, and this presumption was
borne ont by the fact that, whereas
| the human bones, the woven Stuffs,
| and even the metal roofs in the upper
| or Inca stratus were In fairly good
condition, those below we're in such u
| state of decay as to make it impossible
TO remove any OF them. On these
| facts were doubtless founded both the
somewhat problematical estimate of
| the age OF the lower series of graves
| and their attribution to the other
shadoWN Chiinu civilization. How
| ever this may be- there can be no
question: tI.d' lIt people WHO TEaUc
| these vases. whether Shimu or Inca
were artists and craftsmen of uncorn-
| mon skill. 1t is hardly necessary to
| say that they were unacQuainted with
| the potters wheel, and that the ad-
| mirabl" symmetrical finish that Is
| Ch2rdctCri=tlo Of some of them is the
| product OF the unaided eye ana hand
| Many. however. do not ain; III SYM
| nletry but renresent human heads or
| figures. III i great number of instances
| utquestionahlH portraits. and it may
| well be ot the individuals whose
graves they furnished Some are
| SrcteSque and tanciful III treatment,
| but others are as brave and dignified,
| and. within their limitations of me-
| tcrial. rs Well done rs the portrait OF q
| Dutch BursGulaStcr of the seventeenth,
| century. enc large vase, nearly = feet
| in height clearlY represents a person
| age. ANA ia its CAIN. steady gaze and
| rather naughty pose recalls an Egypt
| IAN Statue of the earlier dynasties 1t
| is, III tact, not little curious that
| some of the painted designs. repre-
| scntinS ttiazes of birds, warriors fish,
| ermea, or merely conventional Orna-
| mSnt. have 81 strange similarity to the
archaic W;lres, OF the Aegean.-London
| Times.