Manchester Museum conference on restitution

The provisional programme of the Museums and Restitution conference (University of Manchester 8-9 July 2010) is now available

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.

The conference will bring together museum professionals and academics from a wide range of fields (including museology, archaeology, anthropology, art history and cultural policy) to share ideas on contemporary approaches to restitution from the viewpoint of museums.

America's ancient rock art

The New York Times has an article about a magnificent collection of rock art in California.

Everywhere we looked, for a mile or so down canyon, there were images pecked or scratched into the rock faces: stylized human figures in a variety of headgear, stick figures with bows and arrows, dogs or coyotes, bear paws with extra digits, all manner of abstract geometric patterns, zigzags and circles and dots, and hundreds upon hundreds of what looked like bighorn sheep, some small, some larger than life size.

Via Disinformation and catvincent.

Protect First Nations' heritage

An article in the Vancouver Sun points out the shameful neglect and destruction of First Nations' heritage in British Columbia.

In North Cowichan on Vancouver Island, for example, a site on Somenos Creek shows evidence of being occupied since before the pyramids. There are both human remains and remnants of a mysterious structure whose significance still isn't understood but which might be part of some larger complex.

Yet, despite 17 years of requests from local first nations that it be protected and that the owner of the land compensated by the province, Somenos Creek still languishes in land use limbo without formal protection. Renewed requests by Cowichan first nations to discuss the matter have been repeatedly been put off by the province.

Canadians: please write to your MP and ask them to support the private member's bill to protect First Nations heritage.

The Mound Builders

The Sinnissippi Mounds were made by a mysterious culture or group of cultures known only as "the Mound-Builders", or the Hopewell tradition, or the Adena Culture.

In his new book about the mounds, Fritz Zimmerman argues that the the Hopewell were Sioux (Dakota and Lakota) along with the kindred tribes of Cherokee and Iroquois (Haudenosaunee). The author explores over 700 mound and earthwork sites in 5 states; it took him eleven winters to complete the project. The book includes photographs of 222 sites and gives directions to the sites.

The Criel Mound in South Charleston,
West Virginia, USA.

A Photographic Essay And Guide To The Adena, Hopewell Sioux And Iroquois Mounds And Earthworks, 1000 B.C. to 500 A.D.
By Fritz Zimmerman
ISBN 978-1-934690-14-7
History / Native American Studies

Tasora Books · August 2009

Available from Itasca Books

The book also argues that the mound-builders had complex mathematical knowledge which enabled them to build the mounds, and hypothesises that we can work out the purpose of the mounds by linking them with the mythology of the Sioux, Iroquois and Cherokee Nations. Whether or not that is the case (I'm a little bit sceptical), this book is still a valuable gazetteer of the mounds, and will doubtless fascinate anyone who is interested in Native American culture.