What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/943116
FEBRUARY 18-24, 2018 WHAT'S UP! 9 FAQ Museum of Native American History WHEN — 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday WHERE — 202 S.W. O St. in Bentonville COST — Free INFO — 273-2456; monah.us Pataky polychrome "footed" urn, left, is from the Nicoya/ Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. This vessel features jaguar images at base and human facial features around the body. The red around the mouth represents facial hair. It measures 13 1/4-by-7 1/4 inches, circa 1000-1500 A.D. Pataky style vessel from Nicoya, Costa Rica, right, is a tri- leg effigy vase with extensive artwork and design. The composite effigy includes human arms and an avian face, and legs are adorned with harpy eagle heads. The artwork on the front of this vessel depicts a human skull and bones. Measuring 13 3/4-by-9 inches, it dates in the 1000- 1500 A.D. range. Courtesy Photo "The museum covers the 14,000 year history (prehistory) of the Americas, not just North America. The Meso-America cultures down south were some of the most advanced and artistic anywhere in the world, not only the Americas, and are a very important part of our story. "Meso-America is a cultural area in the mid-latitude of the Americas where many pre-Columbian societies prevailed before the Spaniard colonization in the 15th and 16th centuries," Rowe goes on. "Many of these cultures were very advanced, some built highly sophisticated cities, had complex mathematical and astronomical systems. The Maya were some of the best-known of these cultures and occupied the Central American continent, including the southern parts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Honduras. They were very advanced and had the only fully developed pre-Columbian (before Columbus) written language system. They developed a calendar system that is so accurate that some people still use it today." Rowe enumerates the 10 pieces, beginning with "a dual-chambered 'whistling' jaguar effigy vessel from Peru." "The 'whistling' pot was a very pleasant surprise," he says. "It shows just how advanced they were artistically, as well as having a firm grasp on physics." Also acquired were two Pataky style polychrome vessels from Costa Rica, a large Aztec/Mazapan idol "that's pretty neat," and six of the recent acquisitions are Maya polychrome cylinders, two of them with monkey effigies, all from Central America. Rowe wouldn't reveal the cost of the artifacts beyond "a substantial amount," but "it's worth every penny to ensure that our collection is not only the best, but 100 percent authentic." "We've had some wonderful donations," Bogle says, "but every single day we look for things to acquire. It's much more rare to find something. Maybe only half a dozen pieces a year fit exactly what we need to make our story easier to understand." Mayan cylinder with protruding raised rim base with cameo pyramids. Image depicts a man carrying a royal mat on his back and holding a symbol of high rank in his hand. Two protruding monkey heads are placed near rim. From the Ulua Valley, Honduras, it measures 6 3/4-by-8 inches and dates in the 650-900 A.D. range. Courtesy Photo