Ceramic objects yield ancient narratives of Central America's first peoples
Ceramic objects yield ancient narratives of Central America's first peoples
Sunday, April 19, 2015
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Greater Coclé footed plate with crocodile design, AD 850–950. Río de Jesús, Veraguas Province, Panama. Pottery, paint. MAI purchase from Neville A. Harte and Eva M. Harte, 1967. Photo by Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian.
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NEW YORK, NY.- The National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York and the Smithsonian Latino Center present “Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed,” a major bilingual exhibition making its New York debut after a first run in Washington, D.C. The exhibition opened Saturday, April 18, and runs through January 2017, in the museum’s West Gallery.
“Cerámica de los Ancestros” provides intimate access to select pieces from one of the world’s largest and rarely seen collections of nearly 12,000 ancient ceramic objects from the Americas. Over a two-year period of research, 155 pieces were chosen to illuminate the intricacies of ancient Central America’s first peoples and the societies they developed. Dating as far back as 1000 B.C., the ceramics these diverse communities left behind over the millennia, combined with recent archaeological discoveries, help tell the stories of their ancient cultures and innumerable achievements. The exhibition examines seven regions (Ulúa River, Maya, Lempa River, Greater Nicoya, Central Caribbean, Greater Chiriquí and Greater Coclé) representing distinct Central American cultural areas that are today part of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The exhibition represents a pioneering effort to promote a better understanding of the early lives of Central America’s Native peoples. For thousands of years, Central America has been home to complex civilizations, each with unique, sophisticated ways of life, value systems and arts. In the Washington, D.C., area, these histories have engaged new Latino audiences, especially los centroamericanos, who consider these civilizations as part of their national and cultural heritage.
“These objects are accounts of power and progress, spirituality and the divine, love and loss—stories of massive empires and the everyday lives of those who built them—sealed forever within a superb collection of ancient ceramics,” said Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the National Museum of the American Indian. “Throughout the past two years we have showcased them in our first bilingual exhibition, which has brought them to a broader and more diverse audience. We are pleased to now offer this experience at our New York museum.”
More:
http://artdaily.com/news/77873/Ceramic-objects-yield-ancient-narratives-of-Central-America-s-first-peoples#.VTOS3WdFAq0
It's deeply important and interesting to learn what we can about the original people of the Americas who lived here before the European descended invaders destroyed their way of life, their culture, their societies, broke their spirits, tore their families apart, and turned the survivors into slaves, and castoffs in their OWN land. Every bit of insight gained is necessary now.
