FALL 1981 ISSUE A PUBLICATION OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY • 11 DIVINITY AVENUE CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 02138 The Mississippians STEPHEN WILLIAMS The saga of this archaeological concept begins with "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," the first major work on American archaeology, which was published in 1848 by Squire and Davis. Searching for the origin of the "mysterious mound builders," these two early pioneers mapped the enigmatic earthworks and discerned two types of mounds- burial mounds and temple mounds. The former were usually conical; the Ia tter, generally larger, were flat-topped pyramids and are now recognized as hallmarks of Mississippian culture. The beginnings are difficult to trace archaeologically, but the culture probably began (ca . A.D. 7-800) in the Lower Mississippi Valley where fertile and easily worked soils offered a rich seed bed for really intensive agriculture based on corn, squash, and beans. These village-living farmers were not unlike many Neolithic peoples around the world whether in the Middle East or Mesoamerica. We call the dwellers of these prehistoric towns and temples " Mississipians" - named for the great This Mississipian human effigy pipe is one of seventy artifacts from the Peabody Museum river basin which they ultimately now on display at the Science Museum of St. Paul, Minnesota. The exhibition, entitled controlled: from Kansas City to Towns and Temples : Urban Indians in Pre-Columbian North America is the second major exhibition southeastern Ohio; from Spiro, resulting from the Peabody's unique nation-wide collection-sharing program. The loan Oklahoma, to Etowah, Georgia; from program is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. southern Iowa to Natchez, Mississippi. Peabody Museum 77-57-10/11993. Height: 8.5 em; diameter 19.5 em. Photo: Hillel Burger They represented a new cultural configuration - a new way of life-on a scale of political, economic, and social Featured in this issue: complexity not achieved anywhere else in native North America. The Mississippians lived in wattle and How the Peabody Museum acquired the daub houses, generally rectangular in floor plan and with thatched roofs, Mecklenburg Collection much like the Maya of Mexico today. The towns were of moderate size-1000 HUGH HENCKEN or more residents - often palisaded, sometimes with bastions. They farmed Two new publications from the world's the nearby natural levee soils that determined their basic settlement largest anthropology library pattern. We can follow the rise of this culture NANCY J. SCHMIDT centered in the area surrounding the mouth of the Ohio-and watch its Continued on page ll Symbols • Fall 1981 • 1 --------------~~--·~ ---- .. How the Peabody Museum acquired the Mecklenburg Collection HUGH HENCKEN This Bronze Situla (from the Latin word for bucket), dating from the 4th century B.C., was excavated by the Duchess of Mecklenburg in Slovenia, Yugoslavia between 1905 and 1913. The relief decoration (of Eastern Mediterranean origin) depicts bands of animals: stags, does and ibex in alternating bands with stylized bud and plant motifs. Height 27.5 em; diameter 25.5 em. Peabody-Mecklenburg 15/V/6-7. My first wife, Mayday, and I were often 1914 which were partially subsidized by advised them to think hard about in London, and we became acquainted Kaiser Wilhelm II, himself an amateur buying some of it. They assured me with Mr. and Mrs. James Mann. Mr. archaeologist. The objects that she that it would probably be out of reach Mann was the Keeper of the Wallace found were kept in her country house, of the Peabody, but Mr. Scott Collection, which is counterpart to the and they were inherited by her particularly seemed very interested. collection in the Isabella Stewart daughter, the Duchess Marie of The next summer I was excavating in Gardner Museum in Boston. He was Mecklenburg. The collection was Ireland, and I asked Professor Mahr, an also the Keeper of the Royal Collection confiscated in 1918 when the kingdom of Austrian who was an expert in the of Armor in the Tower of London, Yugoslavia was formed. Years later Central European Iron Age and who which contains armor from the Middle when the Duchess Marie decided to sell was then on the staff of the National Ages, worn by the English Royal the collection, she went to King Museum of Ireland, about the Family. The Manns were apt to give Alexander to whom she was related and Mecklenburg material. He had already fashionable dinner parties, and we were asked for its return. Soon after she sent been in touch with the Anderson sometimes invited to these. On one it all to Zurich where it was stored. Galleries and was forming a committee occasion one of the guests was Captain This collection was now for sale, and of European Iron Age experts to help Faulke, who was in the Lifeguards; the Faulke asked me whether it would be a him make an inventory of it. He mounted troops in red coats, polished good thing to place on the American assured me that it was a collection of breastplates, and plumed helmets who market since the likes of it had never enormous importance to European escort the Royal Family on state been seen in the United States. Of prehistory. occasions. Otherwise, Captain Faulke course, I had to say that this would be In the fall of 1934, the collection was the London representative for the just the thing for the American market, arrived in New York, and the Anderson Anderson Galleries in New York. The because it was the only way to get the Galleries prepared a very lush and Anderson Galleries dealt in art of the collection to America and, if possible, to heavily illustrated catalogue for the most costly kind, and their auctions secure part of it for the Peabody upcoming auction. were black-tie social occasions by Museum. Mr. Scott and I went to New York to invitation only. The invitees came not I went home and told Mr. Scott, the see it and to look at the catalogue. We only to bid but also to have the fun of Director of the Peabody Museum, and decided that the only thing to do was to watching the super rich bidding against Professor Hooton, who taught write to every museum we could think each other for some masterpiece. European prehistory in the Department of, at home and abroad, to find out if it At this particular dinner, after the of Anthropology, what I had seen and would be possible to set up some kind ladies had left the table and the port had gone around, it became evident that I had been invited especially to meet Captain Faulke, for he produced a great many photographs for me to see. My eyes stood out on stalks when I viewed these pictures-Iron Age helmets, swords, buckets called "situlae" decorated with animals, strings of many-colored beads, fascinating pieces of amber, and much else. The pictures were part of the Mecklenburg Collection, so named for the excavator, the Duchess Paul Friedrich of Mecklenburg. She was born Princess Marie of Windischgratz, an Austrian land-owning family, a great part of whose estates was in what is now Slovenia (Yugoslavia). She was married to the younger son of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, hence her German title. She conducted large-scale excavations in Slovenia from 1905 to The Duchess of Mecklenburg Photo: Hillel Burger 2 • Symbols • Fall 1981 • This solid bronze figurine was excavated by the Duchess of Mecklenburg from the great Early Iron Age (750-600 B.C.) cemetery at Hallstatt in the Austrian Alps . Though the species intended is unknown, the high, vertical horns resemble those in many representations of Bos primigenius, the large, wild cattle that roamed European forests as late as medieval times. Length 14.2 em; height 11.9. Peabody-Mecklenburg 149/12. Photo: Hillel Burger of system whereby each would the Imperial Court of Saint Petersburg, power of attorney, and he had gone purchase a part of the material and join but now had joined the sad and back to Paris. in a combined publication of the whole penniless colony of White Russian Further difficulties arose with the thing. Professor Mahr had impressed refugees in Paris. Accordingly, I took ugly story that the treasurer of the me with the idea that the whole the train to New York and interviewed Anderson Galleries had insured the life collection should be published in order Mr. Parke and Dr. Samsonoff. They of a would-be treasurer for a large sum to preserve its value. On the other both regarded my offer as impossible, and then hired a thug to hit him on the hand, the New York dealers viewed it so I took the train back to Boston. The head with a piece of lead pipe. But the with astonishment and indeed hilarity next morning Dr. Samsonoff scheme failed because the victim did not because the Anderson Galleries had a telephoned and asked me to come back. die, and the perpetrator of the crime reputation for handling first-rate works This was repeated five times in one committed suicide. Finally, the of art and, to the dealers, these week, and in the end I bought for the Anderson Galleries were declared archaeological objects, mostly uncleaned Museum the material from the bankrupt, and all their possessions were and in the state in which they were cemetery at Magdalenska gora, which to be auctioned off. My New York found, represented nothing but rubbish. was perhaps a quarter of the whole lawyer convinced the judge that the Aside from a half-hearted offer from a collection.