CASTING LIGHT ON HIDDEN CULTURES
T
he rich but lesser-known ancient civilizations of Central America are now emerging from the shadows of their more famous neighbors, the Aztecs and Ma-
yans. The spectacular, yet seldom-seen hold- ings of our own Museum are now contribut- ing to these studies. Although interest in Central American
civilizations began in the early 1800s, when scholars and foreign explorers rediscovered long-abandoned cities, attention faded fol- lowing early 20th
-century excavations, as
archaeologists focused on Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations. In the 1970s, archaeologists began to interpret Central American cultural history on its own terms rather than as an outlier to Mesoamerican or Andean civiliza- tions. Rigorous scientific research, combined with study of museum collections, continues to yield new understandings. These discoveries are now on view at the
National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., through January 2015, in the major new exhibition Ceramica de los An-
cestros.The exhibition draws on the Museum’s fascinating collection of some 17,000 ceramic pieces from the region. How these objects became part of museum
collections is a fascinating story in its own right. It includes art-lovers and archaeolo- gists, opportunists and looters, scholars and patriots, amateurs and professionals. Adven- turers and cartographers of the early 1800s were soon followed by engineers, diplomats, railroad men and canal-builders. Objects that they brought home stimulated interest in archaeology, which led to museum- and uni- versity-sponsored excavations. Minor Cooper Keith and archaeologist Samuel K. Lothrop were important figures in this wider history and to the growth of the Museum’s collection through its predecessor, George Gustav Heye’s Museum of the American Indian (MAI). In the 1870s, Keith began building a rail- road from Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast to San
E 20 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2013
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