Volume 39, Number 7 January, 1968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The Museum Trademark'

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by Patricia M. Williams, Field Museum Press

Steve Kovar, on this month's cover, has been with the Museum maintenance staff for nearly forty years. Twice a year or so, he has vacuumed the elephants in Stanley Field Hall. Mr. Kovar and the elephants are going strong, but the Museum buys a new vacuum cleaner every four or five years. In the following story, Patricia Williams tells the story of the elephants and the man who produced Field Museum's most familiar exhibit.

Engaged in mortal combat, they loom in massive majesty over awestruck children, footsore parents and clusters of toursts happily posing for snapshots. The African elephants dominating Stanley Field Hall serve as an unmistakable "trademark"' of the Museum and have appeared on Mu- seum stationery and checks, publications, postcards, souve- nirs and paper bags.

This "trademark" is largely the product of the talents of Carl .\keley, both as a hunter and a taxidermist. In 1896 Akeley joined the Museum staff as Taxidermist and in Feb- ruary, 1905, Marshall Field approved Akeley's planned ex- pedition to East Africa, providing the expense would "not exceed say S5000."

Following a physical examination at the Chicago Home for Incurables, the physician deemed Akeley to be expedi- tion-worthy in that he was "free from any organic trouble. His lungs and heart are sound, and strong, and although he is not robust nor muscular in appearance, his vitality is good.

and his muscles are firm." The doctor went on to say that he also thought that the long ocean voyage would do Ake- ley's nervous temperament good.

On August 13, 1905 Akeley's British East African Expedi- tion left Chicago. In addition to Akeley, the party included Vernon Shaw-Kennedy, Edmund Heller and Mrs. Akeley. They arrived at the port of Mombasa on October 8, 1905, and by November 7 Akeley had written to the Museum re- questing an additional $5,000, stating that "something over Four thousand dollars of the original appropriation has been expended and your decision can scarcely reach me before the entire amount (Five thousand dollars) is gone." In addition to the hiring of porters, gun bearers and personal servants, Akeley explained that he had "received practi- cally no concessions from the government without paying handsomely for them. . . ."

The following day, November 8, Akeley wrote to the President of the Museum, H. N. Higinbotham, enlarging

Vernon Shaw- Kennedy, who accompanied the Akeleys, buying a sheep from a Wakamba native.

Akeley took nearly a thousand photos during the 1 906 expedition. Many of the glass negatives remain on file in Field Museum.

Carl Akeley in Somaliland. He was mauled by the leopard before he man- aged to bring it down.

Page 2 JANUARY

upon the difficulties of the expedition as follows: "For several weeks, while I realized that the funds were melting away twice as fast as anticipated and prospects were uncertain, I often regretted having undertaken the trip. My state of mind caused by the uncertain conditions has made it im- possible to decide anything in regard to future movements. Now that we are well under way, have had splendid success for the three weeks here with every prospect of a continua- tion of the good work, I make this recommendation (for funds) unhesitatingly and in full confidence that the returns will more than justify the expenditure.

"Mr. Shaw-Kennedy has been as greatly disappointed with the necessity of heavy expenses as I, but he is "game" and will see the trip through to the end and I feel that the least we can do is to keep our end up.

"In material the country is rich far beyond my fondest hopes and our working force is efficient."

In Akeley's own words, the expedition proved to be "a good return for the money invested." This "good return" totalled, in 12 months of active field work, over 17 tons of natural history material. This included 400 mammal skins ranging in size from that of a rabbit to that of an elephant, about 1200 small mammal skins, 800 bird skins and a "fair number" of mammal and bird skeletons. Collection of large mammal skins included material for groups of about 20 species of antelopes; a buflfalo group of six; a fine series of eight lions; two large male elephants, complete; one rhi- noceros; one hippopotamus. There were also about 1000 photographic negatives as well as other studies of collected material, such as plaster casts, measurements, leaves, etc. The two elephants included in this listing are those now on

display in Stanley Field Hall. One was shot by Akeley on July 27, 1906 in the Aberdare Mountains and the other was shot by Mrs. Akeley on August 31, 1906 on Mt. Kenya.

In describing the elephant hunt, Akeley wrote, "The trans-Tana trip had been indefinitely postponed on account of trouble with the natives at the base of Mt. Kenya, where the government had sent troops that were at this time, July 10th, engaged in warfare, but as it seemed likely that the trouble was nearing the end, the services of Mr. R. J. Cunningham, professional hunter and safari runner, were secured, and we headed for Fort Hall and the Tana River, with the intention of looking for Elephants on the way; three weeks were spent on the Aberdare Mountains, during which time we prepared the skin of one Elephant, a series of Duiker, and a number of other specimens. . . . the edge of the forest at the base of Mt. Kenya was reached, and here work with the Elephants was begun. The five weeks spent among the Elephants was eminently satisfactory in point of experience, and knowledge gained of the habits of these in- teresting animals, but disappointing in that we failed, for want of time, in securing all the specimens required for the group. The return from Mt. Kenya to the Tana River was distressingly slow and tedious, owing to the difficulties en- countered in securing porters to move the material, but the Tana was finally reached on October 2nd, and a few days later we proceeded down the river in search of BufTalo. . . . The three months in trans-Tana country were months of hard work and bitter disappointments, but results, on the whole, were satisfactory, in that the material obtained was eminently desirable, and difficult to secure. We returned to Fort Hall on November 22nd, and with 175 porters pro-

The Wakikuku people gathered at a joint camp of the Governor of British East Africa, Sir James Hayes-Saddler, and the members of the Field Museum Expedition, in Trans-Tana Province.

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The expedition coming down from Mount Kenya, where one of the elephants was shot.

JANUARY Page 3

ceeded to Nairobi with the collections. Mr. Cunningham returned by way of the Aberdare, to bring in the Elephant and other skins that had been left on the summit of the mountains, nearly four months previously."

The elephants, with the rest of the collection, were packed in Nairobi, shipped by rail to Mombasa, trans-shipped at Naples, arrived at New York on January 28, 1 907 and then proceeded to the Museum to await the next stage in their evolution as the Museum's "trademark."

When Akeley entered the field of taxidermy the methods used were far short of ideal. As Akeley described them, these methods consisted "of first treating the skin, then wir- ing and wrapping the bones, which were inserted in the legs of the animal while the body was hung upside down and stuffed with straw until it would hold no more." The ani- mal was then endowed with a pair of Raggedy Ann-type eyes and popped into a display case.

Apparently, the crudeness of the procedure did not bother Akeley as much as the stiff and unlifelike result.

The first elephant Akeley worked on was Barnum's fa- mous Jumbo. In mounting Jumbo, Akeley was under the direction of J. William Critchley, and the elephant was mounted much after the fashion of the specimen in the Museum of Natural History, Paris, which had been done more than a century earlier.

Critchley was a most proficient taxidermist "who had few equals in mounting birds and few superiors with the average mammal." However, before Jumbo was finished, Akeley had become the dominant member of the team.

It became apparent at this time, about 1885, that Ake- ley's "superb neuromuscular organization seemed to have

been specially designed to give plastic expression to the re- factory hide of the huge quadruped, and the successful ac- complishment of the task furnished the inspiration for his later work in Africa, the Field Museum, and the American Museum."

It was basic to old-time taxidermy that skins be tanned in a salt and alum bath, both to "set" the epidermis and to dry hard, so that the skin would retain shape. Unfortu- nately, specimens, particularly the larger quadrupeds, pre- pared by this method soon went to pieces when exposed to the changing atmosphere of museum halls. Akeley, how- ever, discovered a vegetable tan that fullfilled all the necessary conditions and yet permitted the hide to remain soft and flexible for many days without losing any epidermis. This discovery was essential to Akeley's revolutionary technique of taxidermy. The Museum's pair of African elephants rep- resent its first application to such large animals.

Although Mr. Akeley described his method in detail in a speech before the American Association of Museums in May, 1908, no written record of his speech can be located. Carl Cotton, the present Museum taxidermist, can only assume, therefore, on the basis of his own professional knowl- edge, that the following steps are those that Akeley must have followed in the mounting of the African elephants.

First, the elephant's skin was tanned and shaved. Akeley then sculpted a life-sized clay figure following accurate and detailed measurements made from the actual animal. That Akeley was a talented and able sculptor was most evident in this second step. Next, the skin, which was in precisely numbered sections, was applied directly to the clay model and carefully worked into all the musculature, curves and

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Porters carrying an elephant skull. Animal skins were treated with salt and wrapped in matting for the journey back from Mount Kenya to Nairobi. The collections went by the newly completed Uganda Railway to Mombasa, thence by ship to the United States. It was on the Uganda Railway, a scant eight years before, that the famous man- eating lions of Tsavo terrorized the construction parties, killing 1 35 workmen over a nine month period and actually halting construction for three months until they were killed by Colonel J. H. Patterson, a contruction engineer. Years later, Patterson presented the skins to Field Museum, and they are now on display in Hall 22.

Akeley relaxing at day's end. The drink is cognac.

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wrinkles. Then plaster was applied over the entire skin- covered model. After the plaster had hardened, the joined plaster and skin sections were removed from the clay model. (The clay model had now served its purpose and was dis- pensed with.) These sections were now reinforced on the inside. At this stage, the sections were composed of three fused layers — reinforcement, on the inside, skin, in the mid- dle, and plaster, on the outside. These layered sections were next reassembled and joined together with the reinforcing substance. When assembled, they were further strength- ened as a imit. Finally, the outer plaster shell was removed and the seams in the skin were covered. Last, the finishing touches, such as the application of a gluten coating and the insertion of tusks and artificial eyes were accomplished.

This pair of elephants was noteworthy not only because they were the product of this remarkable new technique, but because they were posed in such a dramatic and life-like manner. The static, vmimaginative eflforts of earlier taxi- dermy seem particularly lifeless when viewed in contrast to this pair. They are an excellent testimony to the statement that Akeley "did more for taxidermy than any other man, and but for him, museum exhibits would not be what they are today."

The elephants were placed on display in 1909 in the cen- tral rotunda of the Field Museum, then located in Jackson Park, where they remained until April 26, 1920 — the Muse- um's moving day. It had required three years of work by the entire Museum staff to dismantle exhibits and pack collec- tions preparing them for the move. This move was un- doubtedly one of the largest transfer operations ever seen anywhere, involving 321 freight car loads, 354 five-ton

truck loads and a total cost of just under $70,000.

The pair of elephants travelled by rail and the Museum's Annual Report for 1920 states that, "The African elephants, after removing the head of the one mounted with its trunk elevated, were placed on an open flat-car and came through without mishap."

The move was completed on June 1, 1920 and the staflF began the huge task of arranging and reinstalling material. A year later, May 2, 1921, the Museum was opened in its present location and the elephants were again on display to the public.

It seems incongruous that so noble a pair should be in- volved in anything so prosaic, but the elephants are dusted regularly and vacuumed with an ordinary household vacuum cleaner. They are periodically checked for signs of wear or damage and are patched and treated as necessary, insuring their continued standard of quality.

Even being crushed by a charging elephant in 1912 ap- parently never dimmed Akeley's enthusiasm for the great beast. In a tribute to the taxidermist, Henry Fairfield Os- born said, "Akeley's first love was perhaps for the elephant. . . . Often did he dwell upon the nobility of the elephant, its courage in the charge, its sympathy in removing the wounded comrade. . . . Little wonder that, in the confines of the . . . city ... he longed for the sweep of the African plains and savannahs, for the unspoiled beauty of the African forests, for the majestic march and trumpeting of the elephant. . . ."

These sentiments were eloquently expressed by Akeley in the superbly mounted pair of African elephants which re- main a unique, impressive and enduring "trademark" of the Museum.

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Lake Elementeita, a small lake just west of the Aber- dare Range, where Akeley shot one of the elephants.

Christmas in Kenya, 1 906.

JANUARY Paged

a fossil comes

to life

by William D. Turnbull, Associate Curator. Fossil Mammals

The mammal Burramys was known only from fossil remains until 1966, when Dr. K. Shortman of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, discovered and collected a liv- ing specimen. Identification was made by Mr. R. M. Warneke, Senior Research Officer of Fisheries and Wildlife De- partment, Victoria. The photos of the living animal are by Mr. James Cooper of the same agency.

In august 1966, in the hut of a ski lodge at Mt. Hotham, Victoria, Australia, a most unusual and unexpected zoological discovery was made. The appealing little animal shown here, a small pha- langerine possum, was seen and cap- tured. When put into the hands of sci- entists of the Victorian Fisheries and Wildlife Department, the animal was recognized to be the first living repre- sentative of the genus Burramys, which heretofore had been known only from fossil remains. It is indeed remarkable that an animal as distinctive in its den- tition as Burramys has survived so long without zoologists being aware of its presence. However, its small size, wary nature and outward similarity to other related small possums can account for this oversight. Nevertheless, in this day of world-wide, extensive alteration of natural environments by man, it is truly astonishing to discover a living repre- sentative of a mammalian genus previ- ously thought to be extinct.

Burramys is a familiar name in the Ge- ology Department, since fossils of this ge- nus have been studied for many years. In 1895, the paleontologist Robert Broom (who subsequently became well known for his work on South African Permian fossils from the Karoo) gave the name

Paged JANUARY

Burramys parvus to a few cave fossils from a travertine deposit from the Wombeyan Caves of southeastern New South Wales, Australia. This material consisted of six jaws and three or four skull fragments of animals characterized by the form of their high, serrate, grooved and ridged last premolar teeth. For over 50 years Broom's original description and other brief notes published in 1896 were all that was known about the genus Bur- ramys. In the 1950's two advances were made. The first of these was made by W. D. L. Ride (presently the director of the Western Australian Museum at Perth). He restudied Broom's original materials and prepared and studied other materials which Broom had col- lected but not worked on.

In Broom's day, the preparation tech- nique for exposing travertine-encased bones was to scratch away the lime rock

to expose the contained bones. This procedure could only be done after the presence of bone was ascertained, by breaking the rock or seeing suggestive surface irregularities. Ride began to restudy Broom's materials, using an acid preparation technique which enabled him to recover more of the contained bones with minimum damage to the small, delicate fossils. The reports on Ride's findings, including a redescrip- tion of Burramys parvus, appeared in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (Lon- don) in 1956 and 1960.

At about the same time that Ride was working on the New South Wales fos- sils, another discovery of Burramys re- mains was made in southeastern Victoria at the Buchan Caves. There, Norman Wakefield (presently associated with Monash University) discovered numer- ous remains of Burramys which he re-

ported in 1960. This fossil deposit con- tains a mixed sample, as far as time of deposition is concerned. Some of the bones are reddish, and these Wakefield believes to be the older specimens, pos- sibly several thousand years old. Other bones are white, and Wakefield gives evidence that they are very recent, per- haps only a few hundred years old or less. This evidence led to informal specula- tion on the possibility of the existence of a living Burramys.

The first Burramys materials obtained for the Field Museum collections consist of three tooth fragments and a complete molar tooth from the Late Pliocene of the Grange Burn, Hamilton Fauna that Dr. E. L. Lundelius and I collected in 1963-64. This material is insufficient to form the basis of a new species, but nevertheless it is adequate to show the unique ridging of the premolar teeth which suggest that the material repre- sents an undescribed species. The fauna to which these four teeth belong has been dated at 4.35 million years by the potassium-argon method. Hence Bur- ramys now has a time range of nearly four and one-half million years, and a geographic range that extends in an arc from within 100 miles of Sydney in the East to within about 150 miles of Ade- laide in the West — a straight line dis- tance of about 500 miles.

In 1963 it was arranged through Mr. Harold Fletcher, then the Assistant Di- rector of the Australian Museum, Syd- ney, that 185 unprepared Wombeyan Cave travertine blocks belonging to that institution be loaned to Field Museum for preparation and study by Dr. Lun- delius, myself and associates. Frederick Schram and I have completed a prelim- inary report on the first of the rodent re- mains recovered from that fauna. Work is going ahead on the other groups. The entire lot of travertine blocks has been acid prepared, leaving us with thousands of bones, teeth and fragments for study. Among these are additional unreported specimens of Burramys parvus.

Thus, the Museum is in a unique po- sition of involvement with the work on this little-known inammalian genus, and the 1966 discovery gives us the great ad- vantage of working from a live specimen in addition to fossil remains.

Pleistocene fossil Burramys larvus known since 1895 redescribed in 1956

Living Burramys found in 1966

Post-Pleistocene fossil Burramys reported in 1960

Pliocene fossil Burramys collected in 1963-1964, reported in 1965 and 1967

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Each of the fossil Burramys specimens shown here are mounted on pins {the rough shafts beneath the teeth). They are not all to the same magnification, but the common pin mount- ings will serve to scale them. Top Row; Three of the oldest teeth {If.SS million years) re- covered from a fossil soil near Hamilton Victoria. Two of them (left and center) are partial lower premx>lars seen in side view, and the third is a complete upper molar seen in crown view. Bottom; A left lower jaw of a Burramys parvus specimen from the Wom- beyan Caves of New South Wales, the locality that yielded the original materials upon which the genus was based. The relatively large incisor tooth and the distinctively ridged, serrate premolar are clearly shown.

JANUARY Page?

ONE DAY ADDED TO TOUR,

RESERVATIONS STILL OPEN

Places still remain available on Field Museum's Mexican Tour, which now will include an additional day in Mexico City and a day's earlier departure — April 3-21. The shift from Thursday to Wednesday, the 3rd, as a departure date was made because of airline schedule changes and because an additional day in Mexico City seemed desirable — for those interested in seeing the new Museum of Modern Art and the new Museum of Natural History, and for those wishing a free day for independent activities.

Price of the Tour will be raised to include a still undetermined charge for the extra day. All other Tour expenses are included in the Tour price, $975, including a $200 tax-deductible donation to Field Museum.

Tour membership will close on February 4, due to the necessity of making reservations early for the usually busy Mexican Easter season. Those interested in taking the Tour should mail their $200 deposits together with their reserva- tions. Final payment should also be completed by February 4.

The Tour will be the first to travel over the newly-completed highway from Villahermosa, capital of Tabasco, to the ruins of Palenque, in Chiapas, which according to many archaeologists, artists and photographers are the most beau- tiful of the ruins of ancient Mexico. The Maya ruins are deep in tropical jungle, a setting which adds much to the impressiveness of the temples and the unique palace building.

Other major stops of the 1 9 day tour include : Mexico City, Villa Guadalupe, Teotihuacan, Colonial San Angel, University City, Cuicuilco, Xochimilco, Cuernavaca, Xochicalco, Taxco, Merida, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Oaxaca City, Monte Alban, Mitla and Santa Maria del Tule.

For reservations or further information, write Field Museum's Mexican Tour, Field Museum.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

January hours: Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and until 5 p.m. on Satur- days and Sundays.

January 1 Field Museum is closed.

Through January 21 Exhibit: New Guine.\: Birds, Books .\nd Stamps, show- ing the variety and color of the avifauna in the jungles and mountains of New Guinea, including birds of paradise, parakeets and bower birds. Ac- companying the exhibit are color slides and commentary, a collection of postage stamps featuring birds from 52 countries, and a set of first-day postal covers of parrot stamps issued by the Government of New Guinea. The exhibit also announces the American release of the Handbook of Birds of New Guinea by Dr. Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator, Zoology and the late Dr. E. T. Gilliard of the American Museum. Hall 9 Gallery.

Through February Winter Journey : Magic, Medicine and Minerals.

February 1 -25 23rd Chicago International Exhibition of Nature Photo- graphy, bringing hundreds of wildlife photographs to the Museum.

February 6 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music: Alfonso Mon- TECiNO, Pianist. Mr. Montecino, famed Chilean pianist, is a professor at I. U. School of Music. He has just returned from a triumphant tour of Russia and Hungary and has been re-engaged to return to Russia and Czechoslovakia in 1969. Mr. Montecino made his debut in Carnegie Hall in 1950. In 1954 he received the Bach Medal, granted by the Harriet Cohen International Foundation, for his outstanding interpretations of Bach in London. Complimentary tickets to this concert are available to Members by request to the Museum. 8:15 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre. Nature Camera Club, Jan. 10, 7:45 p.m. Chicago Shell Club, Jan. 14, 2 p.m.

MEETINGS: Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter, Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m.

Orchid Society, Jan. 21, 2 p.m.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

Roosevelt Rd. & Lake Shore Drive Chicago, iliinois 60605

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Harry 0. Bercher William McCormick Blair Bowen Blair

William R. Dickinson, Jr. Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Paul W. Goodrich Clifford C. Gregg Samuel Insull, Jr. Henry P. Isham Hughston M. McBain Remick McDowell J. Roscoe Miller William H. Mitchell James L. Palmer John T. Pirie, Jr. John Shedd Reed John G. Searle John M. Simpson Gerald A. Sivage Edward Byron Smith William Swartchild, Jr. Louis Ware E. Leland Webber J. Howard Wood

HONORARY TRUSTEE

William V. Kahler

OFFICERS

James L. Palmer, President Clifford C. Gregg, First Vice-President Joseph N. Field, Second Vice-President Bowen Blair, Third Vice-President

Edward Byron Smith,

Treasurer and Assistant Secretary E. Leland Webber, Secretary

DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM

E. Leland Webber

CHIEF CURATORS

Donald Collier,

Department of Anthropology Louis 0. Williams,

Department oj Botany Rainer ^angerl.

Department oj Geology Austin L. Rand

Department of Zoology

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Pages JANUARY

Volume 39, Number 2 February 1968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Local Universities and Field Museum in joint project

NEW GRADUATE CENTER OPENS

by Robert F. Inger, Curator, Reptiles and Amphibians

The x«ajor natural history museums in this country are well known for their exhibit halls and the educational programs tied in with these exhibits. They are perhaps less widely recognized by the general public as institutions that are en- gaged in research. Probably their least publicized function is their direct contribution to the formal training of univer- sity students. Although it is easy to arrange these three func- tions or activities of museums in order of their public ac- knowledgment, it is difficult to say which is most important.

To carry out the last function more effectively, Field Museum of Natural History in cooperation with Northwest- ern University and the University of Chicago recently or- ganized a Center for Graduate Studies. At present the scope of the Center is limited to systematic zoology and paleontology, which involve problems in classifying organ- isms and in evolutionary biology. We hope eventually to include the other scientific areas of interest to the Museum's staff. The next few paragraphs will outline the purposes, program and organization of the Center.

The purpose of the Center is to provide for the graduate training of university students. Museum scientists will par- ticipate in the supervision of the research done by gradu- ate students for their advanced degrees and the Museum will provide laboratory space, library facilities, and speci- mens for those students. Museum staff may also conduct graduate classes as the need arises. (As of this writing, eleven members of the Museum's staff are giving such a course at the Museum, for the University of Chicago.) The universities will provide the remainder of the training and instruction necessary for the Ph.D. degree and will award the degrees.

The program of the Center is regulated by an Advisory Committee consisting of three curators from the Museum, Drs. Zangerl, Wenzel, and Inger, and two faculty members from each of the universities, Drs. Peter Bretsky and Or- lando Park from Northwestern and Drs. E. C. Olson and Ronald Singer from Chicago. The Advisory Committee is also responsible for admission of students to the Center.

In mid-1967 the Museum received a grant from the National Science Foundation to help support the activities of the Center for two years. Funds from the grant will be used for two main purposes: to provide support for students in the form of fellowships, equipment, and supplies, and to hire additional supporting staff at the Museum. The last is essential if curators are to be relieved of certain duties in in order to devote time to students.

This grant represents a new venture for the National

Science Foundation. It is the first research training grant made to a non-university museum from the Foundation's research funds. The Museum's monetary contribution to the Center, largely in the form of the time of its staff, facil- ities, and money from its Dee Fund, is approximately 35% of the total budget.

All of the preceding is the bare bones skeleton, so to speak. What is the motivation for initiating the Center? What do we hope to accomplish through it?

The principal motivation is the desire to contribute to the development of an area of science with which the Mu- seum and its staff are concerned. One of the most effective ways of advancing any scientific or professional field is by providing better training for the young men or women en- tering the field. One man trains two and thereby enlarges the field. If, in addition, he gives them better training than he had as a student, the growth of our knowledge proceeds at an even faster rate. \Ve hope through the Center to im- prove and increase the opportvmities for professional train- ing in systematic zoology and paleontology.

Beyond our hope to advance these academic fields, there are several more "practical" motives. Our nation, through several major scientific-technological programs, has uncov- ered a shortage of persons trained in these fields. The big push in exploring the oceans has come up against a hard fact — there simply are not enough people with the training required to identify and classify the animals collected by the great oceanographic programs. Many ambitious medical projects concerned with insect-borne diseases, projects being conducted in Vietnam and other tropical areas, require the services of systematic zoologists and again the demand ex- ceeds the supply. As a nation we are becoming increasingly concerned with a variety of environmental problems at home and abroad: the active participation of systematic zoologists is needed if we are to solve these problems. The Center can help relieve this manpower shortage.

There is still another motive for the Center. Good grad- uate students ask stimulating, sometimes embarassing ques- tions. The attempt to answer them helps keep university professors and museum scientists mentally alive. Our third motive, then, boils down to the selfish desire for an intellec- tual fountain of youth.

It would be misleading if this article gave the impression that the Center represents an entirely new approach for the Field Museum. It does not. On an informal, individual basis museum curators have been working for years with graduate students from our great local universities. In fact.

Page 2 FEBRUARY

several members of our present staff are the intellectual products of university-museum cooperation. These arrange- ments, which had previously been formalized at the institu- tional level, will be much more effectively implemented by the availability of the special funds.

The Center, because of its funds, will make it possible to expand the Museum's professional training activities. Ex- pansion is especially important in view of the shortage of systematists. Tuition and fellowship funds for systematic biologists have never been adequate on either an absolute or a relative scale. The funds now available to the Center for these purposes should help attract good students to this area. It is not that students are more mercenary now than they were. It simply costs a good deal more to go to grad- uate school than it used to. Ask any parent.

The establishment of the Center for Graduate Studies as a formal administrative entity has another advantage that, though difficult to measure, is significant. It will force Museum staff and members of the faculties of the two uni- versities to meet more often and talk about shared problems and interests. In effect, we have here another manifestation of the two-heads-are-better-than-one phenomenon. The staffs should get together oftener. But biologists, like all other people, get caught up in day-to-day affairs. The dia- logue, which the Center will generate, will benefit each in- stitution and thereby improve higher educational and scien- tific activities in the Chicago area.

Although at present only the University of Chicago and Northwestern University are participating with the Mu- seum in operating the Center, it is understood that other Chicago-area universities may join in the near future. We hope, for example, that the University of Illinois (Chicago Circle) will become an active member of the Center after the Circle Campus is authorized to award the Ph.D. degree in appropriate areas of biology and geology.

The pooling of resources on a regional basis, which is what the Center signifies, is not only highly desirable but absolutely essential. No city, state or nation is so rich in scientific resources that it can afford to duplicate facilities endlessly. The Center for Graduate Studies represents a formal acknowledgment by these three institutions and the National Science Foundation of this economic truth.

The Center also represents the recognition by these in- stitutions that systematic zoology and paleontology are fields that have played and will continue to play impor- tant roles in the history of science and human thought.

recent acquisilion — zoology

COELACANTH

A THREE-FOOT-LONG fomialin-fixed specimen of the "liv- ing fossil" Lalimeria chalumnae, caught on August 25, 1967 at a depth of about 1000 feet off the Comoro Islands near Madagascar, has been added to the scientific collection of the Museum through the courtesy of the Department of Anatomy, University of Illinois College of Medicine.

The coelacanths are members of the fringe-finned fishes, the Crossopterygii, which made their first appear- ance in the Devonian some 300 million years ago.

One group of the Crossopterygii, the Rhipidistia, used their limb-like fins and their ability to breathe air to scramble ashore and move on land to fresh waters when the pools they had lived in started to dry up. As they became progressively better adapted to live on land, their paired fins evolved into true legs. When this dramatic evolutionary stage was reached they were no longer fish, but the first primitive amphibians.

The second air-breathing group among the fringe- finned fishes, the lung-fishes (Dipnoi), did not evolve further. Lung-fishes are still found in parts of Austra- lia, Africa and South America.

The third crossopterygian group, the coelacanths, are related to our distant ancestors, the Rhipidistia, but they have never been the direct line of evolution. However, since the first coelacanths were related to the ancestral line of all land vertebrates and since they have changed so little in 275 million years, they may have preserved some of the primitive features they shared with our far-off ancestors. A careful study of Lalimeria may, therefore, throw light on our very remote ancestry. Functional anatomical studies by scientists of Field Museum and the University of Illinois will be made on the endocrine system, the respiratory apparatus, the brain tracts, the reproductive apparatus and the sensory apparatus.

— By Karel F. Liem, Assistant Curator, Vertebrate Anatomy

FEBRUARY Page 3

by Ida L. Thompson, Geology Department

cuttlefTs

This month's cover shows Geoteuthis, t years ago. The original was drawn in i reproduced it here in a sepia to give y( is on display in Stanley Field Hall durir Here is the story of Geoteuthis and its I in the age of the great dinosaurs, whe' r predators in warm shallow seas that c '

l^/CT SUN and other stars have been photographed by their own light; many animals leave tracks on their trail. Why not, we of the Geology Department thought, a picture of a Jurassic cuttlefish drawn in its own 170 million-year- old brown ink?

The Museum's Geology Department had a specimen of the well-known fossil cuttlefish, Geoteuthis, from the Jurassic Period 1 70 million years ago. This cuttlefish was preserved with its inksac intact. We also had a squid-like fossil from the Pennsylvanian Period, about 100 million years earlier. This squid-like fossil had a small amount of black material adhering to it in approximately the position the inksac should have been. Several members of the Geology De- partment were curious to know if this dark substance was the fossilized remnant of an inksac. Our plan was to dis- solve some of the known cuttlefish ink, then see if the same solvent would dissolve the black material on the squid. This would have given us circumstantial evidence that the squid fossil also contained ink. "Project Cuttlefish"' informally established itself to carry out this experiment.

The ink of the cuttlefish, Geoteuthis, was preserved in a glassy solid that was soft enough to be cut away with a knife. The next step was to immerse some flakes of the inky-looking substance in the "universal solvent," water. Failure! Next, we tried the other standard solvents : xylene, acetone, alco- hol, hydrochloric acid and ammonia, .\gain failure. A bit of research on the chemistry and preparation of cuttlefish ink produced the needed information. Fresh cuttlefish pigment is melanin, the same brownish substance that comes to the surface of your skin when you tan in the sun. Melanin does not dissolve to produce ink; rather it must be prepared in a suspension, tiny particles in an alkaline solution.

At this point we realized that "Project Cuttlefish" was going to fail in its original goal. There just was not enough black material on the squid fossil to try to make a suspen- sion. But there was plenty of the cuttlefish fossil ink, so the project continued out of curiosity to discover what could be done with this ink.

We applied mortar, pestle and elbow grease to the fossil ink flakes, then mixed the resultant powder with ammonia. We were startled to discover a deep brown mixture that looked like artists' sepia pigment. It even flowed like ink in a quill crow pen.

Could it be used? We consulted Mr. Lido Lucchesi, an artist with the Harris Extension of the Museum. He con- firmed that it was not only sepia ink, but so fine in quality that he agreed to immortalize the ancient cuttlefish, Geo- teuthis, by drawing it in its own ink, 170 million years old. The drawing, shown on the cover, was based on a recon- struction of the Jurassic Age cuttlefish made by Naef, a German fossil-cephalopod expert, and on the Museum's photographs and drawings of extant cuttlefish.

W"hile Mr. Lucchesi worked on the drawing, "Project Cuttlefish" continued its research. Geoteuthis is a mollusk of the class Cephalopoda, which also includes nautiloids, squids and octopuses. Cuttlefish are easy to confuse with squids, since both have similar body shapes, eight arms and two long tentacles. The shell of the cuttlefish, though, is oval and broad, while the squid's is long and narrow. The shells of both animals are internal, although homologous to the navitilus' external shell.

The present cuttlefish evolved from an earlier cephalo- pod with an external shell, perhaps similar to the straight- shelled ammonites commonly found fossilized in Paleozoic rocks. In the course of evolution the cuttlefish shell was reduced in size and eventually enclosed within the mantle, gaining the animal two important advantages, speed and maneuverability. However, the price of increased swim- ming capability was the loss of protection for many of the animal's soft parts. To compensate for this vulnerability, somewhere along the evolutionary line cuttlefish ancestors developed an inksac.

When a cuttlefish is alarmed, it shoots out a jet of ink as a decoy. After discharging the ink, the cuttlefish changes its color from sepia-brown to pale beige, almost white. The brown ink in the water looks like a cuttlefish to witless pred-

Page4 FEBRUARY

V^vstpry^

ttlefish from the Jurassic Age, 170 million animal's own fossil ink, and we have 1 idea of the original color. The drawing ibruary.

probably the same color now as it was cephalopod used it to befuddle 3d Bavaria.

ators, while the real cuttlefish gets safely away.

There is speculation that the melanin ink may also have an anesthetizing effect on the olfactory nerves of the cuttle- fish's predator. The decoying ink, and its possible anesthe- tizing qualities, have proved extraordinarily successful as adaptations go; cuttlefish and squid are abundant through- out most of the salt water on the Earth.

Melanin is an organic compound and almost all such compounds decay. Until recently, scientists did not attempt to recover organic materials from fossils, but now it is known that such chemicals can indeed be recovered. Experiments have been done on shells more than 100 million years old, and the amino acids of the original proteins are found to correspond to those composing the protein in shells of living species. Amino acids have been been found in fossils with an age as great as 300 million years.

Preservation of organic material requires protection from attack by oxygen and bacteria. If the body of an animal is deposited on a quiet lake or ocean bottom with little cur- rent and an abundance of organic material already present, then the water may be acid enough to prevent both oxida- tion and bacterial growth. Cuttlefish are not exceptions. The inksacs of fresh cuttlefish decay readily and must be dried quickly if they are to be preserved. The Geoteuthis specimen must have fallen in a place where conditions were optimal since the organic inksac was preserved.

At one time, most of the dark brown and black inks used in writing and drawing came from cuttlefish. Cicero wrote his Orations and other works in sepia, the Roman name for cuttlefish and now the name for brown ink.

Cuttlefish ink, like Geoteuthis, eventually lost out in the struggle for survival. Although sepia is quite permanent in the dark, prolonged exposure to sunlight fades it. A longer-lasting ink can be made from lampblack, and there- fore the market for cuttlefish ink is much reduced today from its popularity of the last century. Nevertheless, sepia is still prepared and sold in England.

Cuttlefish themselves still have great commercial value.

^^^^^H v^vj	^^B^ 1 ■ '^^^K'^svi^^^^^^H

Fossil Geoteuthis. The inksac is clearly visibU in black, and the outline of the internal skeleton of the squid is somewhat less distinct.

especially in the Far East and Mediterranean countries. Italians, following their Roman forebears, dry and sell the sacs for ink, eat the flesh and use the cuttlebones for pumice and bird feed.

While "Project Cuttlefish" continued its research, find- ing that melanin is a protein attached to a complex carbon molecule of unknown structure, Mr. Lucchesi finished the drawing. Everyone was surprised at the result. The 170- million-year-old ink had flowed as smoothly and beaiuifully as the best modern ink. The most startling aspect of the drawing was the warm brown color of the ink, the true color of fresh cuttlefish ink.

The first man to make ink from fossil specimens was Dean William Buckland, who was describing Geoteuthis for the geology and mineralogy volume of The Bndgewater Trea- tises. The year was 1849, and artists still made regular use of a pigment prepared from cuttlefish for brown tones. Buckland chipped off some fossil ink from a specimen, had it prepared, and handed it over to his artist as a medium for the Geoteuthis illustration. The quality of that ink was excellent, too, according to Henry Lee's report of the inci- dent in his 1875 classic The Octopus.

Fortunately for the safety of museum collections of fossil sepia, the use of fossil ink did not continue in vogue. As far as we can determine, Field Museum's "Cuttlefish Project" is the first in 118 years to prepare a drawing of the fossil cuttlefish Geoteuthis iro\\\ its own ink. C'onsequently, accord- ing to caiuious extrapolations, not until the year 2085 will the cuttlefish be so immortalized again.

FEBRUARY Page 5

YAQUI DEER DANCE, taken by Envin Bach, Chicago Tribune Camera Editor, at the Ballet Folklorico at the Palacio de Belles Aries in Mexico City. The photograph was taken with a Pentax 35 mm. single lens reflex camera from the wings of the opera house. The Ballet is included in Field Museum's Mexican Tour itinerary.

speak on "How to Photograph the People and Ruined Cities of Mexico."

On March 18, Mexican art — from its distinctive begin- nings in pre-Spanish Mexico to its climax in the mural movement — will be discussed by George Schneider, staff lecturer specialized in Mexican art, of the Art Institute. He will show slides of art from the major sites included on the Tour.

Phil Clark, Field Musuem Public Relations Counsel and Tour Leader, on March 22 will discuss Mexico's revo- lutionary example to Latin America and will show slides of flowering trees in blossom at the time of the Tour.

On March 29, Dr. Donald Collier, Chief Curator of Anthropology, will prepare the group for confronting the cities of ancient Mexico by describing the peoples who inhabited them and their histories. A motion picture on Mexico will be shown that same evening.

In addition to Mr. Clark, the Tour will be accompanied by Mexican archaeologists who will supply background and answer questions about the ancient sites included in the Tour — Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Monte Al- ban, Mitla, Palenque, Uxmal, Kabah and Chichen Itza. The Tour will also visit private homes and gardens. Short motor coach trips will be made in each major area, but long distances will be covered by plane. The Tour will see Taxco's famous Passion processions on Holy Thursday

MEXICAN TOUR BRIEFINGS

For reservations and information write: Mexican Tour, Field Museum

Members of Field Museum's Mexican Tour, April 3-21, will participate in a series of programs preparatory for their South-of-the-Border travels. Talks will be given at evening gatherings in Museum President James L. Palmer's office during March, on photography, archaeology, art, current affairs and flowering plants, with discussion peri- ods following. The get-togethers will also acquaint Tour members with each other.

There is still room for a few inore members on the Tour. Tour price is $975, which includes a tax deductible $200 donation to Field Museum. All expenses are covered by the price except those for an extra day, which was added after the Tour budget was completed. Tour membership will close when the full complement is reached or by March 4. Full payment should be made for any reservations made after February 4.

Enthusiasm about Mexico and its people, a practiced artist's eye and specialized knowledge of photography will characterize the discussions led by Erwin Bach, the Chicago Tribune's Camera Editor. Mr. Bach is widely known as an experienced traveler, writer and commentator on cul- tural matters, and his photographs are distinguished for their clarity, expressiveness and beauty. He will show some of his photographs of Tour sites and of people typical of Tour areas at the gathering on March 15, when he will

and Good Friday, will be in Oaxaca's ornate Church of Santo Domingo for Easter, and will visit the unique out- door museum of Olmec monuments in botanical garden- zoo setting at Villa Hermosa and the great new National

Museum of Anthro- pology in Mexico City. We will stay at hotels in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, •%^ ^^B l^sxco, Oaxaca

City, Villa Her- mosa and Merida.

Erwin Bach, Camera Editor of the Chicago Tribune who will show slides and discuss photo problems in Mexico al a gathering of Field Museum's Mexican Tour, on March 15.

Page 6 FEBRUARY

O FILM -LECTURES

The Museum is offering its 129tfi series of Saturday afternoon programs starting Marctt Z These illustrated lectures, open to adults and the children of Museum Members, are held in James Simpson Theatre at 2:30; reserved seats are held for Members until 2:25.

CMLAOS BY KENNETH ARMSTRONG

w From Vientiane, the administrative capital, to Luang Prabang, the royal capital, and right #%up to the Red Pathet Lao headquarters at Khang Khay, Kenneth Armstrong has filmed tr paradoxical Laos. Inhabitants of a warm, green land, with a taste for fried river moss and ^ toad stew, Laotians simply refuse to see the world as a whole. An area of steep chasms, lime- 2 stone cliffs and rich alluvial plains, Laos can grow enough rice, bamboo, flowers and toads

to keep its people happy forever. But outsiders are interested in their rice if not their toads;

and in their strategic geographical position. Laos is in crisis, and Ken Armstrong shows us

a gentle, dreamy-eyed, flute-playing, explosive Laos.

OOUTDOOR YEARBOOK BY KARL MASLOWSKI

_ Here is a rare combination of the usual and unusual — albinos of catfish and red-tailed hawk; f^ a patternless copperhead; a blond meadow mouse and a blue bullfrog. Normal wintertime lY* activity of gray foxes, snowy owls and Cooper's hawks contrast with the exceptional behavior ^ of the bright-colored Baltimore oriole that wintered in snowbound Ohio. Lives of humming- 2 birds, eagles, cricket wasps and whitetailed deer are portrayed against time lapse sequences of blossoming tulip trees, autumn foliage and snow and ice.

^ALASKA BY HARRY R. REED

The name "Alaska" was derived from an Aleut word meaning "great land" and every inch of Z Alaska lives up to its name. It is an incredibly big, beautiful land of sharp contrasts. There O are massive, snow-capped mountain ranges and vast flat tundras, towering forests and ancient ~ glaciers, picturesque villages and modern cities, steep-walled fjords and expansive ice fields, ^ meandering Arctic streams and plunging waterfalls, and much more that makes Alaska a ^ Fantasyland of the North. Alaskan wildlife is well represented by shy caribou, giant moose,

bothersome black bears, rare Toklat grizzlies, busy beavers and little Parka squirrels.

OTWO WORLDS OF POLYNESIA BY STANTON WATERMAN

W Of the two worlds of Polynesia, one involves an island people, both gentle and beautiful, with customs and qI skills and a way of life that has resisted the impact of Western man. Their land environment includes 110 ^ islands, ranging in size from populous Tahiti to the tiny atolls of the Tuamotu Archipelago. The other world 2 of Polynesia is the underwater world of the lagoons and the barrier reefs, abounding with life, color, and action. In this world the fight for survival is constant and unchanged.

OTHE CONGO BY LEWIS COTLOW

wThe key to Africa is the Congo. The key to the Congo is its tribal system. There, Africa is fragmenting. flC Blacks are at sword's point; whites are on the run. Economy is in jeopardy. Leadership is a sometime thing. ^ Crisis in the Congo affects the future of all Africa. For more than 25 years sub-Saharan Africa has been S Louis Cotlow's specialty, primitive people his focus, animals his joy and the Congo's fate his concern.

(OMEXICO BY GENE WIANCKO

I After centuries of colonial rule, followed by violent revolutionary upheavals, Mexico now builds upon the

■~ vast potential and native intelligence of her own people. These people, for the most part, had their origins

jr in the Indian cultures of Mexico. This outstanding motion picture tells their story: the story of the capa-

^ cities and potentials of the Mexican people and their ways of life. For those unable to take the Museum's

Mexican Tour that leaves April 3, this film is a good alternative for seeing that fascinating country.

(continued on page 8)

FEBRUARY Page 7

<

1968 Spring Film-Lectures continued C2THE HOLY LANDS BY RICHARD LINDE

The Holy Lands are sacred to three great religions : Judaism, Christianity _ and Islam. Here the Israelites lived; here Christ walked; here Mohammed CC ascended into the seventh heaven. Today this region is divided, with Arab ^ guns and Israeli barbed wire adding to the paradox of the lands called ^ "holy." These are the hallowed places that live in the hearts and minds

of men throughout the world . . . Bethlehem, Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem

and Jericho. Richard Linde presents the Holy Lands as they are, a dramatic

blend of the past and present.

O INDIA BY FRAN WILLIAM HALL

™ India is less than half as large as the U. S., yet she holds within her borders >J nearly three times as many people, restless and extremely religious. She fr encounters great odds in her race to modernize and create a living for her (^ populace. Beset on the north by external dangers and internally by age- ^ old problems, today India looks to both East and West for solutions to sur- vival. See India, land of countless temples and colorful people, as filmed by Fran Hall.

NTHE BAHAMAS BY HARRY PEDERSON

CM The lives of Bahamians are centered on the sea. Nassau waxes wealthy from _1 visitors beckoned by sun and surf. People in Abaco build boats, mend nets. Above the surface is a friendly society, gentle and genteel. Below is another world. There, in the many-hued waters, a different climate prevails. Neighbors eye each other hungrily. Survival depends on being quick as a trigger fish, tough as a sea turtle, clever as a shark, elusive as an eel. Harry Pederson has filmed the people along the shores as well as life in the waters below.

February Hours: Open from 9 a.m. to CALENDAR OF EVENTS 4 p.m. daily and unnl 5 p.m. on Satur- days, Sundays, February 12th and 22nd.

February 1—25 23rd Chicago International Exhibition of Nature Pho- tography brings hundreds of the world's top wildlife photographs to Field Museum, Hall 9. The exhibit features black and white photographs, color transparencies and prints selected from thousands of entries received from the United States and abroad. Awards will be made by the show's sponsors, the Chicago Nature Camera Club and Field Museum. Winning color trans- parencies will be projected at two Sunday showings, 2:30 p.m. February 4 and 1 1 in James Simpson Theatre.

February 6 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music: Alfonso Mon- TEGiNO, Pianist. Complimentary tickets to this concert are available to Members by request to the Museum. 8:15 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

February 18 Audubon Wildlife Film: Nature's Plans and Puzzles by G. P. Lyons. A story of plant and animal adaption in the Northwest. 2:30 in James Simpson Theatre.

Through February Winter Journey: Magic, Medicine and Minerals.

March 2 Spring Film- Lecture Series: Laos by Kenneth Armstrong. 2:30 in James Simpson Theatre.

Chicago Shell Club, Feb. 11,2 p.m. MEETINGS: Chicago N.^ture Camera Club, Feb. 13, 7:45 p.m.

Illinois Orchid Society, Feb. 18, 2 p.m.

NEW TRUSTEE NAMED

Nicholas Galitzine, Vice President of the Commonwealth Edison Co., has re- cently been appointed to the Board of Trustees of Field Museum. He has been with the Commonwealth Edison Co. since 1923. In past years, Mr. Galitzine has been associated in numerous capaci- ties with the Crusade of Mercy, serving as its Campaign Vice Chairman in 1961 . He is Vice President and Director of Passavant Memorial Hospital, a Direc- tor of the Hartford Plaza Bank, the Sears Roebuck Foundation, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Chicago and the Ster- ling Hydraulic Co. In 1958 he was presented an achievement award by the Immigrants Protective League for his civic and charitable activities.

February 6 8:15 p.m.

Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music presents

ALFONSO MONTECINO, Chilean Pianist

at Field Museum

Beethoven

33 Variations on a Theme by Diabelli, Opus 120

Albeniz

El Albaicin (from Iberia)

Schoenberg

5 Piano Pieces, Opus 2S;

GiNASTERA

Sonata {1952)

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60605 A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Page 8 FEBRUARY

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 39, Number 3 March 7968

f^^*

hyena

hunt

by

Dale J. Osborn

Mammologist, Department of

Medical Zoology, United States

Navy Medical Research Unit

Number Three. Cairo Egypt;

Field Associate, Field Museum

This month's cover shows

the author and his party

in March, 1966

on the desolate plains of

Umm Shilman in the

Nubian Desert, in search of

the hyena.

%-

For three years, 1964 to 1967, I ex- plored the Egyptian deserts, working for the Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three, a group which has been studying the role of animals and ecto- parasites in the dissemination of human and animal diseases for the past 20 years. I collected mammals, plants, and what- ever else might be useful to our research. With a small crew of Egyptians, I lived like a Bedouin for weeks at a time, camping at wells or carrying precious water hundreds of miles into the desert. We traveled in trucks and jeeps, not on camels, but our fare was often little better than that of the nomads. If Allah and the desert provided wood enough, we sat cross-legged around campfires at night reminiscing on the pleasures and hardships of past journeys. To my Egyptian associates, for whom hunting is a favorite pastime, pursuing hyenas had been particularly thrilling. I shared in that excitement, of course, but to me the fact that we had collected for the first time a study series of hyena speci- mens {Hyaena iiyaena) from Egypt was of greater importance. Furthermore, the expedition provided me many spe- cial memories of desert people and a part of Egypt that few foreigners had ever seen.

Wadi Allaqi drains from the moun- tains of southeastern Egypt and north- ern Sudan, westward across Nubia and debouches into the Nile Valley about 100 miles south of Aswan. Around the turn of the century Wadi Allaqi was famous for an abundance of good pas- ture and high quality camels. The last "year of plenty" was 1907; then fol- lowed a succession of dry years until the 1930's. The ensuing years of drought brought drastic changes; however, re- ports of local rains in 1 965 suggested a favorable climatic cycle had come again. With hopes of seeing the desert "bloom- ing" we decided to explore Wadi Allaqi.

Aswan was our port of exit from civ- ilization. The High Dam Project had transformed this once sleepy village into a bustling town, and on the architects' drawing boards it was already a city with a university. Behind the new ave- nue and modern buildings along the river, the heart of Aswan remained — narrow, dirty streets lined with tiny shops jammed one upon the other where piles of cheap trinkets, cooking ware, fruits, vegetables, sweets and bolts of brightly colored cloth collected dust and flies. Crowds of Nubians and fellahin in flow- ing galibeyas, dapper engineers, grimy laborers and sturdy Russians pushed their way past honking trucks and taxis, donkeys, carts, and wagons. We joined the shoppers and bought food, tea and sugar for our expedition.

During the hours that it took to pur- chase supplies and obtain desert passes, the men who stayed to guard the vehi- cles were treated to glasses of tea and "informed" by friendly passers-by about VVadi AUaqi. Our men were told it was a verdant valley full of gazelles, wild sheep, ostriches, ibexes, jackals, oryxes, and wild asses. A geodetic sur- vey party, it was rumored, had killed up to 12 hyenas near the mouth of Wad i Allaqi. Another less encouraging story from the townspeople, many of whom fear the desert, was that Wadi Allaqi was full of dangerous animals and thieves who waited beside wells and water holes to pounce on unsuspecting travelers. A soldier told of a French expedition that had gone into Wadi Allaqi a few months before and had not been heard from. I surmised that that expedition, if there were one, had been en route to Sudan. But strangely enough, we were never told about the legendary good spirit who presided over Wadi Allaqi and to whonl the desert Arabs ceremoniously sprinkled an offering of dhurra (sorghum) on the ground upon entering the wadi.

After obtaining a guide named Ab- dullah Ali Hamid, who claimed to know the most direct route into Wadi Allaqi and the location of a dependable source of good water, we were ready and eager to enter the desert. Before the sun rose on March 1, we were moving along in the deep dust of a truck road east of the Aswan-High Dam Highway. Here and there were open areas between the low hills of granite where waste from the dam project had been dumped — acres of trucks, machinery, tires, scrap metal and wood.

As the sjieedometer indicated 1 05 miles from Aswan, we coasted down a soft slope into Wadi Allaqi. There was no green grass to satisfy our expectations; only the desiccated stubs of senna bushes, long dead. I recalled the record that the last great flood to reach the Nile flowed past here in 1 830. As we looked across this broad, desolate streambed and scanned the low cliffs on the far side, a grayish haze moved over and beyond us. Thus warned of an ap- proaching sand storm, we proceeded immediately on up the wadi. South-

The route of the expedition. Asthe waters of Lake Nasser slowly back up behind the High Dam at Aswan, much of this country will be in- undated. In years to come, Wadi Allaqi will be flooded as far back as Umm Qa- reiyat.

Beyond this lay about 30 miles of open desert, and then we followed a narrow pass that wound for 12 miles through precipitous mountains of gneiss. Beyond the pass our route was south- ward through a type of landscape we had not seen before, the Nubian Des- ert— broad sandy plains and clusters of steep pyramidal and flat-topped hills of reddish sandstone. Once the cry of "dubbah" rang out, and we stopped to examine the huge dog-lLke tracks of a hyena that zig-zagged over the sand.

eastward for the next 20 miles we raced over hard gravel terraces and plowed through wide, shallow channels of soft sand and silt. After a few miles, sculp- tured sandstones had been replaced by round, dark hills of granite and schist. Patches of annual plants grew here and there where months before local showers had wetted the mud flows. There were eight or ten acacia trees in this grim, 20- mile piece of Wadi Allaqi.

Abdullah bade us stop beside a pile of stones on a gravel delta that emerged

MARCH Pages

from a narrow tributary. He also pointed to two cairns on the top of a black, barren hill to the north. Here was our destination, a branch of Wadi Allaqi called Wadi Umin Qareiyat (The Valley of the Mother of the Village). A short distance inside this wadi was shaft number nine of the deserted Umm Qar- eiyat gold mine. Two of us walked into the drift carefully, looking for vipers in the dust and rubble of the floor and along the ledges. About 20 yards in- side was the shaft, or well. We got a rope and bucket and drew water from a depth of about 90 feet. After sampling the water, we congratulated Abdullah. Then we set to work establishing a base camp — two tents connected by a fly.

The next few days were spent ex- ploring Wadi Umm Qareiyat and the adjacent parts of Wadi Allaqi. As I was checking the cliffs for signs of ani- mals, I noted the wash of mud several feet high that marked the local flood waters of 1902. We trapped jirds (Meri- ones crassus) and gerbils {Gerbillus gerbil- lus) that were living on the bitter seeds of handal or ground gourd {Colocynthis vulgaris) and senna {Cassia italica), which grew abundantly in this area. Sand foxes (Vulpes ruppellii), which lived in the vicinity, readily entered live traps for the sardine baits, and we eventually caught six.

Abdullah shared our desire to explore and gave freely of his knowledge of the country. One day he suggested we go northeast about 40 miles to Bir Haimur and visit a Bishari friend of his. Gar el Nabi (Neighbor of the Prophet) who might know the whereabouts of hyenas. A few days later we set out for Bir Haimur via the wadi of the same name.

Gar el Nabi's camp, typically Bisha- rin, was three low, round, palm-mat shelters that stood on a rise just beyond a canyon where several wadis merged. We stopped at the west side of the can- yon while Abdullah went to the camp to arrange our meeting. At the base of the cliff was an open, shallow, brack- ish well; one of the few watering places for the thousands of market camels and the caravans that pass each year over the ancient road from Sudan. This, I suddenly realized, was the last of the old caravan roads still in use.

Piles of charred remains of dead cam- els were scattered about the well area. They had been burned, we found out later, because the people believed that the odor of rotting flesh gave the water a bad taste. Before we realized it, cam- el ticks {Hyalomma dromedarii) were climb- ing up our legs and clothing. Hundreds more were crawling out of the gravel and racing toward us. We moved to the shade of the eastern cliffs and got free of them.

Preparations for the trip to Bir Murra began early the following morning. A barrel was filled from the well. The cook pre-cooked a quantity of rice and beans and the rest of us made a batch of Bedouin bread. Unlevened dough was rolled into thin sheets the size of a plate and baked on a hot piece of sheet iron. Abdullah shared in this operation and was most proficient. Af- ter rolling the dough out thin he kept it on the stick and deftly turned it off

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The camel road between Umm Shilman plain and Bir Haimur

Gar el Nabi arrived and unlike most Arabs, wasted little time with greetings. He began almost immediately to tell us about hyenas. He said they lived in the Shilman mountains and fed upon the dead camels along the road. He told us that they sometimes came to drink at his well, but right now they were drinking every night at Bir Murra (Bitter Well), 15 miles to the east. He thought that would be the best place to shoot them, and he sounded so con- vincing that we decided to return the next day prepared for a two day hunt- ing trip. Before leaving we gave Gar el Nabi five gallons of fresh water from Bir Umm Qareiyat and a promise of more upon our return. This token se- cured the bonds of friendship and the obligations of business.

onto the baking iron. About noontime everything was in order. We took our lunch to Bir Haimur and ate in the shade of the cliffs.

After the heat of the day had passed we left for Bir Murra via the Umm Shil- man plains. The ways in and out of the latter were not easy, we found, even for four-wheel-drive vehicles. For the first seven miles we crawled along in low gear through narrow wadis choked with steeply-sloping piles of sharp, angular rubble. Suddenly, the wadi we had been following opened into the Umm Shil- man plains. When we saw that vast spread of sand strewn with mountains, all thoughts of bad roads were forgotten. We followed camel trails that meandered across that fantastic land, criss-crossed with tracks of gazelles and hyenas. Dead

Page 4 MARCH

camels seemed to be everywhere, and I coimted 20 half-eaten carcasses in a five- mile stretch. Hyena tracks encircled al- most every one. Gar el Nabi remarked that when a hyena finds a camel car- cass it eats the fatty hump out first. Every camel I saw had the hump miss- ing. Rocks in the vicinity of dead cam- els were smeared with the bleached ex- crement of vultures. Probably these di- urnal scavengers feasted after the hyenas had torn open the dead bodies.

As we left Umm Shilman via a crooked pass that led down into Wadi Murra, some elongated piles of stone and a great number of camel bones caught our at- tention. Gar el Nabi told us that a year ago five people and thirty camels be- came lost in a sandstorm and died there. He found the bodies partly eaten by hy- enas and put the remains under stones.

Wadi Murra was a winding, graded bed of coarse gravel 100-200 yards wide, bounded by low, steep hills and cliffs of disintegrating schist that looked like piles of rotting wood . Acacias, the only vege- tation, grew sparingly along the edges of the wadi and on the terraces. Bir Murra was another shallow well and easily en- tered by animals. Hyena, gazelle and fox tracks were all around it. Gar el Nabi mentioned that he had seen a large herd of ostriches here in this wadi 30 years before when there was vegetation on the ground.

We placed five steel traps beside the water and then drove north one mile to another well. There we made our camp by spreading a canvas on the gravel and rolling out our sleeping bags. We were around a big bend in the wadi and out of sight and hearing of Bir Murra. Before sundown we put a large, live trap baited with sardines in a side wadi about 50 yards from camp. A few rodent live- traps were put under acacia trees and beside holes in cliffs. As the twilight deepened and evening prayers began, I had a sip of zibib, the Egyptian equiva- lent of the anise-flavored drink of the eastern Mediterranean.

We ate an early supper and then two of us and Gar el Nabi walked to Bir Murra. We carried shotguns loaded with buckshot and wore headlamps. Gar el Nabi was certain that we would see a hyena with the lights and that it would

Abdullah baking bread

stand and let us shoot it. No hyena was in sight, but a sand fox was in one of the traps by the well.

When we returned to camp tea was ready. We lounged around sipping tea and listening to Gar el Nabi and Abdul- lah talk about hyenas. We learned that the bravest Bishari fears the hyena and considers it to be very dangerous be- cause of the belief that there is one hair from the lion on the back of the hyena. When questioned, Gar el Nabi knew no case of a hyena attacking a man or a liv- ing camel. He told of hyenas being at- tracted by sick or weak camels and hang- ing around while the owner kept guard. He told us that two months before, two hyenas had fought near the well and one was killed and partly eaten. He believed that when there are no dead camels to feed upon, the stronger hyenas kill and eat the weaker ones and the babies. I merely listened without comment.

I had read the hyena lore in the writ- ings of earlier explorers in Egypt. Guides such as mine had warned them to be careful when sleeping out in the desert not to let a limb protrude from the blan- kets lest a passing hyena snap at it. The hyena was regarded as a wicked en- chanter, metamorphosed by the anger of God. For this reason the hair, teeth, bones and flesh of the hyena were thought to possess miraculous powers and were in great demand. Lying on a hyena skin was supposed to eliminate pains in the back. The skull was believed to bring good luck to the household under whose doorstep it was buried. Certain parts were boiled and swallowed by barren

women who wished to become fertile. Many were the stories of hyenas preying on dogs, donkeys, men and especially children. No wonder primitive people live in awe of this beast.

That evening I determined that if we were going to get a hyena we had better drive down to the well and shoot one before it could escape into the hills. Be- fore leaving we checked the live-trap near camp and found that while we were talking a hyena had dragged it about 25 yards. Four excited men climbed into the car; two carried shotguns and one, a spotlight. We hugged the eastern side of the wadi until we were around the bend, and then raced in the direction of the well. There was nothing in sight so we drove a few miles on down the wadi, frightening two gazelles that had been feeding in acacia bushes. At 10:30 we made another run down the wadi. As we approached the well, the lights re- flected white from the eyes of a hyena.

Dead camels. The dry desert air mum- mifies the carcasses, after the hyenas and other scavengers take their toll.

It stood still for a moment, and when I accelerated, it turned and ran across the wadi. We came within range just be- fore it reached the hills and killed it with three quick shots. This was a long- awaited occasion. Gar el Nabi plucked a whisker from it and tucked it under the thong which held the small leather box of prayers above his right elbow. This charm from a freshly-killed hyena he considered to be very strong protec- tion against the "evil eye." About every

MARCH Pages

hour and a half during the night we drove down the wadi. Several times we saw a hyena, and once more we brought one down.

At dawn we began the work of skin- ning. Gar el Nabi pulled a double- edged knife from a sheath on his left arm and helped us. It was no easy job, for each animal had a thick layer of fat un- der a rather thin skin. The fur of these hyenas was very clean. One smelled only slightly of dead camel. The stom- achs contained small pieces of bone and camel skin. Gar el Nabi took the eyes of the hyenas, saying that he would dry them and hang them around the necks of his yoimg boys to make them brave. He informed us that this amulet re- quired about one month to take full ef- fect. He wanted the canine teeth, too, because he believed they transmitted strength and virility to the wearer. He said that men hang a tooth around the neck and women hang one in the arm- pit. I asked him if he ate hyena meat. He did not, but he told me that the Nile f>eople ate the flesh as a cure for rheu- matism and the heart to give them cour- age. Had I known then that the ancient Egyptians fattened hyenas and ate them, I would certainly have tried the clean- smelling meat myself.

When the skins had been prepared we drove halfway to Umm Shilman plains and spent the remainder of the day eat- ing and resting in the dense shade of an acacia, .^fter eating the last of our beans and rice, I fell asleep listening to the bubbling of a Bedouin's water pipe.

Though we spent the night routinely hunting the plains, we saw nothing. The following morning a search in the boul- der hills indicated that hyenas were no longer living there; they had undoubt- edly moved to Wadi Murra. Taking stock of what we had seen, we figured we could count on three more hyenas in Wadi Murra, and decided to return.

Gar el Nabi making coffee

We followed the main camel road out of Umm Shilman. The individual trails, diverging and converging between wind- rows of stones made driving the slowest I had ever encountered. It took us two hours to go eight miles. Gar el Nabi re- marked to one of the Bedouins in my crew that he had lost a sandal on this road two years before (and we wondered if that was the reason we had been guided this way), .\nyway, our frustration ended at Gar el Nabi's camp when glasses of tea were placed in our hands.

Several days later, when we returned to Bir Haimur, a large herd of camels

Watering Camels at Bir Haimur

was being watered at the well. Three fuzzy-haired Bisharin with swords hang- ing down their backs came to meet us. They had heard of the "hyena hunters" and held us in esteem. Gar el Nabi stood by looking very proud.

Before we left for Bir Murra, Gar el Nabi honored us by making coffee. Through a hole in one end of an old water skin he withdrew an odd assort- ment of coffee-making implements. First he put some beans in a sardine tin fitted with a handle of twisted wire and roasted them over the fire. Then he pulverized the beans in a wooden mortar with the end of his cane. The coffee was boiled in a small, globular tin pot with a nar- row spout. A bit of ginger was added, but no sugar. When the brew had boiled to his satisfaction, a wad of palm fiber was stuffed into the spout for a filter and coffee was poured into China demitasses.

While we sipped coffee, we discussed the likelihood of finding hyenas this trip. Gar el Nabi told us that the previous evening his young boys had seen a hyena beside the well. They had thrown stones and the dog had barked at it, but it had not run away. This hyena, he said, could be expected to return, so we de- cided to go to Bir Murra as planned and hunt near Bir Haimur the next night.

This time we detoured the Umm Shil- man plains and took a route that was sand and gravel all the way to Bir Murra — 20 miles in only 45 minutes. Traps were set and the night hunting routine was carried on as before. We saw the three hyenas and succeeded in shooting one. The following night we shot an- other near Bir Haimur. This one was an old female with her teeth worn to the gums; yet, she was as fat as the others we had shot.

In our conversations with Gar el Nabi we learned of a place where the wabr or hyrax {Procavia syriacus) lived. This is a rabbit-sized animal with small ears and no tail and called coney or dassy in the Bible. Being an opportunist and a col- lector I decided a few days sf>ent in search of this animal would be well worth the time. Our guide took us north of Bir Haimur over 12 miles of wretched camel road into a wadi where there were prehistoric carvings of ostriches in the rocks. (continued on page 14)

Selections from the 23rd Chicago International Exhibition of Nature Photography

February 1968, Sponsored by

Chicago Nature Camera Club AND Field Museum

FERN TREE - INCC MEOAL AWARD FOR BEST PLANT PRINT EUGENE M. SIRE/WICHITA, KANSAS

I AM FREE - INCC MEDAL AWARD FOR BEST ANIMAL PRINT CHONG PO CHOI/NOVO, MACAU

GHOST PIPES - PSA BEST PRINT OF SHOW R. H. KLEINSCHMIDT APSA/ROCHESTER, N.Y.

SNOW SHADOWS SOFT - HONORABLE MENTION LARS N. BOISEN/PELHAM MANOR, N. Y.

1

SEA FURY - INCC MEDAL AWARD FOR BEST GENERAL PRINT T. V. WHITEHOUSE ARPS/SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

SKUNK CABBAGE - HONORABLE MENTION DONALD L. LAMBDIN/LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

LONE CLIMBER - H< S. K. GAJREE ARPS

DANDELION SILHOUETTE - HONORABLE MENTION RUSSEL K. KOMEN/WARSAW, INDIANA

CARACAL LYNX - HONORABLE MENTION RICHARD CAPPS/CLARENDON HILLS, ILL.

:w,SS

SCREECH OWL - WALGREEN BOWL FOR BEST COLOR PRINT PAUL D. YARROWS FPSA, ARPS/ROCHESTER, N.Y.

ISLE MENTION f'BI, KENYA

I N THE past two summers archaeological excavations have been carried out at the Horton Site, located in suburban Flossmoor, just south of Chicago. These excavations were part of the Field Museum's Summer Training Program in .Anthropology. This program, which receives its financial support from the National Science Foundation, is directed by Miss Miriam Wood, Chief of the Raymond Foundation.

Each summer for one week the 25 students of the class have been given the opportunity to learn archaeological theory and field methods by participating in the excava- tions of a local Indian camp site. This week of field work is the climax of a six-week course introducing the students to the field of anthropology. The course is open to all High School Sophomores and Jimiors who live within commuting distance of Field Museum. Selection of the 25 students is based on their academic achievement, recommendations by their teachers, and personal interviews of the highest rat- ing applicants with members of the staff of the Raymond Foundation. Since anthropology is otherwise unavailable in a high school curriculum, this course provides these high- ability secondary school students from the Chicago metro- politan area with an opportimity of receiving an introduc- tion to this field before they enter college.

Raymond Foundation anthropologists Edith Fleming and Harriet Smith are the instructors for the course. The program is intended to provide a general survey of the field of anthropology, from lectures on Fossil Man, through a series of lectures on the archaeology of the Mediterranean region, Mex- ico, South America, and midwest- ern United States. The students are also given lectures on the peoples of .Africa, North America, China and

other parts of the world. Research specialists in each of these fields come to the Field Museum to lecture to the students.

After several weeks of lectures and discussions of the vari- ous aspects of anthropology, ranging from human evolution to the social life of various peoples, the students participate in actual archaeological field research. The intensive train- ing in anthropology in the weeks preceding the excavations helps the students to grasp the relationship between archae- ology and anthropology. They are taught to understand the kinds of questions about culture that the archaeologist tries to answer when he goes into the field to excavate a pre- historic site. An archaeologist does not dig to collect mate- rials primarily for their esthetic value or for display, but to gather information which, when analyzed by the archaeol- ogist with training in the science of culture, provides a re- construction of the life patterns of an extinct people. The students are taught that archaeologists are not the collectors of things, but of information about prehistoric cultures. The pieces of pottery, arrow points and other artifacts which the students excavate are valuable as clues to the behavior of the extinct people. The scientific value of the specimens can only be retained by collecting this information using rigorous excavation methods. Before the students began excavation of the Horton Site they were given lectures on the methods of scientific archaeology so that when they picked up a shovel, they knew how to dig and why.

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Page 10 MARCH

The Horton Site

The Horton Site lies in a small meadow near Butterfield Creek. On the southern edge of expanding metropolitan Chicago, this area is being rapidly converted into subdivi- sions and shopping centers. Parts of the Horton Site had already been destroyed by the construction of a road and sidewalk for a subdivision. The site was discovered by Ver- non Grubisch, a high school student and amateur archaeol- ogist from nearby Chicago Heights. Grubisch had closely followed the gradual destruction of the ancient settlement; he collected artifacts in the areas disturbed by power ma- chinery. Realizing that Horton represented an ideal loca- tion for its excavation project, and that the total destruction of the site was imminent, Field Museum contacted Mr. Michael O'Malley, who granted permission to excavate portions of the site situated in his subdivision.

The first class of the Anthropology Summer Training Program, under Struever's direction, began excavations at Horton in 1966. During the ensuing winter no further de- struction occurred at the site, and Mr. O'Malley granted permission for a second season's work. During this second year of excavation, Rackerby continued the line of excava- tion units begun the previous summer. By doing so, the plan of a former Indian house was almost fully exposed, as well as several storage pits and other types of subterranean constructions, called features by archaeologists. These fea- tures reflect the kinds of domestic activities that occurred at this location some 500-600 years ago.

Excavation Strategy

The purpose of the Horton Site dig was twofold — to demonstrate to the students proper archaeological excava- tion methods, while retrieving valuable information on a prehistoric community before its destruction by the housing development. On the basis of the pottery fragments — or sherds — which were found on the surface of the disturbed area of the site, it was determined that the occupation be- longed to the cultural tradition known to archaeologists as Upper Mississippian. The strategy for the excavation the first summer was primarily to determine the limits and depth of the occupation, as well as to collect information on the village plan. A topographic survey map was made of the area, and a grid system of 10-foot squares was staked out on the surface of the site. The students were grouped into teams of three and assigned to excavate one of these squares. All of the soil from each square was screened and the arti- facts were bagged and labeled separately for each square and for each level which the students dug. In this way both horizontal and vertical relationships of all types of cultural debris screened from the soil were recorded.

Earlier in the 20th century the entire surface of the site had been plowed, thus disturbing the cultural remains to a depth of 8 inches. This level was carefully shoveled off and screened, and the material recovered was kept separate from the underlying, undisturbed level. The Horton Site proved to be very shallow, running to a depth of no more than 1 2 inches. In the second level many larger pieces of pottery.

stone tools, and the tops of pits and post holes were first encountered.

The first season's exploratory excavation revealed sev- eral dark, circular stains, 7-8 inches in diameter that are interpreted as the remains of former house posts. The sec- ond season's work focused on this area and thereby exposed the pattern of the house and its associated pits. This part of the site extended into a lot owned by Mr. William Sik- kema, who kindly gave permission to continue the excava- tions on his land.

Author Frank Rackerby shows Andy DePeder the square he will dig. Drawing on page 12 was done by Artist Roxanne Pearson-Rackerby, the Author's wife.

Each student learned to keep his own notes and to re- cord detailed observations as the work progressed. These notes, together with the archaeologists' drawings of the fea- tures, and the artifacts and natural material (unworked stone and bone), are the evidence from which archaeolo- gists reconstruct former cultural activities.

The information recovered by the Horton excavations can be grouped into three classes: artifacts, features, and debris. Debris includes such food evidence as discarded animal bones and shell, as well as items like hearth stones or waste flakes chipped off" in the manufacture of stone tools. Features are the observable remains of former building ac- tivity, such as house construction or the digging of storage or cooking pits. The artifacts themselves provide clues to much of the behavior of the extinct people. Artifacts may be tools which functioned in the technology of the culture, such as arrow points or flint knives. Other artifacts, such as ornaments or smoking pipes, functioned in their social life, either as items for recreation or as symbols to commu- nicate status.

Cultural Reconstruction

The following reconstruction of the Horton Site occu- pation is based primarily on the field observations of the authors. Some preliminary washing and sorting of the arti- facts from the site was accomplished during laboratory peri- ods with the class, but the bulk of the material collected

MARCH Page 11

remains to be analyzed. These conclusions illustrate how archaeologists go about their task of cultural reconstruction after the excavation is completed.

The Horton Site was found to be primarily a single com- ponent site; that is, it was only occupied during one prehis- toric culture period. This occupation belongs to the Upper Mississippian Period, beginning about 1400 a.d. and ex- tending into the historic period in this area. This dating is based upon similarities between pottery from the Horton Site and from other Upper Mississippian sites of known age. A few sherds from an apparent earlier occupation period were observed the first season. Within the Upper Mis- sissippian period there are several local variations known to archaeologists, such as the Langford Tradition which is cen- tered in the Upper Illinois River Valley. A second Upper Mississippian tradition, similar to the Oneota of Wisconsin, is the "Blue Island Culture" localized in the southern Chi- cago area. The Horton pottery places this site in the Blue Island Culture. The Anker Site, located on the Little Calu- met River four or five miles away, is very similar in ceramic and projectile point styles to Horton.

All of the observed Upper Mississippian ceramics from Horton were shell- tempered. There were few sherds with incised and punctuated shoulder decorations, and many rim fragments were notched. Most of the sherds were frag- ments of plain globular vessels approximately 6 inches or more in height.

On right, sherd found at Horton Site; on left, complete pot of similar ceramic tradition from nearby Fisher Site

Although the ceramic remains tell us where to place the site in time, interpretation of particular activities carried out at the site is based on other kinds of evidence.

Quantities of large mammal bones were recovered. Most belonged to the white- tailed deer; buffalo bone was rare or absent. The archaeologist observed few bird bones, while fish remains and fresh water mussel shells occurred in small amounts in different areas of the site.

These observations in part reflect the animals exploited by the Horton residents, and when correlated with the arti- fact evidence they enable us to infer a prehistoric subsistence pattern of which the Horton occupation was part. Projec- tile points occurred in high frequencies. These reflect a bow and arrow technology used to hunt the deer and other mam-

mals documented by the Horton bone assemblage. While there are abundant projectile points on the site, little flint debris was recovered except for tiny chips of the kind pro- duced by sharpening and reshaping a tool. It appears that finished chipped stone tools were being brought to Horton with only minimal tool maintenance preformed there.

The excavators also recovered an abundance of chipped flint tools interpreted as scrapers and apparently used in pre- paring animal hides for tanning. Several flake knives were also recovered. The arrow heads, scrapers and knives, to- gether with the mammal bones, comprise a hunting-butch- ering assemblage indicating that the killing and processing of large mammals (particularly deer) was a major activity carried out at the site.

Seed-grinding tools, such as manos and metates, were absent at Horton. The combined evidence suggests that this site functioned differently from Anker and other Upper Mississippian sites in the area. Seed grinding and agricul- tural tools, along with charred corn remains, are often found in abundance in these other sites.

Also lacking in the Horton Site artifact assemblage are "tools to make other tools," such as hammerstones, bone awls, flint working tools, etc. Therefore, tool manufactur- ing was not a major activity at the site. This indicates that all the recovered artifacts were carried to the site in their finished state. Nor was Horton an agricultural settlement since farming tools and evidence of corn was not recovered. Instead, the Horton community focused its attention on the exploitation and processing of wild food. The hunting of large mammals was most important, and the collecting of fish, mussels and birds provided additional food.

The 1966 and 1967 excavations recovered quantities of hearth stone, attesting to the importance of cooking and perhaps household heating to the settlement. Some of the pit features contained quantities of this stone and appear to be undisturbed hearths. Unfortunately many other hearths, and other constructions at or just below the ground surface, have been destroyed by plowing. Their presence is reflected only by the cooking stones and charcoal dispersed through the plowed soil of the site. Analysis of this charcoal will tell the archaeologist what woods were being selected for fuel. This same charcoal will also allow us to accurately date the site by the radiocarbon method.

Bone artifacts are notably rare at Horton. In the other Upper Mississippian sites in the Chicago area many bone tools were recovered. Since the majority of bone artifacts serve manufacturing purposes, their presence in some sites and absence at Horton points up an interesting contrast in the activities performed in different Upper Mississippian settlements in one region.

No beads or other ornaments were recovered by the Horton Site excavators, although a fragment of a tobacco pipe with a design reminiscent of a stylized bird was exca- vated by one of the students.

A particularly interesting contrast between Horton and other Upper Mississippian sites in the area is the lack of burial mounds or cemeteries associated with the living area.

Page 12 MARCH

Three fragments of human bone were screened from the dis- turbed upper level which suggests that at least one burial took place there, but the important difference between the sites is the degree to which human remains are lacking at the Horton Site.

Debbie Loeff and Marlene Dubas remove the plow zone down to undisturbed occupation level, while Terry Patten sifts out the mixed cultural content.

A total of 23 10-foot squares was excavated by the stu- dents during the two seasons of excavation. Besides the several thousand pot sherds and hundreds of stone artifacts, fragments of animal bone, and flint chips, 53 post impres- sions and 13 pit features were recorded. Most pits appeared to be filled with water-laid silt, suggesting that the pits were refilled by the natural process of erosion. Two large pits, both located within the walls of the house, contained many large pieces of pottery and animal bone and appear to have been filled in rapidly with this refuse material. These pits undoubtedly were used as storage containers in the floor of the house, probably for food and tools. Most of the other pits were shallow basins and appeared to be roasting ovens or disturbed hearths rather than storage containers.

Thirty-one of the recorded post molds form part of an oval-shaped house. The larger posts, which form the out- side perimeter of the structure, are 8-12 inches in diameter, while the internal supporting posts are only 4-5 inches in diameter. This framework of wooden poles was then cov- ered over, probably with thatching or animal skins. Similar oval houses have been found at other Upper Mississippian sites in the area. The post size of the Horton house indicates that it was a fairly substantial structure, approximately 30 feet wide. Post molds recorded in other squares suggest that additional houses existed on the site, but these areas were not sufficiently exposed during our excavations to determine their size and shape.

On the basis of all the evidence at hand we suggest that the Horton Site was a hunting settiement occupied by a small group of people during the fall and winter months. At this time of year deer hunting is most successful in the

sheltered secondary valleys like the Butterfield Creek area. In the spring and summer these people might join with others to form a larger agricultural villages during the corn- growing season. The Anker Site has been interpreted as such a summer agricultural settlement. At sites of this type the inhabitants would manufacture tools and grow corn which would then be stored there for consumption the fol- lowing spring. Part of the corn crop might also have been taken to winter himting camps, like Horton.

The fact that the recorded house appears to have been of substantial construction, when combined with the abun- dant evidence for deer hunting and the lack of agricultural tools, argues for a repeated winter occupation of the Horton Site for several years during the Upper Mississippian Period.

Diminishing Archaeological Resources

Numerous prehistoric sites, like Horton, have been and are being destroyed as a by-product of the residential and industrial expansion of Chicago. These sites, and others like them throughout North Ainerica, are the only "books" that record the history of man's occupation of this continent be- fore the time of Columbus. Once destroyed, these sites can never be replaced and the historical information contained in them is lost forever. This makes the science of archaeol- ogy truly a race against time. Today, Chicago and other cities are expanding rapidly over the areas formerly occu- pied by prehistoric peoples. In most cases the historical record is destroyed without being investigated.

Lunch

The opportunity to carry out the urgently needed exca- vations at the Horton Site was fortunately provided by the Field Museum's Summer Anthropology Program. This pro- gram begins — earlier than is customary — the process of in- troducing students to archaeology as the scientific study of man's past. From their experience at the Horton Site, Field Museum's students all learned the critical reason for exca- vating sites in urban areas. Only by carrying out excava- tion programs now can archaeologists hope to reconstruct the prehistory of these metropolitan areas.

MARCH Page 13

A boulder hill on Umm Shilman plain

(continued from page 6)

With the feelings of men who have looked upon isolated oases in the Sa- hara, we gazed at the grandeur of Wadi Nagib. Scattered along the few miles of this winding, clifT-bordered valley were luxuriant shrub acacias, salam {Acacia ehrenbergiana) and huge spreading trees, sayaal {A. raddiana). The fresh foliage and yellow blossoms of the salam were bril- liant in the morning sun. Scattered clumps of araa (Aerva persica) stood out snow white against the sand and the glandular leaves of the cushiony mashta (Cleome droserifolia) glistened as though covered with dew. Sinuous drifts of golden sand swept down from the lees of the eastern promontories.

White streaks from hyrax urine on the broken western cliffs indicated several active colonies. Fresh tracks followed the cliff bases and trails out to the trees. We shot a young hyrax that was watching us from a crevice, then waited, as usual but no more appeared.

We went to the base camp for sup- plies and returned the following morn- ing to Wadi Nagib. There were no signs of hyrax activity from the night be- fore. For two days we waited patiently for them to appear. Late the second evening, nine were seen bounding over the rocks far out of range of our guns. Though we had placed traps in every trail, we caught only one other young one. We had been outwitted and out- waited and had not the time to remain longer. However, the specimens we had were valuable since the nearest localities of previous collections were Gebel Elba in southeastern Egypt and in Sudan.

Next morning farewells were expressed over many glasses of tea at Gar el Nabi's camp. We made him a casual gift of

Page 14 MARCH

several kilos of sugar, a tin of tea, and a bag of rice; knowing he would refuse and quite possibly be insulted if we of- fered him money for his help.

Two days later we had established a new base camp on the shore of the grad- ually rising water of the Nile, now known as Lsike Nasser. There we enjoyed a cooler campsite and a bathing beach on a bay that extended into what was for- merly the mouth of Wadi AUaqi. We were in the land called Nubia, a name that usually brings to mind narrow strips of green along the Nile, waving palms, and gaily-decorated mud houses. All these were gone; inundated. Of Allaqi village, all that remained above water was the minaret of the town mosque. The palm logs that once supported thatch roofs were scattered along the shore. The gay and colorful Nubians had been relocated to Egyptian designed compounds near Kom Ombo. Between the water and the desert there was noth- ing now except a thin contour of pioneer vegetation (mostly Hyoscyamus muticus and Pulicaria crispa) that marked the high water level, about five feet above the

present. In the future, Lake Nasser will creep gradually eastward nearly 50 miles into Wadi .Mlaqi and up to our old campsite at Umm Qareiyat.

The first night on the Nile a hyena passed within 25 yards of camp while we slept. Next day we found the tracks of hyenas and jackals {Canis aureus) which crossed the plains at night to drink from the Nile and to eat dead fish thrown out by fishermen. We spent several days following hyena trails into the sandstone mountains but never found an occupied den. At night we hunted back and forth over the plains, eventually shooting two jackals and four more hyenas. One hy- ena was killed as it carried the body of another which we had left on the plain. I regret to say that in spite of our close contact with hyenas, we never heard them. Our traps on the barren sands and sterile rocks took a small catch of gerbils and spiny mice.

The last day in Wadi Allaqi, under a scorching afternoon sun, we followed the tracks of two gazelles until we cor- nered the beautiful creatures in a canyon. Thus, two more valuable specimens were added to the collection. That night the carcasses were turned slowly over a deep bed of coals and as the meat sputtered and roasted we feasted.

Having eaten and stirred up the fire, the sounds of our own tea drinking and the bubbling of a water-pipe lulled ev- eryone into meditation. I guessed the thoughts of all were the same — we were reliving those exciting nights of the chase, and we were all wondering if we should believe our own observations of the shy and retiring hyenas or the intriguing tales of the Bisharin.

From Research Project NR005.09-0013, Bureau oj Medicme and Surgery, Navy Department, Washing- ton, D. C. The work was supported in part by Office of Naval Research Contract Nam 4414 (00) NR 107-806 with Field Museum oJ Natural History, Chicago, Illinois. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones oj the author and are not to be construed as official or rejecting the views oj the Navy Department or the naval service at large.

The camp at Lake Nasser

PLAN GEOLOGY TRIP TO OZARKS

Field Museum, in cooperation with the University of Chicago, will sponsor a Geology Trip to the Ozarks, April 21-27. The Ozark region is a diversified geological area that consists of igneous and sedimentary rocks. The oldest igneous rocks and granites were once molten, and are at least one billion years old. The area was many times under the sea, and into it sediments — domi- nantly limey — were deposited. These later became sedimentary rocks. Other geologic processes produced deposits of minable ores, particularly lead and iron. A wide variety of geological phenomena will be studied in the field and will be supplemented with the evening lectures. Fossils and minerals will be collected in the mines and quarries.

The group will depart by train to St. Louis on Sunday, April 21. From St. Louis the group will continue travel on a chartered bus. The return to Chicago is scheduled for Saturday evening, April 27.

Tuition including all transportation and hotel accommodations is $85. For

those wishing private facilities an ex- tra fee will be assessed. The trip will include four long hikes, for which hiking clothes are strongly recom- mended .

Matthew H. Nitecki, Assistant Curator of Fossil Invertebrates will conduct the tour. For further infor- mation and application forms, please phone Miss Barbara O'Connor, at the University Downtown Center, Photo by S. Silverstein FI 6 - 8300.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March Hours: Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

March 1—31 Chicago Shell Club's Annual Shell Fair. Displays of hun- dreds of shells reveal the fantasy of form and color in the shell world. Ex- hibits are arranged to show the development of shells and their geographical distribution.

March 2 Film-Lecture Series: Laos by Kenneth Armstrong, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 9 Film-Lecture Series: Outdoor Yearbook by Karl Maslowski, 2 :30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 16 Film-Lecture Series: Alaska — America's Frontier State by Harry R. Reed, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 23 Film-Lecture Series: The Two Worlds of Polynesia by Stanton Waterman, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 26 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music : Baroque Cham- ber Players, one of the nation's outstanding groups, presents the final con- cert in this series. Free tickets are available upon request. 8:15 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 30 Film-Lecture Series: The Congo by Lewis Cotlow, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 31 Audubon Wildlife Film: Galapagos — Wild Eden by Roger Tory Peterson. This is a rare field trip to equatorial volcanic islands inhabited by some of the strangest creatures in the world — giant tortoises, sea-going lizards, penguins. Waved Albatrosses and the beautiful Fork-tailed Gull. 2 :30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

Through May Spring Journey: Plants that the American Indians Used Chicago Mountaineering Club, March 14, 8 p.m. Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter March 19, 7:30 p.m.

MEETINGS:

METEORITE

TALKS SET

.\ course consisting of three informal talks on meteorites is offered for the first three Saturdays in April (Apr. 6th, 1 3th, 20th). The talks will be given by Ed- ward Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy and will cover all aspects of meteorites, mete- orite work, and theories about them. First hand examination of specimens will be included. Each session will be ap- proximately two hours long, starting at 10:00 a.m. The course is limited to 25 adult Members of the Museum. Reser- vations must be made by mail on a first- come-first-serve basis. Write: Dr. Ed- ward Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy, Field Museum of Natural History, Chi- cago, Illinois 60605.

FINAL BRIEFINGS

Members of Field Museum's Mexican Tour will view a unique motion picture on Mexican archaeology and on the de- velopment of pre-Hispanic civilizations on March 29. "The Ancient New World" illustrates its commentary with museum artifacts which are given a life of their own.

Speaker of the evening will be Dr. Donald Collier, Chief Curator of An- thropology, who will discuss the peoples who created the great cities of Indian Mexico. Other programs for the Tour include: March 15 — Erwin Bach, Cam- era Editor of the Chicago Tribune; March 18 — George Schneider of the Art Institute of Chicago, and March 22 — Phil Clark of the Museum staff.

George Schneider

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 6060! A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

MARCH Page 15

^^-^'^f^-rvjs..

Volume 39, Number 4, April 7968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Members' Night, May 3

A preview of the special exhibit, "Masada — King Herod's Fortress," and a program of music, dance, motion pictures and a slide lecture related to the exhibit, will highlight the Museum's 1968 Members' Night on May 3. The music and dance events, including songs by the Amranim Brothers, Shalom and Barak, third generation Israelis of Yemenite descent, and performances by the Habonin Israeli Folk Dance Troupe will be in Stanley Field Hall.

The Masada Exhibit is of deep significance to archa- eologists. Middle Eastern historians and scholars of the Old and New Testaments. Some of the scrolls found at Masada have added important information to what is known about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the life of Jesus.

These finds, plus large scale photo murals, coins, weapons and a diorama in miniature of Roman legions laying siege to Masada, make up the display. The Exhibit opened in London and has been complimented in the continental and national press for its graphic design as well as its archaeological impact. Organized by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Israel Exploration Society, the Exhibit enjoyed a successful United States premiere at the Jewish Museum in New York.

Built in 36 B.C. by King Herod the Great, Masada was a luxurious retreat and strong fortress against a feared attack from the armies of Cleopatra of Egypt. It was in this rock fortress in 73 A.D. that 960 Jewish men, women and children gave up their lives rather than go into slavery, when 7 years of revolt against the Romans ended in defeat.

A slide lecture, "Masada, A State of Mind," will be given by Marc Michaelson, former Travel Editor of Chicago's American and Director of Publicity for the Tourism Council of Greater Chicago. Michaelson, who visited Masada last year, will speak at 7^30. and 8:30 p.m. A film on the Masada excavations by the British Broadcasting Company and a motion picture on the Bar-Kokhba Caves, where the Jewish resistance contined after the fall of Masada, will be shown continuously from 7 to 10 p.m. Two half-hour music and dance programs will be given at 7 and 9 p.m.

Research and exhibit preparation areas of the Museum, including some special exhibits related to Field Museum research, explorations and acquisitions, will be open on the third and fourth floors from 7 to 10 p.m. "Tibet — Highland of Monk and Nomad," the Museum's new permanent exhibit on the second floor, will be illuminated and open for the evening.

The special Members' preview of "Masada" will continue from. 3 to 10 p.m. Refreshments will be served from 7 to 10 p.m., and the cafeteria will be open from 6 to 8 p.m.

Masada

Photo by Yigael Yadin.

The nearly sheer walls of Masada rise 1,300 ft. above the western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel.

Volunteers came from as fai as the U. S. and Australia tc work on the Masada exca- vation.

Photo by The Jewish Museum,

Photo by The Jewish Museum

Chartered buses will leave at frequent intervals throughout the evening from State and Jackson Streets, and return trips from the Museum's south entrance will continue until 10 p.m.

Page 2 APRIL

"\im\^i^^^'\s^

by Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

U^»

k% JAMES HOOKS, who delivers the mail at Field Museum, has delivered many thousands of interesting, curious — even bizarre — letters and packages over the years. Field Mu- seum scientists are called to give advice in many fields, some of them quite unexpected. Hymen Marx, Associate Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians, for instance, recently gave some advice to a young lady employed as a "Go-go" dancer in Texas. The lady used a Boa Constrictor in her act. She wanted to know how to tame it and keep it from biting. Mr. Marx was able to recommend a popular book on snakes by a former staff member, Clifford Pope, and also suggested that a reticulated python, which "will reach coverage size, and has a much milder and gentler disposition," would be a better candidate for work in the performing arts.

Articles in the Bulletin often prompt letters of great in- terest, and few have provoked more comment than a story by Eugene Richardson, Curator of Fossil Invertebrates, called "The Tully Monster" (Bulletin, July, 1966). Rich- ardson told of a worm-like fossil of uncertain relationships which had been found in the Pennsylvanian (280 million years old) deposits of Mazon Creek, Illinois. He had previ- ously described it scientifically in the weekly journal Science. with an official name, TuUimonstrum gregarium, named for Francis Tally, Lockport, Illinois, who had brought in the first specimen. It was such a strange animal that the author was unable to assign it to a phylum, which disturbed his sense of order — it would upset any systematic biologist.

The aniinal ranged in size from 2J^ to 14 inches, "at one end of the dirigible-like body was a spade-shaped tail;

from the other extended a long, thin proboscis with a gap- ing claw; across the body near the base of the proboscis was a transverse bar with a little round swelling at each end, outside the body."

The response to this little animal, which may have eaten fossils so indistinct that Richardson could not even assign them to a kingdom and simply termed them "Blobs," was immediate and extensive. Many of Gene Richardson's friends took the time to write with helpful comment. One doctor noted the Tully Monster's "impish benevolent, al- inost Schmoo-like, expression on its cuddly frame." An- other correspondent insisted that Gene had the animal backwards, and that what appeared to be fins on the tail were in actual fact ears on the head. "This view is rein- forced by the obvious resemblance of TuUimonstrum to a certain black dog I know who has ears like that." A Nor- wegian woman pointed out that the whole thing sounds funny to Norwegians because "tull" means "nonsense" in that language.

One of the most interesting exchanges was with Mr. F. VV. Holiday, of Pembrokeshire, Great Britain. Mr. Holi- day has been a student of the Loch Ness Monster for more than thirty years. He has watched the Loch Ness Monster become, from what appeared at first to be myth, the object of serious scientific research. Mr. Holiday wrote, "I think I was the first to suggest {Field magazine, 1st. Nov., 1962) that the Loch Ness Monster was probably an invertebrate. Last year I narrowed the gap still further by stating my belief that the LNM was a worm — a view which I still hold."

APRIL Page 3

Holiday enthusiastically suggested a close relationship between Loch Ness Monster and Tullimonstriim. Richardson replied that a time lag of 280 million years and a difference in size of one foot (TM) versus 40 feet (LNM) made such a relationship unlikely.

The correspondence provided Gene Richardson with a close view of the present state of the Loch Ness Monster. Holiday clearly thinks it a worm. Professor Mackal of the University of Chicago is inclined to the idea of a very large . mollusc. There is still support for the sea snake, and other vertebrate, explanations. The Adventurers' Club of Chi- cago has provided support for some of the research on the monster. Holiday himself says he has seen the thing four times in a span of sixteen weeks at the Loch. He also men- tions some strange creatures living in the Loughs of western Ireland, being investigated by Captain Lionel Leslie, a cousin of Sir W^inston Churchill. Holiday remains con- vinced of a relationship between TM and LNM.

In early September of 1 966, Mr. James Hooks delivered the first of a series of letters which were to launch Gene Richardson on the Quest for the Dancing Worm. It was an airlettcr, postmarked Nairobi, Kenya, and it read:

Dear Dr. Richards:

1/9/66

O. Box 30009

Nairobi

A recent issue of the East African Standard con- tains an illustrated article describing a curious prehistoric creature you discovered. This jogged my memory, carrying me back some forty years, of a tale I once heard that may be of some interest.

In 1926 having been seconded to the Kings (now Kenya) African Rifles from the Indian Army, I was in northwestern Kenya dealing with some border incidents. Passing through the administrative centre of Lodwar on my return journey, I took the opportunity of calling upon Mr. A. M. Champion, then D. C. Turkana Dis- trict. In addition to being a keen shikar. Champ- ion was a naturalist of the first rank, and during the two evenings I passed in his company he regaled me with many a fascinating yarn about the fauna of the area. Among these was one about a remarkable worm reputed to live in the swamp country to the southeast. The local tribes- men told fantastic stories about its dancing and and giving milk, if I remember correctly. Such nonsense aside. Champion did give me a descrip- tion of the creature which he had obtained from various natives (he never succeeded in getting a specimen) and this curiously enough has remained in my memory when much else has been forgotten. His account agreed remarkably well with the illustration of your "Tully Monster," even to the "paddles" and the long snout. Your mention of sharp teeth, incidentally, does agree with a

Turkana tale that the creature bites. On this account they are deathly afraid of it, believing that it is poisonous. But then nearly all natives believe everything of the creeping or crawling kind to be venomous.

I hardly dare to suggest that a relation of your extinct "Monster" still survives in one of the re- motest parts of East Africa, but it might just be worthwhile to pursue the matter.

Yours faithfully

R. G. L. Cloudesley

(Lt.-Colonel, ret.)

Artist's impression of Tullimonstrum in its natural habitat. (Draw- ing was used as cover of the July, 1966, BI'LLETin.

Richardson's original BuliIetin article had already been picked up by a Boston newspaper for its Sunday Supple- ment; now, it appeared, the story had also been used in the East Africati Standard, perhaps the best known newspaper in the countries of former British East Africa. We began to hope it would make the Straits Times in Singapore, as well. What world coverage ! As happens in many newspapers on rare occasions, the facts were a little bit garbled, and the author's name appeared as Dr. Richards, of Field's Mu- seum. A forgivable mistake.

Intrigued and flattered by the attention, Richardson was penning a reply to Colonel Cloudesley (ret.) when a second airletter arrived, postmarked Nakuru, Kenya. Na- kuru is a town about a hundred miles northwest of Nairobi on the Uganda Railway. Turkana District, Gene learned from the Times Atlas, is more than 400 air miles north- northwest of Nairobi on the Kenya-Sudan border. The letter was written in an even, graceful hand suggestive of the mysterious East. It read:

P. O. Box 568

Nakuru

Honoured Sir: 13 September 1966

I have now seen in an old copy of the Standard

Page 4 APRIL

the account of a wonderful monster you have found in your country. Sir, I behcve that it also lives here in Kenya ! My cousins Aowind and Manu have often told me of the dancing worm of Turkana, and what they say is very like your article. What triumph it would be to catch one.

Turkana is far from here and full of naked men with spears, but my uncle Motibhai has a duka business there, and his sons, my cousins, adventure with lorries into that savage land. With their help I, even I, might catch one for you. The price would be very cheap. But, Honoured Sir, tell me how I catch it as it lives in a great swamp. This is a new thing for me. Do I keep it, do I kill it. I await eagerly your orders and instructions.

Believe me, honoured Sir,

Your hopeful servant

Purshottam S. Patel

Richardson's interest grew. Was there something in all this? He began to consult some expert opinion. Alan So- lem. Curator of Lower Invertebrates (living) knew of no such animal in the area, but it certainly wasn't impossible. The area has been little studied. And imknown species of animals continually turn up all over the world. Certainly size was no problem. There is a leech in southeast Asia which grows to a foot and in northern Queensland, Austra- lia, there is a worm which varies in length from eight to twelve feet, as it contracts and expands.

Replies went oflfto Cloudesley and Patel. A few discreet inquiries were made to friends and associates who might have some knowledge of the area. It was clear that Mr. Patel had dollar signs in his eyes and was looking out for Number One. The Indian small businessmen of East Africa tend to be fairly hard-headed, however, so Patel might be on to something. Weeks went by with no news. Finally, a letter arrived. It had been posted September 13, but had traveled by siuface mail.

Lokori P. O. Kampi ya Moto via Nakuru Dear Sir: 9 September 1966

I must ask your pardon for writing to you, a stranger, which happens in this way. I am temporary teacher at the intermediate school here where I teach elementary English among other things. Whenever I can I show the pupils newspapers which is not often as this is a far away spot. The other day I was lucky to get a Sunday Standard which is bigger and often has repeats from English and American papers. The class was soon in a buzz and I heard repeated a Turkana word which means dancing worm roughly. On looking I see an article and drawing about an animal found by you and the children say they

hear of it from their fathers. One pupil Akai, a bright boy, was so moved that he later brought me a letter for sending to you. He was so proud I had not heart to refuse and so enclose.

As regards the subject of the letter, I can say nothing. Most Turkana are very primitive people and have many talcs in which sometimes is a grain of truth.

Yoiu- faithfully, Joseph N. Ngomo

Attached to the letter was a penciled note, in the painful crabbed style of a small boy, showing the same careful attention to spelling that all Ixjys have :

Today techer show us paper and ther is anmal my pepels knows i not know name tuly moster but call ekurul loedonkakini it live ayangyangi in rains at moon fill all dance wave hands give milk ekurut leodonkakini very dangery anmal bite man die

akai s/o [son of] ckechalon

As the testimonial evidence accumulated. Gene, and a number of others, myself included, became increasingly ex- cited about the Dancing Worm of Turkana. More inqui- ries went out. A note was inserted in the Newsletter of the East Africa Natural History Society, asking local naturalists for information about the worm. No one, apparently, had ever heard of the legend except Richardson's foin- corre- spondents.

Touched by young Akai's note. Gene replied to both Ngomo and the little boy, and waited for an answer to his previous letters to Cloudesley and Patel. And as he waited, belief and hope grappled with reason and training. Was there a worm in the swamps of Turkana? The evidence was slim indeed : the word of four people of whom he knew nothing, and two were themselves dubious. On the other hand, the writers were from quite different walks of life, and were separated by many miles. Surely, what appeared to be a widespread folk tale might have some basis in fact.

The possibility of an expedition to search for the worm began to insinuate itself in conversations among staff mem- bers. The evidence was still far too tenuous to justify a field trip, but if more turned up, serious consideration would have to be given to the idea. The general feeling was one of cautious optimism.

That optimism received a blow when the letters to Cloudesley and Patel were both returned, stamped "Ad- dressee itnknown." But a second letter from Patel, indicat- ing that he had moved and was still eager to be of service cleared up part of the mystery.

Box 600.S Rongai 2 August 1967 Honoured Sir,

I have been hoping so much to hear from you in answer to my letter but only silence has

APRIL Page 5

come. But I venture to write again. One, be- cause the post here has become very slack. Only last month iny cousin Motilal nine years senior in Posts and Telegraph got the sudden sack and was substituted by an inexperienced person. Oh, Sir, these days are hard for us. Your eagerly expected letter may have come and got lost. I have now you see moved.

Two, because I hear that in a little paper a man Solem asks news of the worm. Sir, there is now a rival and you should beat him. I am always you know ready to help. I think the time is good for the worm. There is much rain and the great swamp is full. With your instruc- tions we might get one.

Believe me honoured Sir, Your hopeful servant, Purshottam S. Patel

Next a letter came from Joseph Ngomo, who could no longer help, but whose evident dedication to his students should be a fine example of the new spirit of Africa.

Dear Sir,

P. O. Box 1432

Gilgil, Kenya

23 February 1967

I thank you for your kind letter of 18 November which has taken so long time to catch me up. I can no longer be of help for you with the danc- ing worm as I am transferred from Lokori and will I hear soon be transferred also from here. As a senior teacher I am moved about where needed and moved on again when things

Th(x«li dimisaiirs aiul Dinothcres May long ago ha\« disappeared. Despite tix'\oiunies rK>v\- innrint Sonx" cn-atiires just d»>n't take thi' hint. Tbtixtse who sav it cannot be Tlx" DaiK iiicWtirni savsconieand see, While in its nonx' with 'dance and pomp h rules the vast Ayangyangi Swamp.

m aioor iw am

kSCh u.1. oi

Above, "Christmas Greetings."

This month's Cover shows old Kenya hand Bryan Patterson and prey. He apparently bagged the little fellow tvith the shotgun in his right hand. Hunter Patterson brought down several Field Mtiseum staff members with the same shot. The Editor of the Bulletin feels the Cover is appropriate for an issue published in April.

are going well.

Before I left Lokori Akai had gone as far as was possible for him in the school. His family has no money for further education and he is with his father's goats again. This is sad for a teacher but Akai knows more than his father and his son will know more again and so we build. Harambee!

I am sorry your name was wrong in my letter but so it was in the paper. This time you see I use air letter.

Yours faithfully, Joseph N. Ngomo

A most welcome visitor to Field Museum was able to add a tiny bit of corroboration. Bryan Patterson, formerly Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Field Museum, and now Agassiz Professor of the same at Harvard University, stopped to see his former associates early last year. Patter- son, who had been in Kenya recently on field work, which resulted, incidentally, in some remarkable discoveries about hominid evolution, knew of Patel's uncle, whom he consid- ered something of a rascal. A witty and charming man, he read the letters with delighted interest but he had never heard of the Dancing Worm of Turkana.

Professor Patterson had every reason to be delighted with the letters, for they represented a job well done. There were perhaps ten people in the Paleontology lab as he read the letters, but only one man knew that the letters had sprung from the same hand, their writers from a single brain, and that the Worm inhabited not the Ayangyangi Swamp but a similar habitat, the mind of Professor Bryan Patterson.

The collective leg of Field Museum had been thoroughly pulled. The hoax, admitted finally by a geologist in Pat- terson's confidence, although not yet by the author himself, was elaborate, satisfying and structurally magnificent. The delicate weave of hint and doubt, of fact and myth, of virtue and vice in the correspondents is convincing, but, in the final analysis, Patterson's greatest ally was the human will to believe. All of us wanted a Dancing Worm. We will miss it.

In fact, we will miss all of them — Colonel Cloudesley, in the sunset of a distinguished military career; the acquisi- tive Indian merchant, Mr. Patel; the devoted school teacher, Joseph Ngomo, and bright little Akai, back with his father's goats. But most of all, the Worm, who danced with waving arms by moonlight in the depths of the swamp, who gave milk, whose bite killed men. We mourn its passing.

One final message closes out the file: A card came to Gene Richardson last Christmas. On the cover was a photo of a well-known Agassiz Professor of Paleontology looking with obvious distaste at a Dancing Worm, which he has clearly just bagged with the shotgun in his hand. Inside the card, a short verse and a page headed "The End of The Hunt" and signed by our old friends.

The end of the hunt, yes. But not the end of the season. It is now open season on Mr. Bryan Patterson.

Page 6 APRIL

About forty years ago the postmaster of Spargo, Colo- rado, Mr. Courtney Dow, wrote that he would Hke to show me a large and unique ruin, perched on the rim of Cow Canyon in southwestern Colorado.

I visited the site in the company of Mr. Dow and found that it was large, interesting and untouched. I also noted that it included a Great Kiva — which made it unique for this area for, at that time. Great Kivas were known mostly from an area called Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. And here was one some 200 miles away from the homeland of such great ceremonial structures!

That fact aroused my curiosity about this site. Many questions came to mind, the most obvious one being "was there a relationship between the Great Kiva at Lowry Pueblo and those to the south and east?"'

Left, Lowry Pueblo as it appeared forty years ago, when

the author began to dig. Below, restored Lowry Pueblo,

a National Historical Landmark. The two photographs

were taken from nearly the same spot.

We spent four seasons at Lowry Pueblo, 1930-34, and excavated 37 dwelling rooms, eight kivas and the Great Kiva, or about 95 percent of the site. We were shot at by a homesteader who thought we were stealing his gold treas- ure (sic) ! We endured snows, rains, floods, and droughts; we operated on a budget that was modest indeed (one year it was $1,000); we weathered a depression; and yet we got a lot done. During our last season, we received heaven-sent help in the form of labor from the County Emergency Relief Administration (later W.P.A.).

What are some of the results of those four years of digging and research:

The site on which the pueblo was built is a knoll over- looking a small canyon at the bottom of which was formerly a small, permanent stream fed by springs. On clear days, to the southwest one can see the odd formations of sand- stone that give their name to Monument Valley.

Sometime about A. D. 500-700, a group of farmer In- dians settled on this knoll and dug their abodes, called pit houses, in the virgin clay. Several such subterranean struc- tures were encountered beneath the walls and floors of the later town and below the floors of kivas, which are them- selves also subterranean. Pottery and tools of stone and bone were found still present on these most ancient and earliest floors.

It seems likely that these first comers remained at the site, for it had many advantages to an incipient farmer folk and would not lightly be relinquished.

Lowry Pueblo

Then and Now

by Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator Emeritus, Anthropology

APRIL Page 7

About the year a.d. 900, the pit house inhabitants embarked on a program that was eventually to alter radi- cally their way of life. They built a cluster of four rooms or so with contiguous walls of stone masonry on top of the ground. Thus came into being a "pueblo," which means "village" and implies the so-called honeycomb structure of adjoining rooms, with stone-masonry partitions that served as a common wall for two rooms. This arrangement is a great economy in efTort. The old-time subterranean abodes were retained as places of worship and rituals and still are today, called "ki-va" — or, literally, "house-old" — a most appropriate appellation.

Canyon, New Mexico, about 100 miles southeast of Lowry.

Eventually, the pueblo encompassed 50 rooms, and was two stories high. If all the rooms were simultaneously occupied, Lowry may have housed a population of about 60 to 100.

About A.D. 1200, the town was abruptly abandoned. Personal and family items were left behind when the people moved out.

Why was this pueblo abandoned? Why were hundreds of other towns also forsaken- mostly in the 13th century? Many explanations have been suggested, although none of them has been set up as a hypothesis to be tested. I

These two photos show the Great Kiva as it was when first found and as it looks today.

Nearly 50 feet in diameter, the Great Kiva was the religious center of the Pueblo, and may

have served the same function for nearby satellite communities.

I am unable to give the explanation for this great change, but I am fairly sure it was brought about by a modification in some aspect of their culture, svich as a shift in the econ- omy, in the sociology, in the religion, or in all three. It was certainly an adaptation to a changing environment.

As the families extended through marriage, more rooms were added. When a daughter married, she brought her husband (from a nearby village) to live with her and her family, and more rooms were added to make space for the additional people. Family "suites" can be clearly observed by noting architectural featiwes, connecting doors, and similiarities in masonry styles.

Staple foods were beans, corn, and squash, phis meats obtained by hunting deer, antelope, mountain sheep, elk, and smaller mammals.

As the town grew in size, it became gradually more important. A Great Kiva some 47 feet in diameter was built, which is twice or three times as big as the smaller kivas. It is possible that this feature, the only one in the immediate area, also served nearby satellite communities.

The Great Kiva and much of the pottery are stylis- tically similar to great kivas and the pottery found in Chaco

think we can definitely rule out epidemics, invasions, or meteoritic showers.

Two possibilities remain: a change in the pattern of rainfall so that moisture came at the wrong time of year to make possible the successful raising of crops. If farmers cannot grow crops, they cannot eat — and one solution is to move on. Where they moved is not known.

The second possible explanation is that the people had progressed as far as they could. Without a new technology for growing crops or new source of energy, they were doomed.

After we finished ovir work, Lowry Pueblo was again abandoned — the first time, about a.d. 1200, and the second time, in 1934. .'Knd there this ancient village stood, un- tended, unwanted, unnecessary.

It remained in obscurity until just three years ago. In 1965, Dr. Robert Lister, Professor of Anthropology, Uni- versity of Colorado, Boulder, in cooperation with the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Manage- ment, recommended that Lowry Pueblo be set aside as a "National Historic Landmark."

I am indebted to the Colorado State Director of the

Pnse S .APRIL

Bureau of Land Management, Mr. E. I. Rowland, who informs me that "... the Historic Landmark program is handled by the Park Service. Designation of a site is made by the Secretary of the Interior. The Historic Sites Act of 1935 directs the Secretary of the Interior to make a nation-wide survey for the purpose of determining those of exceptional value. The survey is conducted by National Park Service historians and archaeologists. Their recom- mendations are screened by a Consulting Committee and by the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historical Sites, Buildings and Monuments. The Board then submits its recommendations to the Secretary who has final rcsponsi-

In two seasons' time (1966-1967) and with the help of excavators, masons, and bulldozers, Mr. Lancaster finished the imposing job.

On Octoger 17, 1967, Lowry Pueblo was dedicated by the members and more than 300 guests of the Colorado office of the Bureau of Land Management. After an invo- cation given in Navajo by a Navajo Indian, some Hopi children from a nearby school (Fort Lewis) put on a brief sacred dance, perhaps reminiscent of ancient ceremonial dances. A few remarks by guests, and a dedication an- nouncement and the brief ceremony ended with Lowry Pueblo now a Xationol IImIoik Landmark.

Left, Paul Martin's party excavating the small kiva at Lowry, in 1931. At right, Paul Martin atop a 1926 Pierce-Arrow touring car. Martin filmed the area and the site from this vantage point.

bility for declaring sites eligible for the Registry of National Historic Landmarks."

Mr. Rowland also advised me of some of the criteria used in selecting Landmarks. The site must have excep- tional value in American history and must have produced information of major scientific importance by revealing new cultures or shedding light upon periods of occupation over large areas of the United States.

Lowry Pueblo passed all requirements. All that re- mained was to implement the decision of the Secretary by reopening and repairing the site. A team was organized to draw up plans for the re-excavation and stabilization of the pueblo, kivas and Great Kiva. This group consisted of Lister and experts from the Bureau of Land Management, William E. Claycomb, R. F. Noble, James H. O'Connor, E. I. Rowland, VV. Reynolds, and A. VV. Zimmerman.

Mr. Allan Lancaster, famous in the National Park Ser- vice for his excavations and restorations at Mesa Verde National Park, was placed in charge of the work. By a happy coincidence, Mr. Lancaster was my chief assistant at Lowry ruin and others from 1928-1932. No person more eminently fitted for the job of rehabilitating Lowry Pueblo could have been found.

I was invited to be present at the ceremony, which was simple and moving. It seemed strange to be sitting on a platform with Al Lancaster and other notables and to realize that some 30 years earlier, I had partially earned my spurs by excavating this site.

Today, Lowry Pueblo is reached by good roads in less than an hour from Cortez, Colorado. All the wind-blown dirt that had accumulated against the outer walls of the building during 10 centuries has been removed. I saw walls and other features that I had never before seen, since wc could not afford to move such masses of dirt (thousands of tons). The Great Kiva has been completely restored except for the roof. The rooms are easily viewed from many key spots and at these spots the Bureau of Land Management has erected informative, easily-read signs that give the tour- ist a clear idea of what he is looking at. A bronze plaque denoting national ownership and other addenda greet the visitor as he walks toward this great and ancient town.

Today, Lowry Pueblo is an impressive and noble sight. I was awed, because I realized that here Man had lived, worshipped, adapted to an arid ecological environment and had at last been forced to relinquish his heritage — because corn no longer would grow?

APRIL Page 9

A Tropical Spring

by William C. Burger,

Assistant Curator, Vascular Plants

The skies have been clear for almost five months, with only an occasional cloud formation and a rare shower or two. The earth is parched; almost all the plants are leafless. The wind, dry and dust-laden, has blown steadily from the north and east. But now there is a change : the winds are shifting, and soon they will sweep in from the south. Fluffy clouds begin to form and then develop into thunder- heads. The air is becoming sweet with moisture. The monsoon has begun, and with the advent of this rainy season there comes a tropical spring.

Many people think of the tropics as a steaming jungle where luxuriant vegetation prospers throughout the year; however, these areas are in the minority. Most tropical regions experience a dry season for at least part of the year. The duration of the dry period determines whether an area has a tall evergreen forest, a deciduous forest, or a sub-desert thorn-scrub. The area in eastern Ethiopia that I am familiar with has a dry period of nearly six months, and here the rains support a vegetation of deciduous trees. These are trees like our own that lose their leaves at the end of the growing season.

In a way, the monsoon, seasonally wet and dry or tropical climate, is similar to our own in the temperate zone. The dry season is comparable to our winter, and our sum- mer is similar to the growing or wet period of the seasonally dry tropics. In these areas even the size of trees and density of vegetation may look similar to ours. For plants, winter and the dry season are very much alike : periods when physi- ological processes stop or are severely limited . Cold weather prevents the plant from moving water rapidly through its tissues, producing a physiological drought not unlike a cli- matic drought. For animals, too, winter and the dry season are the times of food scarcity.

The end of the dry period and the coming of the rains usher in a new cycle of growth and activity, it is a tropical springtime. Like our spring it heralds the blooming of flowers and leafing of trees, the nesting of birds and the emergence of insects. The comparison of temperate and tropical "spring" is not an unreasonable consideration. Plants and animals have adjusted in much the same fashion to the exigencies of winter and of drought. When the cold period or the dry period ends, the responses of living things are also similar. For plants, as for animals, survival through a long cold or dry period requires the storage of food. Whether in seeds, underground bulbs or roots, the plant must have food to carry it through the dry period and per- mit the resumption of active growth in springtime. Perhaps the most spectacular plants of springtime are those that ex- hibit this point best: plants such as the tulip, hyacinth and iris. These have an abundant undergroimd store of food which permits them to produce a large and brilliant floral

Page 10 APRIL

Crinum in flower. Photos taken in eastern Ethiopia by the author.

display at the beginning of the growing season. Energy is re- quired to produce a large cluster of flowers, and this energy comes from the food produced during the previous growing season and stored over the winter. Similarly, some of the most spectacular flowers of the seasonally dry African trop- ics are those related to tulips and irises. These, too, have underground storage organs, and they also have the ability to produce an extraordinary floral display in a short period of time. In only two weeks Haemanthus, Crinum, and many lily-like plants can produce a cluster of flowers remarkable in size and number. Likewise, many trees of the tropics will come into flower at the beginning of the rains, not unlike our redbuds, dogwoods, and fruit trees. These, too, have food stored in their roots from the previous growing season.

Haemanthus multiflorus, a blood lily, in full flower while ntker plants around it have only begun to sprout.

Pancratium, a spider lily, has cracked the bare earth in sending up its flower stalk.

A problem that these plants encounter, both in the tem- f)erate and seasonally-dry tropic zones, is timing. A warm period in midwinter does not cause apple trees to blossom, nor does Haemanthus burst into flower after an unusually heavy rain in the middle of the dry season. Obviously, these plants have internal mechanisms that usually prevent premature flowering. These internal mechanisms, called dormancy requirements, have been extensively stvidied for temperate plants such as the tulip, but they have scarcely been investigated in tropical plants that pass through a long, dry season. I collected a terrestrial orchid in an acacia thorn-scrub vegetation that was flowering in April at the beginning of the rains. This is a very dry habitat for or- chids, and only one orchid species is known from this par- ticular area. This plant was taken to a greenhouse at much higher elevation where the temperatures were cooler and quite consistent throughout the year. It was watered regu- larly, and in the two following years produced inflorescences

The Crinum plant. Only the leaves and flower stalks are seen above ground. The large bulb stores jood underground during the long dry season.

only in .April-May. The only reasonable explanation for this precise flowering behaviour is to assume that the plant was sensitive to changes in day length: that the lengthening days of April triggered flower production. But since this plant was living about ten degrees north of the equator it had to respond to a change in day-length of less than 40 minutes. In this region the longest and shortest days differ by only that amount. There are probably many other ways in which plants of seasonally-dry areas are stimulated to resume growth at the proper time.

While the trees and flowering herbs in the seasonally dry tropics give the advent of the rainy season a spring-like aspect, animals also behave as if it was spring. Many birds court and begin to nest at this time. Reptiles that have withdrawn into deep crevices for a period of inactivity during the dry season begin to move about again. This is the time of year when the roadways take their great- est toll, when snakes rarely encoimtered in the bush are found the victims of a passing car. Frogs and even fish that have survived under a hardened roof of mud becoine active once more as ponds refill and rivers start to run. In- sects hatch from eggs or chrysalids, and a new cycle of activ- ity begins. Where only the dry wind could be heard before, there is now a cacophony of sounds; singing birds, buzzing insects and at night the frogs and toads join in.

For men too, the beginning of the monsoon is a spring- time. In areas with sufficient rainfall the farmer tills and plants his fields. In more arid areas the pastoralist, after many lean months, finds abundant food for his livestock; this is the time for calving and milk is in abundance. For many people the dry period is a time of hardship, for others simply uncomfortable with its dust and desiccating air. In these periods of long drought the skin becomes parched, lips chap; the discomfort sets nerves on edge and teinpers flare. There is no water for washing, it is too precious. In some areas there may not be enough to drink. Arguments for water rights are serious, sometimes fatal, and the nomads with their livestock wander in constant search. But with the coming of the rains, with water, browse and food again available, people change. They relax their wanderings, and it is easier for all to get along. For the nomadic herds- men living in areas too dry to plant a crop, springtime is a time for marriages, feasts, and settling debts. For these people it is a short spring, a rainy period that ends soon and then the wandering search for water and browse again be- comes a serious task.

With the continuance of rain and growth, spring passes into summer. The rainy period with its cloudy weather and cooler temperature is often called winter by English-speak- ing people in the tropics, even though it is the growing sea- son. In areas with a long and consistent wet period many plants will flower at the end of the rains and into the short, dry season. These areas do not exhibit the burst of flower- ing foimd in regions with a short and less reliable wet season. This sudden renaissance of growth that takes place in as little as two weeks is characteristic of the drier tropics. It is what I have called a tropical spring.

APRIL Page II

WEEKEND FIELD TRIPS SET

Three weekend trips are planned to explore the botany and geology in and around Galena. May 18-19, (with a mine visit), Starved Rock State Park, May 25-26, and Devils Lake State Park, \Visconsin, on June 8-9. These overnight trips are conducted by Botanist Gabriel Edwin and Geologist Mat- thew Nitecki, Curators at the Museum. The objective of these field trips is the investigation of the correlations between the rocks and spring flowers, especially the effects of the geologic history on flowering plants. The field studies will be supplemented by evening discussions and demonstrations on plants and rocks collected during the day. The cost for three trips is estimated at S50.00; or S20.00 for individual weekends. The preliminary lecture for all three trips will be held on Saturday, May 4th at 10 :00 a.m. at the University of Chicago, Downtown Center, 65 E. South W'ater Street. For further infor- mation phone Barbara O'Connor, Financial 6-8300.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Aprilhours:0penfrom9a.m.to5p.m.

April 6 Spring Series of Saturday Morni.ng Programs for Children be- gins with Museum Traveler Day and presentation of awards to children who have successfully participated in the Museum's Journey Program conducted by the Raymond Foundation. A color film, "The Journals of Lewis and Clark," depicting the historical trek across the Northwestern United States from 1803 to 1809, will be shown. 10:30 a.m., James Simpson Theatre.

April 6 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy, lecturer. 10 a.m. First of three lectures, second floor meeting room.

April 6 Film-Lecture Series: Mexico by Gene Wiancko, 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre

April 13 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy, lecturer. 10 a.m. Second of three lectures, second floor meeting room.

April 13 Film-Lecture Series: The Holy La.nds by Richard Linde, 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 20 Spring Series of S.'^turd.w Mor.ning Progra.ms for Children Camp Fire Girl Day program will feature early history of the State of Illi- nois, with emphasis on the Indians of the area and plants and animals they used. 10:30 a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 20 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy lecturer. 10 a.m. Final lecture of series, second floor meeting room.

April 20 Film-Lecture Series: India by Fran William Hall, 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 21 - 27 Geology Ozarks Trip Field Museum, in cooperation with

the University of Chicago, will sponsor the trip which will include a study

• of geological phenomena in the field, collection of minerals and fossils, and

evening lectures. Matthew H. Xitecki will conduct the tour. Tuition is

S85. To apply call Miss O'Connor, FI 6 - 8300.

April 27 Spring Series of Saturd.ay Morning Programs for Children Cub Scout Day will center its theme around life forms found in the sea. 10:30 a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 27 Film-Lecture Series: The B.\ham.as — From Top to Bottom by Harry Pederson, 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Through May: Spring Journey: Plants that the .\meric.vn Indi.\ns Used.

Illinois Audubon Society, .April 3, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Shell Club, April 7, 2 p.m.

..r-r-r-.i.^^ N.^TURE Camera Club OF Chic.\go, April 9. 7 :45 p.m.

MEETINGS: „ ., „ * -7 n o

Chicago Mount.\ineering Club, -April 11, 8 p.m.

j Sierra Club, Gre.\t Lakes Chapter, April 16, 7:30 p.m.

I Illinois Orchid Society, .\pril 21, 2 p.m.

GEOLOGY FILMS MADE FOR TV

Two new educational television pro- grams, "Down to Earth" and "From Fish to Mammal," written by Ernest Roscoe, Raymond Foundation Lecturer in Geology, are now available for use by teachers and schools served by the New Trier Township Instructional Television system.

Robert Pirsein, NTT-IT\' Coordi- nator, and the Raymond Foundation of Field Museum have coojjerated in the production of the programs, which in- volved many hours of preparation and filming, some done in the Museum.

Emphasizing that these programs give students only a small sampling of the material available at Field Museum, Roscoe said, "It is hoped that the student will visit the Museum many times in the future to augment classroominstruction. The fjotentialities of reaching large num- bers of students and teachers through this medium, of carrying the Museum's educational efforts far beyond its walls, is one of the most exciting challenges we have faced."

Roscoe wasjoined on the programs by Mrs. Penny Knepper, a sixth grade teacher at Logan School in Wilmette. NTT-ITV reaches more than 17,000 students and 1,000 teachers in 25 par- ticipating schools in the New Trier High School district and .Avoca, Glencoe, Ken- ilworth, Sunset Ridge, ^Vilmette and VVinnetka school districts from the trans- mission site at New Trier High School East in \Vinnetka.

Programs are developed and produced by cooperative efforts of curriculum ex- perts, school administrators, teachers, T\^ specialists and subject-matter ex- perts, said Pirsein.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVE1.T ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE CHICAGO. ILLINOIS tOMS A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSH ALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Page 12 APRIL

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

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THIS MONTH'S COVER

2 May, 73 A.D.

The Tenth Legion, Flavius Silva commanding,

advances on Masada, in the last engagement of

the Jewish War. Josephus, a Jewish commander

who earlier in the war went over to Rome,

wrote the history of the desperate rebellion of

the Jews against Imperial Rome.

In the last book of his History, he describes the

morning of 2 May

The Romans, still expecting opposition, were in

arms at daybreak. Having planked bridges

from the mounds to the fortress, they advanced

to the assault. When they saw no enemy

but only fearful solitude on every side, flames

within, and silence, they were at a loss

to conjecture what had happened. ... In an

attempt to quench the flames, they

quickly opened a passage through them and

reached the palace. Here they encountered the

mounds of the slain. Instead of rejoicing

at the death of their foes, they admired

the courage of their resolve and the intrepid

contempt of death so many had shown by such

a deed as this.

The diorama on the cover, which in its entirety shows over five thousand military miniatures of Roman legionaries, is part of a major Special Exhibit, opening at Field Museum on 5 May.

Masada, King Herod's Fortress, shown with great acclaim in London and New York, will be at Field Museum through 15 August. The exhibit was organized by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Israel Exploration Society.

In connection with the exhibit. Field Museum is sponsoring a lecture series on the significance of Masada. Four evening lectures will be held on consecutive Tuesdays in May and June. Details on the series and the distinguished speakers are on page 7. The Exhibit tells the story not only of the heroic struggle and brave end of the zealot stronghold, but also the arduous and pains- taking work of Archaeologist Yigael Yadin and more than 5000 volunteers from 28 countries who dug the site in 1963-65. Mr. Yadin tells the story in the following pages.

Page 2 MAT

by

YIGAEL YADIN

Professor of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

MASADA

The rock of masada, at the eastern edge of the wilderness of Jiidea, with a sheer drop of more than 1,300 feet to the western shore of the Dead Sea, is a site of gaunt and majestic beauty. It is also the location of one of the most dramatic episodes in Jewish history.

In the first century c.E. (Common Era — .'V.d.), Palestine was under the occupation of the Romans, who had over- thrown the Jewish Kingdom in the middle of the previous century. Periodic rebellions by the inhabitants, who sought to regain their freedom and sovereignty, were quickly crushed. But in the year 66 c.E., the Jewish rebellion flared into a full-scale country-wide war which raged with fierce bitterness for four years, with the Romans having to bring in legion after legion of reinforcements. In 70 c.E., Titus conquered Jerusalem, sacked the city, destroyed the Temple and expelled many of the Jewish survivors from the country.

One outpost alone held out, Masada. At the beginning of the rebellion, a group of Jewish zealots had destroyed the Roman garrison of Masada and held it throughout the war. They were soon joined by a few surviving patriots from Jerusalem who had evaded capture and expulsion and made the long, arduous trek across the Judean wilderness, deter- mined to continue their battle for freedom. With the fortress of Masada as their base for raiding operations, they harried the Romans for two years. In 72 c.E., Flavius Silva, the commander of the Tenth Roman Legion, resolved to crush this outpost of resistance. He marched on Masada with a legion and auxiliary troops, with thousands of prisoners of war carrying water, timber and provisions across the lengthy stretch of barren plateau. The Jews at the top of the rock, commanded by Eleazar ben Yair, prepared to defend them- selves, making use of the natural and man-made fortifica- tions, and rationing the supplies in their storehouses and cisterns.

Silva's men tried to storm the fortress. They were beaten back. Denied swift victory, they prepared for a lengthy siege. They established camps around the base of the rock; the remains of eight are visible to this day. They built a circumvallation around the fortress. And, on a rocky site near the western approach to Masada, they constructed a ramp of beaten earth and large stones. On this they threw

up a siege tower and, imder covering fire from its top, they moved a battering-ram up the ramp and directed it against the fortress wall. They finally succeeded in effecting a breach. The defenders countered by rapidly building an inner wall consisting of a double stockade of wood filled with earth. Silva's reply was to set this ablaze with fire- brands. This was the beginning of the end. What hap- pened next we know from the writings of the contemporary historian, Josephus Flavius. When "the whole of the wall" was in flames, "the Romans . . . returned to their camp full of spirits, and with a fixed determination to attack the enemy at the break of day. . . ."

That night, at the top of Masada, the Jewish leader, Eleazar ben Yair, reviewed the hopeless position. The de- fensive wall was now consumed. The Romans would over- run them on the following day. There was no hope of relief and none of escape. Two alternatives remained: surrender or death. He resolved "that a death of glory was preferable to a life of infamy, and that the most magnanimous resolu- tion would be to disdain the idea of surviving the loss of their liberty." Rather than become slaves to their conquerers, the defenders — 960 men, women and children — thereupon ended their lives at their own hands. When the Romans reached the height next morning, they were met with silence. Then two women emerged, the only two who had not gone through with Eleazar's plan and had hidden themselves. It is their story that Josephus recoimts.

The top of Masada, scene of this drama, is shaped like a boat, measuring some 1,900 feet from its northern to its southern points and 650 feet from east to west.

It was Herod the Great, King from 37 b.c.e. to 4 b.c.e., who turned Masada into a formidable fort in the early years of his reign, creating a citadel of potential refuge from the threat of Cleopatra of Egypt. He built a casemate wall around the top, defense towers, storehouses, barracks, ar- senals, palaces and also a magnificent palace-villa, built on three terraces of the cliffside just beneath the northern edge of the summit. He also dug large cisterns linked ingenu- ously to dry riverbeds which occasionally filled with rain water. It was these fortifications and buildings that served the last band of Jewish fighters in their struggle against the

MAY Page 3

Romans some 75 years after Herod's death.

All this was known, from Josephiis' minute descriptions, to travellers, explorers and archaeologists who were drawn to the site since its rediscovery by the American, Edward Robinson (father of biblical geography), more than 130 years ago. Those interested in Roman siege-craft could study the easily accessible and uniquely preserved remains of Roman circumvallation, assault rampart and camps at the foot of Masada. But classical archaeologists, interested in these Herodian structures, could do little more than look at the surface remains. After a strenuous climb to the top of the "snake path" on the eastern face, they could experi- ence a sense of achievement simply at having viewed the site, while all thought of excavations was piu out of their minds.

Rectangular Roman camps are still visible after nearly 2000 years.

The Englishman, Captain Condor, in 1867, describing his ascent by the dangerous path with delight wrote, "A false step here would have been destruction : we arrived at the top at 5:20 p.m. and gave three cheers, re-echoed from below." But it was only after the establishment of the State of Israel that more became known of Masada through ama- teur research by the youth of the country. This led in 1955 and 1956, to soundings on the top of the rock by an Israeli archaeological expedition. These showed that Masada could be excavated only by a large-scale expedition camping on the site for a protracted period. It fell to me to direct this archaeological exploration. We imdertook two campaigns : seven months in 1963-4 and five months in 1964-5, and by May 1, 1966, we had excavated 96 per cent of the built-up area of Masada. The remaining three per cent was left unexcavated intentionally so that future visitors could get a before and after picture.

We faced enormous administrative and logistic problems. The Israel army bulldozed a 15-mile track over the Judean wilderness so that we could reach Masada by the easier, western approach, leaving us only a gentle 10-minute climb to the top. The Israel water authority laid a pipeline. We pitched 40 tents for the expedition close to Silva's camp; we had to select an inferior site since Silva had made the strategic choice. From there we built cable-ferries to lift

Volunteers from many countries joined in the excavations

the equipment to the summit. To these difficult conditions were added uncommonly hard winters, with heavy rains and storms.

In addition to teams of professional archaeologists, we had the usual avalanche of applications from Israeli volun- teers whom we took for two-week periods. We then decided on an unusual step and opened our lists to volunteers from overseas. The response was extraordinary. Throughout the two seasons of digging, we were joined by thousands of volunteers from 28 covmtries, who came at their own expense and put in an exciting two-week stint, often extended to many months. If we managed to achieve all we did in 12 months of excavation it is due only to the en- thusiasm of these volunteers from home and abroad, the Israeli youth movements and the Israel ariny.

Our finds are of immense importance to archaeologists, historians, numismatists, Scroll researchers, Talmudic schol- ars and students of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. We were able to clarify the nature of the architecture, art and stra- tigraphy of all Masada's buildings, from Herod's time up to the Byzantine period. We uncovered magnificent first cen- tury iTiosaics, the earliest ever found in Israel. We unearthed the buildings of the Zealots — and gruesome evidence of their last stand. Rare coins were found of the period of the Jew- ish revolt — from 66 to 70 c.E. We discovered extremely

Paged MAT

precious documents, including biblical scrolls, and scrolls of the Dead Sea Sect, which can be absolutely dated from before 73 c.e., the first time that ancient scrolls can be spe- cifically and absolutely dated. And we have been able to recreate the patterns of life on the top of this rock during its various periods of occupation.

The most spectacular building on Masada was Herod's three-tiered palace-villa (hitherto inaccessible except by the use of stakes and rope ladders, but now served by permanent

King Herod's three-tiered palace.

staircases installed for us by the army). On the upper ter- race are remains of a rectangular building used as living quarters, with a magnificent semicircular porch bounded by the cliff. The rooms were adorned with frescoes and simple black and white mosaic floors. The middle terrace, 60 feet below, boasted a circular pavilion and colonnade. The bottom terrace, 40 feet lower, was the outstanding area of the villa, and the best preserved. It contained a double colonnade surrounding a large patio, with wall paintings of colored panels. Though some of these paintings show a naive attempt to imitate marble and precious stones, they are well executed, in the style popular during that period throughout the Roman Empire. This villa is the only spot on Masada which enjoys constant shelter from the searing desert winds. This, in fact, was the structure described by Josephus as Herod's palace. This description, until re- cently, was erroneously taken to refer to the large build- ing in the middle of the western part of the plateau. That, we discovered, was indeed the official palace, but the north- ern terraced structure was Herod's private retreat.

When we excavated Herod's palace, we foimd it com- pletely covered with a thick layer of ashes, and it was in the ashes of the lower terrace that we came across gruesome evidence of the fate of the Jewish defenders. Lying among

coins of the Jewish revolt, a letter in Aramaic, a mantle, arrows and hundreds of silver-plated scales of armor, were the remains of skeletons of a man, a woman and a youth. Dark brown braids were still attached to the scalp of the woman and nearby were her leather sandals. Josephus had written, ". . . and the one man left till last, first surveyed the serried ranks of the dead, in case amidst all the slaughter someone was still left in need of his hand; then, finding that all had been dispatched, set the palace blazing fiercely, and summoning all his strength drove his .sword right through his body and fell dead by the side of his family."

South of the hanging palace were the ruins of a large complex of buildings consisting of long, narrow halls. These

Shaft of light pierces a giant cistern at Masada.

were the famous storerooms built by Herod. We found the floors littered with huge piles of debris, mostly of stone, be- longing to the walls and roofs which had collapsed when the Zealots burned their stores before their suicide. We discov- ered hundreds of jars containing remnants of food, each food item kept in a separate room. Some of the jars had been made in Herod's time, but they were also used by the Jewish defenders, who replenished them, and wrote labels describ- ing their contents in Aramaic and Hebrew. These short inscriptions were of great importance for the history of Hebrew script, since they are unquestionably dated 66- 73 C.E. They also told us much of the way of life of the defenders, for many of these inscriptions indicate that the contents of certain jars were tithes set aside for the Levites and Priests, and show how scrupulously they followed the laws of Moses, even under the harsh conditions of belea- guered Masada.

MAr Pages

Floor of the Roman bath's "hot room " once rested on these squat pillars.

A great surprise awaited us when we started digging near the storerooms. As we went deeper, we came across a classic Roman-style public bath, which turned out to be the largest of its kind ever found in this part of the world, and definitely the best preserved, with all its installations and lavish adorn- ments. The walls of the hot, tepid and cold rooms were covered with frescoes, and their floors beautifully tiled. Also well preserved were the clay pipes for the circulation of hot air, and the numerous squat pillars on which the floor of the hot room rest.

The western palace, the main palace of Herod, was the largest structure on the rock. It was a royal residence com- plete with throne room, reception room, service quarters, and workshops, all very well laid out. Two large, multi- colored mosaics were uncovered here. They are exquisitely executed, and perhaps the finest ever found in Israel. Cer- tainly, they are the most ancient. This palace, too, was covered by a thick layer of ashes in which were found many coins of the revolt bearing the inscription, For the freedom of ^ion. Several small palaces were found near the main pal- ace, obviously built for Herod's family.

Northeast of this palace are the ruins of a small Christian chapel erected by a group of monks in the fifth centurx'. (They also built small cells in various places on Masada.) The structure consists of a rectangular hall oriented toward the east, with an inner apse. It had once been decorated with handsome mosaic paving, most of it long since re- moved. But we were lucky to find a beautiful mosaic still intact in the adjoining room, the vestry.

Our greatest and most important finds were in the cham- bers of the fortress casemate wall which encircles the top of Masada. The Zealots had used these chambers as living quarters, and here we found large quantities of domestic utensils, as well as items made of perishable materials such

as mats, shoes, clothing. In some of the rooms we found a small heap of embers in the corner, with remains of sandals, clothing, mirrors; mute witness for the Josephus record; "They quickly made one heap of all they possessed and set it on fire." Several rooms contained collections of stone balls which had been fired by the Roman catapults. These chambers also yielded numerous bronze and silver coins, including rare silver shekels of the revolt, some inscribed Jerusalem the Holy — Shekel of Israel, and others inscribed Tear Five, the last to be struck before the fall of the Temple. The total number of coins found during the excavation is 4,000. Among them are the equally rare silver half-shekels. This constitutes the biggest corpus of Jewish and Roman coins of the first half of the first century c.e. ever found in excavations. From the Jewish point of view, the four most important buildings we uncovered were a synagogue, two ritual baths {mikveh) and a religious schoolroom, all added by the Zealots to the Herodian buildings. They confirm that the Zeal- ots were strict observers of the Jewish Law; for these three institutions are the most important for a religious commu- nity. The synagogue, abutting the northwestern wall, is a rectangular hall with two rows of columns and mud benches all around. It is oriented toward Jerusalem. This is not only the earliest synagogue known, but the only one to sur- vive from the time of the Second Temple. (The original Herodian structure on this site was probably also a syna- gogue.) Of the ritual baths, the first was found in a case- made chamber in the southeastern section of the wall, and the second in the courtyard of a large administrative build- ing we uncovered just west of the storeroom complex. Both are identical in plan and construction, each having three basins or baths, one of which is supplied by rainwater as required by religious law. These, too, are the only surviving mikvehs from the period of the Second Temple. The school- room {beth midrash) was one of the first important finds of the excavation. It was located south of the western palace, and consists of a long hall, with benches on three sides and one in the center.

Fragment of ancient T' ,V****"

document was one ^ '•'C^ of the most impor- "- --^?^- tant finds.

Page 6 MAT

Our greatest prize was, of course, the collection of parch- ment scrolls that we unearthed, biblical and others. This was the first time such scrolls have been discovered outside caves and in proper stratigraphic contexts, which permits dating them to before the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.E. They include chapters from Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Pslams and Ezekial, and are identical in text, spelling and chapter division with the traditional Hebrew Bible. We also found a scroll fragment of the long lost orig- inal Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Jubilees, one of the most important apocryphal works, which is reserved only in Ethiopic, Greek and Latin manuscripts, but which was suspected to have been originally written in Hebrew. It was very popular with the Dead Sea Scroll Sect. Another important find, also in the Apocrypha, was a first century B.c.E. copy of the lost 200 b.c.e. Hebrew original of Eccle- siasticus, also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Most astonishing perhaps of our finds was a portion of a scroll, identical with one of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments discov- ered in Qumran Cave IV, consisting of liturgies associated with the Heavenly Sabbath sacrifices. Since the Masada Dead Sea Scroll portion can be clearly and definitely dated for the first time as not later than the first half of the first century c.e., it conclusively disproves the views of a very

small minority of scholars who hold that the Dead Sea Scrolls are either not genuine or date only from medieval times.

I should add that in addition to scrolls, we also found no less than 700 ostraca (fragments of pottery bearing in- scriptions) which will be the object of fruitful future study. Among these the most important group, and certainly the most intriguing, consists of eleven small potsherds, each with a different name or nickname, and all written by the same hand. The most startling is the sherd bearing the name of Ben Yair, who may well be the very Zealot commander mentioned by Josephus. Could this group of ostraca refer to the ten or so last surviving men who drew lots among themselves to determine who would remain to kill the others? This is a tempting interpretation.

Our excavations are over. We archaeologists now face the less romantic and more arduous scientific task of exam- ining, studying, and assessing the tensof thousands of sherds, deciphering the inscriptions, elucidating the scrolls, com- pleting our stratigraphic plans, and evaluating all our data both from the archaeological and historical viewpoints. When this material is classified and published, it will, I hope, help to present the scientific and spiritual reconstruction of the Masada that was.

MASADA LECTURE SERIES

"The Historical Context of Masada," by Prof. William F. Albright, W. W. Spence Professor Emeritus of Semitic Lan- guages at Johns Hopkins University, will open a series of four lectures related to the special exhibition on May 14.

Other lectures in the series will include "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Sectarianism," by Prof. Norman Golb, University of Chicago, May 28; "Josephus and Masada," by Prof. Morton Smith, Columbia University, June 4; and "Israel, Crossroads of Empires and Civilizations: Archaeo- logical Evidence," by Prof. Helene Kantor, University of Chicago, June 11.

Prof. Albright, the first lecturer, is an outstand- ing authority on the ar- chaeology of the Near East and is a past president of the International Associ- ation of Old Testament Scholars.

He earned his doctor- ate in Semitic languages from Johns Hopkins Uni- versity in 1916 and from 1919 to 1936 was on the staff of the American School of Oriental Research in

Professor Albright

Jerusalem, twice serving as its director.

Prof. Albright holds 27 honorary doctorates from insti- tutions in sev'cral countries and is a fellow or honorary mem- ber of many learned societies.

.'\mong his many books arc several of general interest, including From the Stone Age to Christianity, Archaeology and the Religion oj Israel, The Archaeology oj Palestine, History, Ar- chaeology and Christian Humanism, and Tahweh and the Gods oj Canaan. With David Noel Freedman, he edits the Double- day Anchor Bible.

Prof. Morton Smith, Professor of Ancient History at Co- lumbia University, earned his doctorate in theology at the Harvard Divinity School. His thesis, "Judaism in Pales- tine I, to the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes," was recast as a series of lectures on the History of Religions of the American Council of Learned Societies. He is co-author of The Ancient Greeks and Heroes and Gods (with Moses Hadas) .

Prof. Norman Golb and Prof. Helene Kantor are both on the faculty of the Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Uni- versity of Chicago.

Prof. Golb, Associate Professor of Medieval Jewish Stud- ies, made several discoveries and identifications of Jewish documents while secretary of the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Prof. Kantor, Professor of Archaeology, is a specialist in comparative archaeology and art of the ancient Near East and formative stages of its civilizations. With P. P. De- lougaz, she directed excavations at the large prehistoric settlements and protohistoric urban centers of Beth Yerah (Sea of Galilee) and Chogha Mish (Khuzestan, Iran).

The lecture series tickets are S5.00 for Museum Mem- bers and $7.50 for non-members. Lectures will be held on consecutive Tuesdays at 8:15 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre. The "Masada" exhibit will be open on the eve- nings when lectures are held.

MAT Page 7

a Chicago original

The Burnham Plan

and Field Museum

by Patricia M. Williams, Field Museum Press

Right, The piers which support Field Museum, surrounded by fill. The piers, in turn, are built on piles, some of which go down nearly a hundred feet below lake level. Photo was taken looking northwest. It is interesting that the Michigan Avenue sky- line, after half a century, still has most of the buildings shown here, although many additions have been made. These were the great land- marks of the Chicago School of architectiire, buildings by Adler, Sullivan, Daniel Burnham.

The arches oj ,;.« -t.t.iid floor gallery. I'u tin Ufl, between the arches, one now looks down into Stanley Field Hall. The area shown houses a remarkable collection of Chinese pottery and metal work. Photo was taken in January, 1919.

Today downtown Chicago is in the midst of an enormous construction boom, and controversy rages over almost every building that goes up. The traditionalists call the new buildings glass boxes, the futurists decry the lack of archi- tectural imagination, and the average pedestrian complains about the mud all over the sidewalks surrounding construc- tion sites.

The Columbian Exposition of 1893 created a lakefront building boom too, that was the subject of great dissension. At that time Chicago was an important force in modern architecture, and designers and writers maligned the neo- classical "White City" that was the fair. Not only did the Fair slow down the modern movements in architecture, they accused, but it "strangled the bustling Chicago style" as well.

"But even that much-maligned World's Columbian Ex- position of 1893 was full of technological marvels; however fake the exhibition buildings looked on the outside, the great steel vaults of the Manufacturers Building were anything but fake. And the fantastic Ferris wheel in the amusement

Pages MAY

:i^ ^_ l2-

rr- T> 'imirif '^^THfl PT • ff^-" tr* f ■ i V

area, and such giant machinery as the huge Bethlehem steam hammer (the largest then extant) — all these were evidence of a continuing love affair between Chicago and technology in all its aspects."'

The Field Museum was one of the marvels of this con- troversial fair. But when the Exposition was over and the fanfare died away, the Museum lived on to become a dig- nified and permanent resident of the lakefront. It did not, however, live on in the same building. The original build- ing in Jackson Park was constructed only for a summer's use and by 1897 was rapidly deteriorating. The roof leaked con- stantly, and the exhibits inside were exposed to damage. The steady disintegration and fall of the substance covering the outside walls made the building look a shambles. By 1900 the Museum's Director stated that it had been neces- sary to reconstruct the roof almost completely, and in 1902 he reported that the whole building had reached the limits of repair.

' Architectural Forum, May, 1962, p. 125.

In 1905 plans for a new building were considered, but before these plans were completed the Jackson Park build- ing suffered further collapse, and fences were erected to protect the public from falling mortar. Inside, the collec- tions were growing as the building died. In 1913 Director Skiff wrote, "If the pressure for space continues, as it seems likely it will do, some portions of the Museum must be closed off as an improvised warehouse where cases can be stored. ... In some of the coiu-ts and halls the circulation provisions have been reduced to two-feet passageways which really almost prohibits an inspection of the cases." ■

Before Marshall Field died in 1906, he worked closely with Daniel Burnham, the renowned designer and planner, on the plans for the new Museum building. Despite the critics. Field liked the design of the Jackson Park building and of the Exposition in general and wanted the new build- ing to follow this same tradition.

The Exposition had been planned and built under Burn- ham's management, and it was this Fair that sparked his

MAT Page 9

interest in city planning and great civic enterprise. Burn- ham, who coined the slogan so dear to every city planner's heart — "Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir man's blood," rightly believed that Chicago would never again have the opportunity to devise a grand plan for the city, so he set about to devise such a plan.

According to Architectural Foriim,^ "The 1909 Burnham Plan for Chicago'' is the classic American master plan. It was not the first of its kind. But in its time it was the most

structure in the world has ever had a nobler setting than this would be."

Burnham's plan placed the Museum at Congress Street, directly behind what is now Buckingham Fountain. The Museum's east steps were to lead right to the water's edge where Burnham envisioned a brilliantly-lighted yacht basin, surrounded by floating islands reachable only by boat. On the west, the Museum was to face the fountain and beyond that the Confjress Street axis reaching west to Civic Centre

Corner slone ceremony, September 28, 1911. The Staff of Field Museum of Natural History.

thorough appraisal of a city ever made, and its proposals envisioned the most complete redevelopment of a city till then attempted. And looking at the Burnham Plan today, it is astounding that so much of it was realized.

"Indeed, most of the major features of today's Chicago are products of the plan : the grand boulevard development of Michigan Avenue, the elegant foundations and the ter- races of Grant Park, the double-decked Wacker Drive and bridges across the Chicago River, the axial cut of the Con- gress Street Expressway, and the long string of lagooned parks to the north and south along the lake. Even the 90- degree turns on the Outer Drive at the crossing of the Chi- cago River mark an incomplete stage of the plan, which was faithfully followed up through World War II."

However, as was to be expected, much of Burnham's plan was not realized. In a speech introducing his plan to the noted Merchants Club, Biu-nham said, "The principal feature of the Grant Park should be the Field Columbian Museum, which should lie in the center of it, leaving a parade ground on the north and a playground on the south of it."

He went on, "Pictine to yourselves a stately white mu- seum, resting on the Grand Terrace called the Lake Front, and dominating all the elements of it; the lawns, the foun- tains, the monuments, all of which should be placed so as to have some reference to that particular building. No

' .irchitfclural Forum, May, 1962, p. 108.

Square at Halsted Street.

Obviously, the location of the Field Museum was a facet of Burnham's plan that went awry. A provision in Marshall Field's will gave the Museum $4,000,000 "for a building to be erected upon a site to be furnished for that purpose, pro- vided a suitable one is procured within six years from the date of Mr. Field's death." The Board of Trustees, led by Stanley Field, who was the driving force behind the con- struction of the building, immediately began negotiations for the desired Grant Park site. However, opposition to placing any building in the park developed, and following extended legal negotiations, the central Grant Park site was abandoned.

In 1911, after considering several proposed sites in vari- ous parts of Chicago, the Board accepted a site in Jackson Park immediately north of the old building for construction of the new building. A contract was entered into and prep- arations begun for construction. Steel was at the site, the marble was being quarried and collections of the Depart- ment of Geology were moved from the west annex, where they had been housed, to the central part of the building when, in 1914, the South Park Commissioners offered a site in the reclaimed area just south of Grant Park.

The offer was accepted, the steel and marble transferred, and on July 26, 1915 construction work began. Rather than breaking ground, Thompson-Starrett, the builders, had to begin by filling ground. The natural elevation of the site

Page 10 M.AY

was some 30 feet below the floor of the projected Miiseimi basement, and it took over a year to accompUsh the filling.

Although the technique used was not uncommon, the laying of the foundation was a lengthy part of the construc- tion job. The foundation consistsof clusters of wood pilings which start below the lake level and extend another 65-95 feet down. Some of these pilings go to rock, others encoun- tered a hard substance before the rock level.

These piles support 30 feet tall concrete piers which reach up to the groimd floor. The number of piles in a cluster is not uniform, but varies with the location of the cluster. For examply, there are 22 piles in the cluster that support the piers between the windows in the exterior walls, while the piers supporting the walls adjacent to Stanley Field Hall are atop 12-pile clusters.'

The next step, the setting of the outside marble, began in May, 1917. The exterior walls are 21 inches thick and the outer six inches of that are white marble, making the marble a structural element as well as a beautiful facing. (This is in marked contrast to the current trend of using a curtain or veneer of marble solely as a decorative element with no structural function.)

By the end of 1917, the east and west wings of the build- ing were practically complete, as was the basement work of the north and south entrances. Brick and steel work, plumbing, steam fitting, tile and glass work, and roofing all moved according to plan. Levels were taken constantly for any sign of settlement or movement.

In 1918 the Museum was imsettled by an element that no level could predict. World War I was going badly, American casualties were heavy, and the national govern- ment found itself short of hospitals needed in the event of a protracted war. Therefore, the government contracted to use the new Museum building "for three years as a Govern- ment hospital." This change in plans speeded up construc- tion— until the Armistice was signed. With the war over, the government had no further interest in the Museum building and cancelled the contract. As Director SkiflT so nicely phrased it, all of this had a "confusing and disturbing effect upon the affairs of the Museum."

Following lengthy negotiations, but "no serious dispute," the Museum accepted an allowance from the government "as full satisfaction of expenses incurred and additional cost imposed during the time the Government controlled build- ing operations."

All the major contracts were closed and, except for the terrace, the building was complete on or about June 1, 1920, approximately five years from the date when construction began.

' The data regarding the foundation and the thickness of the walls was provided by Harry M. Weese & Associates, Architects.

Progress. Top, October 15, 1915: while pile drivers sink the pilings which support the building, fill is brought to the site on special railway spurs. Center, July 6, 1915: mortar men and brick layers working on the ground floor level. The open area now houses the Division of Reptiles and Amphibians and the Division of Fishes. Bottom, August 2!f, 1919: work has progressed to the second floor, and struc- tural steel roofing for the internal bay areas has been put in place. View is toward the Southeast.

Ii sat alone in the midst of a sea of iniid. Tliere were no sidewalks or streets leading to it, only a few crude roads and footpaths crossing the newly-made land. A reporter for the Architectural Record poetically wrote that the Museum was "isolated on a dirt flat, from which its Georgian marble mass gleams like a white growth in black loam."

This ''Georgian marble mass" was closely patterned on the Erechtheiiim, one of the temples of the Acropolis in Athens which are generally recognized as the finest ex- amples of the Ionic order. Contrary to the old temple form, however, the great area and especially the long ridge and attic lines tend to create an almost squat appearance.

credit to a stevedore. Yet, in spite of this — or perhaps be- cause of it — they bear an unquestionable dignity.

Above each caryatid porch there is a horizontal relief panel which represents one of the four divisions of the Mu- seum— Anthropology, Botany, Geology and Zoology. These panels are quite decorative, displaying an abundance of floating ribbon, flowing draperies and feathery wings.

The four figures flanking the arches of Stanley Field Hall complete Hering's work. These figures are intended to be symbolic of the use and inspiration of the Museum : Science, Dissemination of Knowledge, Research and Record.

Hering designed eight more figures — Fire, Earth, Air

The most famous view of Field Museum is looking south from Lake Shore Drive at the North Door. Here is the North Door under construction, May, 1918. The supports under the columns give an idea of how deep the fill is around the Museum. Today, visitors climb 38 steps to reach the columns and the North Entrance.

Height restrictions laid down for structures in the lakefront area account in great measure for the architect's faihne to adhere to the Ionic form throughout.

In addition to his passion for Greek and Roman archi- tecture, Daniel Burnham had a passion for cleanliness. His biographer, Charles Moore, relates, "To Mr. Burnham cleanliness seemed not next to godliness, but on a par with it. Hence his use of white marble and glass in corridors. He planned so that every spot should show, and hence the building must be kept clean." The Museum's maintenance staflfcan testify to the great eff"ectiveness of Burnham's plan- ning in this area.

Henry Hering created the sculpture that embellishes the Museum inside and out. There are eight caryatids on the exterior of the building and, while at first glance they may seem to be identical, there are actually two types. These types are very similar in mass and movement, but vary in such details as hairstyle, neckline and drapery folds. The caryatids are ail alike, however, in that their feet are huge, their hips more than generous and their shoulders would do

and Water; North, South, East and West — to be set across the attic (the area immediately above the columned doors), but these figures were never executed in marble and the attic remains devoid of statuary.

All in all, the Museum building took over five years and more than $7,000,000 to build. A representative of Thonip- son-Starrett, the construction engineers that built it, esti- mates that to duplicate this building today would take at least three years and $24,000,000, assuming all equipment and material was readily available. However, as Mr. Wil- liam Dring of Harry M. Weese and Associates pointed out, it is inconceivable that anyone would contemplate erecting an identical building today. One could be built which to outward appearances would look much the same, but struc- turally it would be very different from the Museum building.

Resting comfortably on its 30 feet of fill, the Museum building is a reminder, then, of the rising cost of living and Chicago real estate values, changing technology, a fantastic lakefront fair and an architect's dream, as well as a mag- nificent Chicago landmark.

Page 12 .MAT

Destination:

Preparations are in the final stages for the third nianmial survey expedition to be led by Mr. and Mrs. William S. Street in cooperation with Field Museum. The expedition will do field research in Tiukey beginning in June.

Against the background of the usual scientific work in the Division of Mammals, two yoimg mammalogists who will be members of the expedition have been involved for several weeks in the many details of obtaining and packing the necessary equipment and in the intense study required before the survey begins.

The expedition leaders, William S. and Janice K. Street, formerly of Chicago and now of Seattle, Wash., have previ- ously made mammal surveys of Iran in 1962 and Afghani- stan in 1965.

The mammalogists of the present expedition are Daniel R. Womochel, a graduate student from Texas Technologi- cal College, and Anthony F. DeBlase, a graduate student from Oklahoma State University.

Womochel has had two separate field work experiences in the past year, one involving summer field work on lem- mings in Alaska in 1967 and the other in collecting ecto- parasites from southern hemisphere seals and birds in Ant- arctica in the winter of 1967-68. He also participated in two summer expeditions to Mexico from Michigan State University in 1962 and 1963 and earned his master's degree from Texas Tech with a thesis on a field study of eight native species of Texas rodents.

Anthony DeBlase, a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., has collected and banded bats in Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas and will use this experience to investi- gate the cave bats of Turkey.

On the Turkish mammal survey, DeBlase will specialize in study of the native predator species, including small shrews, moles and hedgehogs, which prey upon insects, and

William S. and Janice K. Street, leaders of the mammal survey of Turkey, have directed two previous expeditions. These photos were taken during their 7962 expedition to Iran, the most extensive mam- mal survey ever made in that country.

medium-sized foxes, jackals, wildcasts and lynxes, which feed upon rodents, hares and birds.

Womochel will concentrate on the prey species of Turk- ish mammals. Among the rodent species he expects to study in the field and collect for further study in Chicago are hamsters and gerbils. He also hopes to make observa- tions in Turkey on two hoofed species which also occur in Europe, the chamois and the wild sheep of the Mediter- ranean Islands, Corsica and Sardinia.

Both young scientists plan to work for doctorate degrees, with dissertations on the scientific results of the expedition.

Departure date for the expedition's mammalogists de- pends upon when the S. S. Neptune, the first ship from Chi- cago, reaches the eastern Mediterranean. Already aboard the Neptune are the Field Museum's two specially-outfitted International Harvester Travelalls. Forty wooden boxes full of camping gear and the scientific equipment for collec- tion of mammal specimens and for recording data in the field are also on that ship.

MAT Page 13

On the Mitseum's top floor, expedition mammalogists Daniel Womo- chel (left) and Anthony DeBlase itemize and pack some of the hun- dreds of items included in the equipment for the Street mammal survey of Turkey. The equipment filled more than 40 wooden crates.

Mr. and Mrs. Street will be setting up expedition head- quarters in Ankara the second week in May and will cable for their young scientists to emplane when the Neptune reaches port in Istanbul.

Lists of the expedition needs run into hundreds of items and a sampling of these gives an indication of the complex- ities involved in planning the survey. The items include two triple-beam balance scales, three animal predator calls, two camouflage nets, two alarm clocks, one collapsed cook- ing stove, one potato peeler, eight salad forks, two snake bite kits, three inflatable splints for legs, four cans of Ojf insect repellent, two cans of Raid, one 6 by 8-inch camp mirror, 24 harmonicas and 1,000 balloons. The last two groups of items are destined for youngsters living in the villages near which the expedition will camp.

The scientists who accompanied the Streets on the two previous mammal surveys to southwestern Asia have both contributed manuscripts now being published by the Field Museum Press.

"A Study of the Mammals of Iran, Resulting from the Street Expedition of 1962-63," by Douglas M. Lay, was published in October, 1967, as part of the scientific series, Fieldiana: ^oologji. Lay and Mr. and Mrs. Street collected 1,728 specimens of mammals from all parts of Iran and pro- vided the most comprehensive scientific study ever published on the mammals of Iran. Lay is now completing his doc- torate research which grew out of discoveries he made dur- ing the investigation of Iranian mammals.

Jerry Hassinger left graduate studies at the University of California to accompany the Streets on their 1965 mam- mal survey in Afghanistan and his first 100-page work is scheduled for publication in Fieldiana: ^oology this year. He is currently completing another manuscript on the terrestrial mammals of Afghanistan.

Page 14 MAY

recent acquisitions — anthropology

MRS. A.W.F. FULLER GIVES CARVED LUBA BOWSTAND

A SCULPTURED bowstand from the Luba people of the Kin- shasa Congo Republic is among miscellaneous objects from the collection of the late Captain A. W. F. Fuller recently acquired by Field Museum as a gift from Mrs. Fuller.

The bowstand, of carved wood except for a chisel-shaped ferrule at its base, has three prongs radiating from the han- dle. The figure of a woman, decorated with a pattern of body scars characteristic of the Luba, forms the body of the bowstand.

Among this people of the Upper Lualaba River, sculp- tured items, such as the bowstand, play more than a utili- tarian role. Sculpture incorporating the human figure is believed to be associated with the Luba nobility.

Some objects closely as- sociated with the Luba chiefs are regarded by the people as having supernatural qual- ities and are handed down as heirlooms to chiefs that fol- low. W. F. P. Burton, a missionary who spent 34 years among the Luba, com- mented that "Every chief- tainship has certain objects of veneration, which may be considered as the expression of the very entity of the com- munity." He said that these objects were beyond price and, in addition, any Luba would rather risk his life than let an heirloom fall into the hands of an enemy. Limited information available on the use and social sig- nificance of the bowstand indicates it is set in the grovmd or wall near the bed, where bows, arrows and spears are held by resting them in between the prongs. Responsibility for the weapons and bowstand was given to one of the chiefs first wives, who may also have carried his weapons when he went to war. Among peoples descended from the Luba, bowstands are also kept and transmitted as heirlooms of de- ceased chiefs.

The bow is the traditional Luba weapon for hunting and war and figures prominently in enthronement rituals. To receive one of the highly prized heirlooms is indicative of the highest esteem of the Luba nobility. Young men wish- ing to have a noble as a patron would present that person with an arrow.

NEW CURATOR JOINS ANTHROPOLOGY STAFF

Dr. stephan gasser, 29, a native of Basel, Switzer- land, was recently appointed Assistant Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology in the Field Museum Department of Anthropology.

He studied under Professor Alfred Buehler at the University of Basel and specialized in the eth- nology of Indonesia, a tradition at the university since the 19th century. Dr. Gasser received his doctorate in 1967, after completing his thesis, "Pottery Craft in Indonesia," which required re- search at museums in both Switzerland and the Netherlands.

At Field Museum, Dr. Gasser will conduct research with the Museum's large Indonesian collections and he is also considering the possibility of investigating historical relations between Oceania and Middle and South America.

Prior to joining the Museum stafT, he spent two months studying Mexican archaeological sites with several Mexican anthropologists.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

May hours: May 1-4, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 5-September 2, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

May 3 Member's Night Special preview of temporary exhibit, "Masada, King Herod's Fortress," from 3 to 10 p.m. Two half-hour music and dance pro- grams, featuring the Amranian Brothers, Israeli Folk singers, and the Habonian Israeli Folk Dance Troupe from Chicago, will be held at 7 and 9 p.m. Lecture, "Masada, A State of Mind," by Marc Michaelson, Director of Publicity for the Tourism Council of Greater Chicago, at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.

May 4 Latin Day in Illinois Sponsored by the Illinois Classical Conference, state high school Latin students will attend illustrated lectures in James Simpson Theatre and tour exhibit areas in the day-long program.

May 5 "Masada" Exhibit opens to the public, through August 15.

May 14 Tuesday Evening Lecture Series First of four lectures in conjunction with "Masada" Exhibit. Prof. William Albright, Johns Hopkins University, will speak on "The Historical Context of Masada." Subscription series also includes programs on May 28, June 4 and June 11, 8:15 p.m., James Simpson Theatre. See page 7 for details.

May 1 8-1 9 Weekend Botany and Geology Field Trip to Galena, conducted by Botanist Gabriel Edwin and Geologist Matthew Nitecki, Museum Curators. The Curators will conduct two other field trips, to Starved Rock State Park, May 25-26, and to Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin, June 8-9. Cost is estimated at $20.00 for each trip or $50.00 for all three. Preliminary lecture for all three field trips will be held at 10 a.m. on May 4 at the University of Chicago Downtown Center, 65 E. South Water Street. Details are available from Barbara O'Connor, FI 6-8300.

Through May: Spring Journey: Plants That The American Indians Used.

MEETINGS:

Chicago Shell Club, May 5, 2 p.m.

Nature Camera Club of Chicago, May 14, 7:45 p.m.

Illinois Orchid Society. May 19, 2 p.m.

Great Lakes Chapter of Sierra Club, May 21 , 7 :30 p.m.

OFFER SUMMER GEOLOGY COURSES

Two non-credit courses in geology for elementary teachers and supervisors will be offered this summer by the Raymond Foimdation of Field Museum.

"Fossils and the Geology of the Chi- cago Area," 8 sessions, will be offered from Jime 24 through July 3. Registra- tion fees: Non-members, $15.00; Mem- bers, $12.50.

"An Introduction to Rocks and Min- erals," 10 sessions, will be offered from July 15 through July 26. Registration fee: Non-members, $20.00; Members, $17.50.

Registration fees for both courses are $30.00 for non-members and $25.00 for members.

Ernest Roscoe talks with teachers during a previous summer session in Geology

Each class will begin at 10 a.m. and last about four hours on weekdays. A lecture-demonstration and laboratory periods for individual study will be in- cluded. Instructor for both courses will be Ernest J. Roscoe, Lecturer in Geol- ogy, Raymond Foundation.

Registration is limited, and interested teachers are asked to write Raymond Foundation, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, 111. 60605, for applica- tions and further information. Regis- tration will close June 3.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE CHICAOO. ILLINOIS tOSOS A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

MAT Page 15

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTOR

Volume 39, Number 6 June 1968

Two-thirds of the students who have worked with Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator Emeritus of Anthropology, over the last several decades, have gone on to gain doctorates. In the last two years, Martin's work with students has been aided by grants from the Undergraduate Research Participation Program of National Science Foundation. These grants have enabled Martin to expand and formalize his Summer School of Archaeology at Field Museum's field station in Vernon, Arizona. At Vernon, each student works on a private research project, as well as on the general archaeological work. The Bulletin here presents one such report on a small structure found during a survey of Hay Hollow, Arizona. The author, Christopher Vi/hite, has worked with Martin for several years, and will, next year, go into graduate work in Anthropology.

SUMMER REPORT

by Christopher A. White

Research Assistant, Anthropology

A portion of Hay

Hollow prior to the

start of excavations. Hay

Hollow Valley, in East

Central Arizona,

has proved to be the site of

a prehistoric agricultural

community.

Since the beginning of the Hay Hollow Valley Project six years ago, we have been attempting to define and explain the total range of behavior of prehistoric man in this eastern Arizona valley. By viewing all patterns of behavior and changes in these patterns we will try to isolate meaningful regularities and factors of causality.

An important aspect of the overall study deals with the investigation of the relationships existing between man and his total environment. This interest led us, last summer, to initiate an intensive archaeological survey of a little-studied region forming the eastern periphery of the valley. The area was a large and rugged ancient lava flow- that rises 500 to 600 feet above the valley floor. W'e wanted to know what kinds of cultural activities were taking place in the area, where they were taking place, u/ien they were taking place, and hopefully, wh^ they were taking place.

In the course of the survey we discovered a site located on the edge of a sandy terrace approximately 500 feet up the side of the moimtain. It appeared to reflect a specialized activity previously unknown to us in the valley. After de- veloping several working hypotheses on the possible func- tion of this site, we proceeded to excavate it. The primary feature consisted of a semicircular windbreak constructed of basalt boulders, each of the two segments being approxi- mately 5 feet long. At the time of occupation the structure may have been about 4 feet high. Inside the windbreak there was a single firepit w^hich contained large pieces of charcoal. The structure faces southwest, the direction of the prevailing, often stormy, winds. Without some protec- tion, maintaining a fire for warmth or cooking would be extremely difficult. In and around the structure we found small quantities of stone tools and a number of brown cor-

Page2 JUNE

rugated potsherds which appear to be from a single jar. The pottery would date the site at around a.b. 1000. The relative scarcity of artifacts is a significant factor in inferring the type of activity that may have been performed there. From other archaeological sources and from analogy with present-day Pueblo Indian agricultural practices, we have hypothesized that the site represents a temporary agri- cultural field camp used by people who maintained perma- nent residence at one of the pueblo villages in the valley bottom. During the short growing season the Hopi Indians

appears that the Indians began to abandon their numerous small pueblos, coming to live together in larger and fewer villages. It has been suggested that this aggregation may have served to insure greater economic cooperation during the time of hardship.

We hypothesize that it was during this time of significant changes in the habitat and social organization that the In- dians began farming the terrace adjacent to the site we exca- vated in addition to similar terraces on the mountain side. What we may be seeing is an agricultural pattern similar to

Excavated basalt structure at Hay Hollow included sherd cluster (upper center of photo) and firepil and possible cobble ring (left of intersecting lines in right of photo.)

often build small temporary shelters near their fields because the fields are not uncommonly located far from their homes. It is frequently necessary for the Indians to stay close to the field to keep away birds and other animals that might de- stroy the crop. Another feature related to the site and deserving comment was a number of small boulders in a pile near the edge of the terrace. The Indians may ha\e made this pile in the process of removing these stones from the terrace in order to make it more suitable for growing their corn.

We have strong evidence to suggest that sometime about A.D. 1000 there was an apparently significant meteorological change in the area. There was a shift from a more or less even yearly distribution of rainfall to a pattern of summer maximum precipitation as is typical in the Southwest today. It is believed that this change made maize farming in the valley precarious. Simultaneous with change in habitat it

that of the contemporary Pueblo Indians. To prevent wide- spread starvation, they plant their corn on a number of different types of land with varying slopes, and soils, so that if the summer thundershowers destroy the crop on one type of landform, the entire crop will not be lost. We suggest that a "cover-all-bets" agricultural practice similar to this may have been emerging in the Hay Hollow Valley at this time. There are additional data which tend to support this hypothesis. It appears, however, that this innovation in agricultural practices was not enough to sustain the pop- ulation. The valley was abandoned around a.d. 1300 and the Indians moved to areas with permanent streams.

The small site that we excavated is in itself insignificant, but it provides us with additional information concerning modifications of subsistence patterns concomitant with with changes in the habitat and social organization in Hay Hollow Valley at approximately a.d. 1000.

JUAE Page 3

MEMORANDUM FROM THE DESK OF E. LELAKD WEBBER, DIRECTOR

Field Museum's Natural History Tours are based, like the Museum itself, on the belief that, in this era of crowded concrete and steel cities, a balanced view of the world and its problems today requires keeping in contact with the basic realities of nature.

For this reason, our program of natural history tours.

The Brazil Tour, February lU-March 11, \i±ll emphasize the botany, geology, zoology and ethnology of that vast nation, so rich in natural history. The group, limited to 35 tourists, mil be led by Phil Clark, the Musexm's public relations counsel and an expert on plants and gardening. Field Musevun's Chief Ciirator of Zoology, Dr. Austin Rand, will accompany the tour as a specialist in fauna, particiilarly the birds. At various stops, the group -ivill spend time with such outstanding Brazilians as the naturalist Augusto Ruschi, the landscape designer and botanist Roberto Burle Marx and the geologist Francisco Mueller Basto.

We have sought in the Tour's careful advance planning, not Just a superficial "tourist's eye" view, but to show Brazil in its many-dimensioned reality: the people and the history in their natural setting of plants and animals, mountains, plains and seas.

This is Field Museum's third tour. The others, also led and planned by Phil Clark, were to Guatemala and Mexico.

Page 4 JUNE

The Many- Faceted Jewel:

B

R

A

z I

L