Posted on 05/17/2006 8:48:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
My state, Virginia, is gearing up for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, and buried in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum is one of the crowning pieces of early American history.
According to Capt. John Smith, Jamestown's military leader, native American Chief Powhatan gave another colonist his royal shell-covered mantle not long after the colonists' landing in 1607. In his diary, Captain Smith proclaimed that American nobles wore such deerskin capes.
Two decades later, Smith willed his accumulations to an English "curiosity" collector who gathered rarities from sea captains, ambassadors, and merchants. By 1634, people were coming to John Tradescant the Elder's house "persuing, and that superficially, such as he had gathered."
One 1638 visitor recorded seeing "the robe of the King of Virginia," and by 1656, so many people wanted a look that Mr. Tradescant's son, the Younger, began selling tickets. That piece was cataloged, "Pohatan, King of Virginia's habit all embroidered with shells, or Roanoke."
At the Younger's death, the collection was deeded to Elias Ashmole who chose Oxford to house his museum in 1683. Today, tucked away on the second floor of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology are the remains of Tradescant's artifacts, including an item labeled in 1886 as the "earliest North American Indian garment to survive."
Many today would feel safe pronouncing this Powhatan's mantle.
I doubt that I have native American blood, but, as an American, I'm glad that Powhatan and Messrs. Smith, Tradescant, and Ashmole, as well as the museum curators since, decided to preserve this relic before it turned to dust. I can only hope it might be returned to Virginia for the 400th anniversary of this country's oldest settlement.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
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Excellent! Those of us who have ancestors who met our other ancestors on the beach appreciate anything Native American.
My dad had a deerskin gauntlet embroidered with beads and porcupine quills that was made for my great-great grandfather when he was in the cavalry, but it "disappeared" shortly after my dad died.
I have no idea where it went.
Archaeologists Debate Whether to Ignore the Pasts of Relics
New York Times | May 2, 2006 | Hugh Eakin
Posted on 05/02/2006 2:01:22 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1625109/posts
Director of Getty Is Unrattled by Claims of Italy and Greece to Antiquities
New York Times | May 15, 2006 | Hugh Eakin
Posted on 05/17/2006 11:53:13 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1633771/posts
Did you check ebay? You would be surprised what you can buy there. Entire Sumerian steles are for sale. Horrible.
No, I don't go to eBay...I have enough trouble with temptation as it is...;o]
I'll check it out though, and see what I can find. I know there were two originally, but I don't know who got the second one.
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