Natural Museum Collections Research Articles

Exploring Carolingian and Romanesque cycles: a study of the detached wall paintings from the Church of St. Johann in Müstair

Twenty-six fragment of wall paintings detached from the upper register of the Carolingian and Romanesque cycles of the church of St. John in Müstair (Switzerland) have been part of the Swiss National Museum collection since the beginning of the twentieth century. As some of these objects were in a critical state of conservation, a research project was launched to assess and document their conditions, and to gain knowledge about painting materials and execution techniques, in view of planning a conservation project. In a first phase, non-destructive analyses were carried out, using handheld XRF and portable FTIR spectroscopy; followed by the targeted collection of samples for detailed analysis in the laboratory. In parallel, similar investigations were carried out on the imprints left on the walls of the church’s attic. The results allowed the identification of the pigment palette and the execution technique. Besides earth pigments such as ochres, a lime-based white, probably bianco di San Giovanni, and limited amounts of lapis lazuli were used in both painting cycles. For the Carolingian cycle, Egyptian blue and mixtures of several lead-based pigments were also identified. In several instances, the deterioration of lead-based pigments resulted in shades of grey to black severely modifying the original appearance of the wall paintings. Additionally, both cycles have suffered from pigment alteration due to fire. The obtained results, together with iconographic considerations, allowed for an extended interpretation of possible original colour palette.Graphical

An Automated Early Warning Biosecurity Alert System for Finland

Effective and timely pest plant and animal control necessitates access to relevant biodiversity data as quickly as possible. For Finland, on Europe's frontier, biosecurity is of particular importance. The Natural Resources Institute Finland and the Finnish Food Authority are the organisations responsible for biosecurity in Finland. The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) is a data repository for researchers, government and the public. FinBIF consolidates datasets of living Finland from many providers at a single online source. The data held in FinBIF's data warehouse include the results of national monitoring programs, museum collections and citizen science platforms. On average, over the last five years more than 10,000 occurrence records have been collated by FinBIF per day. These records often include invasive taxa or pest plants and animals that require control. FinBIF acts as bridge between biodiversity data collectors, researchers, other government agencies and the two organisations responsible for Finnish biosecurity. An automated early warning system has been established to alert biosecurity coordinators at the Natural Resources Institute Finland and the Finnish Food Authority as soon an occurrence record of biosecurity concern enters the FinBIF data warehouse. We outline the development of the alert system, its implementation to date, and present some of the lessons learned so far and prospects for the future.

Mnemonic ‘Boundary Objects’ and Postcolonial Restitution

AbstractDrawing on new materialist and object-centered historical criticism, this article analyses colonial and post-colonial discourses of the Greenlandic figurines of the mythical being of ill-wishing and revenge, tupilak (plural form: tupilait). It focuses on three tupilak figures, made in 1905/1906 by a shaman Mitsivarniannga on a request of a Danish ethnographer William Thalbitzer, which today are part of the Danish National Museum collections. In the early 20th century, Greenlandic tupilait (and Inuit cultural production in general) were an object of fascination among European collectors, artists, and the general public. Asking what these objects had come to mean in (and for) Europe, this article points to marginalized Greenlandic narratives of Mitsivarniannga’s tupilat, and builds a critical narrative of these objects as material effects of the disruptions of indigenous community and sustenance by Western colonialism. Drawing on critical insights from the current post-colonial restitution debates, it problematizes the differential political-economic conditions and relations of power, under which the colonial acquisitions and procurements took place. The article argues that cultural heritage items, such as the three tupilat, are mnemonic ‘boundary objects’ that can potentially forge links between disparate memories of colonialism in Denmark and Greenland.

Eesti kõrkjapõhjaga toolide materjal ja valmistamisprotsess / Wooden chairs with rush seats: material and making process

Wooden chairs with rush seats have been a part of North- and West-European vernacular furniture since at least the 17th century. The same type of chairs with woven seats are represented among the Estonian vernacular chairs as well, but no research has been done on this topic so far. The term “rush seats” (kõrkjapõhjad) has been used in museum collections records as well as archival sources to denote the seats woven of plant material. The aim of the present article is to analyse what plant species have been used for making “rush seats”, how the plant material was prepared for weaving, what the work process was like, and which variations can be found in the patterns of surviving rush seats.
 Our source material includes the rush seat chairs in the Estonian National Museum (ENM) collections and archival sources from the ENM, as well as the Institute of the Estonian Language archive of the Estonian dialects and Finno-Ugric languages (EMSUKA). As the information concerning our research topic in the archival records was rather limited, a considerable part of our research is based on museum artefact analysis, including botanical analysis of the plant material, complemented by a practice-based approach.
 There are 28 rush seat chairs dating from the late 19th to early 20th centuries in the ENM collections. The vernacular plant names used in the archival sources (kõrkjas, luga) do not correspond to the current botanical nomenclature, therefore it remains unclear which plant species were used for weaving chair seats. In 15 chair seats inflorescence were discovered inside the woven plant material, analysis of which identified it as lakeshore bulrush (Schoenoplectus lacustris). In coastal regions, Schoenoplectus tabernaemontanii growing in salt water has also been used. In one case, the seat material is broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia).
 According to some data in literature, the lake bulrushes were collected for weaving around St John’s Day, i.e. in late June before the inflorescence appeared. However, the inflorescence found inside the seats confirmthat the plants have been, at least partly, collected later, in July. For our own experiments, we have collected bulrushes in early July.
 In the ENM collections, 12 seats have been woven of one-ply bulrush string, and 16 seats are made of two-ply rush cord. The use of one- or two-ply cord may have induced different weaving techniques. Based on comparison with rush weaving traditions in other countries, we suggest that one-ply rush string was made by twisting the plan stems, gradually adding new ones, and at the same time weaving the string around the seat frame. The process of weaving the seat started from the outer corners of the seat frame and then by gradually working towards the centre. All the seats in ENM collection woven with one-ply rush string use this weaving method.
 Preparation of two-ply rush cord started with hand-twisting the plant stems into one-ply string. Likely, a rope-machine was used to then twist the string into two-ply cord. Therefore, while using two-ply cord the weaver had the cord pre-prepared which in turn allowed for the development of a variety of more complicated seat patterns.
 The plants of genus Schoenoplectus are widespread in Estonia. In the past, these plants have been used for a number of purposes, like weaving mats, baskets and bags. The rush seats are described in memoires as comfortable and fairly long-lasting. Hopefully, the present article will provide inspiration to explore the properties and potential uses of this natural material.
 Keywords: chairs, rush seats, weaving, ethnobotany, practice-based artefact study

Techno-Typological Study of Tepe Abdul Hosein Stone Tools based on the National Museum Collection

ABSTRACT Tepe Abdul Hosein in Khaveh plain, as one of the key sites of early Neolithic in Central Zagros, has been excavated by Judith Pullar. One of the most important data of this site is the stone tools that are currently kept in the warehouse of the National Museum of Iran and apart from Pullar studies, no other work has been done on them so far. In this article, in addition to reviewing the Pullar typology on the tools from the site, it is dedicated to the study of 317 selected stone tools of TAH. The study of the raw material and technological structure of TAH stone tools showed that the production of tools were done in the site.The tradition of making these tools are similar to the tools in other early Neolithic sites of Central Zagros-Kermanshah group-which- can be considered as a continuation of the tradition of M'lefaat.

EMBROIDERED CHOLIES OF PAHARI REGION: A TECHNICAL STUDY

Pahari embroidery was practiced in different parts in undivided Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The surface ornamentation of these articles with respect to design, raw material and technique were beautifully adapted according to their utility. The popular product in embroidery is Chamba rumals locally known as dhaknu or chabbu. In addition, equally fascinating embroidery was seen on household products which were meant for personal use and decoration in single sided stitches. The most startling are cholies from Himachal Pradesh in terms of their construction and designs. The cholies from given museums were studied namely Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh National Museum, New Delhi, and personal collection. Evidently, they are characterized by selective treatment given to them in terms of construction, materials, stitches, adaptation of designs and motifs. Apart from embroidery miniature paintings also indicated the relevance of traditional costumes in socio cultural traditions. Interestingly two different kinds are observed in cholies according to their construction. Likewise on basis of designs and motifs two different styles in embroidery are seen i.e., free hand curved designs and geometrical designs. The documentation of these designs is done by redrawing the traditional motifs with help of miniature artist Shri Prixit Sharma, Chamba. The stitches are also classified as filling, outline and finishing used in single sided embroidery. Conspicuously these minute variations lend special features to choli blouses and distinguish them from other form of embroideries from the pahari region.

Historic distribution and life history of the African twig mantid, Popa spurca (Mantodea: Deroplatyidae) in southern Africa

ABSTRACT Popa spurca (Stål) (Deroplatyidae) is a well-known species within the African Mantodea. Because this species is often kept as pets, several citizen-based platforms provide information on the rearing of this species. There is however no scientific information available on the distribution and biology of this species. The aim of this study was to use museum records to establish the historic distribution of P. spurca in southern Africa and specifically South Africa, and to investigate its biology under captive breeding and rearing conditions. A total of 212 specimen records of P. spurca were recorded during a survey of all Mantodea in the national museum collections in South Africa. The results suggested that the distribution of this genus seems to be largely associated with the Savanna biome in South Africa. The average lifespan of a P. spurca individual was 332 ± 62 days adult longevity was significantly longer in females. Oothecae contained an average of 84 ± 30 eggs and the mean incubation period was 35 ± 4 days. This study contributes to the understanding of the historic distribution and biology of P. spurca which has never been studied before in southern Africa.

Lost Objects, Hidden Stories: On the Ethnographic Collections Burned in the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro

In this article, I take a close look at the objects collected over the last 200 years from the indigenous people of the Upper Rio Negro, northwest of the Brazilian Amazon, that were part of the ethnographic collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. Examination of these objects allows us to explore the main characteristics of the ethnographic archive of the museum, as the Upper Rio Negro collections were connected to different topics associated with indigenous societies and histories in Brazil, including enslavement, forced displacement, religious conversion, and indigenous territorial, artifactual, and cultural knowledge. This article also highlights the professional commitment of Brazilian anthropology to amplifying indigenous voices over the course of the history of the discipline, and by doing so, it pays homage to the women and men whose work built the National Museum collections.

New insights into Zwischgold application from a multi-analytical survey of late medieval polychrome sculptures at the Swiss National Museum

Zwischgold, or part gold, is a bi-layered metal foil made from gold and silver, popular in European sculptures from the 14th century. It is notoriously difficult to unambiguously identify and to study in detail, due to its close appearance to gold leaf (when still well preserved) and complicated individual situations. Although Zwischgold is nowadays commonly viewed as an economical substitute for gold leaf, arguments regarding its function have circulated for decades. In order to understand the application and related functions of Zwischgold in late medieval sculptures, a survey of 162 objects was recently implemented at the Swiss National Museum Collection Centre, focusing on polychrome wooden sculptures mainly dated 1400–1550 and produced in southern Germany and Switzerland. Handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements show a high rate of correlated silver and gold signals mainly in a proportion range of 1:5–3:1, indicating Zwischgold in extremely diverse areas such as hair, beard, crown, gown fold, bordure, dalmatic, undergarment and attribute of saint statues, as well as altar background, frame and framework. This non-invasive XRF analysis is a first step to efficiently locate Zwischgold applied areas and obtain basic statistics regarding the Zwischgold applied artefacts. It provides objective evidence showing that the reasons for medieval Zwischgold application are not limited to cost-saving, but include other factors such aesthetics, symbolism, workshop preference and workability. We discuss such factors with some illustrative case studies, in which visual light microscope (VLM) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) measurements on samples exhibit certain technological features of Zwischgold of that epoch, including its foil structure, thickness and materials compositions.

‘The Spearhead of the Pennon …’

In 1999, the late Professor Charles Thomas donated a Middle Bronze Age spearhead to the National Museum collection. This spearhead came with a label indicating that it was part of the pennant taken into the Battle of Flodden by Robert Chisholme in 1513. This paper investigates the likelihood that such a claimed association could have any basis in truth, as well as briefly contributing some thoughts on the discovery of already ancient objects in the past.

The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species.

The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species.

CEREMONIAL TEXTILE IN XVII CENTURY: PEARL WORKS OF THE MOSCOW KREMLIN WORKSHOPS

The article introduces the results of a study dedicated to the most spectacular textile in the royal household in the XVII century Russia – the heyday of Russian pearl works. This is the context for the study of the Moscow Kremlin pearl works kept in those days in the Royal Treasury and the Sacristy. Today these masterpieces are in the collection of the Armory Chamber. The analysis involves ceremonial wraps and various pearl covers. The research refines the series of secular and cult-ritual ceremonial textile of the XVII century, which was adorned with the pearl threading technique. The author identifies a range of such items located in the national museum collections. Much attention is paid to the specifics of ancient Russian pearl work. The emphasis is on one of the most valuable items made in this technique. It is the so-called «Blanket with Kingdoms» from the Royal Stables Treasury; the item was made at the beginning of the second quarter of the XVII century. According to the results of the analysis, the textiles with pearl works can be regarded as a significant material source on the history of the ceremonial culture of the late Russian Middle Ages.

Collections of the National Museum Related to Cultural Opposition

Collections devoted to culture form an important part of the National Museum collections. Especially those of the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre which were given to the National Museum by Vilém Prečan in 2003 are devoted to the Cultural and Political Opposition. These collections include a wide range of personal collections (Václav Havel, Milan Šimečka, Jiřina Šiklová, Ivan Medek and others). Institutional collections, such as Radio Free Europe, the Charter 77 Foundation or the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre own collections, are also important. The collections show how important cooperation between the dissent and exile culture was, especially during the period of so-called normalization and illustrate their interconnection at the same time.

Restoration of a Chasuble Fragment from the Half of the 17th Century: New Methods for Spot Cleaning of Historic Textiles

Abstract The National Museum collections include a liturgical vestment in form of a fragment of a chasuble dating back to the mid-17th century. The fragment is a very interesting example of rustic embroidery. As the textile was in poor condition it needed to be restored, a process which included cleaning and stitching repairs. The state of the material meant that the chasuble could not be washed, but the nature of the stains enabled local cleaning methods to be used. This involved wet cleaning with amedical aspirator and water absorption cleaning using agar in the form of a solid gel. Finally, a suitable adjustment form was created for longtermstorage and for study or exhibition.

Impact of secular trends on sex assessment evaluated through femoral dimensions of the Czech population

Human skeletal variability is influenced by several factors, including genetics, environment, and socio-cultural background. Forensic methods being traditionally based on targeted reference groups, it is recognized that they are population-specific. Additionally, secular trends highly impact on the skeletal morphology, but the effect of outdated methods on forensic cases is not yet well documented. This paper compares the sexual dimorphism of femoral dimensions in two samples from the Czech population separated by 60 years in time (Pachner and the Prague National Museum Collections). Significant secular trends are present within this short span in both sexes and for most of the seven tested linear variables. The consequence of secular trends on sex determination is tested with logistic regression, and a decrease in reliability is systematically observed when using the older Czech sample on the 20th century sample, whichever the set of variables included. A model based on a recent Croatian sample provides a higher reliability on contemporaneous Czech individuals. These results imply that above population specificity, temporal consistency may be a major criterion to fulfil when applying forensic anthropology identification methods.

New records of Orussus minutus Middlekauff, 1983 (Hymenoptera: Orussidae) represent a significant western range expansion.

BackgroundOrussus minutus is an uncommonly collected parasitoid sawfly known from the eastern United States.New informationWe report specimens Orussus minutus Middlekauff, 1983, from Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Manitoba, which represent new state and province records and significantly expand the known range of the species west from previous records; provide collection information for unpublished specimens housed in the United States National Museum collection, which includes new state records for West Virginia and Michigan; and report two specimens housed in the Biological Museum at Lund University that represent new state records for Connecticut.

The conservation of the Mapungubwe gold collection, South Africa

Abstract This article documents the conservation of the Iron Age gold collection, under the curatorship of the University of Pretoria from the archaeological site of Mapungubwe Hill in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The primary objective was the stabilization of a national archaeological museum collection, involving active treatment to halt further deterioration, re-uniting dissociated fragments and improving the collection for further handling and future research. Conservation on the gold collection spanned a period of three years (and over 6000 hours of benchwork), allowed for the reversal of post-excavation damage, major sorting, stabilization, elucidation of previously obscure forms and overall improvement of the gold collection for sustainable curation. This conservation programme further provided the opportunity to set in motion best practices for archaeological objects conservation in South Africa and brought a permanent museum collection up to international standards.

Discourses of Visual Learning in Yuan Painting: The Case of Luo Zhichuan's 'Snowy River'

Discourses of Visual Learning in Yuan Painting:The Case of Luo Zhichuan's 'Snowy River' Shane McCausland A painting by the reclusive Jiangxi master Luo Zhichuan 羅稚川 (c. 1265-c. 1330s), dating to the half century following Khubilai Khan's conquest of the south in 1276-79, entitled Snowy River 《雪江圖》 and mounted as a hanging scroll in the Tokyo National Museum collection, is a stark and desolate vision of a small landscape (Fig. 1). It is a beautiful yet also disturbing painting which defies our expectations about what an early Yuan 'cold forest' 寒林 (hanlin) painting in the Li Cheng-Guo Xi 李成郭熙 mode should be. These discordant characteristics make it all the more rewarding of study today as we look back on the painting of the Song-Jin-Yuan period with fresh eyes in the era of a global field of Chinese art. This work comes to our attention now as it was one of the loans from Japan to the 2010 Qiannian danqing 《千年丹青》 (Masterpieces of Ancient Chinese Paintings) exhibition at the Shanghai Museum, which situated the painting among works by Luo Zhichuan's Yuan peers in China for the first time in centuries. The present study on the painting started out as a contribution to the Shanghai Museum's publication about the exhibition, a volume of essays by art historians from East Asia, North America and Europe. In the revised article which follows below, the aim has been to reconstruct—with the aid of the exhibition list and other Yuan paintings—the visual discourse of which Luo Zhichuan and his painting practice were part, particularly with regard to the idea of rival sources of visual learning.1 [End Page 375] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Luo Zhichuan, Snowy River. Hanging scroll; ink and colours on silk, 52 × 77 cm. Tokyo National Museum. In the earlier essay, written primarily for the museum-going audience in China, I reflected on some of the issues that hold our interest in the global discipline of art history today, including artistic innovation, the artist's self and society, and the nature of the artwork as an agent of some kind of social change or stasis. We recognise that the visual culture of a given period is something not necessarily agreed upon by the diverse participants in that culture. Nor [End Page 376] are the formations of culture, which so often lie beyond the familiar order of language, always easy to describe and quantify. The role of the painting historian is to provide, at the outset, an informed and sympathetic interpretation of visual forms. To understand how a particular work of art realised an innovation it is also important to discover how that innovation rippled through society and politics, and to try to discover commonalities and/or differences with the artist's contemporaries. The interpretation of form in painting today thus goes far beyond the traditional connoisseur's work of deciding if an artwork is 'right' or 'wrong', genuine or fake, and can involve exploring the many shades of grey between black and white, as well as travelling down 'blind alleys' or discovering 'blind spots' in our vision. In sum, the reader was alerted to how the role of the art historian only begins with identifying and citing relevant texts such as inscriptions, colophons, catalogue records and biographies, and then moves on, toward close attention to and informed engagement in the visual experience of pictorial form as a site of artistic transformation. If not for this emphasis on form and vision, there would be no difference between the two disciplines, history of art and history. In disciplinary terms, this represents a shift from the study of the history of art to the study of visual culture. The present article sets out to construe the formal language of Luo Zhichuan's Snowy River in terms of the artist's visual learning, based on observations of the natural world, and in contrast with better-known antiquarian learning practices associated with contemporaries such as the pivotal figure of Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1253-1322). In the argument of this essay, Luo Zhichuan's painting practice was based on a distinctive, yet undervalued brand of visual learning which we...

Photographic Materials by Hayasaki Kokichi in the Tokyo National Museum Collection

Photographic Materials by Hayasaki Kokichi in the Tokyo National Museum Collection

A list of Cuban Lepidoptera (Arthropoda: Insecta)

A total of 1557 species belonging to 56 families of the order Lepidoptera is listed from Cuba, along with the source ofeach record. Additional literature references treating Cuban Lepidoptera are also provided. The list is based primarily onliterature records, although some collections were examined: the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática collection, Havana,Cuba; the Museo Felipe Poey collection, University of Havana; the Fernando de Zayas private collection, Havana; andthe United States National Museum collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. One family, Schreckensteinidae,and 113 species constitute new records to the Cuban fauna. The following nomenclatural changes are proposed: Paucivenahoffmanni (Koehler 1939) (Psychidae), new comb., and Gonodontodes chionosticta Hampson 1913 (Erebidae), syn. nov.,is a synonym of Gonodontodes dispar Hampson 1913. Burca cubensis (Skinner 1913) (Hesperiidae), and Eulepidotis reflexa (Herrich-Schäffer 1869) (Erebidae) are revised and revalidated.