TREASURES: ADVENTURES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Celebrating the spirit of exploration and adventure, the National Museum Cardiff will be exhibiting a huge range of treasures from around the world as part of the Year Of Adventure, from an Egyptian mummy to Indiana Jones’ whip. Luke Owain Boult investigates.
“What is a treasure?” asks exhibition curator Dr Mark Redknap. “The official definition is something that is at least 300 years old and contains 10% precious metal, but there’s another definition: knowledge,” he says surrounded by a wealth of some of the most interesting objects to have been assembled in Cardiff. Treasures: Adventures In Archaeology is the aptly named new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff, which explores (no pun intended) the link between fictional adventurers like Tintin and Indiana Jones, and their real-life counterparts. The exhibition features a mix of relics from around the world, from a deformed Inca skull to an Egyptian mummy, and treasures from inspired cinema like Indiana Jones’ very own hat, whip and jacket.
As is the case with history, the truth is stranger than fiction, and often stranger than the fiction it inspires. One of the key figures studied in the exhibition is Giovanni Battista Belzoni, a 6’7” Italian Egyptologist who, in his younger days, had joined a circus and became known as Patagonian Samson. Another of interest, who inspired Indiana Jones, is Hiram Bingham, an American explorer who, guided by Peruvian farmers, made the now world famous Machu Pichu known to the wider world. Adela Breton’s work with Mexican temples is also explored (again, no pun intended), with her watercolours bringing the vibrant colours of the lost worlds of the Aztecs and the Maya to life. Heinrich Schliemann, best known for discovering Troy, which was once believed to only exist in the realm of mythology, is also analysed, and alongside all of these fascinating explorers, exhibits from the cultures that enchanted them are displayed.
The idea of fact inspiring fiction is one that comes across incredibly well in the exhibition. There are obvious links between the elongated Inca skull, which was likely achieved by binding the head of a child with boards, and the elongated crystal alien skull from Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. However, the link starts to become problematic when the lines between fact and desire are blurred. This is exemplified by controversial archaeologist Arthur Evans – who was so eager to find the labyrinths from Greek mythology, he rebuilt a large amount of the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete as he imagined it, and attached meaning to mere speculation.
Dr Redknap underlined the importance of keeping to the historical facts, and the inspiration historical happenings and artefacts can have on creativity. Interestingly, rather than dismissing archaeological fakes and flights of fancy as nonsense, the theme of jiggery-pokery in archaeology is embraced in the exhibition. Helmets adorned with spikes and bizarre flaps reminiscent of Mad Max are displayed. What could they be? Hunnic wardress? Mongolian ceremonial garbs? Roman cyber punk? No. Dr Redknap points out are actually just slightly modified upside down bowls.
He makes his point rather nicely when talking about forgeries, pointing to a nearby crystal skull on loan from Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. “Although they’re fakes from the 19th century, as the Aztecs didn’t have the technology needed to make them, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own interesting story. People still make forgeries, even openly as forgeries, because there’s a market for them.” In a way, the forgeries tell you just as much about humanity than the way we bury our dead, express ourselves, or worship.
We speak with David Anderson, the Director General of National Museum Wales, about the exhibition.
Which exhibits are you personally most looking forward to having in the museum?
I am really looking forward to seeing a mix of objects – historical and fictional – being brought together in Treasures: Adventures of Archaeology. Of course, I am keen to see the Indiana Jones items but am equally pleased that star items from our own collection such as human remains from Viking-age burials at Llanbedrgoch will also be on display.
How do you source these artefacts?
We often work with organisations from across the world. For this particular exhibition, we have worked with a number of partners including Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, Manchester Museum – University of Manchester, British Museum, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives and Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, making it a truly international exhibition.
Working with these partners, we are able to show a number of objects relating to early world cultures, in Wales for the first time, including watercolours and finds made during Giovanni Belzoni’s Egyptian expeditions of the early 19th century; a 19th-century crystal skull on loan from Musée du Quai Branly Paris; Indiana Jones’ jacket, hat and whip and the crystal skull from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, thanks to Lucas Museum of Narrative Art; and Adela Breton’s watercolours of sites in the Yucatán Peninsula.
Objects from around the world will be on display in the museum, will there be any from Wales? If so, what is their significance?
Yes, we have strong stories to tell from Wales based on collections from our national collections. The Museum’s archaeology team has been collecting and researching evidence of life and death in Wales for over 75 years. A number the objects collected are on display in the exhibition, including items ranging from Roman hoards and silver from shipwreck, to Civil War treasure.
Visitors to the exhibition will see the Roman hoard of coins and rings from Sully, which has been brought together for the first time since it was discovered in 1899; silver from the wreck of the Ann Francis, which was lost on Margam Beach in 1583; and human remains from Viking-age burials at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey.
What can visitors expect?
Treasures: Adventures in Archaeology is all about great archaeological discoveries from Wales and around the World; the story of some well-know and lesser-known adventurers; and how archaeology has shaped popular culture and has been shaped by it.
The exhibition is housed in newly renovated galleries on the ground floor of National Museum Cardiff. It’s actually quite theatrical!
You will be featuring an Egyptian mummy in the exhibition, what do we know about the person who became the mummy?
The Egyptian Mummy comes from Manchester Museum. X-rays carried out in the early 1980s revealed the mummy belonged to a woman in her 20s, but the label in the old ‘Afterlife’ gallery referred to her simply as ‘The Salford Mummy’. The label also claimed that she was ‘unnamed’. In fact, both the mummy’s brightly painted coffin and cartonnage decorations named the woman as ‘Ta-sheri-ankh’ (literally: ‘The living child’). The style of the coffin closely resembles other examples from the site of Akhmim. A CATscan of the mummy reveals its hidden appearance.
Do you think there are any similarities between explorers like Giovanni Belzoni and Flinders Petrie, and fictional characters like Tintin and Indiana Jones?
Archaeology is about solving mystery as well as discovery and science, as well as inspiring popular culture. It has inspired adventurers and film makers for over a century.
Indiana Jones’ character was inspired by the exploits of historical archaeologists in the field, such as the colourful Giovanni Belzoni, the ‘father of Egyptian archaeology’ Flinders Petrie, Hiram Bingham who first drew the World’s attention to Machu Picchu and the traveller and explorer Adela Breton.
Their stories will be introduced in the exhibition and contrasted with the portrayal of archaeological discoveries in popular culture, fiction and film.
A gold ring in the exhibition known as the ‘Inca Ring’, inspired a chapter written by the owner, author Rider Haggard in King Solomon’s Mines.
What is the best way of generating interest in history and archaeology?
One way is to make links with popular culture today, which we are doing through the Treasures exhibition. By drawing similarities between historical figures such as Belzoni and Petrie, and popular adventurers such Indiana Jones and Tintin, we are able to demonstrate the influence of archaeology everywhere. Archaeological adventure captures the imagination of all ages.
In addition to providing an insight into ancient civilisations around the world, the exhibition also shows that there’s an abundance of places of historical interest in Wales: Roman artefacts from Segontium and Caerleon, medieval gold work from Dolgellau, a wealth of coins, and Viking relics are on display. Key items of interest in the exhibition include an Egyptian mummy from 300 BC, Roman treasures, Corinthian helmets and hoplite armour from ancient Greece, Inca gold and jewellery, ancient Colombian gold plates, skulls from Viking burials in Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, and even a Moai (Easter Island head) from Rapa Nui.
This is the first time that many of the items have been on display in Wales and it captures the spirit of adventure and exploration that has motivated great explorers from fact and fiction. For many cinephiles, the biggest attraction is part of Indiana Jones’ wardrobe: his iconic, jacket, whip, and hat. Also on display is a George Lucas-directed documentary on the importance of archaeology, which shows the exhibition’s desire to get younger audiences involved in the archaeological field, both figuratively and literally.
While this is an ideal exhibition for children, the range of exhibits is likely to entertain the fuddy-duddiest of historians. “Getting this exhibition together has been the biggest highlight,” smiled Dr Redknap, asked if he had any particular favourite pieces. “I suppose this has been an adventure really.” Dr Redknap previously mulled the various meanings of treasure, but ‘adventure’ seems equally hard to define. Is it exploring ruins and running away from boulders? Is it collecting artefacts from around the world? Is it trying something on the menu you can’t pronounce? Perhaps, simply, it’s the spirit of going into the unknown, and that’s exactly what the exhibition captures.
Treasures: Adventures In Archaeology, National Museum Cardiff, until Sun 30 Oct. Tickets: £7/£5/free under-16s. Info: 029 2023 0130 / www.museumwales.ac.uk