Today's history lecture was about the Tiwanaku and Wari cultures. This page (scroll down a tiny bit) has a good map that shows the expansion of these 2 cultures and it includes Pachacamac which gives us some context. The Wari are of particular interest because of their similarities to the Inca, in that they were a true expansionist state that controlled labor, taxes, etc. Also the influence of the Wari culture over the site of Pachacamac during the Middle Horizon is humongous.
The Wari are also known for their textiles: extremely fine yarns, warped imagery, vibrant colors (because in the highlands they used a lot of wool which holds dye better than cotton), tapestry weaving, unique tie-dyeing, and complicated combination of textile processes. Once again, some of the textiles found at Pachacamac were distinctly Wari in style, but may be a local imitation. An exhibit discussion of the difference between the influence of one culture's preferred style upon another is a must if we're going to attempt to explain the complexities of the imagery in this period.
We learned a lot about how an unbelievable amount of work was put into certain textiles possibly just to affect weight/drape, this is evident in the fact that the same visual effect could have been achieved by simpler means. There were a couple examples of this. This will help us visualize how certain textile artifacts would act on a body, based on analysis of their structure. Which, of course, will help in our reconstruction and attempting to make the 3D models feel as lifelike as possible.
We also worked on some pretty complicated structures on our looms (specifically double cloth and slit, interlocking, and dovetail tapestry) which again, helped us understand how and why certain designs are achieved. Then we had the opportunity to put our new knowledge to the test and analyzed some archaeological textiles in Bryn Mawr's wonderful collection. We discussed fiber type, weave structure, culture/time period, etc. After taking this course I feel competent analyzing an archaeological textile.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
From C & J - Day 3 Archaeological Textile Course
Today we began the morning with a lecture on the Moche and Chimu civilizations. Both are located on the north coast but are not contemporaneous as the former existed in the Early Intermediate period, and the latter in the Late Intermediate period. Once again, great places to start or just compare with the adobe works at Pachacamac. The relief wall decorations on the Moche temples are incredible and still intact at places, even with visible traces of brightly colored paint. Also the sea life motifs in Chan Chan are comparable to the fish friezes at Pachacamac.
Next, we spent some time learning about twill fabric. Twills are woven structures that create diagonal and diamond shapes (like you can see in your jeans). We created a repeating chevron twill and a diamond twill pattern which is very common in Andean textiles, specifically on those that are more utilitarian with minimal decoration.
The rest of the day was spent learning and creating a brocade pattern. We both chose to design trinagular birds inspired by those that we have seen in large quantities throughout the collection and that we saw today when looking at Chimu fabrics. There are a few motifs like these triangular birds that are seen in cultures all up and down the coast.
Before today I (Jeanette) was very confused as to how brocade was supplemental to the weft without being an embroidery but then I learned that the supplemental weft is woven at the same time (from a separate bobbin) as the weft and follows the existing structure of the ground fabric (unlike embroidery which is added after weaving and independant of the structure). Being able to re-create these techniques on my loom has helped me tremendously in the understanding of the structure of textiles.
We also experimented with alpaca yarns and learned a lot of about the difficulties caused by its fuzziness and tendency to cling, and obscure designs.
Next, we spent some time learning about twill fabric. Twills are woven structures that create diagonal and diamond shapes (like you can see in your jeans). We created a repeating chevron twill and a diamond twill pattern which is very common in Andean textiles, specifically on those that are more utilitarian with minimal decoration.
The rest of the day was spent learning and creating a brocade pattern. We both chose to design trinagular birds inspired by those that we have seen in large quantities throughout the collection and that we saw today when looking at Chimu fabrics. There are a few motifs like these triangular birds that are seen in cultures all up and down the coast.
Before today I (Jeanette) was very confused as to how brocade was supplemental to the weft without being an embroidery but then I learned that the supplemental weft is woven at the same time (from a separate bobbin) as the weft and follows the existing structure of the ground fabric (unlike embroidery which is added after weaving and independant of the structure). Being able to re-create these techniques on my loom has helped me tremendously in the understanding of the structure of textiles.
We also experimented with alpaca yarns and learned a lot of about the difficulties caused by its fuzziness and tendency to cling, and obscure designs.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
From C & J - Day 2 of Archaeological Textile course
Today we learned about the Paracas and Nasca cultures. Both are very interesting cultures that flourished primarily on the coast. The Nasca ceramics deeply influenced a phase of ceramics at Pachacamac that is characterized by a bird figure named the "Pachacamac Griffin". Because these are visually appealing pieces it may be nice to focus on a polychrome vessel of this style when attempting to virtually deconstruct an artifact or discuss it's iconography.
Then we got right into the hands on part of the class. We set up and warped our mini looms, this was much simpler than warping modern 8+ harness looms. It was interesting to see the logistics of tensioning a continuous warp (necessary for a 4 selvage textile). We did not yet deal with creating the warp selvages because a textile piece must be completed before removal from the loom. We did however ask some questions and learned about a few creative ways to create that selvage (which we will experiment with when we complete our sample piece we are adding to each day). One thing that I (Jeanette) would like to emphasize when gathering information for the public is the attachment of the warp to the loom bar by lashing so that the textile would not have to be cut and the weft could go all the way up to the selvage. This practice, while semi-simple, shows the reverence that the Inkas had for their textiles.
Today we just wove some basic plain weaves (1 over 1), and variations, as well as basket weaves (2 over 2) and variations of that. It was enlightening to see how the shed (space between warp yarns that wefts are inserted into) is meticulously picked out, yarn by yarn, with each pass of a weft yarn, as they did not use harnesses, like looms have today. These are the techniques that will be easiest to illustrate digitally and should be focused on quite soon when we have a modeler ready to undertake this part of the project.
Then we got right into the hands on part of the class. We set up and warped our mini looms, this was much simpler than warping modern 8+ harness looms. It was interesting to see the logistics of tensioning a continuous warp (necessary for a 4 selvage textile). We did not yet deal with creating the warp selvages because a textile piece must be completed before removal from the loom. We did however ask some questions and learned about a few creative ways to create that selvage (which we will experiment with when we complete our sample piece we are adding to each day). One thing that I (Jeanette) would like to emphasize when gathering information for the public is the attachment of the warp to the loom bar by lashing so that the textile would not have to be cut and the weft could go all the way up to the selvage. This practice, while semi-simple, shows the reverence that the Inkas had for their textiles.
Today we just wove some basic plain weaves (1 over 1), and variations, as well as basket weaves (2 over 2) and variations of that. It was enlightening to see how the shed (space between warp yarns that wefts are inserted into) is meticulously picked out, yarn by yarn, with each pass of a weft yarn, as they did not use harnesses, like looms have today. These are the techniques that will be easiest to illustrate digitally and should be focused on quite soon when we have a modeler ready to undertake this part of the project.
From Carly - Day 1 of Archaeological Textile course.
I apologize that this is a day late, I had some internet issues yesterday. This post will be about yesterday's class, and then later, Jeanette and I will create a joint post about today's class so as not to bore you to tears with repetitive posts.
So like Jeanette said, class began with a refresher on some pre-ceramic cultures of the Andes, followed by some hands on work. This combination has really helped me to contextualize a lot of the things I have read about Andean Textile creation. I tend to confuse some of the pre-inca cultures, and their styles, but I already feel more confident and familiar with many of the Andean cultures and their relationships to one another (geographically, chronologically, stylistically). I know that I will also gain more from things I read in the future after this sort of crash course in Andean history.
The most meaningful part of this course for me is the hands on stuff. There is only so much one can glean from simply reading about textile processes. I actually spun yarn with a drop spindle for the first time yesterday and learned first hand how much skill is involved. I also learned that there is a direct relationship between spindle/whorl size, and yarn size. Seeing modern spindles for crafters, which are much larger, really drove home the point that Andean weavers valued extremely fine yarns, and therefore, they valued the immense detail we see in their textile artifacts.
We also experimented with "single element" techniques like looping, cross-knit looping, linking, and knotting/netting. Again these are things that I simply could not fully comprehend until I did it myself, despite my knowledge of modern day knits which are similar. I think I am now much better equipped at looking at piece that uses these techniques and correctly identifying precisely how they were made. Some of them lead to visually similar finished products but were made quite differently.
Ultimately this course will definitely help me get more out of my research.
- Carly
Monday, June 6, 2011
Uhle Grave Lots
The bulk of my time over the past week has been spent reconstructing the grave lots and their associated goods so that within the exhibit these items can be displayed together as they may represent a complete view of Andean burial practices, or life in the Andes in general. Below is the process I went through to acquire these:
1. Uhle's Pachacamac volume. Clark had mentioned that Uhle listed a few grave lots in his published account. When I looked through them I found that he had mentioned two, but when discussing them in the text mixed them up and made it quite hard to figure out which number belonged to which of the 8 different cotton tunics mentioned, etc. One grave lot from here was successful and includes two black vicuna textiles, which if their identification is correct would show a very high ranking individual from the highlands being buried at Pachacamac or remarkable trade taking place (even though I imagine wearing vicuna on the coast would not be comfortable).
2. Database search. When Uhle originally cataloged the collection he would write out all of the artifacts associated with one mummy bundle (field and museum numbers) on the remarks part for one of these artifacts, the remaining objects would have a notation saying "See #####" referring to the record for the artifact (normally a false mummy head, human cranium, or a ceramic vessel) that contained the list of grave goods. I ran a search for the all artifacts from Pachacamac with the word "See" in their notes field. This returned a limited number of results.
3. Catalog cards. Because Uhle primarily recorded this information towards the beginning of the numbering sequence I flipped through the catalog cards to find any sorts of leads. This lead to the majority of the grave lots that have been compiled. I noticed a pattern that most of these artifacts were from either "Gravefield I" or "Beneath the Temple of Pachacamaj", and became concerned over the lack of context from the Sun Temple. After looking furiously through the card catalog I asked Clark and he mentioned the original ledgers.
4. Original ledgers. Finally, I consulted the ledgers to see if I missed anything from the Sun Temple. Turns out I hadn't. Something must have happened when excavating at the Sun Temple, because the artifacts lack any sort of context and associations between them. Will our reconstructions and peopling of this part of the site be primarily conjecture then?
5. Excel legwork. After having all of the information for each artifact (accession number, field number, description, and current location), I entered each grave lot into a worksheet in Excel and randomly assigned them grave lot numbers. There are 27 grave lots to work with during the rest of the summer. Then I checked my inventory sheet from the duration of this project to see if the objects had been previously photographed, and if so, when. All of this information went into another Excel document that was shipped off to Clark in the hopes that he will work with the new interns to expedite the photography of these artifacts so we can begin to digitally recreate them.
While Carly will be later posting the bulk of the material that we learned today during Dr. Anne Tibali's Archaeological Textile Course, I wanted to mention a few key items. Primarily, we were able to videotape a student spinning alpaca wool. Is there anything I should keep in mind when taping or downloading these images (file size, quality, type, etc)? Secondarily, the lecture on Pre-Ceramic coastal Peru was very relevant in that it was the beginning (but certainly not the end) of ceremonial architecture on the coast. Moseley brings it up in his article from Dumbarton-Oaks, and I'm thinking it would be advantageous to compare Caral to Pachacamac to see the relationship between the adobe styles. In addition, our work with single set structures was informative and will help us understand more how items such as slings react in the real world in order to accurately recreate them.
1. Uhle's Pachacamac volume. Clark had mentioned that Uhle listed a few grave lots in his published account. When I looked through them I found that he had mentioned two, but when discussing them in the text mixed them up and made it quite hard to figure out which number belonged to which of the 8 different cotton tunics mentioned, etc. One grave lot from here was successful and includes two black vicuna textiles, which if their identification is correct would show a very high ranking individual from the highlands being buried at Pachacamac or remarkable trade taking place (even though I imagine wearing vicuna on the coast would not be comfortable).
2. Database search. When Uhle originally cataloged the collection he would write out all of the artifacts associated with one mummy bundle (field and museum numbers) on the remarks part for one of these artifacts, the remaining objects would have a notation saying "See #####" referring to the record for the artifact (normally a false mummy head, human cranium, or a ceramic vessel) that contained the list of grave goods. I ran a search for the all artifacts from Pachacamac with the word "See" in their notes field. This returned a limited number of results.
3. Catalog cards. Because Uhle primarily recorded this information towards the beginning of the numbering sequence I flipped through the catalog cards to find any sorts of leads. This lead to the majority of the grave lots that have been compiled. I noticed a pattern that most of these artifacts were from either "Gravefield I" or "Beneath the Temple of Pachacamaj", and became concerned over the lack of context from the Sun Temple. After looking furiously through the card catalog I asked Clark and he mentioned the original ledgers.
4. Original ledgers. Finally, I consulted the ledgers to see if I missed anything from the Sun Temple. Turns out I hadn't. Something must have happened when excavating at the Sun Temple, because the artifacts lack any sort of context and associations between them. Will our reconstructions and peopling of this part of the site be primarily conjecture then?
5. Excel legwork. After having all of the information for each artifact (accession number, field number, description, and current location), I entered each grave lot into a worksheet in Excel and randomly assigned them grave lot numbers. There are 27 grave lots to work with during the rest of the summer. Then I checked my inventory sheet from the duration of this project to see if the objects had been previously photographed, and if so, when. All of this information went into another Excel document that was shipped off to Clark in the hopes that he will work with the new interns to expedite the photography of these artifacts so we can begin to digitally recreate them.
While Carly will be later posting the bulk of the material that we learned today during Dr. Anne Tibali's Archaeological Textile Course, I wanted to mention a few key items. Primarily, we were able to videotape a student spinning alpaca wool. Is there anything I should keep in mind when taping or downloading these images (file size, quality, type, etc)? Secondarily, the lecture on Pre-Ceramic coastal Peru was very relevant in that it was the beginning (but certainly not the end) of ceremonial architecture on the coast. Moseley brings it up in his article from Dumbarton-Oaks, and I'm thinking it would be advantageous to compare Caral to Pachacamac to see the relationship between the adobe styles. In addition, our work with single set structures was informative and will help us understand more how items such as slings react in the real world in order to accurately recreate them.
From Adam - Progress on the Sun Temple
I meant to post this on Friday, but here's how far I got modeling the Sun Temple by Friday evening:
The colors are just so I can tell how elevated a section is from a top view. Interpreting Uhle's drawings of the sides can be difficult at times since there are so many overlapping walls, but I'm making steady progress.
3:11 Update:
5:00 Update:
It doesn't fit on the terrain perfectly, so I'll have to add in finer terrain detail once I totally finish the temple.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
From Carly
First, here is a video that does use projection but is for the most part unrelated to our research and just fun to look at, just thought I'd share it.
I also want to let everyone know that I got a ton of books on Andean textiles out from the library because I finally have a penn card. For the most part they will remain by my computer in the lab and anyone is welcome to look at them, just please keep them in the room.
Yeoni, to answer your question, I am fairly certain that the building thing in the youtube video was indeed done with projection. Also I'm not sure if you checked out the interactive floor product that I mentioned in a comment but that is also done with projection, under the video is a diagram of how the room an projectors would likely be set up. I e-mailed the company requesting more info. The company (Gesturetek) says on their website that they take care of installation, as well as remote diagnostics and trouble shooting. I think that is wonderful because something that I know Jeanette and I have been concerned about is trouble shooting for such a high tech exhibit. Basically we need to be prepared for things not functioning correctly and that may be more than the exhibits department can handle.
Finally, I've been researching the local UArts professor Slavko Milekic. You can read about him here. More specifically I am really interested in his work on "gaze-tracking technologies". This is an interesting paper of his on the subject in which he discusses the possible application of the technology in museum exhibits, or just with cultural heritage information in general. This could assist physically challenged people, and also, it's just really cool. It seems as though there are a few kinks to work out in regards to the actual application of it. These include allowing for natural head/ eye movement, designing a curser that doesn't interfere with the imagery, dealing with multiple sets of eyes in a museum crowd, and awkward time-based triggers that disrupt the natural flow (which could defeat the purpose to some extent). That will all make more sense once you read it, which I strongly encourage you to do because I think there is some potential here.
I have some research on fabric simulation to post about but I have to go catch a train and this is getting long. I will gather my thoughts tomorrow and post again.
- Carly
I also want to let everyone know that I got a ton of books on Andean textiles out from the library because I finally have a penn card. For the most part they will remain by my computer in the lab and anyone is welcome to look at them, just please keep them in the room.
Yeoni, to answer your question, I am fairly certain that the building thing in the youtube video was indeed done with projection. Also I'm not sure if you checked out the interactive floor product that I mentioned in a comment but that is also done with projection, under the video is a diagram of how the room an projectors would likely be set up. I e-mailed the company requesting more info. The company (Gesturetek) says on their website that they take care of installation, as well as remote diagnostics and trouble shooting. I think that is wonderful because something that I know Jeanette and I have been concerned about is trouble shooting for such a high tech exhibit. Basically we need to be prepared for things not functioning correctly and that may be more than the exhibits department can handle.
Finally, I've been researching the local UArts professor Slavko Milekic. You can read about him here. More specifically I am really interested in his work on "gaze-tracking technologies". This is an interesting paper of his on the subject in which he discusses the possible application of the technology in museum exhibits, or just with cultural heritage information in general. This could assist physically challenged people, and also, it's just really cool. It seems as though there are a few kinks to work out in regards to the actual application of it. These include allowing for natural head/ eye movement, designing a curser that doesn't interfere with the imagery, dealing with multiple sets of eyes in a museum crowd, and awkward time-based triggers that disrupt the natural flow (which could defeat the purpose to some extent). That will all make more sense once you read it, which I strongly encourage you to do because I think there is some potential here.
I have some research on fabric simulation to post about but I have to go catch a train and this is getting long. I will gather my thoughts tomorrow and post again.
- Carly
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