Home from Chicago

Chicago was a blast (but , of course, I knew it was going to be). We arrived mid-afternoon on Monday and stayed until early evening on Friday. We were pretty much on the go the whole time there. Our days were spent visiting museums and similar sites. During the evenings we took in the local nightlife. Wednesday night we drove to Schaumburg for Medieval Times. We capped of the trip on Friday with stops at the University of Chicago and Chinatown. A busy week, but well worth it. Lots of photos were taken but I’ll only put up a few here for now. I’ll come back and post more about the trip later, between other things, as time permits. For now I’ll just throw out a couple things from the Field Museum.

The photos below show a portion of the Regenstein Laboratory. This is a facility for the preservation and restoration of artifacts. From this vantage point visitors can get a “behind-the-scenes” look at what conservators do to build and maintain their collections. For those who have asked what I want to do when I grow up, this is the type of facility I hope to work in.

The Field Museum has materials from a wide array of cultures and periods. Here are a couple of samples from just one culture.

These ceramic artifacts come from the Moche culture of coastal northern Peru which emerged ~200AD and collapsed ~600AD. Theirs was a highly stratified society which maintained a complex economy heavily reliant on maize agriculture and marine resources. Moche ceramics are well known for their lifelike representations. Scenes portraying animals, plants, and daily activities are commonly found. Many animals played important roles in their religious beliefs. The vessel below takes the form of one such creature; a supernatural bat.

Moche portrait vessels are another common find. These vessels depicted unique individuals as can be seen through distinctive facial features, expressions and even physical deformities. Commoners and elites, alike, were represented. In some cases the same individuals have been found to have been portrayed in several stages of their life. The image below shows an example of how of a high-status individual is portrayed.