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BASIC INFORMATION

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Artist: Unknown; discovered in 1985 by Henri Cosquer.

Culture: Gravettian culture
Date: 27,000-19,000 BCE
Media: One of hundreds of cave paintings (170 paintings of animals)

300-ft complex

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MECHAMISMS

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Setting. I would create an exhibit that replicates the Cosquer Cave in France combined with digital screens that camouflage into the rock. I thought this would be the coolest way to display these pieces of art, because we are not able to cut out the rock itself from the cave, so instead of just hanging up pictures I thought we could recreate the cave digitally.

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BASIC INFORMATION

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Artist: Chief architect- most likely Ustad Ahmad Lahour.
Culture: Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences.
Date: Took 20 years to build
Media: Architecture. Named the Taj Mahal to honor Mumtaz Mahal

Enormous mausoleum commissioned in 1632.

Constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones creating detailed designs (used a technique known as pietra dura)

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MECHANISMS

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Setting. I believe creating an entire wing that replicated the Taj Mahal would be beautiful and is the perfect way to display its architecture. This will be a dual purpose display. It will give setting and historical context for other pieces of this time while displaying the beautiful artwork itself inside the type of buildings they were displayed in during that culture's time.

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Mechanisms:
3D-simulation. I want to have a 3D-simulation of inside of the Taj Mahal placed in a dark room that is located in the middle of the exhibit. This will allow for a simulated experience of actually being within the building and help connect what we did within the museum and the actual structure.

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BASIC INFORMATION

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BASIC INFORMATION

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Map. I will have a map hung up on one of the walls in the entrance to that section of the the museum in order to give people an idea of where the Taj Mahal is located in the world. This is important because this is where the Mughal dynasty lived and ruled from the 16th-18th century. It was the center of Indian culture and now where thousands of people visit each year.

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Artist: Juan Benigno Vela
Culture: Inka Culture
Date: AD 1450-1532
Media: Made out of ceramic and paint.

Arybalo- a ceramic shape that is unique to the Inka period.

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MECHANISMS

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Pictures. I would set up pictures of Inka tribes in that time to give the artifact a setting and connect it to a group of people. I think it would be more impactful to go through a hall way fun of the history of their culture, therefore the people would have a greater understanding of the beauty of this piece of ceramic.

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Artist: Unknown
Culture: Nok Culture
Date: 500 BCE-200 BCE

Media: Terracotta, 14 1/4" high. Life sized, hollow clay heads, proportionally larger than their bodies.

Most times, the heads are all that are left.

Very distinctive features such as triangle shaped eyes with holes put for the pupils, large nostrils and distinctive hair pieces.

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MECHANISMS

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Map. I would use a map in order to show where Nok culture was located in the time period 500-200 BCE. I think it is important that people looking at this sculpture know where this culture is geographically. Nigeria is a commonly known country in Africa, but I doubt many people walking through an exhibit know that Nok culture was there.

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Setting. I would display the statues in a large circular room with high glass ceilings in order to resemble the rooms they were placed in, in Nok culture. This would bring context and create a feeling of being in that time period. I think this is important because it gives historical context to the viewers along with a feel that ties the piece together.

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Interactive features. The interactive feature I have planned will allow you to click on the digital screens on the cave the picture of the painting will appear along with the history behind it and other information which will be a touch scroll. There will also be a feature where you can draw your own version of the different paintings and engravings and then compare side-by-side. This will be a great way for kids to interact with work from BCE.

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Sensory Mechanisms. I would have glass boxes out with pieces of the clay that have chipped off of the sculptures in them. The top will have a glove opening that people can stick their hand into and feel the pieces of clay that was used to make these sculptures. I think this will be a cool way to interact with the art because you can never touch and feel the artifacts at a museum so I thought it would be great to get a feel out what they were made out of.

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Explanatory text. I would use this for historical context. It would explain how these pots were used daily in the Inka culture and they were specifically used to transport and hold water and corn beer. Their handles were made to withstand swinging and the long neck was to make pouring easy. This text is important because it shows the importance of the pots for the way they lived which makes the piece even more special.

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Videos. I would display this video that displays other pieces of work from Peru's history because the Inka Arybalo would be displayed in a room with other pottery. The video would be another way of displaying the works all together. I would do this because it would tie the display room together and is another way to look at the pottery.

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The Pottery of Ancient Peru - Inca Pottery, Pre-Columbian Pottery, Erotic Pottery

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Explanatory texts. These tests will be within the interactive features where you can scroll and read about each painting or engraving and will go more in depth about what was used, what they mean, and how long each one has been there. I think this is a crucial part to the display because without this context, they would just be paintings on rocks.

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WEBSITES

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The Taj Mahal is an enormous mausoleum complex commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the remains of his beloved wife. Constructed over a 20-year period on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India, the famed complex is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences. At its center is the Taj Mahal itself, built of shimmering white marble that seems to change color depending on the daylight. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, it remains one of the world's most celebrated structures and a stunning symbol of India's rich history.

Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628.

At his side was Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Chosen One of the Palace"), whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.

In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple's 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra.

Construction began around 1632 and would continue for the next two decades. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi.

In all, more than 20,000 workers from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to build the mausoleum complex.

Design and Construction of the Taj Mahal

Named the Taj Mahal in honor of Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones (including jade, crystal, lapis lazuli, amethyst and turquoise) forming intricate designs in a technique known as pietra dura.

Its central dome reaches a height of 240 feet (73 meters) and is surrounded by four smaller domes; four slender towers, or minarets, stood at the corners. In accordance with the traditions of Islam, verses from the Quran were inscribed in calligraphy on the arched entrances to the mausoleum, in addition to numerous other sections of the complex.

Inside the mausoleum, an octagonal marble chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones housed the cenotaph, or false tomb, of Mumtaz Mahal. The real sarcophagus containing her actual remains lay below, at garden level.

The rest of the Taj Mahal complex included a main gateway of red sandstone and a square garden divided into quarters by long pools of water, as well as a red sandstone mosque and an identical building called a jawab (or "mirror") directly across from the mosque. Traditional Mughal building practice would allow no future alterations to be made to the complex.

As the story goes, Shah Jahan intended to build a second grand mausoleum across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal, where his own remains would be buried when he died; the two structures were to have been connected by a bridge.

In fact, Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan's third son with Mumtaz Mahal) deposed his ailing father in 1658 and took power himself. Shah Jahan lived out the last years of his life under house arrest in a tower of the Red Fort at Agra, with a view of the majestic resting place he had constructed for his wife; when he died in 1666, he was buried next to her.

Taj Mahal Over the Years

Under Aurangzeb's long rule (1658-1707), the Mughal empire reached the height of its strength. However, his militant Muslim policies, including the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrines, undermined the enduring strength of the empire and led to its demise by the mid-18th century.

Even as Mughal power crumbled, the Taj Mahal suffered from neglect and disrepair in the two centuries after Shah Jahan's death. Near the turn of the 19th century, Lord Curzon, then British viceroy of India, ordered a major restoration of the mausoleum complex as part of a colonial effort to preserve India's artistic and cultural heritage.

Today, some 3 million people a year (or around 45,000 a day during peak tourist season) visit the Taj Mahal.

Air pollution from nearby factories and automobiles poses a continual threat to the mausoleum's gleaming white marble façade, and in 1998, India's Supreme Court ordered a number of anti-pollution measures to protect the building from deterioration. Some factories were closed, while vehicular traffic was banned from the immediate vicinity of the complex.

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Taj Mahal - Location, Timeline & Architect

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The Taj Mahal is an enormous mausoleum complex commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the remains of his beloved wife. Constructed over a 20-year period on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India, the famed complex is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture.

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WEBSITES

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WEBSITES

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WEBSITES

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by Jean Clottes, Jean Courtin, Luc Vanrell

A few facts must be recalled before presenting our new discoveries. The Cosquer Cave (Marseille, France) was discovered in 1985 by a diver, Henri Cosquer, deep under the sea (the original entrance is about 115 feet below present-day sea level) but its paintings were not mentioned until 1991 after three divers died in the cave when they got lost.

The gallery slopes up for about 360 feet under water before reaching a huge chamber that partly remained above the sea and where many prehistoric paintings and engravings are preserved on the walls, as well as remains on the ground (charcoal from fires and torches, a few flint tools). This is the only painted cave in the world with an entrance below present-day sea level where cave art has been preserved from the flooding that occurred when the seas rose after the end of the last glaciation (Clottes & Courtin 1994, 1996).

Right from the start, it was obvious that the discovery of the Cosquer Cave was both an important and original art find. It was located in a provence of France near Marseilles, an area where no Palaeolithic art had ever been discovered. This highlighted a supposedly well-known but rarely referred to problem, which is the disappearance of uncounted prehistoric caves under the sea all along the Mediterranean and other shores since Ice Age times. Several large caves are next to Cosquer. A number of them could have been - and probably were - lived in, painted or engraved.

Despite the destructions due to the sea, Cosquer ranks among the few caves where more than 150 animal figures have been found.

Hand stencils now total 65, the highest number in Europe except for Gargas (Hautes-Pyrénées) and possibly El Castillo in Spain. They are all located in the east side of the chamber, with one in the south. None is in the west. Right at the brink of a 57 feet deep vertical shaft – a location which in itself is significant - they are all black. On other panels, they may be black or red. One positive red hand has been found. A number of hand stencils have been scratched or painted over with dots and bars.

Photo Jean Clottes

Photo Luc Vanrell

Photo Jean Clottes

Only adult hand stencils have been found. Many of them have incomplete fingers: they were realized by bending the fingers. Hand stencils with incomplete fingers had until very recently only been found in very few caves, mostly in the Pyrénées (Gargas, Tibiran, Fuente del Trucho). Now, we know that the phenomenon was far more widely represented than had been thought. The now established fact that roughly at the same time such hand stencils were being made in sites hundreds of miles apart should deal a death blow to the theory of pathologic mutilations: how likely would it be that human groups living at such distances from one another should independently develop the same crippling diseases and should react in the same way by immortalizing them on the walls of the caves by means of the same techniques?

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The Cave Art Paintings of the Cosquer Cave

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The Cosquer Cave in Marseille, France lies deep under the sea where many prehistoric rock art paintings and rock art engravings are preserved. The discovery of the Cosquer Cave is an important rock art find in an area of France where no Palaeolithic cave art had ever been discovered.

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June 26, 2015-June 27, 2021
Washington, DC

Construction of the Inka Road stands as one of the monumental engineering achievements in history. A network more than 20,000 miles long, crossing mountains and tropical lowlands, rivers and deserts, the Great Inka Road linked Cusco, the administrative capital and spiritual center of the Inka world, to the farthest reaches of its empire. The road continues to serve contemporary Andean communities across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile as a sacred space and symbol of cultural continuity. In 2014, the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, recognized the Inka Road as a World Heritage site.

The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire explores the foundations of the Inka Road in earlier Andean cultures, technologies that made building the road possible, the cosmology and political organization of the Inka world, and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and in the present day.

The Inka Road project is organized by the National Museum of the American Indian and is made possible by federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, and internal Smithsonian Institution funds from the Consortium for World Cultures. Generous support for the exhibition is provided by the National Council of the National Museum of the American Indian and the ESA Foundation.

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The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire | National Museum of the American Indian

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June 26, 2015-June 27, 2021 Washington, DC Construction of the Inka Road stands as one of the monumental engineering achievements in history. A network more than 20,000 miles long, crossing mountains and tropical lowlands, rivers and deserts, the Great Inka Road linked Cusco, the administrative capital and spiritual center of the Inka world, to the farthest reaches of its empire.

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The Nok culture, named after the settlement of the same name, flourished in southern West Africa (modern Nigeria) during the Iron Age from the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. Famous for the distinctive…