Spotlight on Artist Barbara Chen

Barbara Chen

My painting and drawing style evolved in college as I was studying the new classics - Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso. You could say that at my age I've straddled three centuries. Over time I added mosaics and ceramics to my repertoire.

                                                 

Perfect for birthday presents and cards.

Are you a cat person or a dog person? Perhaps you prefer cows or monkeys?

Do you find yourself in a city, countryside or communing with nature? Home or Abroad?

Flowers, still life, and musical instruments. 

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Find out more about Barbara Chen on her WEBPAGE

Commissions accepted

Price information available upon request

Contact Barbara at 

babschenski@yahoo.com

12,300-Year-Old Bone Pendants May be Oldest Artwork Ever Discovered in Alaska

Ancient Origins

Carved bone pendants have been found at a prehistoric site in Alaska that may prove to be the very first known examples of artwork in the northern region of North America.
Two pairs of pendants were revealed at the Mead archaeological dig site in the wilderness of the Alaska interior between Fairbanks and Delta Junction. At a recent lecture at the UA Museum of the North, anthropologist Ben Potter from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said of the find, “It made my heart stop when I saw it.”

Detail, prehistoric bone pendants found at the Mead archaeological site in Alaska may be the first examples of artwork in northern North America. Photo credit: Barbara Crass, Shaw Creek Archaeological Research

Potter has lead the Mead site excavations for the past two years in cooperation with local and regional indigenous organizations. The site has been undergoing annual excavations since at least 2009.
A student uncovered the tiny bone pendants while working in what is believed to be the location of a hide-covered hut from 12,300 years ago, reports local news website NewsMiner.
Reportedly the pendants were discovered in 2013, but announcements of the finds were held off by researchers until further exploration was done to ensure other artifacts hadn’t been missed. The team has also recovered stone tools and animal bones dating to between 11,820 and 12,200 years ago. A brown bear jawbone was found with its pointy canine teeth removed, presumably to be included as powerful talismans in other jewelry.
Missing from the Mead site are weapon fragments – suggesting the location was used as a base camp rather than a hunting camp.

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The pendants are considered samples of sophisticated craftsmanship of their time.
Carved from bone, two of the pendants look like zipper pulls, and the other two resemble stylized fish or bird tails. There is a delicate cross-hatching design on the outer edges of the pendants. Researchers theorized they might have been toggles, buttons for clothing, earrings or pendants, or ornaments.
Upon their discovery, Potter first tried to pinpoint their use by discern their function, how the pieces might have benefited the Ice Age people, and kept them alive. However, the team would soon reconsider the artifacts to be very early artwork.
Potter said, “Art serves as a way to fix social boundaries. ‘This is our group, not yours.’ These could be a way to communicate. They could be the first evidence we have for social boundary maintenance (in high-latitude North America),” writes NewsMiner.

Excavationists work at the Mead site in Alaska where 12,300-year-old pendants have been found.  Credit: Ben Potter

Barbara Crass, director of Shaw Creek Archaeological Research said of the site in 2014, “Outside of a few beads there’s nothing else that age and artistic in the New World or at least North America.”
Potter and colleagues have been excavating Mead and the nearby Upward Sun River site and have uncovered the remains of three ice-age child grave sites, and tent areas.

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Researchers are excited about the finds which push back the dating on artworks in northern North America and reveal Ice-Age Alaskan life and craftsmanship. The discoveries at Mead and other prehistoric sites in the Alaskan interior show that not all camps were exclusively for hunting, and early humans of the region devoted some of their time to creating ornaments of cultural and decorative importance.

Featured Image: Bone pendants, seen right, were found at an archaeological dig site in the Alaskan interior. Credit: Ben Potter

Ancient Mayan Altars, Sculpted Artwork Discovered in Guatemala

By Owen Jarus

This incense burner, showing the head of Itzamna, a deity who was the shaman of the Mayan gods, was discovered at a Mayan council house in Petén, Guatamela. Credit: Photo by Don Rice

A team of archaeologists in Guatemala has discovered a council house dating back about 700 years with altars, incense burners and sculpted images of animals.
Located at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' in Petén, Guatemala, the house has "two colonnaded halls constructed side by side. The halls were decorated with sculpted [reptile], parrot and turtle imagery," writes Timothy Pugh, a professor at Queens College in New York, in a summary of a talk he recently gave at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
A Mayan group called the Chakan Itza would have used this council house as aplace to hold meetings, worship gods, make alliances and officiate marriage ceremonies.

"Basically almost every political and religious ritual would have been held there," Pugh told Live Science in an interview. The leaders who gathered there would have held power in the community and perhaps the broader region. Among the artifacts is an incense burner showing the head of Itzamna, who was the "shaman of the gods," Pugh said.

The Maya council house had two altars, each of which originally had a sculpted turtle on it.
Credit: Photo by Timothy Pugh

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The reptile and parrot sculptures once adorned the walls of the hallways, while two altars each had a sculpted turtle on them, Pugh said. Among the incense burners are examples that appear to be shaped like a seedling ceiba tree, which held importance to the Maya and today is the national tree of Guatemala.
Center of a community
The council house at Nixtun-Ch'ich', about 50 by 50 meters (164 by 164 feet), would have been part of a flourishing settlement. Archaeologists in previous expeditions found a giant ball court at the site, the second largest from the Mayan world, Pugh said. The largest Mayan ball court is at Chichen Itza, a city the Chaken Itza believed their ancestors had migrated from, Pugh said.
The council house appears to have been in use between about A.D. 1300 and 1500, Pugh said, adding that it could have been in use for some time after 1500. Around that time, Pugh believes, the Chakan Itza decided to destroy the council house and move the seat of power — something they would likely do on a regular basis.
"The Maya paid close attention to time and calendars," Pugh said. "After a certain cycle of time they would move the ruling seat to a new location."
In order to destroy the council house, "they basically conducted a ritual that cancelled out the power of this space," Pugh said. "They destroyed the altars and they covered the building" with a large amount of dirt, he said.
A living legacy
The Spanish would conquer the Peténregion of Guatemala by the end of the 17th century. The Itza people suffered many casualties from the conquest and European diseases to which they lacked immunity.
However the Itza, along with other Mayan people, persevered and continue to live on today. Many of the Itza now speak Spanish, although the Itza language is still spoken by a small number of individuals.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

http://www.livescience.com/46215-ancient-mayan-artwork-discovered.html