Wm. G. Pierce teaching photo source : Lorie Pierce
My father announced a couple of days ago that he was marking a special milestone this weekend – the 30th anniversary of the day he retired (June 30, 1983). So today my spouse and I arrived at his door with Chinese food and we opened a bottle of wine to mark the occasion. One of many important celebrations to occur this weekend.
making a strong crease along the score line photo source : Lorie Pierce
The papercraft pieces have been cut and waiting for me for a couple of weeks now. Today, I was able to score all the folding lines and press the creases. To press, I used these handy little clamps I found in a dollar store. There were four in the pack and I wish I had purchased two packages.
the other side of the fold photo source : Lorie Pierce
gate arch glued to base photo source : Lorie Pierce
back and sides glued photo source : Lorie Pierce
turrets glued photo source : Lorie Pierce
Final gluing and finishing touches will happen in the next few days. Then I will source a plastic container to hold the model, which is 11″ by 7″ by 4″. Hopefully the Solutions Store nearby will have the ideal case.
The next Outreach event will be on the topic of Rocks, Minerals and Space. From the International Space Station, 220 miles above us, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield took this photo of rocks in the desert of Saudi Arabia.
rock outcrop in sand dunes photo source : Chris Hadfield via Twitter
Looks very much like the NASA Curiosity rover images from Mars. No wonder it is easier to find meteorites in the desert than practically anywhere else. The heavy dense magnetic rocks from space stick out as if they have a sign attached “not from around here!”
The Mushushu is a mythical animal connected with the ancient Babylonian god Marduk. With the body of a dragon, the neck and tail of a snake and eagle claw talons, it is truly a chimera like a unicorn or the Ancient Chinese quilin.
Mushushu from Ishtar Gates in ancient Babylon
Here is a photo of one of these glazed clay brick panels. Note the vivid blue, green and copper highlights of the glazed paint. The gate was created in 575 B.C.
Mushushu panel from Ishtar Gates photo source : thestar.com.my
completed theatre photo source : Tommy Tommerson
The epic story of Gilgamesh is one of the treasures found in clay tablets from the Royal Library in Nineveh. Babylonian in origin, these 12 tablets were collected and transcribed through the efforts of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in the seventh century B.C.
Over 30,000 clay tablets were found in the 1850’s by the British adventurer and archaeologist, Austen Henry Layard. The sixth tablet of the Gilgamesh series is on loan to our museum for the Mesopotamia : Inventing Our World exhibit.
For programming of the Gilgamesh story, I found this delightful theatre by Tommy Tommerson and a beautifully illustrated set of children’s books by Ludmila Zeman.
first book in Gilgamesh series photo source : Amazon
The new Mesopotamia Exhibit, which opens tomorrow, has an incredible scale model of the Babylon Gate of Ishtar.
The Ishtar Gate(Arabic: بوابة عشتار) was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.
Dedicated to the Babylonian goddessIshtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-reliefmušḫuššu (dragons) and aurochs.
The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks (about 120 of them). Ishtar Gate has only gods and goddesses which include Ishtar Adad and Marduk. Statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year’s celebration. source : wikipedia
Paper Landmarks package
For the longest time, I searched for an authentic papercraft version of the gates. Finally I connected with Paper Landmarks via an Etsy site. It necessitated a purchased that was shipped from Latvia.
Latvian postage
The pieces are printed on good quality cardstock paper in vivid colour. I must say that the turrets look a bit finicky so I may have to modify the pattern somewhat.
detail of turrets
Future posts will document the process to put this together. It is destined for a touch table at Outreach events.
With the opening of the new Mesopotamia Exhibit, the topic of theme-related crafts and touchables is hovering in the air.
Here is a ziggurat papercraft I found online that I plan to try to complete soon.
ziggurat pattern source : J. Ossorio
I came across this quote recently and it got me thinking about how applicable it could be to the museum experience as well.
Museums give people the chance to step into ancient cultures, rainforests and crystal caves. How do we best facilitate that experience?
Our Roman and Byzantine Galleries are about to turn two years old. Here are two wonderful mosaics that grace the walls of the gallery. Just love these designs and the earthy colour tones.
mosaic knot design photo source : Lorie Pierce
mosaic bird design photo source : Lorie Pierce
There’s a whole (previously) real world out there!
From time to time, our museum brings in groups of re-enactors. This past weekend, we had a troop of Roman soldiers providing authenticity and colour to our Ancient Greece and Rome weekend.
Roman troop preparing for battle photo source : Lorie Pierce
close-up photo source : Lorie Pierce
Here is the paper model I made of a Roman soldier I named Horatio.
Horatio – front photo source : Lorie Pierce
Horatio – back photo source : Lorie Pierce
I needed to see how accurate Horatio was to the real thing, so I got this photo of the re-enactor holding him in his hand.
Roman soldier with paper model in his right hand photo source : Lorie Pierce
The re-enactor told me that a centurion would have had his sword on the opposite side, but besides that, the paper model was fairly accurate.
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