Visit guide for primary and secondary teachers ... - British Museum

A

Visit guide for primary and secondary teachers Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia 17 October – 23 March 2014

Bat-man pectoral, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, AD 900 1600

Contents Using the exhibition

3

Teaching suggestions

4

Exhibition briefing sheets for adults

7

Exhibition image bank

8

Visit Guide for primary and secondary teachers Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia 2

Using the exhibition Entrance to the exhibition is free for school groups. All visiting groups must pre-book through the Museum Ticket Desk. In advance Use the Image Bank presentation and the information on the exhibition briefing sheet to familiarize students and accompanying adults with the exhibition. Decide on any follow-up activity you plan to do after the visit and go through this with the students and accompanying adults to ensure they gather the necessary information from the exhibition to support the work back in the classroom. On the day Divide the class into small groups, with an adult assigned to each group, for working in the exhibition. Remind accompanying adults about any specific objects which you will be using for follow-up work so that they can ensure students engage with these in the exhibition. Remind accompanying adults to encourage discussion about the objects, dwell at objects which particularly interest the students and share things they find out as they go round. Remind students what information they will be gathering from the exhibition e.g. about materials, musical instruments or afterlife. Your visit will take place alongside the general public. Please remind students to behave calmly and politely. Photography is not allowed within the exhibition space but students may take photographs in the permanent galleries of the Museum. Afterwards Discuss the students’ thoughts and responses to the exhibition. Apply information gathered in the exhibition to the relevant follow-up activity. Revisit any preparation resources, such as the Image Bank presentation, which support follow-up activities.


Teaching suggestions In the exhibition The exhibition contains around 200 objects from the Museo del Oro in Bogota and around 100 from British Museum collection. The exhibition narrative will concentrate on ancient Colombian metalworking, especially gold. Gold mixed with copper was crafted in unique pieces that were either used in ritual practices or in the creation and expression of identity and status. As the students are moving through the exhibition you may find it helpful to engage them in some of these suggested exhibition activities. Thinking about a big question What types of materials did ancient Colombians use to make objects and why? What objects can you find that express myths and realities of ancient Colombia? What do you think was important to ancient Colombians? What was the role of gold in ancient Colombian culture? Which pieces do you think are most evocative and why? Collecting inspiration Look for different objects made of gold. Using a pencil and paper record some of the different shapes and sizes and note what they are used for e.g. necklaces, bracelets or pectorals, and what they represent e.g. beliefs or power. You could also look for the range of techniques used to make the objects. This can be found in the second section of the exhibition across four cases. Look at the variety of musical instruments. Note what has been made, when, where and how they were used. Are they percussion, wind or sting instruments? These can be found in the fourth section of the exhibition across three cases. Look at the variety of animals and figures in the exhibition. Choose one object and using a pencil and paper draw as much detail as you can that tells you it is a frog, bat, bird or crocodile. If you were to pick one of those details to symbolize that animal/person which would it be? If you were to become that animal or person how would you be different from how you are now? As you move through the exhibition generate an ancient Colombian word bank. Discuss suitable words in your group and scribe all agreed suggestions on to paper. At the end of the exhibition review your word bank and use the words to create a word cloud which reflects what you felt were the most important themes and aspects of the exhibition for your group.


At school The following is a list of suggested activities which you can undertake in the classroom to support a visit to the exhibition. The primary suggestions are grouped under four main topics which they will see evidence of in the exhibition. In the final section are discussion points and simple activities for secondary groups. Primary The story of El Dorado; ‘The Golden One’ Starting point: human tunjo- votive offerings Activities: Find Lake Guatavita on a map and create your own object out of salt dough or clay as an offering to the gods. These objects were not just found in the Lake but in caves, under trees, in rivers and under big rocks. The offerings were scenes of life, music etc. When it is dry it can be painted and displayed in your classroom. Music Starting point: ocarina Activities: Possibly more important than gold was music. People of ancient Colombia made complex and sophisticated wind instruments alongside other instruments including pipes, bells and rattles. Use clay to create your own ocarina inspired by research and drawings in the exhibition. Explore the use of animals and patterns to decorate your ocarina. Emphasize how sound is created using the equal dividing of air pressure and compare this to the other wind and percussion instruments. Animals Starting point: crocodile Activities: The characteristics of animals are used to focus people’s minds on different powers the animals have in order to believe they have those powers and perspectives. For example the flight of a bird gives perspective from above, the speed of a tiger may give strength in battle. What other reptiles, mammals and birds were found in the exhibition? Think of some animals and discuss their individual characteristics and how those could help someone do something. For example an animal with good night sight might help a police officer or a thief. Death and the afterlife Starting point: tomb guardian figure Activities: Many outstanding objects accompanied the dead on their journey into the spirit world. The seated position represents a position of power and status. This status is taken with them into the afterlife. Based on research in the exhibition write a report on what you found, a fictional story or some poetry about a possible life of one of these people.


Secondary Myth and reality of El Dorado The myth of El Dorado symbolised the search for new wealth for explorers and newcomers. The meaning of El Dorado for natives is ‘the golden one’ or ‘gilded one’ and involved a ceremony that was practiced by the people of ancient Colombia. Discuss the differences between what El Dorado meant to natives and explorers. Discuss how and why two cultures have different interpretations. What other examples can you give of this? Ceremonies and rituals can easily be lost if explorers and newcomers have missions that are not anthropological but financial. Discuss the differences between these missions. Are there any other types of missions you can think of? What might they be searching for? What might they bring to these communities? What kind of relationships might they form? Think and discuss what gold meant to natives and explorers. Death and the afterlife Given the many different chiefdoms and ethnic groups in ancient Colombia, treatment of the deceased and burial practices varied hugely from community to community. Often the dead were placed in a stretched-out position before being wrapped in fine textiles and their full regalia. They were then buried in graves, tombs or funerary mounds. In the most elaborate burials gold was placed in the tombs together with other valuable materials such as fine textiles, stones, and other necessary objects such as food and drink. Gold ornaments, especially large gold masks like the ones found in the CalimaMalagana elite burials were meant to ensure immortality thanks to the sacred power channeled by the gold. High-status individuals, mostly chiefs and spiritual leaders, would have sat in funerary chairs, known as tiangas, during their lifetime to show their rank and social position within the community. Some of these seats have also been found in burials, extending the status of the sitter to their new life. Discuss other burial practices and compare and contrast them to those of ancient Colombians. Materials and natural resources Metalworking in South America began in Peru around 4000 years ago. By about 400 BC, people in ancient Colombia had mastered gold working, and over the next 2000 years they made thousands of objects and perfected many styles and complex techniques. The use of gold was one of the privileges reserved for elites across the Andes. One of the ways in which chiefs and leaders publicly asserted their rank and their semi-divine status was through the personal use of gold objects. Status and identity were forged by the type of ornaments and body decoration used by an individual and a community. Among the many types of body adornment, gold pieces were not only distinctive of a culture by their style and iconography, but the type of ornaments in itself denoted the rank and role of the individual within the community. Discuss why, unlike gold, organic materials such as linen and feathers do not survive well in humid climates. Use examples in the Image Bank to help students frame these enquiries.


Exhibition briefing sheets for adults Exhibition summary Unique objects from different cultures and traditions from ancient Colombia (including Muisca, Quimbaya, Calima, Zenú and Tairona) will be presented to exemplify the great diversity of people that populated this complex cultural landscape before the arrival of the Europeans. Behind the myth of El Dorado (literally ‘the golden one’ or ‘the gilded one’), lies a ritual carried out at lake Guatavita in Muisca (AD 900-1550) territory, near present day Bogotá. This lake was seen as a portal to and means of communicating with the hidden powers of the underworld. It is said in the chronicles that during the investiture ceremony of the Muisca chieftain, he was covered in gold dust and borne on a raft into the centre of the lake. He and his attendants threw gold and other offerings into the depths of the lake. Gold was a metal associated with the power of the sun. The sourcing of gold, the trade and distribution of this material, raw and crafted, were key to the networks of exchange between the different regions of Colombia. The diversity, richness and complex metalworking techniques used in pre-Hispanic times show the technological achievements mastered in the Northern Andes. Some gold-working techniques were culture specific, while others were widely spread throughout ancient Colombian territory. Hammering, casting and the use of the lost wax technique reached its highest point here long before the arrival of Europeans. Other types of materials are exhibited such as objects produced from cloth and feathers, carefully crafted, traded and regarded in high esteem by Northern Andean elites marking status, identity and their role in ritual performances. Other valuables like salt, fish and chilies were commodities as important in the trade as gold, but given their perishable nature they are not found in the archaeological record. Chiefs and spiritual leaders were responsible for protecting and ensuring the health and well-being of their community. Before any action, however, they consulted the spiritual leaders who were specialists in negotiating with spirits and controlled virtually every aspect of life in the community. Rituals were usually accompanied by dance, music and singing, allowing for a more fluid communication with the supernatural world. After rigorous training, spiritual leaders were prepared to venture into the spirit world to gain new knowledge of this hidden realm. The smoking of tobacco or the ingestion of natural hallucinogenic substances sometimes accompanied the process of transformation. This transformation involved the characteristics of animals for the leader to gain the animal’s symbolic powers. Many outstanding objects were chosen to accompany the dead on their journey into the spirit world where life is believed to continue in a different guise. A broad diversity of burial practices in ancient Colombia is explored in the exhibition. In all of them gold was invested with symbolic significance allowing retention of the status of the deceased in the afterlife.


Exhibition image bank There is a whiteboard resource for the exhibition available at http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions Supporting information for the objects included in the presentation is available in the Notes section of each slide. The notes below each slide contain links to follow for more information on that specific object. To find the object on the Museum’s online database, go to http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx and open the ‘Advanced search options’ pane. The final section gives the option to ‘Search by Museum number or reference’. Enter the Museum number exactly as it appears underneath the slide. Tick the ‘images only’ box if you only wish to view entries with images. You can use the images to introduce students to the types of objects they will encounter in the exhibition. You can also use it as a source of images which can be used as starting points for follow-up activities back in the classroom. Individual images can be printed out for use during small group work. The images included in the presentation are: 1 Object: Human figure pectoral. From: Colombia. Date: AD 900-1600

2 Object: Lake Guatavita. From: South America. Date: Current

3 Object: Raft Tunjo (Votive Offering) Muisca. From: Colombia. Date: AD 600–1600 The object is not in the exhibition but there is a projected image of it

4 From left to right. Object: Seated human tunjo offering From: Colombia. Date: AD 600-1600 Object: Human tunjo offering From: Colombia. Date: AD 600-1600

5 Object: Painted textile. From: Colombia. Date: AD 1300-1400


6 From left to right Object: Bat-man ocarina. From: Colombia. Date: AD 900-1600 Object: Bird-shaped ocarina. From: Colombia. Date: AD 1000-1600

7 From left to right Object: Bell. From: Colombia. Date: 500 BC-AD 700 Object: Trumpet. From: Colombia. Date: 200 BC-AD 1300

8 From left to right Object: Crocodile. From: Colombia. Date: AD 700-1600 Object: Human-headed bird pendant. From: Colombia. Date: AD 900-1600

9 Object: Snake shaped pendant. From: Colombia. Date: AD 600-1600

10 Object: Tomb guardian figure. From: Colombia. Date: AD 300-800

11 Object: Funerary mask. From: Colombia. Date: 100 BC-AD 400

11 Object: Map of archaeological regions of Colombia.

To find out more from one of our curators, Jago Cooper, follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20964114

. Visit Guide for primary and secondary teachers Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia 9