Study: New Guinea art older than thought

October 12, 2005

When San Francisco's de Young Museum reopens Saturday, it will debut the world's largest collection of New Guinea art -- some pieces 100 generations old.

Gregory Hodgins and A.J. Timothy Jull of the University of Arizona radiocarbon dated some of the collection that New York-based entrepreneur John Friede and his wife, Marcia, are giving the de Young Museum.

Two years ago, Friede asked UA scientists to date some collection pieces at the university's National Science Foundation-Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility in Tucson.

Results of the dating project are preliminary, but the findings have stunned museum curators and anthropologists.

The scientists' findings challenge previous assumptions that such objects are inherently ephemeral, perhaps surviving only a few generations.

Of the objects dated, 78 contain wood that pre-dates the 18th century and 33 contain wood from before 1670.

"A small percentage of this collection are pieces that are very old -- 600, 700, 800 years and older," Hodgins said.

The oldest mask in the collection is dated at between 660 and 860, implying a few of the objects were in use for more than 50 generations -- and perhaps up to 100 generations.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International


Rank not rated yet
Tags

Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created 16 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'

A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created 10 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 4

The question of life in the ancient world

There’s a general feeling that we don’t get the Greeks – ancient or modern. Many, including heads of state like Angela Merkel, visibly shake their head in exasperation, rightly or wrongly, at ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created 15 hours ago | popularity 1.3 / 5 (3) | comments 4

Sonic Cradle lands spot in TED exhibition

A Simon Fraser University graduate student project that melds music, meditation and modern technology has landed a rare spot as an exhibit at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs, California this month.

Other Sciences / Other

created 12 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Chilean miners' rescue capsule on show in London

The capsule used to rescue Chilean miners trapped underground for two months goes on display Saturday at the Science Museum in London -- the first time it has been seen in Europe.

Other Sciences / Other

created 14 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.

Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.