Field Museum reveals life in Americas

BY ANDREA MILLS
COMMUNITY EDITOR
amills@svnmail.com Last week, dinosaurs at the Field Museum in Chicago tempted Sauk Valley residents to take to the road, but this week the temptation doubles. The Field Museum has another fresh exhibit - this one opens the doors to the New World. Having opened earlier this month, "The Ancient Americas" tells the story of life in this part of the world from the first groups who arrived on the continents to the large empires of the Aztecs and Incans. Adding to the experience, visitors can stop at listening posts offering overviews in Spanish. The exhibit itself focuses on the time before the Spanish sailed across the ocean to the Western Hemisphere. "Creativity, the ability to adapt and innovate, allowed human beings to build successful societies and develop new forms of cultural expression throughout the world," Jonathan Haas, Field Museum archaeologist and lead curator for The Ancient Americas, said in a press release, "but it's only recently that we've come to appreciate the great diversity and the high level of achievement attained independently, by peoples throughout the Americas. The Field Museum developed the Ancient Americas to help people understand the story through the insights of contemporary anthropology and archaeology." In the process of telling this story, the galleries of the exhibit have been organized in a different way than expected. Visitors won't find things in chronological order based on cultures, but rather around the approaches people developed to meet the challenges of living in a new world. Not only that, but they'll see how and why things changed. Some of the information to look for are the different ways of hunting and gathering food, how domestic animals were developed and how the use of plants led to farming. The rise of governments will be revealed along with different forms of leadership and the monuments that were created as a result of that not to mention those large empires so much a part of history. However, it's just not all talk in this exhibit. More than 2,200 artifacts are on hand from 20 cultural groups. Those viewing the exhibit will see early pueblo communities from the American Southwest, the moundbuilders - Hopewell and Mississipians of the Midwest; the Taino of the Caribbean; the Zapotec, Maya and Aztec of Mesoamerica; and the Moche, Wari and Inca of South America. "I think visitors will be surprised to discover just how much we have in common with the ancient Americans," David Foster, the Field's project management director, said. "When visitors leave the exhibition, they'll have a new perspective on what it means to be human and to live with other people. They'll look at their own society with different eyes." Visiting The Ancient Americas takes people into the environment of the Ice-Age mammoth hunters in Chicago. Yes, it will be 11,000 B.C. at the time. The public also will be able to walk through a re-creation of a pueblo dwelling that is 800 years old, can see the earthworks of mound-building people and can visit the cities of Tenochtitlan and Cuzco, the renowned capitals of the Incas and Aztecs. These are brought to life with the help of interactive maps, dioramas and computer activities, as well as animated videos. Don't forget to pay attention to the artifacts mentioned earlier. They help to tell the story and to increase the knowledge of what this world was like. Some of the highlights are ceramic vessels from the museum's Peruvian collections, Hopewell artifacts and gold objects from Colombia that Spanish explorers missed. Unlike the explorers, visitors today won't miss anything. The exhibit is part of the permanent displays at the museum, so take your time. You can always go back for more. If you go ...What: The Ancient Americas. When: Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Christmas Day. Where: The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Cost: Free with regular admission price of $12 for adults, $7 for ages 4-11, seniors and students with identification. For information: Visit www.fieldmuseum.org or call (312) 922-9410. Tickets: Purchase at the Web site above or call (866) 343-5303.