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Wed, 11 Apr 2001 09:24:07 +0100 |
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I recently received an email requesting identification of an artifact a
woman and her sister found as children 37 years ago in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. They found it in the bottom of a deep (about 10 ft., according to
them) waterline trench that was dug in their front yard. The artifact is
cast iron, measuring about 5 3/4 by 6 1/2 inches, and representing the face
of Buddha. It has holes on either side for attachment to something. My
first reaction was that it was some kind of architectural decoration
although Buddha in Bowling Green is something of a stretch. The house on
the lot was probably built in the 20s but was, I gather, on the outskirts
of town at the time the artifact was found. One of the sisters wrote that
there were caves beneath the house (Bowling Green is in the heart of karst
country so sinkholes and caves abound, and subsidence might account for the
depth at which the item was found although I have to wonder if their memory
of the depth is inaccurate--one of them was only 8 at the time and 10 ft.
seems awfully deep for a waterline). I have shown the digital images to
several colleagues and have gotten similar reactions--that it is probably
architectural, and that the Buddha iconography appeared to be more
Southeast Asian or Indian than Chinese, but no one felt really confident
about an identification. I also looked through several publications on cast
iron architectural features but didn't find anything similar. I can send
images to anyone who is interested (I tried to post them on the uworkit.com
website Anita emailed us about awhile back but the resulting image was so
awful that I abandoned the attempt). I will be away from my office for the
rest of this week but can respond early next week when I return.
As usual, I am grateful for any information, ideas, etc. that members of
the board may be able to provide.
Nancy O'Malley
Assistant Director
W.S. Webb Museum of Anthropology
and Office of State Archaeology
211 Lafferty Hall
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Tele.: 859-257-8208
FAX: 859-323-3686
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