Date: 8 Oct 2004 11:18:52 -0000
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Big_Ed] Digest Number 43

1. Re: African Burial Ground
From: George Myers
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 07:04:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Myers
Subject: Re: African Burial Ground


As an observer, not a participant, though I have worked a three times
in the City Commons/African Burial Ground Historic District for others
(Grossman & Associates, Inc., Linda Stone, MA., Parsons, Inc.) not
directly in the African Burial Ground but twice in regards to the
"First Almshouse" burial ground within the confines of City Hall Park
I would have to agree that what you say is true based on my
serendipitous findings.

I was employed by Greenhouse Consultants, Inc. to review "site files"
in the New York State Anthropological Services Office in Albany, NY.
As the "window" for this is extremely limited (a couple of hours of a
weekday, partly due to staff shortages, done with written permission)
I found I had some time to visit the State Museum next door, which was
was being shut then soon for remodeling. I visited the "longhouse"
listened to the grandmother's tale of Ursa Major how the Bear in the
Sky got there and wondered at the portrait of former NY State
Archaeologist, Arthur C. Parker, (Seneca name "snow snake" actually a
winter game of the wide North Country) in "Blazing Saddles" regalia,
Plains Indian feather headdress. On exhibit were all the then proposed
memorial designs for the African Burial Ground, a block north of the
"Tweed Courthouse" since (and not, now the Dept. of Education
headquarters, former lab space in the basement there, behind bars) the
future home of the "Museum of New York
City" which I think was also judged by one in the group an
archaeologist I have also worked with in NYC and NJ.

Anyway, the winner was a series of columns, that were stratigraphic
profiles instead of if you will "fluted" classic columns. Each one
represented a circular section through the ground below allowing the
visitor to participate in the variations of "horizons" represented in
the ground below. The other competitors designs were all displayed in
one place. Since the competition was re-let as the results were
unacceptable. A counter sculpture arose in the Caribbean and was
symbolically buried at sea at the Middle Passage. It was similar in my
mind to a whalebone gate that once existed in Brooklyn, NY. Two large
ribs if you will standing to create a "framed" gate, the sculpture was
similar invoking tusks more like but square arches that did not touch.
July 4, 1999 it left A NY State park from the Hudson River for the
Middle Passage where it was dumped 1 kilometer for each of the burials
removed to Howard University from the burial ground. Miniature copies
of the sculpture were also sold.


"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" - Alexander Pope


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Big_Ed/