Animated Object: Ocarina in the Shape of a Giant Armadillo from Costa Rica

by Bernard K. Means, Directory, Virtual Curation Laboratory

 

This ocarina in the shape of a giant armadillo was 3D scanned at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) on June 23, 2015.  It is part of CMNH’s Costa Rican study collection.

 

 

Animated Object: Bird Figurine from Costa Rica

by Bernard K. Means, Directory, Virtual Curation Laboratory

 

This bird figurine was 3D scanned at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) on June 23, 2015.  It is part of CMNH’s Costa Rican study collection.

 

 

Animated Object: Female Figurine from Costa Rica

by Bernard K. Means, Directory, Virtual Curation Laboratory

This female figurine was 3D scanned at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) on June 23, 2015.  It is part of CMNH’s Costa Rican study collection.

3D scanning figurine in vertical position.

3D scanning figurine “face down”

 

Animation of the Day: Monk’s Head Figurine Fragment from George Washington’s Ferry Farm

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory

Today’s animation is an agate stoneware figurine fragment recovered from a ca. 1755 context associated with George Washington and his family in the home where he grew up as a boy from the age of 6 until his early 20s. This fragment of a monk’ figurine from Staffordshire, England, would have been part of a set of other figurines that adorned the mantle over the Washington family’s fireplace. As such, this figurine expressed the Washington family’s keen fashion sense as part of the Virginia gentry class. It was recovered archaeologically at George Washington’s Ferry Farm and scanned in the Small Finds Laboratory at Ferry Farm. The figurine was dusted with a neutral talc powder to facilitate the scanning process.

Animated Object of the Day: Carved Stone Beaver Effigy

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory

Today’s animation is a carved stone beaver effigy form the collections of the  Virginia Museum of Natural History. This item was donated without any contextual information so the antiquity of this object is unclear, as are its cultural origins and place of manufacture.

Animation of the Day: Doll Head from Philadelphia

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL)

Today’s animation is a doll head recovered archaeologically from a free African American site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and dates to the early 19th century A.D. It is now within the archaeological collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania (TSMP). This doll head shows a woman wearing a hat and was scanned by now VCU alumnus Crystal Castleberry on February 7, 2013. It was animated by Lauren Volkers on May 5, 2014.

Animated Object of the Day: Aztec Figurine Head from VMNH

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory

Today’s animation is an Aztec figurine head from the collections of the  Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH).  It was scanned in August 2013 by Lauren Volkers, Ashley McCuistion, and myself in the VMNH archaeological collections area.

Animation of the Day: Zoomorphic Figurine Head from the Hartwell Site, Fairfax County, VA

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory

Today’s animation is a small zoomorphic figurine head recovered archaeologically from the Hartwell site (44FX1847) in Fairfax County, Virginia. The figurine fragment was scanned at Fairfax County’s Cultural Resource Management and Protection collections repository in the James Lee Community Center, Falls Church, Virginia.

Animation of the Day: Lead Doughboy Toy from Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory

This lead figure represents a World War I soldier, sometimes referred to informally as a doughboy.  The term doughboy generally refers to members of the American Expeditionary Forces. It was scanned in the archaeology facility at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest was continuously lived in well into the 20^th century, as shown by this early 1900s toy. A video produced for Instagram by Archaeology in the Community in the Virtual Curation Laboratory features Lauren Volkers discussing the object, using a printed version made with a MakerBot Replicator.  The InstaGram video can be found here: http://instagram.com/p/i7WIALqqS2/#

Animated Object of the Day: Aztec Dog Figurine

by Bernard K. Means, Project Director

The Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) focuses their attention on studying animal remains from archaeological sites through their extensive faunal type collection. VMNH does also hold other collections of interest, including this clay figurine of a canine manufactured by the Aztecs.

This figurine is actually quite small, as can be seen in this photograph of the object as it was being scanned.