Rafael Hohmann
ANTH- 1030
03/29/14
PBR #2 Write-Up
It’s always a great experience to go out of your comfort zone and explore a place you’ve never
been to. By going to Natural History Museum at the University of Utah I was able to head to two new
places –the museum and the past itself. Going out of your comfort zone is all about doing something
you haven’t done before. In this case it was seeing the past through objects displayed at the museum in
a new light. Not only just pass through the exhibits and be intrigued, but to travel through time in the
mind and gain a better understanding of how the world was. It was an amazing experience that allowed
me to shed new light on life and it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. My favorite part was the
Median Village which is a replica of an actual archaeological dig which I thought was pretty neat. It is a
representation of a location dug up in Sevier County here in Utah in the 1960’s, They did a very good
job recreating it.
As I looked through the various things on display at the exhibit my eyes tended to focus more on
the pottery. I was more interested in that because I’ve actually done pottery before and I know how
hard it can be to make something nice. Now-a-days we have various machines and modernized
methods to create pots that make it a lot easier and faster to perform the art. Back then though- is a
whole other case. I was very impressed by the simplistic yet almost-perfectly round bowls and pots
created by hand with no assistance. One of the pieces- a black and white pot with intricate designs was
the best piece in my opinion. The spiral designs across the top and diamond patterns on the side make
it very beautiful. I was saddened to see cracks and chips in the piece but still- I was very surprised at
how intact it still was after (based on the date on the sign) seven-hundred years. Like I said, I’ve created
pottery before and that was a great piece made. I learned just from studying it that the Anasazi were
great potters and had a practiced skill that showed the importance and necessity of items such as pots.
They had an eye for art and beauty based on the patterns on the pot and stored large amounts of water,
seed, or grain in containers such as that one. Another piece I really liked was a white bowl/plate with
black designs along the edge of it. Sadly though with this piece, it had once been shattered and is now
put together probably with a special glue. There are still parts to it missing. It makes me sad because if I
were an archaeologist and was only able to find parts of an artifact I would become very frustrated. It
gives me insight into the life of an archaeologist that sometimes we are only able to put parts together
of the whole. That not only applies to pieces such as the plate but into the past itself. We can
sometimes collect a large amount of shards and get an overview of the entire image and understand
how it was and what it was- but we will never have the complete knowledge of the time period and will
always have gaps and cracks.
The two pieces I mentioned before were between seven-hundred to nine-hundred years old and
although they’re cracked and missing parts- overall they’re pretty intact. Although these sorts of pots
are really old it’s interesting to note that we still use the exact same things today. We see similar pots
everywhere around the world. In America they are now more used as decoration but in other places
such as Africa, they are still used the same way. In the archaeological perspective we can understand
that pots and ceramics played an important role in the lives of ancient cultures such as the Anasazi.
Overall as I walked the hallways of the museum and studied the various artifacts of the past I was able
to have the mindset of an archaeologist and the inner eye of one as well. I was able to ask more
profound questions such as why and how was this artifact used and created. I was able to deduct
answers through my observations and through that I gained a glimpse in the past. I believe that
knowing our past is important to us as individuals. We reflect on our understanding and are made more
than before because of it.