Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Marshall College desk artifacts

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XV - The Buddha figure

(Click to enlarge)

Behind the Ethiopian headrest is a Buddha figure made of stone.
This is the one I found, that matches well with Indy's:

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XVI - The Amphora handle

Near the African bust is a elongated rod-like object.
(Click to enlarge)

This must be a handle of a Roman amphora.

While walking through the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul I found these stamped ceramic handles:

 

[Stormy320]

What a cool thread.

 

[James Earl Cash]

And before I go on with the thread a short intermezzo.

During my search for the jade mask I found this golden mask:



It's a Mixtec pectoral mask. The Mixtec were well known for their gold work. You can see a lot of that in the Museum of Oaxaca.
But this artifact is in the Dallas Museum of Art.

It's a small piece, but it nearly looks like Orellanas Mask in KOTCS. It might have inspired the prop makers.

The face of the Orellana Mask is based on "The Man From Planet X", like Magnoli stated in COW.


Here you can read more about the gold mask on the DMA site: < Link >

And a video of the artifact: < Pectoral Maskette Mixtec culture Oaxaca Mexico A.D. 1510-1521 Dallas >

 

[Apollo]

Never would have guessed that one, I have a repo of Head No. 1 sitting in the middle of one of my Morgan Bullwhips.

They were awesome to see in person.

Fantastic thread one of the best ones this year! :thumbsup

The olmec head looks like the head no. 1

 

[ultraman]

holy cow this thread blew my mind!!!

nice job on the research and time put into these posts james!!!

 

[RobertMuldoon]

As someone who loves archaeology, anthropology and Indy this is a great thread! I did actually watch Raiders the other day and think about looking up some of the objects on the desk, thanks for doing all the heavy lifting!

 

[spoudastis]

absolutely amazing thread. truely some of the best detective work done here, great job.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Thanks everyone!

Let's continue.
We stay in that area, but now to the objects behind the Ethiopian headrest.

Chapter XVII - A small terracotta bowl

These objects are placed behind the first row of artifacts, between the headrest, the Buddha figure and African bust.


(Click to enlarge)

The first one (purple) looks like a small terracotta bowl.
Here two examples:
One Canaanite bowl from Bronze Age, I found in the internet.

And one from the Indus Valley Civilization

We'll never know here the precise one, because it's a very small item and we can't see any other details.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XVIII - Black pottery vessel

The second object (yellow) seems to be a black vessel with two handles.
(Click to enlarge)

On one capture you can see the top of the vessel with its opening. It is surrounded by the Tibetan Lion, the Dutch Bible and the red stone object (Grasshopper).
(Click to enlarge)

I found this Chimu vessel, which looks a bit similar and has the right size. But the neck is a bit too high and the handles on each side are too small.


And some more:

An ancient Chinese pottery


An Etruscan pot


Black pottery works from Oaxaca, Mexico


If we consider, that most of the props on Indys desk seem to be tourist souvenirs from all over the globe, then its more likely, that it's the vessel from Oaxaca.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Chapter XVIII - Black pottery vessel
...
If we consider, that most of the props on Indys desk seem to be tourist souvenirs from all over the globe, then its more likely, that it's the vessel from Oaxaca.

The taper to the opening looks to be quite steep, followed by a more gentle curve of the bowl, whihc reminds me a lot of some pre-hispanic Colombian pottery. I’ll hit my archaeology books when I get home and see if I can find a similar reference.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Yes, you are right with the shape of the 'Oaxacan'. But it was the most plausible i could find so far.
I didn't check Colombian artifacts. That would be great, if you could find the perfect match here.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XIX - A female idol

There is still one object left here. It's infront of the black pottery, between the Buddha figure and the Ethiopian headrest.
I marked it with green in the picture below.

It seems, that there is a little figurine with raised arm(s?). Maybe a female idol,
Some of the lower parts of the figure are covered by the small African bust.

Only found these bit similar looking female idols:

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XX - The Dutch Bible

A very easy one, that most of you will know already:
The Dutch Bible is lying on the desk, which Indy later takes to the auditorium, where he talks to the secret service agents and shows them the Ark illustration in it.

(Click to enlarge)

 

[James Earl Cash]

One additional info.

In the later scene in Indy's house you can see some of his desk items: The Snow Lion, the Chimu vessel and the Cypriot Idol. (see pictures below)
The interior scene of Indy's house was filmed in the Elstree Studios. So maybe all of the props in the classroom scene could be from their prop warehouse.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Chapter XVIII - Black pottery vessel

I've been playing with the stills and I'm not sure I agree with your outlines.

There is a black line around the neck of the headrest, that extends into your previously outlined vessel edge.

There also is something right of the right most 'handle' loop thing. I'm wondering if that's an animal head, it looks quite a bit like a dog type head with a neck attached to something.

Here's some zooming and contrasting, I also blocked out the headrest:

 

[Broilermaker]

this has been the coolest thread, question; are you collecting or just identii
fying them?

 

[James Earl Cash]

There is a black line around the neck of the headrest, that extends into your previously outlined vessel edge.

That line is a leather ribbon around the headrest.

There also is something right of the right most 'handle' loop thing. I'm wondering if that's an animal head, it looks quite a bit like a dog type head with a neck attached to something.

Yes, at first I had the same thought with the animal head. But when I compared pictures from different angles, especially with the BluRay screenshots, I saw, that there is a female idol instead of that 'dog head'.
If you take one of the first frames, when the camera enters the class room, then you see that doglike head. But when the camera comes closer to the table and start to turn, then you discover, that there is a female figurine. And that one of the figurines arms leads us to think in the first frames, that there is a doglike head.

This is from one of the first frames


Now a zoom of it


The first impression is that there is the dog head


And here after you know that there is a female idol


The female idol can be seen clearly in the later frames:


So I still think, that this vessel is not zoomorphic in any way. It's just a blackware pottery with two handles.
I think, it looks like this:

 

[James Earl Cash]

this has been the coolest thread, question; are you collecting or just identii
fying them?

Thanks!
If I find one of these objects or similar ones, I buy them of course. So yes I'm collecting, too. But I'll come to that later.

 

[James Earl Cash]

Chapter XXI - African wooden figure

In the line of the ritual broom, the Olmec head and the amber glass pitcher you can see on the right side above a stack of books a wooden, I suppose, African statue.


Here with screenshots from the BluRay:

It's a male figure. It is standing on a base. It has slim long arms and legs, small feet and a flat and broad face. Up on its head is a hair crest or headdress.
Here a sketch I made for a possible front view:

My first thought years ago about the origin was Africa.
But I also checked some other regions. Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines especially.
And I found these similar looking figures. [Nage (Flores, Indonesia) - Dayak (Borneo) - Dayak (Borneo) - Tribe from Palawan (Philippines)]



But I still think it must be African.

It's not Bambara as I thought before. And also definitely not Fang (left), Dogon, Baule (middle) or Dan (right). Mostly they have slim elongated faces and short legs.



I think it could be Chokwe (left) in Angola or some of the tribes in Kongo like the Ngbaka (middle) or Ngbandi (right)


I'm close here to find it...