PDF file (1.6 MB) - PalArch

In this special issue: 

The PalArch Foundation’s Newsletter 

volume 1, no. 1 (April 2004) 

News on the activities of the PalArch Foundation 2 

Egypt in photographs (Z. Kosc) 4 

Telling science (P. Shipman ) 4 

The history of the Palaeontological-Mineralogical 

Cabinet of the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, 

The Netherlands (J.C. van Veen) 7 

The Natural Sciences Library of the Teylers 

Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands 

(M. van Hoorn) 21 

Sex in the museum (V. van Vilsteren) 24 

Archaeological illustration; combining ‘old’ and 

new techniques (M.H. Kriek) 29 

The pleasure of travelling to the past (C. Papolio) 33 

The mammoths beneath the sea (D. Mol) 35 

‘Archeologie Magazine’ in the electronic age 

(L. Lichtenberg) 37 

Colophon 40 

Edited by A.J. Veldmeijer, S.M. van Roode & A.M. Hense 

© 2004 PalArch Foundation 

Upper Room of the Library of the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands (© Teylers Museum)

www.PalArch.nl Newsletter 1, 1 (2004) 

News on the activities of the PalArch 

Foundation 

New Newsletter 

As promised, the new Newsletter is a 

fact. From now on it is not only meant to inform 

the members of the editorial and advisory 

boards on the activities of the Foundation, but 

to bring background information for them as 

well as for the supporters of the Foundation! 

We like to thank the contributors to this 

issue as well as the persons involved in 

checking English. Thanks also to Carlos 

Papolio for allowing us to use one of his works 

of arts as this issue’s watermark. 

The official release of the first issue of 

the Foundation’s magazine will be done by the 

Dutch minister of Education, Culture and 

Science (OCW) Mrs. M.J.A. van der Hoeven 

on 3 April (see invitation) and is celebrated 

with a small symposium called ‘Dinosaurs, 

mummies and river dunes’. An elaborate report 

will be included in the next Newsletter! 

Monograph 

The Foundation has developed ways to 

publish monographs in digital as well as analog 

formats, which do not differ from each other in 

layout. However, in order to keep the price of 

the analog as low as possible, the illustrations 

are included on a CD; in the text clear 

references will be made to the appropriate 

illustration. For more information, see 

http://www.palarch.nl/information.htm. 

Supporter 

It is possible to become supporter of the 

Foundation and support, financially and 

morally, the important work. This costs only 

EURO 10. As a supporter, you will be sent by 

email our Newsletter four times a year and you 

will have a discount of 10% on all PalArch 

products and registration fees. For more 

details, 

visit 

http://www.palarch.nl/information.htm. 

First issue 

As mentioned previously, the first issue 

of www.PalArch.nl is a special one, in which 

the various members of the boards presents 

themselves by publishing a paper, book review 

or other contribution (see ‘Publications issue 1 

(April 2004)’). Due to busy schedules, some 

have not been able to meet the deadline, but 

promised to submit a contribution for the next 

issue (these are listed under the heading 

‘Forthcoming’). Not all of them are listed here, 

however. ‘#’ means that it was not yet known at 

the time of printing the Newsletter. 

Publications issue 1 (April 2004) 

Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 

Harrell, J.A. 2004. Petrographic investigation of 

Coptic limestone sculptures and reliefs 

in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. – 

PalArch, series archaeology of 

Egypt/Egyptology 1, 1: 1-16. 

Andrews, C.A.R. 2004. An unusual inscribed 

amulet. - PalArch, series archaeology of 

Egypt/Egyptology 1, 2: 17-20. 

Verhoogt, A.M.F.W. 2004. Family relations in 

Early Roman Tebtunis. - PalArch, series 

archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 1, 3: 

21-25. 

Dieleman, J. 2004. Mysterious lands. By: 

O’Connor, D. & S. Quirke. Eds. 2003. 

(London, Cavendish Publishing Limited). 

- Book review, PalArch, non scientific. 

Roode, van, S.M. 2004. Never had the like 

occurred. Egypt’s view of it’s past. By: 

Tait, J. Ed. 2003. (London, Cavendish 

Publishing Limited). - Book review, 

PalArch, non scientific. 

Roode, van, S.M. 2004. Affairs and scandals in 

ancient Egypt. By: Vernus, P. 2003. 

(Ithaca/London, Cornell University 

Press). - Book review, PalArch, non 

scientific. 

Vertebrate palaeontology 

Everhart, M.J. 2004. Late Cretaceous 

interaction between predators and prey. 

Evidence of feeding by two species of 

shark on a mosasaur. – PalArch, series 

vertebrate palaeontology 1, 1: 1-7. 

Meijer, H.J.M. 2004. The first record of birds 

from Mill (The Netherlands). – PalArch, 

series vertebrate palaeontology 1, 2: 8- 

13. 

© PalArch Foundation 2


Nieuwland, I.J.J. 2004. A taxonomical 

nightmare: 

Archaeopteryx, 

Griphosaurus, Archaeornis. – PalArch, 

series vertebrate palaeontology 1, 3: #- 

#. 

Veldmeijer, A.J. & A.M. Hense. 2004. 

Supplement to: Pterosaurs from the 

Lower Cretaceous of Brazil in the 

Stuttgart collection, in: Stuttgarter 

Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B 

(Geologie und Paläontologie) 2002, 327: 

1-27. – PalArch, series vertebrate 

palaeontology 1, 4: #-# 

Lambers, P.H. 2004. Missing links. 

Evolutionary concepts & transitions 

through time. By: Martin, R.A. 2003. 

(Sudbury, Jones and Bartlett 

Publishers). – Book review, PalArch, non 

scientific. 

Storm, P. 2004. Fossil frogs and toads of North 

America. By: Holman, J.A. 2003. 

(Bloomington, Indiana University Press). 

– Book review, PalArch, non scientific. 

Signore, M. Exploratory excavations and new 

insights on the palaeoenvironment of 

Pietraroja. 

Vos, de, J. Ice age cave faunas of North 

America. By: Schubert, B.W., J.I. Mead 

& R.W. Graham. Eds. 2003. 

(Bloomington, Indiana University Press). 

– Book reviews, PalArch, non-scientific. 

Archaeology of North West Europe 

Veldmeijer, A.J. 2004. Return to Chauvet cave. 

Excavating the birthplace of art. The first 

full report. By: Clottes, J. Ed. 2003. 

(London, Thames & Hudson). – Book 

review, PalArch, non scientific. 

Forthcoming 

Clapham, A.J. Greek fire, poison arrows & 

scorpion bombs. Biological and chemical 

warfare in the ancient world. By: A. 

Mayor. 2003. (Woodstock/New 

York/London, The Overlook Press). – 

Book review, PalArch, non scientific. 

Hoek Ostende, van den, L.W. & W. Kakebeke. 

Results from the field campagnes in the 

Tegelen Clay (1970-1977). 

Nicholson, P.T. et al. [conservation of bronzes] 

Nieuwland, I.J.J. 2004. African dinosaurs 

unearthed. The Tendaguru expeditions. 

By: G. Maier. 2003. (Bloomington, 

Indiana University Press). – Book 

reviews, PalArch, non-scientific. 

Rose, P.J. Ancient Egypt in Africa. By: 

O’Connor, D. & A. Reid. Eds. 2003. 

London, Cavendish Publishing Limited). 

– Book review, PalArch, non scientific. 



Egypt in photographs 

By Z. Kosc 

Ababda Bedouins are driving their goats to where it is common and lopping off branches of acacia for 

them, both leaves and young pods being eaten. Wadi Gemal , Eastern Desert, Egypt. Photography Z. 

Kosc © 2004 (See too: http://puck.wolmail.nl/~kosc/Ababda folder/ababda.html). 

Acacia Sayali 

According to some Biblical scholars, the acacia tree is mentioned in the Bible (I will plant 

in the 

wilderness... the Shittah tree. Isaiah 41), some even speculate that it was only natural that Moses 

should turn to acacia when he came to build the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle and needed 

beams and timber. The ancient Egyptians made coffins, some still intact, from the wood. The leaves 

are important for forage and the wood for fuel where the trees are abundant. In the folk medicine the 

gum is believed to be aphrodisiac, but is also is supposed to afford some protection against bronchitis 

and rheumatism. 

affects all of our lives. I want to root my stories 

in my readers' and listeners' minds so deeply 

Telling science 

that science will flourish there is perpetuity. To 

me, science is more than a body of knowledge, 

By P. Shipman 

it is a way of thinking. Born of curiosity, 

nourished by discovery, science is a 

It is my great pleasure to write this essay marvellous way of finding things out, of making 

for the opening edition of the PalArch sense of the world. Now, early in the 21 st 

Foundation’s Newsletter because the purpose century, I am ever more convinced that the 

of this organization and its innovative journal language of science is one in which we must 

are close to my heart. I am one of those all become fluent. 

scientists who double as a science writer: that 

One of the main reasons I think telling 

is, one who writes science for non-scientists as science is so vital comes from my research 

well as for fellow scientists. I am deeply background in human evolution. Since the 

convinced that the ready dissemination of evolutionary origin of the human species, our 

science to the broader public is not only an survival and well-being has depended upon 

intellectual duty but also a moral one. This new our abilities to observe, to analyse, to 

journal promises to be a venue that will synthesize, and to remember information about 

encourage and promote telling science. 

the world around us. Science is a way of doing 

What is telling science? Telling science that. 

is the same as telling a story, except the 

One of the capacities for handling 

subject is a fundamentally important story that information that marks modern humans is 



language. Full, human language is an ability to 

encode, decode, and share information that 

goes well beyond the often-remarkable 

capabilities of non-human animals to 

communicate. Language is symbolic action. 

Language is abstract; it is structured and it 

possesses a class of words known as 

disambiguators that makes the crucial 

distinction between ‘I bite the tiger’ and ‘the 

tiger bites me.’ Language includes the 

important abilities to promise, cajole, threaten, 

and paint imaginary scenarios. Language is 

also an intrinsically social ability that involves 

more than one person. Infants and children 

who are, for some grotesque reason, deprived 

of human companionship during a crucial 

period of their development do not acquire any 

semblance of full language even if they are 

later rescued and taken into normal conditions. 

Apparently, language cannot or does not 

develop without the stimulation of someone to 

talk to and with during a key period of brain 

development. Language is not, then, simply a 

collection of sounds or gestures with symbolic 

meaning and rules for ordering those sounds 

or gestures. Instead, language is an intricate 

series of brain functions that are involved in 

observing and storing thoughts and 

information, translating them into symbols, and 

being able to transmit them to another person, 

whether or not that person shares the 

experience or observation. The particular form 

that any specific language takes is as variable 

as human beings themselves. 

Science is a sort of intellectual dialect, 

not a true language in and of itself. Like any 

living language, science is always changing 

and evolving, which may cause discomfort to 

the old-fashioned who adhere rigidly to rules. 

Three crucial questions mark the mind of a 

scientific thinker. 

-- What do you know? 

-- How do you know that? 

-- What would change your mind? 

I believe science offers us ways to seek 

and gain understanding, which are profoundly 

important aims. When I tell science, I am 

seeking both to impart information and to teach 

others how to ‘think’ science. It is a truism, and 

even a truth, that any single piece of scientific 

knowledge is subject to revision after more 

evidence is gathered. Some use this premise 

to argue that learning scientific ‘facts’ is 

therefore a waste of time, since they are all 

uncertain and will change eventually. I 

disagree. There is a huge body of knowledge 

so well supported, so thoroughly confirmed by 

observations in numerous spheres, that it can 

be accepted as true. Our airplanes fly because 

of it; our light bulbs light; and, whether we 

understand all the details or not, our chickens 

lay eggs; our musicians exercise their vocal 

cords and sing. The problem is simply that 

reality is a wonderful and terrible and 

complicated thing and we are not always smart 

enough to grasp all its nuances at once. It is 

wiser to allow for revision in case reality 

becomes a little clearer in the future. 

He or she who would write science takes 

on a dual charge: to communicate scientific 

knowledge and to show how science is done, 

thus infecting the reader with the virus of 

scientific thinking. There are many justifications 

for this charge. One of them is that it is a duty. 

A discovery unshared is lost. And if public 

funds are used to further the discovery, then 

certainly there is a moral obligation on the part 

of those who accept the funding to transmit 

their findings to the public. If science is able to 

improve our world, either by making sense of 

things or by allowing us to alter reality, then 

science, like language, must be shared. 

There is also a danger to exclusive, 

hidden science. From the sinister medieval 

alchemist, to the witch brewing her potions and 

spells, to the mad scientist of the cinema, our 

culture is replete with images of those who 

hoard arcane knowledge and use it for their 

own selfish means. People dislike and distrust 

the possessors of powerful and secret 

knowledge, with good reason. How are we as 

scientists to quell or forestall that resentment 

and suspicion? By telling science, of course. 

Unfortunately, doing science often 

requires developing an esoteric vocabulary, 

learning incomprehensible procedures, 

mastering Byzantine mathematical techniques, 

and memorizing obscure acronyms. These are 

all ways of concealing science, of shutting the 

public out and keeping the precious 

information for us, the scientists. Of course, if 

scientists talk and think about ideas or entities 

outside of the common experience, they must 

invent new language. But there is no reason 

that jargon must go unexplained, on the 

contrary, it should not. The jargon itself is a 



moat, the abstruse concepts a wall that 

together keep the public from storming the 

gates and taking possession of scientific 

knowledge and practice. This is exactly the 

opposite of what I would advocate. 

I maintain that the deliberate failure to 

explain scientific jargon, principles, and 

discoveries to the general public is downright 

wicked. The failure arises, I think, from a fatal 

combination of arrogance and laziness, in the 

presence of an unfortunate lack of empathy. 

There is nothing I resent so fiercely as 

someone who says, "It is too complicated for 

you to understand; trust me." 

I also think that concealing science and 

making it exclusive are ultimately hostile to the 

aims of science itself. Why do scientists do 

science? Because science is fun, science is 

cool, science is ‘about’ discovery. Who would 

not want to share that with everyone who will 

listen? Only those who need a secret password 

to prove their own cleverness. 

How many feel the need for such 

exclusiveness has become patently clear in 

recent months, when protests have been heard 

against the nomination of Susan Greenfield, a 

professor of neuroscience at Oxford University, 

to be a Fellow of the Royal Society in the 

grounds that she has often appeared on 

television and in non-scientific publications as 

an explainer of science. Her response to the 

criticism is one I heartily endorse (MacLeod, 

2004): “When it comes to engaging with the 

public, many scientists would argue that they 

do not have the time, the experience or, 

indeed, the motivation to give talks to the great 

unwashed. After all, it is no small feat to take 

your life's work and passion and strip it of all 

technical terminology and jargon to make it 

accessible. It involves ignoring the peerrevered 

trees to reveal the entire wood to a 

general audience in a clear, accurate and 

appealing way. Small wonder that, until now, 

such endeavours have been left to a small 

minority of media-hungry... apostates who, in 

the eyes of many 'normal' members of the 

white-coat community, are marginalized as 

'real' scientists.” 

It is time for ‘real’ scientists to accept 

their responsibility for learning to communicate 

their work clearly and intelligently, and for the 

scientific community to stop denigrating the 

value of this difficult and essential endeavour. 

If science is to be communicated, as I 

believe it must, then how is it to be done? We 

have all heard the words of scientists who think 

they are communicating when in fact they are 

speaking gibberish. They jabber away at us, 

sighing wearily at the public's hopeless 

ignorance and stupidity when we misconstrue 

the few words and phrases we can recognize 

out of the impenetrable jungle of nonsense. 

These scientists have their hearts in the right 

place but their heads in the wrong one. They 

once learned this special language, this 

framework of theories and techniques, and so 

can the general public. 

What is needed is transparency: 

language that is so clear that it lets in the light 

without our ever noticing its presence. How is 

this to be achieved? Good will is not enough; 

good sense must direct it. Those who write 

science must start from a common frame of 

reference, by beginning the story where we all 

stand on the same ground. 

There is considerably art and talent 

involved in finding that common ground but it is 

there for those who seek it. One of the first 

steps that must be taken, one that is being 

taken by the PalArch Foundation, is 

legitimising and encouraging those who try to 

communicate broadly and reach a bigger 

audience. Another is to invest in a technique of 

story-telling so simple and so powerful that it is 

explained in the children's book Alice's 

Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 

(Charles Dodgson): "Begin at the beginning... 

and go on till you come to the end: then stop." 

Cited literature 

MacLeod, D. 2004. Royal Society split over 

Greenfield fellowship. - The Guardian 

(Feb. 6.). 

Pat Shipman 

Pennsylvania State University 

University Park 

PA 16802 USA 



The history of the Palaeontological- 

Mineralogical Cabinet of the Teylers Museum, 

Haarlem, The Netherlands 

By J.C. van Veen 

Introduction 

In Haarlem, a town in the neighbourhood 

of Amsterdam in The Netherlands, you will find 

on the bank of the river Spaarne, a museum 

with a bronze statue on its roof. The statue is a 

huge angel who presents two laurel wreaths; 

one to a figure with a painter’s brush and a 

palette and one to a figure with a book. The 

three are the symbols for fame, art and 

science. 

seems to overshadow the rest of the museum 

such as the paintings (mostly from romantic 

painters and from the Hague School), the 

beautiful library with its magnificent books, the 

Cabinet of Science with its copper and wooden 

scientific instruments, the Numismatic Cabinet 

with its medals and coins and also the 

Palaeontological-Mineralogical Cabinet with its 

fossils, minerals, crystals and rocks. However, 

the drawings are mostly hidden in safes and 

stockrooms, whereas the large number of 

fossils, crystals, coins, instruments and 

paintings, can be admired in their 18 th and 19 th 

centuries, handmade furniture and showcases. 

The museum is called ‘The Museum of 

the Museums’, because of its preserved 

exhibitions in their original 18 th and 19 th 

centuries state. The recent 20 th century 

buildings are, fortunately, not disturbing the 

atmosphere of old buildings; on the contrary, 

they emphasize the old style. 

The founder and his Foundation 

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, a rich 

manufacturer of textiles, died in 1778 without 

heirs. In his Will he founded the Teylers 

Foundation (Teylers Stichting). Five friends of 

his were appointed to be the directors of this 

foundation. He also formulated the objectives 

of his Foundation: 

The front of the museum at the Spaarne 

riverside (© Teylers Museum). 

The museum in question, the Teylers 

Museum, is most famous for its art and 

especially the drawings, which include works of 

Michelangelo (20 specimens) and Rafaël (16). 

The complete collection consists of more than 

1600 Italian works and many more old Dutch 

(including all etchings of Rembrandt) and 

French drawings. This wealth of drawings 

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778) 

(© Teylers Museum). 



1. Support the poor 

2. Promote liberal theology 

3. Promote arts and sciences 

In order to support the poor the 

Foundation founded the Teylers Almshouse, a 

place where women over a certain age could 

live. 

In order to stimulate liberal theology they 

founded the First or Divine Society (Het Eerste 

of Godgeleerd Genootschap). 

The Second or Physical Society (Het 

Tweede of Natuurkundig Genootschap) was 

founded to promote the arts and science. This 

last society accomplished the building of a 

Museum for Arts and Science, in order to fulfil 

the objectives of Teyler’s Will. 

Nowadays, the objectives seem an 

extraordinary mix of charity, religion, science 

and art. But Pieter Teyler was a Mennonite and 

one of his ancestors, a tailor, left Scotland 

because of his religion. Teyler was a prominent 

member of the Mennonite Church and also 

donated a lot of money to that church. The 

Mennonite Church in Holland was very liberal. 

They were open for all ideas of the Age of 

Enlightenment and Teyler was very interested 

in all the new ideas in art and science. He 

would have been a member of the Dutch 

Society of Science (De Hollandsche 

Maatschappij der Wetenschappen) in Haarlem 

if he was allowed. But in order to be a member 

of that society one had to be a member of the 

established Dutch Reformed Church. As a 

consequence, he and his friends gathered 

occasionally to see and discuss art and 

science in his Gentlemen's Room, behind his 

house. 

The Oval Room designed by Leendert 

Viervant, painted by Wybrand Hendriks, the 

second ‘Chatelain’ of the museum (© Teylers 

Museum). 

observatory). Cupboards are made in the 

walls, which are used as showcases on the 

ground floor and as bookshelves on the first 

floor. To access these bookshelves, you can 

walk along the gallery (which is closed to the 

public nowadays). In the beginning the 

showcases were used to exhibit crystals and 

fossils and in the middle of the room was a 

table for physical experiments. Later the 

showcases were stuffed with physical 

instruments and the crystals and minerals 

moved to showcases mounted on the 

experiment table. 

M. van Marum (1750-1837), the first Director 

The Book and Art Hall or Oval Room 

To understand why the Physical Society 

founded a museum for both arts and science, 

you should know that painters and sculptors at 

the end of the 18 th century also studied the 

physical reality. Nowadays a drawing often is 

called a study, but in those days science was 

an art; a free art. So the big oval room, the 

oldest part of Teylers Museum was called the 

Book and Art Gallery (De Boek- en Konstzael). 

It was a high hall, built in an early Dutch neoclassical 

style, with light only from above 

through windows immediately below the roof 

(which is adorned with an astronomical 

The scholar Dr. Martinus van Marum, the first 

director of Teylers Museum 1784-1837 




Martinus van Marum (1750-1837) was a 

student and family friend of Petrus Camper, the 

famous scholar of comparative anatomy in 

zoology and botany and professor at 

Groningen University. Van Marum made two 

dissertations, one on the movement of juices in 

plants and one on the movement of juices in 

the animal body compared with those in plants. 

The Second Fossil Room with Mosasaurus 

hoffmanni, the jaws of the mosasaur from the 

collection of Major Drouin purchased by Van 

Marum in 1784 (© Teylers Museum). 

He was promised the Chair in botany 

at Groningen University, but the Board of the 

University appointed a fellow-student of his 

instead. Van Marum felt unappreciated and left 

in anger for Haarlem, where there was a 

science loving upper class. In 1776 he settled 

as a physician and became a member of the 

Dutch Society. A year later he was appointed 

Director of the Natural History Cabinet of the 

Society, and the city of Haarlem appointed him 

as a public lecturer in mathematics and 

philosophy. In 1779 he was admitted to the 

Second Society of Teylers Foundation and 

immediately gained great influence in the 

discussions on the new Museum. Van Marum 

was appointed to be the first director and 

librarian of the Museum after the Oval Room 

was finished in 1804. 

Van Marum proposed to purchase 

anything excavated (such as minerals and 

fossils) for the showcases. In 1782 he had 

already bought some fossils in Maastricht for 

the Society, during his honeymoon trip! In 1784 

he bought the first jaws of the ‘Animal de 

Maestricht’, now named mosasaur, and the 

complete fossil collection of Major Drouin, 

consisting of fossils from St. Peter’s Mountain 

in Maastricht, Limburg, The Netherlands. In 

1784 he purchased a complete collection of 

crystals, minerals, rocks and fossils at an 

auction in Amsterdam. 

He gave lectures on geology and other 

earth sciences but understood that his 

knowledge in this field was limited. Therefore 

he travelled through Europe to meet scholars 

in the fields of geology, petrology, mineralogy, 

crystallography and palaeontology to discuss 

their fields of research. He also purchased 

fossils and casts, rocks and minerals, crystals 

and crystal-models from them. 

Also the study of physics was on his 

agenda and he started physical experiments in 

the Teylers Museum. Thus he established a 

sort of ‘empire of science’; he had a hortus 

botanicus, was director of the Natural History 

Museum of the Dutch Society and a geological 

and physical museum (Teylers). What was 

lacking was a zoological garden, but 

nevertheless, Teylers could measure itself 

against collections in cities such as Paris and 

London. Even Napoleon Bonaparte was so 

impressed that he made plans to dismantle the 

Oval Room to rebuild it in Paris. Fortunately, 

his plans never came to fruition… 

Though Van Marum spent nearly twice 

as much on the purchase of scientific 

instruments than on minerals and fossils, he is 

nevertheless responsible for nearly all 

minerals, rocks and crystals in the collection 

and laid the foundations of the palaeontological 

collection by obtaining the most important 

fossils, among which are the previous 

mentioned jaws of the mosasaur. Van Marum, 

Left. Pear-wood crystal-models according the 

Abbot Rene Just Hauÿ. Van Marum purchases 

about 600 of them in 1802. The collection is 

still almos t complete (© Teyler s Museum). 

Right. The mammoth skull purchased by Van 

Marum for the Dutch Society of Science in 

1824. In 1886 it came to the new museum 




who published this ‘Grand Animal de 

Maestricht’, regarded it as a whale, following 

the ideas of his professor, Petrus Camper. He 

concluded: "It could be a whale, but not a 

whale or dolphin we know. The shells from the 

St. Peter’s Mountain are very different from the 

shells in the collection of the Natural History 

Museum too." He did not conclude that this 

animal was extinct. Later his close friend 

Adriaan Gilles Camper, son of Petrus Camper, 

suggested that the animal was a giant monitor 

sea-lizard and contributed thus to the idea of 

his tutor, George Cuvier, that animals could 

become extinct. 

Another important fossil, purchased by 

Van Marum in 1802 on his longest journey, 

was the ‘Homo diluvii testis et theoscopus’ 

(‘The Man who witnessed the Flood and who 

saw God’). He bought it from the grandchildren 

of Johann Jacob Scheuchzer in Zurich. But in 

1811 Cuvier proved, after preparing the 

forefeet, that the fossil was the remains of a 

giant salamander. The labour of Cuvier is still 

visible in the fossil! 

The last instance of an important fossil 

purchased by Van Marum is the skull of a 

mammoth. Initially, the directors of Teylers 

Foundation did not show much interest but Van 

Marum, more passionate for fossils than ever 

before, furiously bought the piece for the 

Natural History Museum. Years later, when this 

Museum was closed, the skull came to the 

new wing of Teylers Museum, but that was 

long after the death of Van Marum in 1837. 

J.G.S. van Breda (1788-1867), the second 

Director and collector. 

Gaining and losing 

In 1839 professor Jacob Gijsbertus 

Samuël van Breda succeeded Van Marum. He 

graduated as a physician and a philosopher, 

he started his career in 1816 as a professor at 

the Atheneum of Franeker in botany, chemistry 

and pharmacy. In 1821 he married the 

daughter of the Rector of the Atheneum, 

Adriaan Gilles Camper. The same year (this 

was after the unification of the northern and 

southern Netherlands), he was appointed 

professor at Ghent University (now in Belgium) 

in botany, zoology and comparative anatomy. 

He also became the Keeper of the natural 

history collections of this University and added 

a lot to its collections. 

In addition Van Breda was appointed as 

a member of the Commission for the 

Geological and Mineralogical Map of the 

Southern Netherlands in 1825. In fact he was 

the leading geologist who inspected the 

Homo dilluvii test is et theoscopus’ (‘The Man 

who witnessed the Flood and saw God’). A 

giant-salamander found in 1725 in the 

freshwater limestone quarry of Oeningen. 

Described by Johann Jacob Scheuchzer in his 

Physica Sacra (Holy Physics). George Cuvier 

unmasked ‘The Man of the Flood’ by preparing 

its forelegs (© Teylers Museum). 

Prof. Dr. J.G.S. van Breda, director of Teylers 

Museum 1839-1867 (© Teylers Museum). 



The holotype of Pterodactylus crassipes 

appeared to be the first ever found fossil of 

Archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx lithographica, 

the fourth discovered specimen of the primeval 

bird has teeth and a reptile tail, but feathers 

like birds (© Teylers Museum). 

samples collected by two military officers who 

were responsible for the survey. 

His star at the University was rising. He 

was already appointed as Rector of Ghent 

University when he had to escape to the north 

because of the Belgian Revolt in 1830. Back in 

Holland he was appointed as a professor at 

Leiden University in geology and zoology. 

In 1838 Van Breda was appointed 

Secretary of the Dutch Society and, in 1839, 

Director of Teylers Museum. He knew from his 

experience in Belgium how important the role 

of fossils was for geology and that stimulated 

him to purchase many fossils for the collection. 

It was important that he had plenty of room for 

them; Van Marum had a small Fossil Room 

built in 1827, which is now the Numismatic 

Cabinet. In 1838, a new Paintings Room was 

built next to the Fossil Room so a big room 

was empty and suitable for a large collection; 

this became the Large Stone Room (De 

Groote Steenenkamer). 

Van Breda spent more than twice as 

much money purchasing fossils as Van Marum 

had done, but only half the amount of money 

for scientific instruments. He had the first 

choice in fossils of the freshwater limestone 

quarry in Oeningen. He obtained four more 

giant salamanders and hundreds of fossil 

fishes, insects, frogs, crabs, a snake, turtles 

and remains of mammals (among which the 

bones and tusks of an elephant) and leaves in 

concurrence with the Zurich professor Heer, 

who described them. This way professor Heer 

and Van Breda sponsored the quarry in 

Oeningen, which at that time was famous as 

the quarry of ‘The Man of the Flood’. When 

they stopped sending money the owner had to 

close it. 

More fossils were obtained from different 

quarries in the Altmühltal, Germany, 

predominantly fossil fishes and insects. But the 

most valuable collection was bought from the 

well-known fossil merchant Krantz in Bonn. It 

was the collection of flying and other reptiles 

described by Hermann von Meyer in ‘Fauna 

der Vorwelt’. Later, in 1970, professor John 

Ostrom from Yale University, USA, discovered 

that one of them was the first found fossil of 

Archaeopteryx lithographica. So, huge fossils 

from ichthyosaurians and crocodiles, all marine 

reptiles from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 

covered the walls and Van Breda had bought, 

again via Krantz, a seacow and an archeocete, 

the first found complete skull of Zeuglodon 

macrospondylus being the holotype of 

Zeuglodon hydrarchus, from the badlands of 

Alabama. This specimen however, should 

have been determined as Zeuglodon 

brachyspondylus and its name is now Zygoriza 

kochii. 

Van Breda purchased many fossils for 

Zygorhiza kochii, holotype of Zeuglodon 

hydrarchus, an old whale from the Eocene of 

Alabama in the showcase. Below that, the 

model of Dorudon atrox, a more primitive 

whale from the Fayum, Egypt, which was 

exchanged by Dubois for a cast of the 

Zygorhiza kochii (© Teylers Museum). 



the Cabinet, but had no time to describe them 

because of his appointment as Chairman of 

the Commission for the Dutch Geological Map. 

This commission needed a lot of fossils and 

minerals to compare with the samples found in 

the field. Of course the books in the library and 

the collection of fossils in Teylers Museum 

played an important role in dating the 

geological layers, but the commission also 

collected fossils for their own museum in 

Haarlem. In order to describe Dutch fossils, the 

complete collection of reptile bones, which 

Petrus Camper bought in 1782 from the widow 

of J.L. Hoffman, was brought from Groningen 

University to Haarlem. 

Van Breda was not, as in Belgium, 

considered the most important geologist. 

Instead, his former student Dr. W.C.H. Staring, 

was appointed Secretary at the Commission. 

Staring drew all the work to himself. Van 

Breda, who had also quite a lot of reptile 

bones in his own collection as well as in 

Teylers Museum, tried to work with this 

material, but this work was already promised to 

professor H. Schlegel in Leiden. As a 

consequence, feelings of concurrence and 

envy disturbed the activities of the 

Commission, until it fell apart. Staring finished 

the job on his own. 

The condition of the Museum of Natural 

History of the Dutch Society was dreadful; 

leaking water from the roof was destroying the 

collection. The collection itself was badly 

documented and incomplete. So, in 1866 the 

oldest Natural History Museum (1759) in the 

Netherlands was closed and the collection was 

divided over different institutions; the fossils 

and minerals went to Teylers Museum. 

But the situation in Teylers Museum was 

also bad; Van Breda started to catalogue but 

did not complete it because of his numerous 

acquisitions. A lot of this material was not 

described and as Secretary of the Dutch 

Society he offered a prize for the description of 

the fossil fishes of Oeningen. The man who did 

this job was his successor at the Teylers 

Museum, Tiberius Cornelis Winkler. 

After his death in 1867 Van Breda's own 

collection was first offered to Teylers Museum 

but not accepted because of the price of 2000 

Dutch guilders (Van Breda's year salary was 

1400 Dutch guilders!). Consequently, the 

collection became divided and A.S. Woodward 

of the Museum of Natural History in London 

bought the best fossils for 450 Dutch guilders. 

Woodward also arranged the purchase of 

fossils by Cambridge University from the Van 

Breda collection. The rest was donated to 

Teylers Museum, leading to the third 

supplement on the catalogue of Winkler. 

Tiberius Cornelis Winkler (1822-1897), 

Registrar and first Curator. 

Catalogues and supplements 

Dr. Tiberius Cornelis Winkler started 

work immediately after his primary schooling 

with a job as a warehouse clerk. In the evening 

he studied French, German and English in 

such a way that he read, spoke and wrote 

fluently. His life changed when he got married. 

His brother-in-law studied medicine at 

Groningen University. This man encouraged 

him to study Latin and physics at the Clinical 

School in Haarlem. 

He settled as a physician in a small 

fishing village. There he became interested in 

fish, because one of his patients was stung by 

a weever, a stingfish. It appeared to be a 

serious case. Winkler became curious about 

Dr. T.C. Winkler, the first Curator 1867-1897 

made 6 catalogues and 5 supplements for the 

collection. Translated in 1861 Darwin’s ‘Origin 

of Species’, wrote many popular scientific 

books and articles about fossil and living 

creatures (© Teylers Museum). 



this fish and in 1856 he went to the library of 

the Teylers Museum for literature. There he 

met Van Breda, who helped him. He asked 

Winkler to write an article on the weever for the 

popular magazine on natural history Van Breda 

and others had founded in 1852, the ‘Album of 

Nature’ (‘Album der Natuur’). So a fruitful 

collaboration began between the old scholar 

and the autodidact. He became a regular 

author in the Album (more than 50 articles). I 

imagine that the conversation with Van Breda 

lead to the idea to translate Darwin's ‘Origin of 

Species’ into Dutch. So already in the 1860s 

the Dutch people could read the revolutionary 

ideas of Darwin in their own language. Van 

Breda asked Winkler to describe the fossil 

fishes of Oeningen for the prize of the Dutch 

Society. He did, and in 1861 it was finished 

and published. Then Van Breda asked him to 

do the same for the fishes of Solnhofen. He 

did, and in 1862 it was finished and published. 

The Board of Directors of the Teylers Museum 

was offered a nomenclature, a list of all the 

fishes with their Latin names classified in a 

French system according to Pictet's Traité de 

Paléontologie . 

The directors of the Teylers Foundation 

were very pleased with the careful and 

systematic work of Winkler and asked him to 

make a catalogue of the complete collection. 

Winkler started the catalogue and in 1863 the 

first volume, on the Palaeozoic fossils, was 

ready. His concept was very well considered. 

He first went to professor Harting, a member of 

the Commission of the Dutch Geological Map, 

for advice. Harting told him to number all the 

objects immediately when he found them. He 

also told him to divide the catalogue in three 

parts Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cainozoic, 

and to start with the simplest creatures. 

Furthermore, Harting told him to use a 

handbook for this classification and he 

recommended Pictet. The first volume was a 

success and Winkler sent it to well known 

palaeontologists. Professor Bronn reviewed it 

in Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, saying "... 

indeed one can introduce this Catalogue as an 

example for all similar labour ..." (translated). 

Groningen University honoured him by offering 

him a honorary degree, also because of his 

translation of important books in 1864 and the 

Teylers Foundation honoured him with an 

appointment as the first Curator of the 

This holotype of Pterodactylus micronyx was 

part of the collection of Hermann von Meyer 

and was described by Winkler (1870) 


Palaeontological-Mineralogical Cabinet in 

1867. 

The catalogue came out in six volumes; 

the last one in 1868. As the work was just 

finished, Winkler discovered the first collection, 

purchased from Major Drouin, in a cupboard 

outside the Fossil Rooms! So he had to make 

the first supplement to the catalogue in 1868, 

immediately after the catalogues proper were 

finished. Even more fossils came in and other 

should go; the collection of fossil reptiles of 

Petrus Camper - Hoffmann's collection had to 

go back to Groningen. Fortunately, ‘ My friend 

Staring’, as Winkler used to put it, made that 

the fossils could stay in Teylers Museum, first 

on loan, then permanently. Winkler became 

interested in turtles, not only because of the big 

turtle Chelonia hoffmanni now Allopleuron 

hoffmanni, but also because of the various 

fossil turtles in the collection; his book on 

turtles was finished in 1869. 

New books and new insights made a 

revision necessary and the last supplement, 

the fifth, appeared in 1896, a year before he 

died. True, this might be regarded as a dull and 

boring, but necessary job, and Winkler had 

other things to do too. He learned ten more 

languages, among which was Volapuk (the 

precursor of Esperanto), but also articles and 

books had to be written. He loved to write 

informative books for interested people and to 

illustrate them with humorous and romantic 

stories. He got his chance when the New 

Museum was built. Only one fossil was 

purchased for the New Museum, an almost 



complete skeleton of Plesiosaurus 

dolichodeirus from the Lias limestone of Lyme 

Regis, Great Britain. This largest object in the 

collection was the first fossil placed in the new 

First Fossil Room. All the fossils had to be 

replaced in showcases and drawers and 

Winkler complained that he became short of 

space to store it. Winkler did suffice to write the 

new position of the fossils in his old catalogues 

and supplements and he wrote a ‘Guide for the 

Visitor’ in Dutch and French. All his talent in 

storytelling could be used and all his narratives 

told. “In 1863 Professor Van Beneden from 

Belgium came to see the Zeuglodon 

macrospondylus (Archaeocete VV) and 

pointing at the nostrils he cried: "... c' est un 

phoque monsieur, je vous assure c'est un 

phoque!"” (it’s a seal sir, I assure you it’s a 

seal). Cleverly Winkler declared it was a 

seacow. 

Winkler also retold the story of 

Solomon's judgment. In a cellar in Paris a huge 

bone of a whale was discovered. Van Marum 

and Cuvier both wanted it and to avoid an 

escalation in the price they decided to divide it. 

So they asked for a carpenter with a saw. 

When the carpenter was already sawing, 

Cuvier could not bare it and left the fossil to 

Van Marum. But…although Cuvier was a real 

palaeontologist he was only a child in 1796! 

When in 1896 the medical officer 

Eugène Dubois brought Winkler a cast of 

Pithecanthropus erectus (the Java man and 

then considered the missing link between man 

and ape and the utter proof that Darwin was 

right about the descent of man) Winkler felt 

honoured and the story he wrote about this 

fossil was one of his last. 

and to find fossils. His father was willing to tell 

all the stories about his findings. Then the time 

came for him to go to high school. Normally a 

Roman Catholic father would have chosen a 

Roman Catholic Latin School, but he chose a, 

in that time very modern type of school, the 

HBS (Higher Citizens School) in Roermond. 

There, young Eugène got involved in 

discussions on evolution versus creation and 

‘The Descent of Man’. The false arguments of 

his teacher in German language convinced him 

of the opposite. Later he recounted the 

comments of his teacher ‘Affen bauen keine 

Kathedrale!’ (‘Apes do not build cathedrals’). 

After high school Dubois went to 

Amsterdam University to study medicine. He 

was very interested in anatomy and when he 

finished his studies he became assistant to the 

professor in anatomy and teacher at the 

Academy of Art in Amsterdam. One year later 

he was appointed lector in anatomy and was a 

candidate to succeed his professor. 

Suddenly, Dubois ended his career and 

went to the Dutch Indies as a medical officer. 

No one could understand this decision, 

because ‘only unsuccessful doctors went to the 

Indies’, as was the common thought. Dubois 

learned from the books of Heackel that ‘the 

missing link’, the link between 

Eugène Dubois (1858-1940) 

The ‘missing link’ 

Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois 

was born in 1858, a year before ‘The Origin of 

Species’ and he grew up in a Roman Catholic 

family. His father was the chemist of Eysden, a 

village on the banks of the river Maas. When 

young Eugène looked out of his bedroom 

window he could see the St. Peter’s Mountain 

on the opposite bank of the river. The young 

boy loved to stray with his father through the 

Limburg landscape to collect medicinal herbs 

Prof. Dr. Eug. Dubois (1858-1940) (© Teylers 

Museum). 



Dubois, on the right with fringe, without 

moustache, went to the Dutch Indies as a 

medical officer to do scientific research 

(© Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, 

Naturalis). 

ape and man, could be found on a place where 

currently ape and man are living. He asked the 

government for money to organize an 

expedition to Africa, to the place where gorillas 

and chimpanzees were to be found. The 

government refused. Then he realized that in 

the Dutch Indies man and ape (the orangutan), 

are found too and going there without 

high costs was only possible by joining the 

colonial army. Perhaps he knew that the army 

also did some scientific work on expeditions 

‘terra incognita’. 

In the Indies, Dubois was first 

commissioned at a hospital on Sumatra. There 

was no time for fossil hunting, but he wrote an 

article, ‘About the desirability of an 

investigation of the diluvial faunas of the Dutch 

Indies, especially Sumatra’ (translated). He 

asked for a transfer to a small hospital, where 

he had time to examine caves. He found 

fossils, not only bones from elephants, tapirs, 

pigs and cows, but also from gibbons and 

orang-utans. With these fossils and with 

support from the world of science Dubois could 

convince his superiors. In 1888 he got a 

commission to do palaeontological 

investigations on Sumatra and Java. He also 

got two sergeants to his command and the 

labour of fifty convicts. He found some other 

caves on Sumatra with the same fossils and 

then he explored Java. One of the reasons of 

doing this was the discovery of a skull of the 

Wadjak-man on Java. Dubois identified this as 

from another human race than was then living 

on Java, but also saw that this was not the type 

of skull he was looking for. Work began on 

Java with caves too, but quickly they started 

excavation in the Kendeng hills. In the dry 

season, when the ground was covered with 

leaves, they went to the river Solo, near Trinil. 

The high walls of the bank of this river were full 

of fossils, but in the wet season the water was 

too high to work there. So the two sergeants 

and their convicts swapped over from one 

locality to the other and Dubois came to look at 

the fossils from time to time. 

One day, just at the end of the dry 

season, one of the sergeants told him they had 

found the carapace of a tortoise. When Dubois 

saw it he was thrilled, this was what he was 

looking for – not a tortoise, but the cap of a 

very primitive skull. But when he studied the 

skull during the wet season, he hesitated, it 

was too ape-like. So he started an article on 

this fossil, which he named Anthropopithecus 

(= ape-man). When the dry season returned, 

the convicts continued their job and twelve 

meters from the place where the upper part of 

the skull was found, they discovered a human 

femur. The anatomist Dubois at once saw that 

this creature walked upright and never 

hesitated that this bone belonged to the same 

individual as the skull cap. So in his description 

of 1894 he changed the name in 

Pithecanthropus erectus (= man-ape), a name 

already given by Heackel to his hypothetical 

ancestor of mankind; Dubois found the 

‘missing link’. 

In 1894 he went back to The 

Netherlands, where the debate over his finds 

The skull cap and femur of Pithecanthropus 

erectus Dubois, 1894, now Homo erectus, the 

Java-man excavated near Trinil from the bank 

of the Solo-river at Java (RI) (© Nationaal 

Natuurhistorisch Museum, Naturalis). 



was going on as it was in the rest of Europe. 

The common opinion was that the skull and the 

femur were not from the same individual and 

also not from the same species. They could not 

imagine that in most circumstances fossil 

bones of one individual do not stay together 

but become dispersed by other animals or by 

flowing water; most of the comparative 

anatomists studied complete skeletons and not 

isolated bones. 

Dubois was appointed Director over his 

collection in the State Museum of Natural 

History in Leiden and lived in The Hague. In 

Leiden he had all kinds of fossils and 

skeletons, which he could compare with the 

more than 20.000 fossils he found in the 

Indies. Amsterdam University honoured him by 

offering a honorary degree in 1897 and Dubois 

moved with his family to Haarlem in the same 

year. 

In 1899 he became a professor in 

geology and crystallography at Amsterdam 

University and the successor of Winkler, the 

Curator of the Palaeontological-Mineralogical 

Cabinet at the Teylers Museum. 

The first activity at the Teylers Museum 

was to prepare fossils of mosasaurs (maybe to 

gain experience to empty the part of the skull 

of the Pithecanthropus, because he was 

interested in the inside of the skull, the 

endocranium). He compared endocranial casts 

from different fossils. In the Teylers Museum is 

a collection of casts of fossil hominids, mostly 

Neanderthals, but also from Australopithecus. 

There are endocranial casts of all the skulls as 

well. 

clay-pits in Tegelen. One of the directors, 

August Canoy, the nephew of Dubois’ wife, 

was willing to help him to get a collection from 

the clay-pits. Dubois paid the workmen to save 

the bones (they normally threw the bones back 

in the pits). Canoy arranged also that an older 

collection of bones would be transferred to the 

Teylers Museum. In this way, Dubois was able 

to establish a large fossil collection including 

two species of deer, two rhinos, a large horse, 

two beavers, a hippopotamus (which later 

proved to be a pig), a white-tailed eagle, a 

tortoise and a pike. Unfortunately, what he had 

hoped for did not turn up: a fossil of the first 

man of Limburg. 

Dubois, being a geologist, was curious 

about the thickness of the layer of clay and the 

layers underneath. Paid for by the Teylers 

Foundation, he set a borehole in the Canoy 

quarry and found a base with gravel on which 

he situated the Tiglian in the Pliocene era. In 

doing so, Dubois postulated a tertiary Ice-age. 

This resulted in a huge discussion with people 

of the Dutch Geological Survey who defined all 

the Ice-ages to the Pleistocene era and until 

today the Tiglian in The Netherlands is situated 

in the Pleistocene era, while in other countries 

it is of Pliocene age! 

Dubois and his assistants 

Dubois bought only one really 

important large fossil for the collection. In 1914 

Dubois and the fossils from the clay-pits of 

Tegelen 

The most important work Dubois did at 

the Teylers Museum was collecting fossils from 

Tegelen, a location near the German border 

and which had a ceramic industry continuing 

from Roman times onwards. In the quarries, 

the bones of Trogontherium, a beaver, were 

abundant. The Germans spoke about 

‘Trogontheriumtone’. Dubois heard already 

about these fossils in 1897, but in 1903 he 

travelled with two students to the St. Peter’s 

Mountain (where he purchased fossil driftwood 

with borings of mollusks). On his journey he 

visited the firm Canoy-Herfkens, working at the 

Antlers of the great deer of Tegelen, 

Eucladoceros tegulensis (Dubois, 1904), junior 

synonym of Eucladoceros ctenoides. Dubois, 

using nails, bamboo-pins and gypsum, 

restored the right antler. Professor Schaub in 

Basel modelled the left one in 1947 (© Teylers 

Museum). 



he obtained an Ichthyosaurus communis “mit 

Hauterhaltung” (‘with preserved skin’), from 

one of the Posidonian-slate quarries in 

Holzmaden, Germany. Dr. H.C. Bernhard Hauff 

himself prepared this fossil. The rest he 

purchased were casts or fossils, mostly for his 

own studies. 

Dubois had three jobs and for each one 

he had an assistant. In Amsterdam, Antje 

Schreuder did most of Dubois’ work as a 

professor. She also managed the collection of 

Tegelen, which Dubois collected with his 

students, and she became a specialist in the 

small mammals of Tegelen (humorously she 

called this ‘waistcoat pocket’ palaeontology). In 

Leiden he had an assistant too, Father J.A.A. 

Bernsen, who was a Roman Catholic priest. 

Bernsen catalogued the fossil collection from 

the Dutch Indies. Both received their doctor's 

degree on the Tegelen fossils. Father Bernsen 

specialised on the rhinos and Antje Schreuder 

on the beavers. The Teylers Foundation paid 

Bernsen’s publication (1927) and Schreuder 

published in the ‘Archives Teylers ‘ (1928). In 

about 1920 Dubois got an assistant at the 

Teylers Museum, Mrs. Lobry-de Bruijn. She 

had a special job: to make explanatory texts to 

accompany the fossil displays. The large texts 

in the showcases are from that time. The rough 

copies are still in the collection. No sentence 

stayed the same, Dubois corrected every word. 

When you see that, it is hard to understand 

why he did not do the work himself; this way 

the job would have taken one year (which he 

asked for) instead of the three years it actually 

took! 

So his assistants did the bulk of Dubois’s 

work. Dubois loved to be in Haarlem, walking 

in the dunes and to be with his collection at the 

Teylers Museum. He also enjoyed meeting 

other scholars like professor H.A. Lorentz , the 

Nobel Prize winner who had his own 

laboratory at the Teylers Museum. 

In 1906 Dubois bought badlands near 

Haelen in Limburg, not far from Tegelen. In the 

beginning he had a simple shed in which he 

lived, unconventionally and mostly alone. The 

people in the region called him ‘the beggar’ 

and so he named his mansion, which he built 

later, ‘De Bedelaer’ (‘The Beggar’). He asked 

his students to come there to do their 

preliminaries and sometimes, when the 

weather was bright and the water warm, they 

swam together in the fen during the exams. In 

the meantime, Dubois tried to improve the poor 

water quality with guano from bats. Near the 

fen was a huge tower for bats, behind his 

mansion was a smaller one whilst the tower of 

the building was used for bats too. He was the 

first to discover the nutrification of freshwater 

by pollution. 

The wandering of Pithecanthropus erectus 

The discussion about the 

Pithecanthropus erectus was hushed after 

1900, when Dubois showed the hominid at the 

World Fair in Paris. Dubois was done with all 

the critics and misunderstandings. He became 

paranoid and dug a hole under his table in the 

kitchen to hide his hominid fossils and had no 

place to show them! He slept with a pistol 

under his pillow, afraid of ‘creationist burglars’. 

When scientists asked to study the skull and 

the other hominid fossils, he answered that he 

had no place to show it. They complained to 

the Directors of the Teylers Foundation and in 

1923 the Directors procured a safe for the 

fossils in the Teylers Museum. When they 

heard about this in Leiden, they claimed the 

fossils, because they were excavated in 

military service and thus State property. One of 

his assistants, professor Brongersma, retold 

the event of bringing the fossils to Leiden. 

Here, one assistant walked in front and another 

assistant bearing a box with the skull followed. 

Behind them came Dubois with his pistol in the 

pocket of his coat. This strange group walked 

through Haarlem and got on the train to the 

State Museum of Natural History in 

The tomb of Dubois at the graveyard in Venlo 

near Tegelen, The Netherlands (© J.C. van 

Veen). 



Leiden. The fossils are still in the same safe, 

because the directors of the Teylers 

Foundation, as good losers, granted the safe to 

the Leiden Museum as well. 

Dubois continued to be Curator until his 

death in 1940, but for years he did not go to the 

Teylers Museum. He died in Haelen and is 

buried in the graveyard in Venlo, in the 

Protestant part in non-consecrated soil; he was 

not welcome in the Roman Catholic section. 

When I saw his tomb I was astonished, he lies 

beneath a big rectangular stone with his name, 

Prof. Dr. Eug. Dubois. He lost his Christian 

names and above this was the ‘Pirate Ensign’ – 

the ‘Jolly Roger’ - two crossed bones with the 

part of the skull of Pithecanthropus erectus, the 

Java-man, the ‘missing link’. 

World War II, an interregnum 

During World War II Cornelis Beets was 

the curator of the Palaeontological- 

Mineralogical Cabinet. The museum was 

closed. The showcases were covered with 

sandbags protecting the objects against shells 

from bombing, which fortunately never came. 

The only feat of arms of this geologist was to 

look for people who could describe the bones 

from Tegelen he found in boxes and baskets in 

all kind of places. Antje Schreuder was one of 

them and also Dick A. Hooijer. Later, when he 

was 60 years old, he became the Director at 

the State Museum for Geology and Mineralogy 

in Leiden. 

Entomology Department and after several 

years he became Curator of the Mollusk 

Department. In 1946 he was appointed Curator 

of the Palaeontological-Mineralogical Cabinet 

of the Teylers Museum. 

The first group of animals he examined 

in the Cabinet were the Teutoidea (fossil squid) 

from the lithographic limestone of Solnhofen, 

Germany. In doing so, he made the sixth 

supplement of the systematic catalogue 

(1949), which Winkler had begun. But Van 

Regteren Altena wrote it in English, the new 

international scientific language instead of 

French: Systematic Catalogue of the 

Palaeontological Collection, 6th supplement. 

Teutoidea. In the meantime Dick Hooijer 

determined the bones from Tegelen. The list 

grew and grew and with other data Altena 

gathered, they could publish a seventh 

supplement: Vertebrata from the Pleistocene 

Tegelen Clay, Netherlands. 

At this time Altena was not content with 

the dependency on the printed catalogues and 

he started a card-index. In Amsterdam an 

international symposium on insects was 

organized. A good opportunity to reorganize 

the showcases with insects from Oeningen and 

Solnhofen. A lot of them were originals (O= 

published specimen), types (T=first described 

specimen, now holotypes), paratypes (P= 

together described specimen) or syntypes 

(S=used by description, but not the holotype). 

C.O. van Regteren Altena (1907-1976); 

a facelift of the Collection. 

Mollusks, insects and ... Tiglian bones as 

heritage 

Carel Octavianus van Regteren Altena 

studied biology at Amsterdam University, with 

some palaeontological and geological subjects 

as well. When he was about fifteen he made 

his first publication (on squid). He had a 

special interest in marine mollusks and after he 

finished his studies he got a grant to produce a 

publication on the seashells of the Dutch coast 

and estuaries. That book was such a success 

that in 1937 Amsterdam University decided 

that this was his thesis. In 1941 he was 

appointed Assistant Curator at the State 

Museum of Natural History in Leiden in the 

Dr. C.O. van Regteren Altena, the third Curator 

from 1946-1976 (© Teylers Museum). 



After World War II scientists were very 

concerned about the fate of types. A lot of the 

types in Germany were destroyed during the 

war or lost, so they agreed to mark them with 

the characters O, T, P or S so they could be 

found easily in case of emergency. He made a 

type-script too with all the types in it he knew 

(mostly insects and bones from the Tiglian 

clay). The cards in the index got a coloured clip 

if the fossil was some kind of type or an 

original. Altena also started a library with the 

offprints he got in exchange for his scientific 

articles, and of course a card-index organised 

by author and year with it. 

Changes in the showcases 

Although Van Regteren Altena did not 

purchase any fossils for the collection, he 

made a lot of changes in the showcases. In 

1970 a gifted retired housepainter became his 

assistant, Mr. J. Klinker. All the showcases 

were painted and the flat showcases got a 

base of drawing paper. He also decided that 

the showcases were too full. Sometimes more 

than half of the number of fossils where placed 

in the drawers below the cases; half of the 

minerals and crystals in the Oval Room were 

stored in cardboard boxes. The texts with the 

fossils were altered. Not an occasional printed 

or hand-written name near some fossils, like in 

the Winkler exhibition, but each fossil got its 

own plate, written by Mr. Klinker, with scientific 

name, a short explanation in Dutch, the 

catalogue number, the stratigraphical period 

and find locality. He also made revisions of the 

scientific names by using recent names and he 

gave the collection a more scientific 

appearance by adding plates in some 

showcases with a zoological classification. 

Large plates denoted class, and small plates 

gave details of order and family. 

Between 1970 and 1980 Klinker 

restored all the big fossils from Lyme Regis 

and Holzmaden. The stone surrounding the 

plesiosaur was fractioned because the bones 

were blooming grey with pyrite disease. The 

bones were impregnated by a paraffin solution 

in petrol, the stone repaired with a mix of 

Araldite (an epoxy resin) and clay. So the idea 

that everything in the Teylers Museum stayed 

unchanged is an illusion. Van Regteren Altena 

died in 1976 and after his death Klinker worked 

for three years on his own on the collection and 

died in 1982. 

Walenkamp, De Vos and Lydie Touret 

In 1979 Dr. J.H.C. Walenkamp was 

appointed Curator of the Palaeontological- 

Mineralogical Cabinet. His thesis was on seaurchins. 

He was assisted by a student, Rob 

Gortemaker, who made an inventory of the 

sea-urchins for his studies biology, majoring in 

palaeontology. 

A French scientist, Dr. Lydie Touret- 

Benmohamed, was appointed to take care of 

the rocks and minerals. She wrote her thesis 

on inclusions in precious stones. In the Teylers 

Museum she started determining the minerals 

but discovered a real treasure in historical 

labels. The founders of mineralogy wrote these 

labels and she started studying these and the 

history of the collection. The results of her 

studies were used for a major exhibition on 

Van Marum held at the old Meat Hall in the city 

centre of Haarlem: ‘Een elektriserend geleerde’ 

(‘An electrifying scientist’), Martinus van 

Marum 1750-1837. This was in 1987, 150 

years after Van Marum’s death. 

In 1981 Walenkamp went to 

Mozambique to take classes at Maputo 

University. He was succeeded by Drs. J. de 

Vos. De Vos studied biology in Utrecht and 

Original handwritten labels of famous scientists 

studied by Dr. Lydie Touret (© Teylers 

Museum). 



was made enthusiastic for palaeontology by 

Dr. P. Sondaar. He chose this as his major with 

extra subjects in geology. Sondaar was 

interested in the Isle-faunas of the 

Mediterranean and specialized in mammals 

and hominids. Utrecht University had a special 

agreement with Athens University and the 

students worked together on excavations in the 

Greek Isles. 

After his doctoral exams De Vos was 

appointed as teacher at a grammar school. He 

then got the opportunity to succeed Hooijer as 

Curator of the Dubois Collection in the State 

Museum of Natural History. There he became 

interested in the person and life of Eugène 

Dubois, and when offered the chance to take 

the place of Walenkamp he was pleased to do 

so, in his free time, on Saturdays. In 1983 he 

took his doctors degree on the deer of Crete. 

He had a great part in the foundation of the 

WPZ in 1982, the workgroup on Pleistocene 

mammals, of which he is chairman since 1992. 

This was the situation I encountered 

when I came as a voluntary preparator at the 

Cabinet in 1983. Here ends the history I can 

tell on the Palaeontological-Mineralogical 

Cabinet, because I got involved. I could start 

here with my memoirs but I doubt if I yet have 

sufficient distance to write them down. 

Although I am retired now for more than one 

year, I am still in service as a volunteer…to 

finish the loose ends, so to speak. 

Consulted literature 

Besselink, M. 1997. Winkler? Nooit van 

gehoord. – Teylers Magazijn 57: 5-12. 

Bouwman, P. & P. Broers. 1988. Teylers Boeken 

Konstzael. De bouwgeschiedenis van 

Nederlands oudste museum. – Teylers 

Magazijn 20: 1-2. 

Breure, A.S.H. & J.G. de Bruijn. 1979. Leven 

en werken van J.G.S. van Breda (1788 - 

1867). – Haarlem/Groningen, H.D. 

Tjeenk Willink B.V. & Hollandsche 

Maatschappij der Wetenschappen. 

Forbes, R.J. Ed. 1969. Martinus van Marum 

Life and Work. Volume 1. - 

Haarlem/Groningen, H.D. Tjeenk Willink 

B.V. & Hollandsche Maatschappij der 

Wetenschappen. 

Hoek Ostende, van den, L.W. 1990. Tegelen, 

ons land 2 miljoen jaar geleden. - 

Teylers Magazijn Extra uitgave. 

Mol, D., G. ter Mors, J.C. van Veen & J. de 

Vos. 1995. De geschiedenis van de 

mammoetschedel van Heukelum. – 

Teylers Magazijn 49: 9-14. 

Regteren Altena, van, C.O. 1957. Verleden en 

heden van het Palaeontologisch Kabinet 

van Teyler's Museum te Haarlem. – 

Vakblad voor Biologen 10: 149-156. 

Regteren Altena, van, C.O. 1978. Studies en 

bijdragen over Teylers Stichting naar 

aanleiding van het tweede eeuwfeest. - 

Haarlem/Antwerpen, Schuyt en Co NV. 

Sliggers, B.C. ed. 1996. Highlights from the 

Teyler Museum. – Haarlem, Teylers 

Museum. 

Veen, van, J.C. 1994. Tegelen terug in Teylers 

Museum. Honderd jaar veranderingen in 

de paleontologische collectie. – Teylers 

Magazijn 45: 6-9. 

Veen, van, J.C. 1997. Tiberius Cornelis 

Winkler 100 jaar geleden overleden. – 

Teylers Magazijn 57: 9-12. 

Vos, de, J. 1984. Teylers oervogel 

(Archaeopteryx) was even terug op het 

oude nest. – Teylers magazijn 5: 7-13. 

Wiechmann, A. & L.C. Palm. ed. 1987. Een 

elektriserend geleerde Martinus van 

Marum 1750 – 1837. – Haarlem, Joh. 

Enschedé en Zonen. 

Winkler, T.C. 1886. Gids voor den bezoeker 

van de Verzameling Versteeningen van 

Teylers Museum. – Haarlem, De Erven 

Loosjes. 

Joop C. van Veen 

Paleontologisch-Mineralogisch Cabinet 

Teylers Museum 

Spaarne 16 

2032 SJ Haarlem 

023-5319010 

jcvanveen@teylersmuseum.nl 



The Natural Sciences Library of the Teylers 

Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands 1 

By M. van Hoorn 

The core of this library is a splendid and 

very complete collection of 18 th and 19 th 

century literature on natural history, as the 

study of botany, zoology and earth sciences 

used to be called. The earliest acquisitions 

date from 1780 and were made for the Book 

and Art Gallery (Oval Room); the Library was 

accommodated in its upper gallery. There, 

Martinus van Marum (1750-1837) housed his 

extensive acquisitions in twelve wall 

cupboards. To this day, the collection bears his 

stamp: it features all branches of natural 

history, with an emphasis on botany. The 

illustrated works from the heyday of descriptive 

zoology are a highlight of the collection. 

Scientific reports of explorations are also a 

dominant feature. The collection of journals 

grew much faster than the number of 

monographs. Out of a total of 125,000 volumes 

the ratio is at present one in four. The 

collection of journals and magazines comes 

from all over the world and contains many 

longstanding titles. The finest examples are the 

periodicals of the Royal Society of London and 

of the Académie des Sciences in Paris, which 

go back to 1665. 

Van Marum was also responsible for 

building up a library at the Dutch Society of 

Sciences (Hollandsche Maatschappij der 

Wetenschappen, founded: Haarlem 1752), 

which continued to expand after his death. But 

because this library was so rarely used, the 

board eventually decided to hand the collection 

over to other institutions, particularly 

universities. In 1948 the remaining stock came 

under the aegis of the Teylers Library. 

The Reading Room, dating from 1824, 

was the first extension to the Library. This is 

where Van Marum housed the volumes on 

botany, which were to serve as a reference 

collection for his botanic garden ‘Plantlust’ on 

the Zuider Buiten Spaarne. The zoology works 

served a similar function when he was 

custodian of the Natural History Collection of 

the Dutch Society of Sciences. In 1825 an 

assistant was appointed, the physician J.A. 

1 See front page for photo. 

van Bemmelen, who was to succeed Van 

Marum as librarian in 1837. The first fruits of 

this appointment were the opening of the 

library to the public and the publication of a 

catalogue in 1826. This catalogue details the 

very first acquisition: Diderot and d’Alembert’s 

Encyclopédie. This pre-eminent monument of 

the Age of Enlightenment was purchased 

immediately upon its completion in 1780 at a 

price of 375 Dutch guilders. Between 1780 and 

1826, the total amount spent on publications 

for the Library mounted to 100,000 Dutch 

guilders. In comparison, 34,000 and 20,000 

Dutch guilders respectively were spent on the 

other two departments administered by the 

many-sided scientist Van Marum, the Cabinets 

of Physics and of Palaeontology and 

Mineralogy. 

The classics form a striking section in 

the first catalogue, especially the works of the 

Church Fathers. At the instigation of the Teyler 

Theological Society, works in this field were 

assiduously collected for ten years. This, 

however, came to an abrupt halt when the 

Society no longer provided such a stimulus 

and Van Marum was given an almost entirely 

free hand. His most outstanding acquisition is 

without a doubt John James Audubon’s ‘The 

Birds of America’ (1826-1840). Today, this fivevolume 

publication is the most celebrated book 

of plates in the history of ornithology. 

Fourteen caudal vertebrae of Mosasaurus 

hoffmanni from the St. Peter’s Mountain, 

South Limburg, The Netherlands (Cretaceous 

period) in the collection of the Teylers 

Museum, inv.nr. 11210 (© Teylers Museum). 

On the occasion of the opening of the 

Reading Room, the secretary of the Teylers 

Foundation drew up a ‘Regulation of order with 

regard to the admission to and use of the 



library’ that came into force on 24 June 1825. 

Article 1 stated: “Without prejudice to the 

normal visiting of the Museum and the Library 

of the Teyler Museum, which is open to each 

and everyone daily from 12 to 1 o’clock by 

admission ticket, Inhabitants of Haarlem, on 

Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 

o’clock, and Foreigners (which includes foreign 

and native scholars not domiciled in Haarlem) 

every day from 1 to 2 o’clock, excluding 

Sundays and Holidays, and on Wednesdays 

and Saturdays from 1 to 4 o’clock, may be 

granted access to the Library and use the 

books housed there.” 

After Van Marum, the administration of 

his collections was apportioned to various 

members of the museum staff. Acquisitions 

were no longer the sole responsibility of the 

librarian, who kept a close eye on the 

publication of new titles in the fields of analytic 

botany and zoology, but also of the custodian 

of the Palaeontological and Mineralogical 

Cabinet. Under Van Bemmelen and his 

successor D. Lubach, the collection rapidly 

expanded. This was partly due to the 

acquisition of the library of the Haarlem Clinical 

School, which was closed down in 1865. This, 

for example, enabled the Library to acquire a 

magnificent anatomical atlas by Vesalius 

dating from 1555. 

With the arrival of C. Ekama in 1869 

work began on the publication of a definitive 

edition of the catalogue which was to replace 

the temporary and abridged catalogues of 

1826, 1832, 1837, 1848 and 1865. He 

completed this work in 1889. Two more 

volumes appeared later, produced by G.C.W. 

Bohnensieg and J.J. Verwijnen respectively. In 

addition to listing the acquisitions from the 

period 1888-1912, these two extensive 

volumes also catalogued articles from a large 

number of journals and series. This brought the 

Library in line with the international attempt to 

administer and open up the rapidly expanding 

field of scientific literature, whereby books 

were being increasingly superseded by 

journals. 

Natural history underwent fundamental 

changes in the last quarter of the 19 th century. 

Analytic botany and zoology were supplanted 

by experimental biology (anatomy and 

physiology). And the influence of a more 

precise and experimental method also 

expanded into the realm of geology. These 

changes are clearly discernible in the Library, 

and they serve to explain the hiatus that 

appeared at around the turn of the century, a 

period which for the Teylers Library marked a 

permanent decline in the acquisition of books. 

The costs of building the New Museum (1880- 

1885) to commemorate the Foundation’s 

centenary were certainly a contributing factor 

to this situation. One of the last significant 

acquisitions was a coloured copy of Basilius 

Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis dating from 1613, 

bought from an antiquarian bookseller in 1915. 

The decline was compensated for by the 

establishment of a complex and extensive 

exchange system of journals, which in the 

course of the 20 th century rose to some 1,000 

titles. In the New Museum the Library occupied 

the so-called Upper Room, in which the 

zoological monographs, the exploration reports 

and back issues of important periodicals were 

housed. 

After Verwijnen, the first and thus far 

only woman librarian was appointed: H.C. 

Dorhout Mees, who occupied the post from 

1925 to 1956. She handled the bequest of 

Nobel Prize winner professor H.A. Lorentz, 

who had been Curator of the Cabinet of 

Physics from 1909 until his death in 1928 and 

who bequeathed his entire library to the 

Teylers Museum. Dorhout Mees was assisted 

by his son Rudolf Lorentz, a classical scholar, 

who was appointed at the same time as she 

and who succeeded her in 1957. In 1963, J.G. 

de Bruijn was appointed as assistant librarian 

to Lorentz; this post, however, was no longer 

filled when Lorentz retired in 1967. De Bruijn 

further extended the Library’s exchange stock 

of natural history journals. In his capacity as 

librarian/archivist of the Dutch Society of 

Sciences, he edited important publications on 

Martinus van Marum and his successor J.G.S. 

van Breda. His period of tenure saw the 

undertaking of a large-scale microfiche project 

with the Leiden-based Inter Documentation 

Company, whereby the Library made available 

titles from its historical collection in exchange 

for titles on microfiche which were missing. 

In 1986, the Library, which had until then 

been administered by the board of the Teylers 

Foundation, came under the direct aegis of the 

Museum as its fifth area of collecting. In the 



Holwerda, A.E. van Giffen, H. Brugmans and 

C.H. Peters (on The Netherlands). 

Palaeontology: vertebrates 

The palaeontology section, with some 

800 titles, belongs to the largest ones of the 

Library. Its subdivision on vertebrates contains, 

amongst others, the works of Paul Gervais, 

Hermann von Meyer, Richard Owen, A. 

d’Orbigny, R. Lydekker and Othenio Abel. 

View on Giza from the Description de l'Egypte 

same year, the subscriptions to over 1000 

journals which were taken on an exchange 

basis were cancelled, owing to limited public 

interest and financial constraints. The regular 

acquisition of monographs had ceased as long 

ago as the 1940’s. All this meant that the 

Library changed from a contemporary scientific 

resource into an historical museum collection. 

This fundamental change made it possible to 

bring the Teylers Library to greater public 

prominence within the context of the Museum. 

This is happening increasingly in the form of 

group introductions and participation in 

exhibitions, which from 1996 mainly take place 

in the new Book Gallery. Also, many topics are 

shown on the website of the Museum. 

The archaeological collection 

Although the core of the Library consists 

of books and periodicals on natural history, 

there have always been acquisitions in many 

other areas, like the sciences, philosophy, 

theology, scientific explorations, history, and 

also archaeology. In relation to the PalArch 

Foundation’s areas of interest, Egypt and North 

West Europe, there are some hundred titles, 

mainly dating from the 19 th and early 20 th 

centuries. Especially in the section on Egypt 

there are quite some multi-volume works, most 

of these with many illustrations (engravings, 

lithographs, photographs), for example the 

Description de l’Egypte (1809-1828). Important 

authors on Egypt are Heinrich Brugsch, 

Conrad Leemans, R. Lepsius, A.C.Th.E. Prisse 

d’Avennes, G. Maspero, E. Chassinat and J. 

Capart; for North West Europe, I mention 

Bernard de Montfaucon (on France), and J.H. 



Sex in the museum 

By V. van Vilsteren 

Introduction 

The Drents Museum is one of the most 

popular museums in the northern Netherlands, 

attracting some 70,000 visitors annually. Its 

mission is simple: to please the public. This 

seems quite obvious, but is in fact rather 

surprising for a museum with such a long 

history. Although famous as an archaeological 

museum, founded in 1854, the Drents Museum 

now has very diverse collections. Its ‘Art 

Around 1900 Collection’, for example, is 

unsurpassed in The Netherlands. But one can 

also visit the oldest canoe in the world and the 

famous bog bodies, including Yde, a 16-yearold 

girl. Authentic period rooms, a real Van 

Gogh, a thrilling archaeological adventure in 

the Discovery Room and the fabulous Geo- 

Explorer are among the treasures to be 

discovered. 

The Museum is housed in an impressive 

complex of historical buildings, in themselves 

worthy of a visit. Ingeniously linked together, 

the charming 13 th century Abbey Church, 17 th 

century Tax Collector’s House 

(Ontvangershuis), 18 th century Bailiff’s House 

(Drostenhuis) and 19 th century Provincial 

Government House (Provinciehuis) offer 

something for everyone. In the Middle Ages the 

whole complex was the site of the Cistercian 

nunnery Maria-in-Campis, of which only the 

(rebuilt and renovated) Abbey Church is left. 

The Tax collector’s House dates back to 1698, 

the year in which the house was built in its 

present form, as a place to live for the 

provincial tax collector. The Tax Collector’s 

House consists of six period rooms, each with 

its own colourful wall covering. The Bailiff’s 

House dates back to 1778. It was the 

residence of the Bailiff (drost), who used to be 

the highest official in the province of Drente, an 

office nowadays held by the Queen’s 

Commissioner. The former Provincial 

Government House was built in the 1880’s. 

The outside of the building is richly decorated 

and has various Neo-Gothic and Renaissance 

characteristics. As soon as you enter the 

museum you will notice the richly decorated 

hall. The famous murals by George Sturm 

depict the most important episodes from the 

history of Drente: the building of the megalithic 

monuments (hunebedden), the preaching of 

the Christian faith, the conquest by 

Charlemagne, the bequest of the entire 

province to the bishop of Utrecht, and the 

provincial Deputies plotting the Landrecht (a 

law which was different from the rest of The 

Netherlands, and was used for centuries in 

Drente). In 1996 the various buildings of the 

Drents Museum were renovated by connecting 

the several buildings and making two new 

exhibition rooms by roofing the courtyard of the 

former Provincial Government House. The new 

Museum now has a surface area of approx. 

5000 m 2 . 

Sex in the museum 

The façade of the Drents Museum, Assen with 

the large Banner of the exhibition (© Drents 

Museum). 

With archaeology being one of the two 

main topics for temporary exhibitions the 

Drents Museum showed such diverse 

exhibitions like ‘The Flint Smith’, ‘The Bone 

Age’ (on objects of bone, antler and horn), 

‘Amber’, ‘Excavated Sounds’ (on musical 

archaeology) and ‘The History of Beer’. Even 

with such a focus on thematic exhibitions, a 

firm discussion took place in 2001, when the 

idea arose to show an exhibition on the history 



left out. Overall, the aim of the exhibition is to 

show how waves of sexual tolerance and 

inhibition have succeeded one another through 

the ages. Even in recent years we can observe 

a little wave with society becoming slightly less 

sexually tolerant, with increasing prosecution 

rates for people accessing internet porn, for 

example. The exhibition only dealt with 

Europe; worldwide would be too much for the 

Drents Museum. But nothing has been 

censored. 

Overview of the exhibition in the Drents 

Museum (© E. Mortiz, The Hague). 

of sexuality. Can a respected institution like the 

Drents Museum risk its fame with a tricky 

business like sex? Shouldn’t we pay attention 

to such a universal topic? Finally the direction 

of the museum decided to program the 

exhibition for 2003. So in November last year 

the exhibition ‘100,000 Years of sex’ was 

opened. 

We all know what sex is and what it 

entails. It all seems pretty straightforward. And 

yet sexuality has in different periods in human 

history been interpreted in entirely different 

ways. In particular, people’s attitudes towards 

sexuality have changed substantially over the 

ages. What we would consider quite ordinary 

today may have been highly offensive in the 

early Middle Ages. And what was perfectly 

normal to the ancient Greeks may well be 

taboo in our day and age, or even forbidden by 

law. 

Sexuality has by no means been a 

constant factor in history. Every era had its 

own views on this subject, and approached it in 

its own way. 

The story begins with Stone Age man 

discovering shame (cf. Adam and Eve) and 

beginning to cover himself in clothes, rather 

than parading naked and having sex all over 

the shop. This is the origin of the ‘100,000 

Years’ title – definitely not claiming any real 

accuracy for this figure, it is just a rough 

estimate. The exhibition stops at 1900, so 

people expecting explicit photography or 

movies were disappointed. Even the sexual 

liberation of the 1960’s and 1970’s, in itself not 

a high watermark in sexual tolerance, but 

rather a period where ‘the yoke of Victorian 

repression was lifted from our shoulders’, was 

Fertility and eroticism 

The oldest exhibits are the nude statues 

of plump and large-breasted Venusses, dating 

from around 25 or 30,000 BC. Most probably 

they had no meaning in our sexual terms, but 

rather served a fertility purpose. No equivalent 

male figures have been discovered until 

14,000 BC. From this scientists conclude that 

men didn't make the connection between sex 

and birth. By the 13 th century BC, men (or 

possibly women) were scribbling pictures with 

sexual content on their cave walls. The 

examples are low on artistic merit, but you can 

see what they are driving at. 

Only scarcely prehistoric records reveal 

something sexual. One example comes from 

Bulgaria: a grave (dating around 4,300 BC) 

containing a gold penis shaft, like a long 

thimble, found in place along with a host of 

other ornaments. Not really useful, but it is 

clear that the man thus symbolised the male 

power and dominance. Another grave, 

excavated in Denmark, has a female skeleton 

with a fancy buckled jacket and a kind of string 

skirt. This was see-through and could perhaps 

be interpreted as one of the first proofs of real 

eroticism: sexy in the Bronze Age. 

Once we reach the Greek and Roman 

periods, sexual adventurism really begins to 

kick in. Athens was full of nude statues, there 

were many bathhouses, and they were very 

much used to the nude body. Greek and 

Roman society was very different from the later 

Christian society because the Christian god is 

non-sexual. Greek and Roman gods did 

anything they liked, homosexuality, sex with 

animals, rape ... So it was also quite normal in 

these societies to do the same. Although it may 

have been that they were used to this and 

projected their behaviour on their gods. 



simply reads "Promus fellator" ("Master of 

sucking"). 

A different regime 

Greek vase, 5 th century BC. Collection 

Antikensammlung Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 

(© I. Geske, Berlin). 

Excavations at Pompeii have yielded a 

great wealth of sexual paraphernalia and 

archaeological evidence of wanton behaviour. 

For the Romans, a phallus was a symbol of 

good luck; householders would display a 

winged penis outside their doors, with little 

bells hanging from it. In Holland testicles are 

sometimes still referred to as bells… 

Romans also prefigured the modern 

souvenir-shop gag of making teapots with 

penis-shaped spouts. One fine example here 

was supposedly unearthed by the German 

Emperor Wilhelm II, but rumour has it that his 

minions would bury objects deliberately for him 

to ‘discover’. Other Roman bits and pieces 

include coins, engraved with a range of sexual 

positions, which are thought to have been used 

as currency for prostitutes: the coin you give 

indicates how you want to be serviced. 

Pompeii also bequeathed us some of 

the most vivid written sexual graffiti ever 

composed. "During the wine harvest festival, 

Veneria sucked off Maximus. Her holes 

remained empty, only her mouth was full." Or 

this one: "You have had eight different 

professions - you've been a builder, a 

merchant ... [etc], but once you've done 

cunnilingus you've tried everything." Another 

All this lasciviousness comes to an end 

with the ascendancy of the Catholic Church in 

Europe. While there are few artefacts from this 

period, the church is revealed as being quite 

extraordinarily obsessed with sex. Between 

700 and 1200 AD a tradition grew of writing 

‘penitentiary books’, detailing how society 

should behave. Around a third of these rules 

applied to sexual matters. 

At their most extreme, penitentiary 

books forbade sex on Wednesdays, Fridays, 

Saturdays and Sundays, for three days after 

getting married, in the daytime, when 

menstruating, when pregnant, when 

breastfeeding, in the week before Easter, 

during Advent, on feast days and fast days, in 

church or when naked. You should not try to 

enjoy sex and only do it if you want a child. It's 

a wonder the species didn't become extinct! 

In the 11 th century, Bishop Burchhart of 

Worms took the genre one stage further. 

Drawing on unexpected reserves of 

imagination, he wrote (in Latin) that his flock 

should be sure not to have sex with animals, or 

One of the beautiful banners from the 

Exhibition (© Drents Museum). 



with their own children. And women should, it 

almost goes without saying, absolutely never 

have sex with one another. 

One physical representation of sexuality 

manifested by Catholicism was the tradition of 

Sheela-na-gig: a gargoyle-like stone carving 

found on dozens of Irish (and a few English) 

churches. These small figures are of naked 

women with their legs spread wide open, 

sometimes using their hands to pry their labia 

apart. The vagina would often be touched by 

the congregation, supposedly to bring fertility. 

Or else they were meant to distract the devil 

and leave the congregation undisturbed. 

Dildos loom large in the later parts of the 

exhibition. A particularly beautiful one was 

found in Zwolle in The Netherlands. Dating 

from the 17 th century, it has a pump action that 

was either meant to heighten a woman's 

orgasm, or (more mundanely) for cleaning 

purposes. 

A dildo made of glass was found in the 

cesspit of a 17 th century German nunnery. 

Experts believe this was another early joke 

item, used or drinking and causing much 

merriment as the abbess held it tenderly in her 

hand. 

Contraception was already practised in 

antiquity, but condoms only appeared on stage 

after syphilis spread around Europe following 

the discovery of America in 1492. The oldest 

condoms in the world are from Dudley Castle, 

near Birmingham and date back to the 1640’s. 

They look like desiccated autumn leaves, 

carefully placed on display on the exhibition 

resting on penis-shaped polystyrene plinths. Of 

the 10 retrieved from the Castle, five were 

found wrapped one inside the other, either for 

storage or because the user was especially 

cautious. A Swedish condom made of sheep's 

bladder has survived far better. It is extra large, 

still looks vaguely useable, and comes with a 

handy instruction leaflet. "Soak the membrane 

in milk and put it on before having sex with a 

prostitute," it advises. It clearly illustrated that 

in those times condoms were not used for 

contraception, but as a barrier against syphilis. 

A final section of the exhibition points 

out that while the Victorians admired classical 

civilisation, they found the sexual elements 

embarrassing. Museums would create secret 

cabinets to house the dirty stuff. These are 

now widely accessible. Although in the Naples 

Museum of Archaeology, for example, it is all 

still hidden behind a huge iron gate. Visitors 

still have to make a special reservation to have 

a peek. The Victorian repression of whatever 

sexual topic however, could not prevent that 

early photography in the mid-19 th century was 

very rapid in introducing pornographic 

elements in their studies. 

Pulling crowds 

The whole array as it was exhibited in 

the Drents Museum in Assen has been pulling 

crowds in record. The amount of visitors (more 

than 30,000) more than doubled the normal 

numbers. It was expected that the audience 

would mainly consist of young adults, under 

the assumption that they were the age group 

most interested in sex, but the average visitor 

has been women between the age of 55 and 

65. 

The attendance of the visitors was 

maybe surpassed by the attention the 

exhibition received from the press. Radio, 

television, newspapers and magazines all 

closely worked together to create a sort of 

media hype. This was not restricted to The 

Netherlands: the ‘BBC World Service’ 

mentioned it, as well as the ‘Sydney Morning 

Herald’ in Australia. ‘La Stampa’ in Italy 

Another example of banners from the 

Exhibition (© Drents Museum). 



published it and ‘The Independent’ sent a 

journalist from London for a three-page article 

in their weekly Magazine. ‘Wisconsin Public 

Radio’ had a one-hour live interview on the 

exhibition and Spanish television sent out a 

crew from Madrid. After all this media attention, 

exploring the exhibition’s coverage on the 

internet proved to be fairly time-consuming. 

Travelling exhibition 

The whole project, including the 

beautiful design by Mrs. Lies Ros from 

Amsterdam, was developed as a travelling 

exhibition. Fortunately several museums in 

different European countries are interested in 

showing the exhibition. The international tour 

foresees stops in Maaseik (Belgium), Hamburg 

(Germany), Odense (Denmark), Frankfurt 

(Germany) and Dresden (Germany) and 

negotiations with potential American venues 

are still in progress. The well-known saying 

‘sex sells’ once again appears to be 

reconfirmed. 

Sex is not only as old as the proverbial 

road to Rome, but indeed as old as Adam and 

Eve. Sex is, has always been, and will always 

remain a part of our lives. The exhibition 

‘100,000 Years of sex’ invited the visitor for a 

trip across Europe, showing the many different 

ways in which people in the past have 

regarded sexuality. Our attitudes today, since 

the sexual revolution that took place in the 

1960’s and 1970’s, prove to be entirely 

different from those that prevailed in the 19 th 

century. While the ancient Greeks in turn 

approached sexuality in a manner that differed 

strongly from that of people in the Lower 

Palaeolithic. 

Over the centuries, people have 

interpreted and expressed the concept of 

sexuality in highly diverse and often 

unprecedented creative ways. Thus, the 

survey presented in ‘100,000 Years of sex’ is 

actually a piece of cultural history of everyday 

things of all times. 

The Drents Museum has his own 

website: http://www.drentsmuseum.nl. More on 

the exhibition can be found at 

www.100000jaarsex.be. 

Project manager of the Exhibition Vincent van 

Vilsteren surrounded by Venusses (© M. van 

Engelen). 



Archaeological illustration; combining ‘old’ and 

new techniques 

By M.H. Kriek 

My name is Mikko Kriek. For the last 10 

years I have been active in the world of 

archaeology. First as a student ancient history 

at the Free University of Amsterdam working 

on several excavations in The Netherlands and 

abroad. More recently I am working as an 

archaeological illustrator for the archaeological 

department of the same university. My work 

consists mostly of the production of artefact 

drawings. In addition I also work free-lance for 

different employers like urban archaeologists, 

museums, collectors etc. My free-lance 

assignments cover a broader spectrum of 

activities like artefact drawings, site plans, 

maps and reconstruction drawings. 

Every summer I participate in the 

excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad in the north of 

Syria. For the project I am responsible for all 

the artefact drawings and architectural 

drawings in the field. In all, the diversity makes 

this job a very interesting and stimulating one. 

Since a couple of years I am also a full 

member of the Association of Archaeological 

Illustrators and Surveyors, an international 

body for archaeological illustrators. 

The fascination from an early age on for 

drawings in books about the ancient world 

together with an interest in history were 

motives to start a career in archaeological 

illustration. After getting acquainted with some 

of the different techniques and methods of 

excavating on various archaeological sites I 

learned how to combine these newly acquired 

skills with my aptitude for drawing. 

I started making illustrations using 

Reconstruction of a Neolithic tholos for ‘The 

Archaeology of Syria’ by P. Akkermans & G. 

Schwartz (© M.H. Kriek). 

traditional pen-and-ink techniques using advice 

and examples given by other illustrators. I 

produced some series of object drawings for 

several projects and a range of reproduction 

drawings for a book about forgeries in 

museums worldwide. Gradually, my career 

started to develop, picking up more and more 

work to an amount that I could make a living 

out of it. 

My methods and techniques gradually 

improved and changed. Starting as a pen and 

ink ‘purist’ I slowly reverted to digital image 

processing. The use of drawing software 

produced very clear and accurate object 

drawings. Maps and charts could be made with 

a much more satisfying result. The 

combination of digital cameras, image 

enhancement software and drawing software 

yielded a very precise and efficient method to 

create detailed drawings of features on 

excavations. Also handmade drawings could 

be enhanced using drawing software. Due to 

experiments with certain techniques I acquired 

Map of Mesopotamia (© M.H. Kriek) 

Reconstruction of a bronze age Armenian 

buria l mound (© M.H. Kriek). 



Achaemenian animal protome for ‘The Lie 

Became Great’ by O.W.Muscarella (© M.H. 

Kriek). 

a number of basic methods for the digital 

registration of visual archaeological data. 

The technique I use to make a digital 

drawing of an archaeological artefact is done 

by making a high resolution scan of all the 

facings of the object that needs to be drawn 

(i.e. front, sides, top). These scans are 

adjusted and rectified, mostly just a little bit, 

using photo enhancement software. Eventually 

a 100% digital image of the artefact (and its 

desired facings) remains. 

The digital drawing of the object can 

now be constructed by importing the digital 

image in a drawing programme and eventually 

start tracing its contours and filling up the 

details, ornamentation and shading using line 

Roman bone comb (© M.H. Kriek). 

elements and/or small dots. This is a perfect 

way to make accurate images of small 

bronzes, bone artefacts or leather. Some 

objects are too large or heavy for a scanner so 

a digital photograph has to be made. This 

image needs more rectification due to the lens 

deviation of a camera, something a scanner 

has to a much lesser extent. 

Still, some drawings demand a 

combination of digital imagery and handmade 

pencil drawings. Pottery for instance is an 

artefact category that has to be represented in 

drawing in such a way that it is virtually 

impossible to make a scan of the object itself 

first; a handmade section drawing of the 

pottery object has to be made first in pencil. 

This drawing can be used as a basis for the 

eventual digital drawing by scanning it and 

tracing it over using drawing software. 

Some artefact categories can only be 

Roman clothing pins (© M.H. Kriek). 

Medieval leather shoe (© M.H. Kriek). 



Assyrian cylinder seal (© M.H. Kriek). 

Roman pottery (© M.H. Kriek). 

drawn digital using yet another combination of 

handmade and digital images. Flint objects for 

instance need a very close examination during 

the process of drawing itself. The direction in 

which small pieces have been flaked off can 

only be seen with the naked eye. A highresolution 

scan of the flint object can serve as 

a basis. A good clear print of the digital scan is 

placed under a sheet of tracing paper and the 

outlines of the flint object as well as the larger 

and clearly visible facets can be traced by 

hand. After this is done, the smaller facets not 

visible on the digital image and the print, can 

be drawn by studying the object. Eventually the 

finished pencil drawing is scanned and traced 

over using digital drawing software. 

This method can also be (partly) used in 

the production of drawings of fine and 

delicately ornamented objects like cylinder 

seals. A high-resolution scan of the seal and its 

impression is made. A print of the scan is used 

as a basis to make a pencil drawing on tracing 

paper. Because of the complex nature of the 

drawing conventions for seals, it is easier (and 

I think better) to make the final ink drawing by 

hand. 

The method used for the detailed 

recording of on-site features is in a way similar 

to the production of digital artefact drawings, 

although in this process not a scanner is used 

but a digital camera. 

For instance when a burial is uncovered 

on an excavation, the feature is properly 

cleaned in such a way that it is clearly visible. 

Preparations can be made to make a digital 

registration. A minimum of four points 

(measuring pins) have to be set out around the 

burial on regular intervals (for instance on the 

corners of an imaginary rectangular of 2 by 1 

meters) in such a way that they are clearly 

visible on the digital photograph. It is very 

important that a scale bar is visible in the area 

to be photographed. If all this is done, a digital 

photograph can be taken from the sharpest 

angle possible. After shooting, the digital 

picture is scaled to a desired size (thanks to 

the scale bar!) with photo enhancement 

Neolithic flint artefacts (© M.H. Kriek ). 

Dutch medieval burials (© M.H. Kriek). 



Middle Assyrian child buria l (© M.H. Kriek). 

software. The image is reworked (i.e. the 

perspective slope under which the picture was 

taken is adjusted) by use of the measurement 

pins present in the photograph. The pins are of 

utmost importance; they are the guidelines for 

adjusting the image but they also connect the 

image (and at a later stage the drawing) to the 

measurement grid of the whole excavation. 

The rectified image of the burial is now 

imported and traced using drawing software. 

The result is an accurate digital rendering of 

the feature ready for publication. In black and 

white or in colour if desired. 

This method is very time effective; while 

the actual drawing is being produced the 

feature itself can be removed and work in the 

field can continue. I would like to emphasise 

that, as with artefact drawings, there still are 

situations in which an ‘old fashioned’ 

handmade detailed drawing of a feature is 

more preferable than a digital drawing. 

Sometimes the feature is not clear enough to 

be recorded on photograph or too big to be 

photographed properly. 

It is positive that modern day equipment 

can be used to make time efficient and 

accurate renderings of visual archaeological 

data. However, we must not forget that there 

are still certain circumstances, as I have 

mentioned above, in which non-digital methods 

still are the best and sometimes only options. 

In spite of the development of digital 

technologies these circumstances will always 

be present to challenge and stimulate the true 

skills of the archaeological draughtsman. 

For more information about my work as 

an illustrator you can visit my website: 

www.bcl-support.nl. For more information 

about archaeological illustration in general you 

can visit the website of the Association of 

Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors on: 

www.aais.org.uk. 

Mikko at work on Tel l Sabi Abyad (© O. 

Nieuwenhuyse). 



The pleasure of travelling to the past 

By C. Papolio 

My relation with palaeontology goes 

back to a very young age, motivated by ‘The 

Animal World’ in 1956, a film by Irvin Allen. The 

poster of this film brought up an unusual 

anxiety because of the featured dinosaurs; 

these enormous creatures that were even 

greater than an elephant (all children are 

astonished by that great beast when in the Zoo 

and that was not different for me when I was a 

child). In the cinema I could not hide my 

surprise when the animated creatures fought 

ferociously with each other. We ought to be 

grateful to Willis O’Brien and Ray 

Harryhausen, who created among the 

audience an enormous expectation concerning 

these creatures in the 1940's and 1950's. 

I remained obsessed from that time 

onwards, collecting many books, magazines, 

comic strips and movies. One such example, 

which I collected at the end of the 1950’s, is 

the Spanish comic ‘Turok, son of stone’. 

I did not start my career with graphic 

design and advertising until I was forty. The 

prehistoric animals, however, were always in 

my mind but I never had a change to draw 

them until 1985, when I visited the American 

Museum of Natural History in New York and I 

saw the panorama of the Tyrannosaurus and 

Movie poster ‘The animal world’. 

Turok, issue no. 15. 

Triceratops, which I knew from my childhood. I 

also appreciated the illustrations of Charles 

Knight that I saw published in palaeontology 

books. 

But it was not until 1993 that I started to 

work out the idea of drawing them. I was 

acquainted with the advertising illustration 

business and only had to learn the conventions 

of palaeontological drawing. Two events 

motivated this decision. The book ‘Jurassic 

Park’ by Michel Crichton, but even more so the 

film made by Steven Spielberg. I already 

admired Spielberg because of ‘Jaws’, ‘E.T.’, 

‘Close Encounters’, ‘Amazing Stories’ etc. The 

other event was the March 1993 issue of the 

‘National Geographic’ magazine, which was 

dedicated to dinosaurs and illustrated by John 

Gurche, who I greatly admire. 

I began to learn and quickly my hours of 

investigation began to surpass the hours of my 

daily work in design and advertisement. In the 

beginning, drawing these prehistoric beasts 

was a hobby that started in childhood but it 

became far more serious now. To this it is 

added that in 1994 my fiancée (and present 

wife) invited me to visit the museums in 

Buenos Aires. Instead of taking her to the art 

museums, which would have been the most 

logical because of my artistic background, we 

went to the Museo Argentino de Ciencias 

Naturales. There, I met the world famous and 

most recognized Argentinean palaeontologist 

Dr. Bonaparte. It must be noted that in my 

country, Argentina, the news of 

palaeontological finds spreads very little. There 



Cryolophosaurus ellioti (© C. Papolio 2000). 

is always much more palaeontological news 

(like documentaries and head line news) from 

the United States. That was what I thought until 

I realized that dinosaurs lived all around the 

world and at the same periods, only the 

amount of attention given by the press differed. 

It can be said that the acquaintance with 

Dr. Bonaparte was decisive for my present 

activity. When I showed him my first drawings it 

greatly impressed him, which resulted in a 

good and close professional relationship that 

continues until the present day. In January 

1995 I experienced fieldwork for the first time, 

learning how palaeontology is performed: 

excavating, cleaning and conservation and 

study of the fossils. But my real job started at 

the drawing board, reconstructing the life of the 

fossils found by the expedition. 

In 1996 I still worked as a graphic 

designer but as a palaeoartist as well. The 

Argentinean Museum of Natural Sciences 

Bernardino Rivadavia asked me to be the 

illustrator for a travelling exhibition to Japan 

and that same year I made the illustrations of 

Argentinean dinosaurs for the chip-cards of 

Telefónica de Argentina, a telephone 

company, competing the cards with Jurassic 

Park illustrations of another telephone 

company. 

My work was received very well and 

consequently I had my first exhibition in 1997, 

on invitation by the Banco de la Provincia de 

Buenos Aires and with the support of the 

Argentinean Museum of Natural Sciences 

Bernardino Rivadavia. For this, the sculptress 

Silvia Fiori and I made a life size Herrerasarus 

(3 meters), together with other sculptures and 

illustrations. The exhibition lasted a month and 

was a great success. Due to this exhibition, the 

National Tourism Department invited me to 

participate in Expolisboa '98 where my 

sculptures and illustrations were exhibited in 

the Argentine pavilion. At the same time 

various TV series (‘National Document’ at 

channel 7: chapter ‘Ischiagualasto’ and 

‘Talampaya’ and ‘Paleoworld’: chapter ‘The 

Killer Elite’) showed the construction of the 

head of Carnotosaurus. 

Nowadays, I participate annually as 

palaeoartist for vertebrate palaeontological 

expeditions to various sites in Argentina. At the 

moment I am finishing ‘Dinosaurios de 

Gondwana’, a book of scientific and artistic 

nature with over 400 images of which 90% 

have never been published before and to 

which famous South American 

palaeontologists have contributed. This work 

has absorbed my time for the last seven years 

and is next to be published. 

If you have talent and want to work as 

palaeoartist, I think you should take the 

following points into account. First, in the hyper 

realistic illustrations we are as good as the 

reference that we have (photographs, 

descriptions and the like). Second, 

palaeoartists have to work in close 

collaboration with the scientists. Third, use 

good quality material, such as pasteboards, 

brushes, aerographs and acrylics (oils or 

gouache). In sculpture the silicone rubber must 

Herrerasaurus (© C. Papolio 1997). 

Suchomimus tenerensis (© C. Papolio 2003). 



be used instead of the copied one. Fourth, in 

sculpture it is essential to obtain determinant 

elements (such as the diagnostic skulls, 

measurements of the bones but also the 

studies provided by the palaeontologists) and 

to correct, three dimensionally, after each 

stadium previous to the modelled one. Fifth, be 

precise in the delivery to the museum (the 

inauguration of a room can depend on it), or in 

the submission to the magazine or book. 

Finally, you should practice, practice and 

practice! 

If you want to know more about the work 

of Carlos Papolio, you can visit his website 

http://www.sauroquondam.com/ 

The mammoths beneath the sea 

By D. Mol 

Introduction 

The staff of Océanopolis and 

Cerpolex/Mammuthus (www.oceanopolis.com) 

have created a fascinating display about the 

huge quantity of mammoth remains that 

fishermen have brought up from the bottom of 

the North Sea between the United Kingdom 

and The Netherlands. There is a story to tell 

about the mammoth, based not only on these 

North Sea discoveries but also based on 

remains from Siberia. 

North Sea fishing 

In a large fishing net, hundreds of 

mammoth remains are ‘caught’, which gives a 

good indication of the abundance of those 

fossils on the bottom of the North Sea. 

However, there are no complete skeletons left. 

Palaeontological remains of other mammals 

are not really addressed at this exhibit. This 

has been done on purpose; this way the focus 

remains on the main characters of this story. 

They are the mammoths, and this exhibit takes 

you back in time into their habitat. The Dutch 



sculptor from Rotterdam, Remie Bakker, made 

large reconstructions of landscapes populated 

with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and 

steppe bison in order to depict the vast 

mammoth steppes of the Pleistocene. 

Yarkov 

An instance from Siberia is the famous 

Jarkov mammoth, which was retrieved in 1999. 

A replica of the block containing its remains is 

on display. The original block of solid frozen 

mud with the remains of the mammoth 

currently resides in a subterranean cave, in the 

far North region of Siberia, on the Taimyr 

Peninsula. The explorers have been working 

arduously on the block, which weighs 23,000 

kilograms, and they have discovered some 

very interesting facts about mammoths and 

their natural environment. The part of the block 

that has been thawed, has produced an 

overwhelming treasure of information. Details 

are shown at the exhibition. Moreover, short 

motion pictures are shown to enlighten the 

visitor on those revelations. 

Bakker has crafted a replica of the 

block, including the huge tusks of the Jarkov 

mammoth and has done a terrific job as you 

will see when you visit the exhibition in Brest. 

The display shows the progress of the 

painstaking exposure of the Jarkov mammoth, 

aged 20,380 years. It also gives the visitor a 

good idea of how and which sections of the 

block are being explored, thawed by using 

ordinary hair dryers, and it shows what kind of 

information has been gathered to date. 

There is also a Jarkov mammoth replica 

and visitors may view the narrative of its 

spectacular and daring recovery. A new 

technique was introduced, excavating a 

gigantic block of permafrost, during a harsh 

Siberian winter when the ground is totally 

frozen. This required the utilization of really 

heavy equipment (among which a gigantic 

transport helicopter), to bring it to a suitable 

place for exploration. The replica block shows 

that the woolly mammoth was really ‘woolly’, 

as thick layers of wool are still embedded in the 

frozen mud. 

Dolgans 

peninsula, the Dolgans. After all, it was the 

Dolgan family Jarkov who discovered the 

mammoth first in 1997. So this part of the 

exposition is dedicated to their history and their 

every day life, particularly in wintertime with 

extremely harsh climatic circumstances. 

Growth and development of mammoths 

Some twenty sculptures, crafted by 

Werner Schmid, show how a mammoth is born 

and how he slowly develops into a sturdy old 

behemoth by the age of about 47 years. After 

visiting this exhibition it will be clear that not all 

mammoths have had gigantic tusks. Also this 

exhibition will dispel certain misconceptions 

about mammoths such as the image of gigantic 

but sad monsters roaming around lonely in the 

eternal snow, about to be scavenged by packs 

of wolves. The exhibition will make clear that 

this picture is most inaccurate. 

Where can I find ‘The mammoths beneath the 

sea’? 

If you plan to spend your holiday in 

France and you are in the vicinity of Brest 

(Bretagne) you do not want to miss the 

opportunity of seeing this unique exhibition 

about an exceptional animal. It is worth it. Oh, 

and do not forget, of course, to visit the 

beautiful and gigantic fish tanks of 

Océanopolis. Océanopolis is easy to find in 

Brest. Just follow the big signs and you will find 

yourself in the parking area soon, without any 

problem. Details can be found at the website 

www.oceanopolis.com and for opening hours 

and admission fees: 

http://www.oceanopolis.com/infos/horaires.htm 

Dick Mol 

Cerpolex/Mammuthus 

Natuurmuseum Rotterdam 

d.mol@mammuthus.org 

In such an exhibition attention must be 

given to the native people of the Taimyr 



‘Archeologie Magazine’ in the electronic age 

By L. Lichtenberg 

Introduction 

Media are part of a society. They listen 

to the heart beat rhythm in society and they 

make the heart of a society beat faster. 

‘Archeologie Magazine’ as a magazine on 

archaeology and history is being created for a 

broad public in The Netherlands and Belgium. 

As an information product in those countries 

this magazine reflects these societies in many 

ways. This means of course that changes in 

society, including electronic ones, affect also 

the present and future presentation and 

content of such an information product. 

Changing information supply 

Media industries in general are worrying 

how to reach the consumer in information 

societies with more, and increasingly fast, 

flows of information. Where people never seem 

to have enough time and growing leisure time 

is being spent on short holidays abroad, media 

often try to attract the consumer by devoting 

more space to such leisure information. 

Sometimes the distribution of this kind of 

information develops at the expense of 

information that consumers ‘need’ for their 

education or in order to shape their opinions as 

politically active citizens. In such cases 

information grows more and more in economic 

value, at the expense of its political and 

cultural value. Whereas communications policy 

in several countries tends to remove barriers to 

effective competition some people in other 

nations fear the drawbacks of a purely 

economic approach of the information supply 

and try to draw more attention to cultural and 

other approaches in the media and media 

policy. 

These developments indicate more 

fundamental trends in an rapidly changing 

information supply which together result in 

growing competition between content and 

communication service providers and 

contribute to a fundamental change in the 

structure of media and communication 

markets. Trends like more attention to image, 

entertainment, society gossip, etc., develop at 

the expense of information of a more serious 

nature. These trends also fundamentally 

change the context of equal competition in 

communications. Not all societal and cultural 

opinions and movements have equal access 

to the communication process, regardless of 

the number of their supporters. Awakening 

social, political and cultural innovation often 

has insufficient opportunities to play a role. 

These trends also reflect changes in the media 

use of the public: people in general, and 

especially the younger ones, are using more 

audio-visual media, read less and, if they read 

papers or magazines at all, prefer images, info 

graphics and colourful presentations. The 'Nintendo 

kids' are growing up. 

With trends like these in the background 

it might appear suicidal to continue publishing 

an archaeological magazine on paper like 

‘Archeologie Magazine’ in The Netherlands. 

But still there may be good reasons for such 

hard copy, as I will try to explain in this 

contribution. 

E-based information 

Electronic developments for journalism 

media, have benefits elsewhere, including 

media such as ‘Archeologie Magazine’, which 

of course benefits from the use of the internet. 

For everybody computers, linked together in 

networks, are opening new ways to search 

through enormous amounts of information all 

over the world and at a much higher speed 

than the traditional methods. Computers and 

networks enable every user to get the relevant 

information right into their own computer files. 

Information supply can be faster and bigger, 

and also more innovative: new technological 

possibilities can create new, more 

personalised and more direct ways of 

distributing the information, even without the 

intercession of journalists. Users can directly 

access the information they need from the 

networks. 

But the internet also offers more and 

more possibilities for journalists in their efforts 

to get, to check or to complete information. A 

growing number of reporters are going online 

to get story ideas. In this way professional 

journalists use the internet more and more as a 

research tool. Special theme data banks can 

help them in their work. For that reason 



journalists themselves are creating special 

reporting tools, like self-made homepages with 

special Internet links to all kinds of information 

sources. These may include personalised 

information on many sections of topics, with 

special search engines and names and 

addresses of contacts. Besides these data 

banks there are also some intelligent agents 

especially for journalists, specialist software for 

finding specific information from all over the 

world. Journalists can subscribe to these 

agents and in return they daily receive the 

latest information in their e-mailbox. 

However, journalists have also to face 

competition of users who can get their 

information directly from internet, quite 

independent of traditional media. In this world 

of growing information streams the journalist 

fears losing his role as the ultimate 

gatekeeper, the person with the, almost 

unique, power to decide what kind of 

information will reach the public. What was 

previously abbreviated, summarised, changed 

or skipped, is now all there; for the user to find 

and for the source to make public. Readers 

can access all the information themselves. 

They may also find that the selection process 

for the information they need can be far better 

performed by an automated process, an agent 

or a pre-formatted selection of main topics of 

interest. In future the role of information broker 

may be played by individualised software 

(European Journalism Centre, ‘The future of 

the printed press, challenges in a digital world’, 

Maastricht, May 1998). 

Does this means that the days of 

journalists are over? To understand what you 

hear and see it is necessary to take note of the 

reports from gatekeepers, like journalists, who 

analyse and interpret the events. Unlike the 

general public they are trained to identify 

credible information or dig deeper on spurious 

data that is floating around. Journalists add 

knowledge, judgement, context, insight and 

perspective to news and information. In that 

way the role of journalists for society remains 

very important and perhaps more important 

than ever before. But this will require a 

redefinition of the gate keeping function of 

journalists, more adapted to specific skills for 

the ways in which they have to deal with the 

flood of free information. 

Implications for printed magazines 

These electronic developments then, do 

not imply that the days of printed magazines 

are over. Online media will remain experimental 

for some time to come. At the moment 

there is much uncertainty about their market 

opportunities. Magazines world-wide are 

putting up online activities and it will be 

inevitable that some of these ventures will fail 

because of lack of consumer interest, or 

advertisers, or because of poorly conceived 

business plans or poor management. A 

considerable amount of time and resources are 

needed before breaking even. It is clear that 

this business is very young: many online 

services of printed papers have been operating 

for only a few years at the most. Their business 

models call for at least a 2-4 year turn-around 

period. Current estimates are that the internet 

will reach critical mass for general acceptance 

in around five years. It is too soon to expect 

that these services will be bringing in enough 

to break even. Nevertheless many experts 

share a continued positive long-term outlook 

for the electronic services in general. No doubt, 

the incredible growth in use of the internet will 

contribute to this positive outlook. 

Until the moment that the internet media 

is fully proven, magazines produced by ink on 

paper will continue to be very popular and 

heavily used mass media for many years to 

come. They can still cope with the information 

contents of our news and advertising 

information from the local area to around the 

globe. They are still uniquely positioned to be 

significant players in this media age. 

At this moment it cannot yet be claimed 

that the internet and online information 

products are really mass media products. Only 

the happy few are making progress and there 

are many people who cannot join the club, 

because of a slow computer, their lack of 

experience with new information and 

communication technology or simply the 

absence of a computer. To become real mass 

media products, online magazines must fulfil at 

least two conditions: they must be cheap and 

they must be easy to use. 



Prospects 

Some changes to online carriers or even 

new products are being presented that can 

pave new ways for strategy as they are enable 

to reach more groups of people. All over the 

world experiments are going on with an 

electronic newspaper presented on a portable 

flat-panel video screen or as a portable digital 

news book with full colour info graphics, 

photographs, sound and moving images. The 

vision behind those experiments is that using 

that ‘tablet’ still means using electronic 

publishing, but it is based more on the familiar 

technology in newspapers, magazines and 

books. Like a printed magazine you can read 

the paper on a flat panel video screen or on a 

digital news book anywhere that is convenient 

for you. With this tablet it is also easy to 

differentiate between the electronic papers: 

they can be presented with their brand 

identities, with the typography and the design 

that are familiar. The tablet is expected to be a 

real alternative for mass media, like the printed 

magazine, in ten to fifteen years from now. 

All this does not necessarily mean 

that the paper age comes to an end. As 

mentioned before, in the foreseeable future 

printed magazines will survive, perhaps partly 

or mainly in an adapted form. Paper as a 

carrier of information may also have a bright 

future. Perhaps mainly under electronic 

conditions, as can be derived from the results 

of a research project at the Media Laboratory 

of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 

Boston USA, now in cooperation with Philips. 

This project aims at creating paper with 

microencapsulated cells that can freely rotate. 

Applying low-power electrical charge to these 

capsules change their orientation and thus the 

same cells can display different images. Last 

year Philips announced that they made 

important progress toward this so-called 

'electronic paper', in favour of full colour pages 

and moving images of this plastic paper. 

Moreover, Dai Nippon has been developing a 

digital, paper-like medium for information 

display that can be electronically erased and 

thermally rewritten many times. Practical 

applications for this rewritable medium range 

from plastic cards on which the displayed 

information must change with some frequency, 

to sheets of facsimile and printer paper that 

can be immediately recycled after having 

served their purpose. 

To conclude 

‘Archeologie Magazine’ notices every 

day that there are still many people who prefer 

paper, who like to read and who choose to 

read about something other than the purely 

amusing and transient. Such people like to 

read about history and footprints from the past, 

as an alternative for everyday audiovisual 

productions containing more or less brute 

violence and other ‘entertainment’. They have 

discovered that there is more on earth than the 

production and use of information and 

communication for pure commercial reasons 

only. 

However, this does not mean that 

printed media like our magazine may rest on 

their laurels. Magazines on paper have still a 

reasonable future, but to survive they must 

adapt themselves to the changed 

circumstances, especially in the electronic 

field. Certain features and service columns in 

printed papers like agenda, sports and other 

events with strong moving images could be 

presented better, faster, more immediately, if 

they can be transmitted by electronic 

components. On the other hand, printed media 

can bring more background information and 

highly qualified pictures. 

Furthermore, to attract more readers and 

advertisers it will become more and more 

necessary for printed media to present the 

printed products tailor-made, and more 

individualised than before. Images, info 

graphics and colours in printed media must be 

improved more than ever. The printed media 

should recognise that they are no longer the 

only supplier of information or even the 

information monopolist, but that they have to 

share the information market with a growing 

number of information carriers. By recognising 

this, they must look for co-operation with their 

electronic competitors. 

With the use of new electronic 

developments the printed model can be 

improved. The transmission of pictures from a 

digital camera via laptop computer and mobile 

phone to PC’s in the printing department of 

printed media is a start of such an approach. 

That kind of transmission and printing mode 



uses the benefits from both newsprint, 

electronic and digital facilities. The electronic 

future may bring more challenges than threats 

for archaeology and archaeological 

magazines. 

Lou Lichtenberg 

Editor in chief ‘Archeologie magazine’ 

email: loulichtenberg@home.nl 

Colophon 

The Newsletter is an initiative of the 

PalArch Foundation and is edited by A.J. 

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