Matthew Stirling and his wife, Marion Stirling Pugh, led Smithsonian-backed Olmec expeditions before and after WWII as a husband-and-wife research team. At San Lorenzo, El Rey is the largest of the colossal heads excavated there. An iconic expedition photo used a makeshift tripod of stairs, ropes and vines to lift the camera above the buried head. Stirling wore tall leather boots in Mexico’s swampy lowlands to avoid venomous snakes 🐍
Matthew and Marion Stirling led Smithsonian Olmec expeditions before and after WWII
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Key facts
- Matthew Stirling was a Smithsonian archaeologist who conducted research in Mexico with the Smithsonian and Mexican authorities.
- Marion Stirling Pugh was Matthew Stirling’s wife and constant collaborator, not his daughter. Her work included the excavation and recording of Stela C at Tres Zapotes.
- Their fieldwork spanned the late 1930s and 1940s, before and after World War II.
- El Rey is the largest of the colossal heads excavated at San Lorenzo.
- An iconic El Rey expedition photograph was taken with a makeshift support of stairs, ropes and vines to raise the camera above the buried head.
- Stirling wore tall leather boots in the swampy Mexican lowlands to protect himself from venomous snakes.
Sources
Matthew Stirlingen.wikipedia.org
He is best known for his discoveries relating to the Olmec civilization. a still from the Smithsonian Institution's Exploring Hidden Mexico (1943). Stirling ...
Matthew Williams Stirling with Cast of Olmec Headsi.edu
Matthew Williams Stirling, former director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with plaster cast of Olmec head received from the National Museum in Mexico ...
Matthew Williams Stirling and Marion Stirling Pugh paperssova.si.edu
Matthew Stirling, Smithsonian archaeologist and Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1928-1957), studying Olmec culture
Discovering the Olmecs: An Unconventional Historyjstor.org
When Matthew Stirling began his research at Tres Zapotes in 1939, almost nothing was known about the archaeological culture we today call the Olmecs. Stirling's ...
Dr. Matthew W. Stirling Dies; Archeologist for Smithsoniannytimes.com
Matthew W. Stirling, an anthropologist associated with the Smithsonian Institution for more than 40 years, died yesterday. He was 78 years old.
Matthew and Marion Stirling in Veracruz, Mexicosi.edu
Matthew Stirling was director of the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. They are there to conduct anthropological field work at ...
Matthew W. Stirlingsiarchives.si.edu
Stirling (1896-1975) was an archeologist. In 1921-1924, he was a museum aid and assistant curator in the Smithsonian Institution's Division of Ethnology. In ...
Marion Stirling Pughen.wikipedia.org
She is known for her archaeological expeditions to Tres Zapotes and other sites in Southern Mexico in the 1940s, conducted alongside her husband Matthew ...
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