See the Moon Pyramid from pyramid of the sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. (Wikimedia Commons)1857 was born in San Francisco on September 6th. Nuttall is the second of six children. Her Mexican-born mother, the daughter of a wealthy banker in San Francesco, and the father of an Irish doctor gave her and her brothers and sisters a special growing environment. When she was a child, her father moved to Europe with his family to improve his poor health. They lived in England, France, Germany and Switzerland for some time. Nuttall is proficient in Spanish and German, and received an adequate education mainly through private teachers.
The family 1876 returned to San Francisco. In 1880, nuttall met and married French explorer and anthropologist alfons Louis Pienaar. In the first few years of their marriage, nuttall and Pinat traveled around Europe and the West Indies for Pinat's works. 1882, when the couple returned to San Francisco, nuttall was pregnant with their daughter Nadine. Unfortunately, marriage became unhappy. 1884, she legally separated from Pinat, 1888 formally divorced, maintained Nadine's custody, and took back her maiden name, nuttall.
Despite her unhappy marriage, she discovered her love for archaeology during her trip with Pinat. After their separation, nuttall went to Mexico with his daughter, mother, sister and brother for the first time in 1884. That winter, she made her first serious archaeological research.
When she entered the archaeological field at the end of 19, the field was mostly male and had not been formalized. For decades, famous archaeologists, such as Franz Boaz, have been working together to make this field professional. Pioneer female archaeologists, including nuttall, Egyptian archaeologist Sarah York Stevenson and Omaha anthropologist Alice Fletcher, often did not receive formal science education in universities in the19th century, which most of them could not choose. These women find themselves amateurs by default. Nevertheless, they dug up some sites and published their findings with the same technology as their male colleagues. at that time
Archaeology is also closely related to the colonial expansion in Europe and North America. When the dominant countries compete to establish colonies, explorers also bring glory to their own countries by bringing back cultural relics from colonial countries and excavating indigenous sites. But Mexico also participated in this international competition, although it is often a place for foreign intervention and excavation. Archaeologist Appenruiz believes that this concern is indispensable for Mexico's position and strength on the world stage.
Mexican politicians and intellectuals believe that the history of Mexico's continental empire gives Mexico a unique position and is not competitive with other countries. But at the same time, Ruiz wrote that they "don't want to recognize the relationship between the present and the glorious past of the aborigines". They worry that any connection between the so-called "barbaric" indigenous people in the past may make Mexico look backward in an increasingly modern world. When nuttall arrived at the scene, the debate about whether the present Mexicans were direct descendants of the former Aztec Empire was the core of Mexican archaeology, about 15 19, the Aztec Empire led by Tennock Tiran before the Spanish arrived.
Map. (Wikimedia Commons CC 3.0) In 1884, when visiting Teotihuacan historical site in the northeast of Mexico City, nuttall collected a series of small clay heads. These cultural relics have been studied before, but so far there is no accurate age and understanding. In the comparative study of her collection and other collections, nuttall came to the conclusion that these portraits were probably created by Aztecs during the Spanish conquest and were once attached to corpses made of degradable materials. She concluded that these portraits are personal portraits representing the deceased and are divided into three categories. Not all of them are made in the same place.
Nuttall published 1886 "Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Teotihuacan" in the American Journal of Archaeology and Art History. This study is original and thorough, and shows the authoritative knowledge of Mexican history, which is proved by the enthusiastic response of the archaeological community. In the same year, the famous American anthropologist Frederic W.Putnam appointed nuttall as honorary special assistant of Mexican archaeology in Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Until her death, she accepted and maintained this position.
In the museum annual report of 1886, Putnam praised nuttall for "being familiar with Navarte, having close and influential friends among Mexicans, and having extraordinary talents in linguistics and archaeology." He went on to say: "In all the early indigenous and Spanish works about Mexico and its people, he has a full understanding, and Mrs. nuttall's preparation for entering this research institute is excellent.
Putnam put nuttall in charge of the collection of the Central American Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, she planned to go abroad with her research and refused. Nuttall and her brother George later moved to Dresden, where they lived for 13 years. During this period, she traveled around Europe, visited different libraries and collections, and came to California, where she met phoebe hearst, a member of the wealthy Hearst family and a donor to the Archaeological Museum of the University of California. Hearst became Natal's patron, providing financial assistance for her travel and research.
Without formal institutional affiliation, Natal has great freedom to do what she thinks is important, no matter where the work takes place. In this way, Nutar's amateur position is beneficial to her, which gives her independence that other professional archaeologists do not have.
After 13 years of research and travel, Nutal has published a series of works. 190 1 year, at the age of 44, she published her largest academic work, Basic Principles of Civilization in the New World and the Old World. One of her most lasting contributions is to restore the ancient Mexican texts that Europeans took away from Mexico and make them obscure. One of them is Nuttall, a copy of an ancient hieroglyphic manuscript in Mexico, which finally fell into the hands of the British baron and Zuche of Harrinworth. Nuttall learned of its existence from a historian in Florence, tracked it down and published a detailed introduction book, introducing its historical background in detail and translating its meaning.
Nuttall's code was copied, and Zelia nuttall published this copy. At the same time, she also published a hieroglyphic book introducing the indigenous people in Central America and their significance. Copyright: The British Museum prospers because of nuttall's love for archaeology, and so does her love for Mexico. 1905, she decided to make Mexico her permanent home. With Hearst's financial support, she bought a16th century mansion in Mexico City and named it Casa alvarado, where she and her daughter lived. This also makes nuttall different from other foreign archaeologists, who tend to study abroad, but will eventually return to their own countries and institutions.
Not all nuttall's theories are correct. In the text of 190 1, she assumes that the development of Mexican civilization is parallel to that of Egypt and the Middle East. She believes that long before Columbus, the sailing Phoenicians sailed to America and interacted with Mexican aborigines, which influenced their cultural characteristics and symbols. Archaeologists have largely denied this view.
However, nuttall was mainly due to the effective use of archaeology to participate in nationalist politics at the turn of the century. In the debate about whether modern Mexicans are related to Aztecs, she claimed that "Aztecs are made up of thousands of people, who have good physique and intelligence, and more or less speak about the purity of Montezuma." She thinks that ancient Mexicans were portrayed as uncivilized, Ruiz told the Smithsonian.
"She opened a book about the Aztecs and ancient Latins in Mexico. They looked at other great civilizations in the world from the same perspective and at the same level." . "It is not so much an amazing discovery as a change in the way of discussion."
Ruiz added that unlike other explorers, "Nuttall" talks with people who are engaged in archaeological work in Mexico and is involved in the dialogue on things that are important to Mexicans. "
At the end of her life, nuttall advocated the restoration of Mexican tradition eradicated by Spanish conquest. 1928, she called for national indigenous New Year celebrations. Many Central American cultures traditionally celebrate it twice a year, when the sun reaches its highest point and there is no shadow. That year, Mexico City ushered in the first Aztec New Year since 15 19.
In a private letter to her friend Marianne storm, nuttall expressed her heartfelt joy at this event: "It is strange that archaeology has produced such lively offspring! As you can imagine, I extracted such an active and energetic bacterium from the past grave, and let the children sing and dance and watch the sun every year, which makes me so happy. " For nuttall, archaeology is not only about exploring a foreign culture, but also about deepening and awakening her own culture. "