09/03/2026
Introducing the first of our competition runners-up; Elgin Museum
https://elginmuseum.org.uk/museum/
Elgin Museum is Scotland's oldest independent museum, opened in 1843 by the Elgin and Morayshire Scientific Association, a forerunner of The Moray Society.
The collection they submitted to the competition comprised some of the artefacts in the James Cooper Clark Collection, which were collected from various archaeological sites in Central & South America in the late 19th & early 20th Century and pre-date the Spanish Conquest of the continent of South America in the 1500s.
James Cooper Clark was a Moray-born archaeologist and scholar of ancient American civilisations whose work took him to Central & South America. In 1927 he was part of the British Museum’s expedition to British Honduras (now Belize). He was a recognised authority on early Mexican civilisation, best known for editing and translating the Codex Mendoza (a 16th Century Mexican manuscript containing a history of Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society - the Codex Mendoza is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford).
JCC gifted nearly 120 artefacts from his American travels to Elgin Museum in 1913. The accession book for that year describes it as “A unique and valuable collection…acquired by Mr Clark during his travels in Mexico and … arranged and labelled in proper order by him”. The objects donated document the development over time of artistic styles of a number of pre-Columbian Central & South American civilisations, illustrating the cultural significance and complexities of an often-overlooked period in history.
Many of the objects are miniature in scale, often intricately carved or decorated on multiple faces, making it difficult to display them in a meaningful way. In the past the museum has used carefully positioned mirrors so that the viewer can see the complexity of the designs; now having the artefacts recorded digitally in 3d allows the detail and artistry of these objects to be properly appreciated, literally from every angle!
Here at MiM we would like to thank everyone from Elgin Museum involved in identifying objects, preparing documentation for the competition, giving us access for scanning and being very helpful, patient and supportive from start to finish. It was wonderful working with you!
The image shown is artefact ELGNM.1913.40 and is a Tarascan Pottery Figure.
Pre-Columbian era from Chapala, Mexico (state of Jalisco).
Male figure, seated, with arms folded resting on drawn up knees.
12 x 6.5cm
The Tarascan Civilization dominated western Mexico and built an empire that would bring it into direct conflict with the Aztecs. The Tarascan state, with its capital at Tzintzúntzan on Lake Pátzcuaro, controlled an empire of over 75,000 square kilometers, second in size only to the Aztec empire.
c. 1000 – 1520 AD
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