20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



of South America and is partially supported by a grant from the 

 American Philosophical Society. 



At a meeting of the American Oriental Society in New Haven, 

 Conn., late in March, Dr. Gus Van Beek, associate curator of archeol- 

 ogy, delivered a paper on one of his research projects, "The Multiple- 

 piece Technique of the South Arabian Potter." While in New Haven 

 he also studied the exhibits of the Peabody Museum and the Babylo- 

 nian Collection in the Sterling Memorial Library, acquiring infor- 

 mation about the technique of preparing impressions of seals which 

 will be useful in the modernization of the Old World archeological 

 exhibits. In May he worked in the library of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, Baltimore, preparing a bibliography of major books and 

 articles dealing with excavated archeological sites in the Republic of 

 Sudan. This work has been useful in his research on the archeological 

 potentialities of that part of the Sudan involved in the Nubia Salvage 

 Project. 



Dr. S. H. Riesenberg, curator of ethnology, at the end of December 

 attended the American Anthropological Association meeting in Mexico 

 City, where he delivered a paper on "Political Advancement on 

 Ponape : Theory and Fact." Subsequent to the meetings he examined 

 collections in several museums and visited the archeological sites at 

 Teotihuacan and the village of Toluca. Between February 28 and 

 March 8, Dr. Riesenberg furthered his Pacific ethnological studies by 

 working at the Houghton Library of Harvard University and the 

 Marine Historical Society and Whaling Museum at New Bedford, 

 Mass. He was particularly concerned with examining and abstract- 

 ing ethnohistorical materials from 19th-century manuscript records of 

 tlie American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. At 

 New Bedford there exist similar records in the important collections 

 of logs, journals, and manuscripts on early Pacific voyages. These 

 library studies have enabled Dr. Riesenberg to make further progress 

 on his projected ethnohistorical study of the Carolines, which is part 

 of his analysis of Micronesian culture. 



Dr. Gordon D. Gibson, associate curator of ethnology, early in 

 September did research at the American ]\Iuseum of Natural History 

 and the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. Subsequently he 

 attended the meetings of the African Studies Associations at Boston 

 University and did research in the study collections of the Boston 

 Museum of Fine Ai-ts and the Peabody Museum of American 

 Archeology and Etlinology at Harvard University. The collection of 

 African ethnological materials at the American Museum is an 

 extensive one, and Dr. Gibson is discussing the possibility of arranging 

 exchanges that would permit the Smithsonian Institution to improve 

 its collections and provide material for a new exhibit hall in this 



