REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 23 



ragua, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico were arranged 

 somewhat tentatively. The installation of the large collection of 

 aboriginal American sculptures, involving a great amount of care 

 and labor, was practically finished. 



Important observations were made by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator 

 of physical anthropology, on the manner of occurrence of the large 

 collection of stone implements obtained by him in Argentina and 

 on his archeological collections from Peru and Mexico. They are 

 fully recorded in reports submitted and in part published before 

 the close of the year. A detailed study of the Argentine collection 

 was prepared by Mr. William H. Holmes, head curator of the de- 

 partment, and will be incorporated in an extended account of the 

 expedition which was practically completed at the close of the year. 

 Mr. Holmes also carried forward his work on the stone implements 

 of northern America, previously begun, which is to be published 

 as one of the handbooks of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 



Historic archeology. — An accession of considerable interest con- 

 sisted of rubbings of the Nestorian Tablet in China, a large stone 

 engraved, in the Chinese and Syrian languages, with the record of the 

 establishment of Christianity in China by the Nestorian Christians 

 in the seventh century. The rubbings are mounted on canvas and 

 provided with rollers, and were presented by the Rev. H. J. Open- 

 shaw, missionary in Yachow. A carving in Mexican onyx, represent- 

 ing Christ carrying the cross, supposed to have been made by a 

 soldier of the army of Hernando Cortez in 1524, was received as a 

 gift from Mr. Sydney H. Shadbolt, of New Brighton, New York. 

 Of some artistic value is a china plate decorated with the symbols of 

 the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles, donated by the Mikve Israel 

 Association, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through its president, 

 Miss Mary M. Cohen. 



The installation of the sections of Egyptian, Oriental, and Grseco- 

 Roman antiquities was completed. The Grseco-Roman and Etruscan 

 potteries, terra-cottas, and bronzes, transferred from the division of 

 prehistoric archeology, were mostly catalogued and tentatively ar- 

 ranged in chronological order. Such specimens as could not be suit- 

 ably shown in the exhibition space assigned to this division were 

 placed in the study series. For the exhibition of the archeological 

 collections from the Old World, both historic and prehistoric, the 

 west middle hall on the second floor of the new building has been 

 assigned. 



Physical anthropology. — The additions to this division greatly ex- 

 ceeded, both in number of specimens and in scientific value, those of 

 any previous year, and with this increase the collection of physical 

 anthropology in the National Museum has become superior to all 

 others in American material, while it is second only to that of the 



