There’s a lot going on in Scene 20, so here are some answers to questions that have come up regarding this scene.
Q: You mentioned that Dickeson is one of the men in Scene 20. Which one is he?
A: Because none of the figures are labeled, we can’t be certain which individual is meant to represent Dickeson. He may be the central figure holding a notepad, speaking to the man in a yellow hat, or the man to the left with a large sketchpad. In the images we have of Dickeson, he has a beard, similar to the central figure (we can’t see the facial hair on the man to the left.) Dickeson also made sketches of archaeological sites similar to the one being drawn by the man on the left.
Q: Why are the African-Americans doing all of the digging? If Dickeson considered himself an archaeologist, shouldn’t he be digging too?
A: Nearly all amateur archaeologists from the mid-19th century performed very little digging themselves. Archaeology was seen as a respectable intellectual pursuit for those with means, but the physical labor that accompanied archaeology was not.
Most of the mounds in Mississippi and Louisiana, where Dickeson conducted most of his excavations, were located on large plantations, and the African Americans in Scene 20 are slaves from one of those plantations. In his writings, Dickeson described how he would ask a plantation owner for permission to excavate on his land, and if he were fortunate the plantation owner would, “with the usual kindness of a Southerner, furnish [him] with a sufficient force and proper implements for the investigation.” While the slaves dug, Dickeson would take notes, make sketches, and examine artifacts, as you can see in Scene 20.
Q: Is the profile of the mound in Scene 20 accurate, or made up?
A: A bit of both, actually. The individual elements of the mound – the burials, artifacts, and stratigraphy – were based on Dickeson’s field notes. The mound in Scene 20, however, appears to be a composite of different sites. You can see this for yourself in the gallery – several of the field notes and sketches currently on view contain elements that were included in Scene 20.
