Stenen bijl gevonden in het Mesa Verde National Park before 1893

This is a page from "The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde," a book published in 1893 by Gustaf Nordenskiöld. It documents his archaeological explorations of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in southwestern Colorado in 1891. The image shows a stone axe alongside other Indigenous tools. Nordenskiöld’s work emerged during a period of intense colonial expansion and scientific racism. These photographs are not neutral; they participated in the broader project of claiming Indigenous lands and cultural heritage for European and American interests. Consider how the visual representation of these artifacts in a published book transforms their meaning. Displayed within the pages, the axe and other tools become specimens, removed from their original cultural context. The act of documentation, driven by a colonial gaze, raises questions about ownership, representation, and the power dynamics inherent in archaeological research. Whose stories are told, and whose are silenced in this historical record?