DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66493#0012
eral magic quite beyond their beauty as works of art or their value
as anthropological documents. Even in facsimile they evoke an at-
mosphere of antediluvian first things, a strenuous Eden where Adam
drew the animals before he named them. It is even possible that among
them are man’s earliest pictures. In any case, this is the way he drew
and painted, apparently following continuous traditions for thousands
of years in parts of the earth as remote from each other as the North
Cape of Norway and the Cape of Good Hope.
The facsimiles and photographs reproduced in this book and shown
in the exhibition are a small selection of material from a remarkable
group of collections in Frankfort-on-Main. Assembled under the
direction of Professor Leo Frobenius, they comprise the Prehistoric
Rock Picture Gallery, which contains over three thousand facsimiles,
and the Africa Archives, which include an ethnographic collection
and the Excerptur, a great file of ten thousand drawings, two thou-
sand color plates, two hundred manuscript volumes and over one hun-
dred thousand reference cards indexing the characteristics, material
and spiritual, of human culture.
These collections are administered by the Research Institute for
the Morphology of Civilization (Forschungsinstitut fiir Kultur-
morphologie) founded by Professor Frobenius in 1923. The field
work of the Institute is carried on by the d. i.a.f.e., the German
Inner-African Research Expedition. Founded by Professor Frobenius
in 1904, it has carried out twelve major and several minor expedi-
tions, not only to Africa but to important prehistoric centers in Europe
and the Near East. The facsimiles in the present exhibition have been
prepared by the artist members of the d. i.a.f.e., and, since they are
duplicates, it is possible that they might find a permanent home in
America. As the sizes of the facsimiles were not available for the cata-
log section, it is interesting to note here that they range from a few
inches in size to about twenty-five feet, reproducing, with a few ex-
ceptions, the exact dimensions of the originals.
10
as anthropological documents. Even in facsimile they evoke an at-
mosphere of antediluvian first things, a strenuous Eden where Adam
drew the animals before he named them. It is even possible that among
them are man’s earliest pictures. In any case, this is the way he drew
and painted, apparently following continuous traditions for thousands
of years in parts of the earth as remote from each other as the North
Cape of Norway and the Cape of Good Hope.
The facsimiles and photographs reproduced in this book and shown
in the exhibition are a small selection of material from a remarkable
group of collections in Frankfort-on-Main. Assembled under the
direction of Professor Leo Frobenius, they comprise the Prehistoric
Rock Picture Gallery, which contains over three thousand facsimiles,
and the Africa Archives, which include an ethnographic collection
and the Excerptur, a great file of ten thousand drawings, two thou-
sand color plates, two hundred manuscript volumes and over one hun-
dred thousand reference cards indexing the characteristics, material
and spiritual, of human culture.
These collections are administered by the Research Institute for
the Morphology of Civilization (Forschungsinstitut fiir Kultur-
morphologie) founded by Professor Frobenius in 1923. The field
work of the Institute is carried on by the d. i.a.f.e., the German
Inner-African Research Expedition. Founded by Professor Frobenius
in 1904, it has carried out twelve major and several minor expedi-
tions, not only to Africa but to important prehistoric centers in Europe
and the Near East. The facsimiles in the present exhibition have been
prepared by the artist members of the d. i.a.f.e., and, since they are
duplicates, it is possible that they might find a permanent home in
America. As the sizes of the facsimiles were not available for the cata-
log section, it is interesting to note here that they range from a few
inches in size to about twenty-five feet, reproducing, with a few ex-
ceptions, the exact dimensions of the originals.
10