The M de Jussieu’s ‘mirror of the Incas’: an ecuadorian archaeological artefact in the mineralogical collection of René-Just Haüy (1743-1822) - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue (Article De Synthèse) Annals of Science Année : 2022

The M de Jussieu’s ‘mirror of the Incas’: an ecuadorian archaeological artefact in the mineralogical collection of René-Just Haüy (1743-1822)

Résumé

This article reports on a historical investigation carried out on the conical object MIN000-3519 preserved in the mineralogy collections of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris (France). The mineralogist René-Just Haüy (1743-1822) included this object, cut in a single pyrite (FeS 2) crystal, in his working collection with the references 'Sulphured iron, mirror of the Incas, of Peru, M. de Jussieu'. All of the research lines followed lead the author to Joseph de Jussieu (1704-1779) and his shipments of botanical specimens and various other samples from South America. As a member of the Godin-La Condamine-Bouguer geodesic expedition on the equator (1735-1743), he returned to France only after 36 years (1771), ill, exhausted and dispossessed of the scientific product of his Andean collections. This pyrite mirror is important because, in addition to appearing to be the only archaeological object that can be linked to Joseph's peregrinations in America, it resembles other specimens found at sites of the Cañaris culture (500-1500 AD) in Ecuador. Preserved within the de Jussieu family, this object would presumably have been given to Haüy by Joseph's heirs, his nephews Antoine-Laurent (1748-1836) or Laurent-Pierre (1792-1866), with whom he had close ties.
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Dates et versions

hal-03941928 , version 1 (03-02-2023)

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Citer

François Gendron. The M de Jussieu’s ‘mirror of the Incas’: an ecuadorian archaeological artefact in the mineralogical collection of René-Just Haüy (1743-1822). Annals of Science, 2022, 79 (2), pp.259-273. ⟨10.1080/00033790.2022.2028900⟩. ⟨hal-03941928⟩
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