The German ethnologist and archaeologist Leo Frobenius was one of the first Europeans who admitted the historicity of the African cultures. He spent twenty-five years studying it, ten of which he lived in Africa and compiled important information about the life, habits and culture of the African people. Leo Frobenius volunteered at the principal ethnographical museums of the moment such as Bremen, Basel and Leipzig. In 1932 he was named honorary professor of the University of Frankfurt, and in 1935 he was designated adjoin director at the Städtische Museum für Völkerkunde.

Frobenius gave three lectures on March 10, 12 and 14, 1924, in which he described his research work and his travels to Africa, entitled “Le problème de la civilisation” (The problem of civilization), where he summarized his experiences and, with the help of maps made by himself, he showed the morphology of the African cultures, pointed out the great routes of its expansions and drew the lines of the planet’s human history.

In November 1924, the Residencia de Estudiantes invited Howard Carter to talk in Madrid about his and Lord Carnarvon’s works in the Valley of the Kings, and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon in 1922. Howard Carter gave a lecture in the halls of the Residencia to a large audience that overflowed any estimation. To illustrate his lecture he showed an assortment of slides of the discovery of the tomb.

Willing to show the discovery, the Residencia de Estudiantes organised a third lecture with the attendance of the pupils from public schools in Madrid. The poet Manuel Machado read some notes on Egyptian studies which resumed Carter’s lectures. The slides and the film from the lectures, that Howard Carter had given to the Residencia as a gift, were provided to all the cultural centres and schools upon request, due to the interest awaken all over Spain and South America. In 1928, Howard Carter would be invited again by the Residencia to pronounce two new lectures: “La sepultura de Tutankhamon” (Tutankhamon’s burial) and “La cripta interior” (The innermost recess).

The captain, pilot, engineer and airplane reconnoiter Francisco Iglesias Brage, who in 1929 flew from Sevilla to Bahia (Brazil) in the airplane Jesús del Gran Poder, gave a lecture at the Residencia in December 13, 1931, about his expedition project to the Amazon, never accomplished, where he pretended to study its nature, hydrography, topography, tropical illnesses, ethnography, anthropology, and even the meteorology of the region. The lecture described in detail the expedition plan to the Amazon River. The aim was to study the fauna and flora, and they were equipped with a boat, an airplane, a photographic and a video camera. In response to the expectation created by the project, a magazine entitled Crónica de la Expedición Iglesias al Amazonas (Chronicle of the Iglesias’ Expedition to the Amazon) was edited in 1932-35, and the Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte organized an exhibition about ethnography in the Amazon in 1935, therefore, the documentation of the project is extensive.

The Residencia de Estudiantes counts on the collaboration of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Madrid and the Archivo Histórico del Ejército del Aire in Madrid to document this aerial expedition.

harles Leonard Woolley, British archaeologist and director of the expedition sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania with the support of the British Museum, discovered in 1927 the biblical city of Ur in Mesopotamia, gave the lectures “The Royal Tombs of Ur and the Origins of Oriental Civilization”, “Thebes, Capital of the Orient, from the 15th to the 16th Century” and “The Old City of Ur” in March and June 1929.

Various artworks selected from the University of Pennsylvania Museum will illustrate Woolley’s expedition to the city of Ur. From its valuable collection “Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur”, the Penn Museum has lent several jewels from Queen Puabi’s trousseau (a gold and lapis lazuli necklace and a golden rosette), a bronze bull’s head from the Royal Tombs of Ur and a golden crown with gold leaves and lapis lazuli. Likewise, the Residencia is collaborating with the British Museum, which holds Woolley’s personal archives, in order to select the documents that will help to put the Ur artworks into their proper context. Among these there will be manuscripts, the original correspondence between Woolley and the Residencia as well as pictures from the excavations.

The prehistorian Hugo Obermaier, from Germany, came to Spain in 1909 to study the Caves of Cantabria, with the support and financing of Prince Albert I of Monaco. His forced stay in Spain at the outbreak of the First World War led him to deepen the Quaternary Geology not only in the Bay of Biscay but also in Levante, Spain. In this research we must highlight his monograph The Human Fossil, published in Spain in 1916 and reprinted in 1925, the first great synthesis of twentieth-century Hispanic and European prehistory.

In the Residencia de Estudiantes, from 1925 to 1930, a cycle of lectures by Hugo Obermaier was held to present the theories collected in his work, with special attention to the research on analogies and dating of cave paintings in the area of Cantabria and Levante. The lectures he gave were: “The Human Fossil: His Prints and Sculptures” (November 18, 1925), “The Painted Caves in the Area  of France-Cantabria” (November 20, 1925), “The Paintings in the Shelters of Levante, in Spain, and Northern Africa” (November 23, 1925), “The Bushmen in South Africa and their Cave Paintings” (January 24, 1929), “The Altamira Caves” (March 16, 1929), “Aurochs and Bison in Europe Through History” (November 24, 1930).

The French archaeologist and sinologist Paul Pelliot gave two conferences on Buddhist art entitled “L’art bouddhique dans les grottes de Toven-Houang” and “Les anciens monuments du christianisme en Asie Centrale et en Extrême-Orient,” in March 29 and 30, 1928, at the Residencia de Estudiantes. The audience followed with great interest the account of his discoveries during the archaeological expedition he led through Chinese Turkestan, where he discovered the Toven-Houang caves and the old Silk Road.

For this section of the exhibition the Residencia counts once more on the collaboration of the Musée Guimet in Paris, where valuable seventh and tenth-century pieces from the expeditions in the caves of Dunhuang are held (from the “Mission Paul Pelliot, 1906-1909” collection).

On January 16 and 18, 1928, the French archaeologist Joseph Hackin gave two lectures, with slide projections, on the archaeological works in Afghanistan, at the Residencia de Estudiantes. Since 1923 he was the director of the Musée Guimet in Paris, and was specialized in Egyptian culture, classical antiquity and Asian countries, he also led the French archaeological team in Afghanistan in 1924, which was in charge of the first excavations in the sites of Hadda, Ghazna, and around the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, whose findings and artworks transformed the Guimet into a model museum in Europe in regard to the art and culture of the Greater Middle East.

The archaeologist of the British Museum T.A. Joyce was invited by the Residencia de Estudiantes to give the lecture “Maya Art and Culture” on December 3 and 6, 1927.

The English archaeologist tackled the differences and similarities between the ancient Maya civilization and other civilizations, described their hieroglyphic writings, weapons, games and architecture (pyramids, walls, squares and palaces) and also listed the common features that distinguished them from other cultures (materials, building styles, etc.). The lecture included a historical sketch of the Mayas from the Old to the New Empire (geographical locations and ruins preserved) as well as a summary of the Aztec civilization.

The archaeologist of the British Museum, T.A. Joyce, was invited by the Residencia de Estudiantes to give the lecture “Maya Art and Culture” on December 3 and 6, 1927.

The English archaeologist tackled differences and similarities of the ancient Maya civilization with other civilizations describing their hieroglyphic writings, weapons, games and architecture (pyramids, walls, squares and palaces) and also listing the common features that distinguished them from other cultures (materials, building styles, etc.). The lecture includes a historical sketch of the Mayas from the Old to the New Empire (geographical locations and ruins preserved) as well as a summary of the Aztec civilization.

The Residencia de Estudiantes counts with the collaboration of the British Museum and the Museo de América in Madrid to select items such as human figures, plates and cups decorated with different representations of the Mayan gods and Mayan stele.