The Marin Eakins Archaeological Collection may be a small museum, but it's big on antiquity. Housed in the library at the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) in Mill Valley, the collection began as one couple's passion and includes significant historical artifacts dating from about 3,000 B.C.
The collection quite likely contains some of the oldest items to be found anywhere in Marin.
In the early 1970s, Dr. kenneth eakins (not a typo, he prefers to use lowercase) was a Professor of Archeology at the Seminary. He participated in digs, and was an active collector of ancient coins and pottery which he used to bring back from his expeditions and use in the classroom for teaching. This type of collecting was allowed before the Cultural Properties Act was implemented and antiquities were not allowed to be transported from one country to another. eakins' wife Marian, who was a Professor of Anthropology at U.C. Berkeley, was appointed the first curator in 1986. She passed away in 1990, and the collection was named in her memory and an endowment established to support the museum.
The first thing you see as you enter is the coin display. Like buttons, they are quite small. Made of bronze and silver, some of the coins still retain remarkable details. Roman Emperors appear on some, Nero, Claudius and even the despotic ruler, Caligula. There is a Greek coin with Alexander the Great embossed on it. There are dozens of coins from Greek, Roman, ancient Jewish, and Byzantine eras ranging from several hundred years B.C. to about 1,300 A.D.
Dr. Gary Arbino, Associate Professor of Archeology and Curator of the collection, explains that besides the obvious financial value, coins were important for other reasons-
"Coins were the newspaper of the ancient world. When something significant happened, they would produce a coin to commemorate it."
Professor Arbino leads us to the next case which contains Roman glassware. It is a creamy, soft bluish-green in color, although Arbino tells us this wasn't the original color, but the patina of age. The glass collection is something you'd find in a well-to-do Roman lady's toilette, and contains cosmetic tubes and fine oil containers. It's dated around 100-400 A.D.
"The glassware is a very nice collection for our new testament students" says Arbino.
Next are the scarabs, those cool little carved Egyptian beetles. They were used for amulets and stamps. There is one wonderful winged bluish scarab. Others are made of carnelian, ivory, amethyst, black steatite and green jasper.
In the middle of the room, are what Arbino describes as the "pretty pieces" in the collection, and they are. It is a group of four Apulian pottery pieces. These incredibly vivid, exquisite pieces, were created by Greeks living in the Southern Region of Italy in around 300 B.C. They are terracotta, decorated with black figures and drawings and were used for oil dispensing, cups and serving containers. Arbino explains that the drawings depicted usual recurrent themes and scenes seen on other
pottery, but one has is different-
"It contains iconography that's unique. Maybe a Dionysian type of scene."
Apparantly the Romans weren't the only ones having a good time in the ancient world.
The collection is rotated about once every three years, to allow students a chance to see it while they are enrolled at the GGBTS. The Christian-based Seminary offers students academic degrees in Theology, Divinity, Ministry and Philosophy and certificate programs in Bible Teaching, Youth Ministry and Collegiate Ministry among others. The scenic campus is perched high on a hill overlooking Richardson Bay.
The last items we view, are the oldest items in the collection, some lamps from the Early Bronze Age. They are clay, formed to hold oil and wicks. The earliest versions which date from 3,000 B.C., are quite rough and simple. The later versions from the Byzantine era, are much more finely detailed and smooth.
Dr. Arbino has been curator of the collection since 1990 and is the one who decides when the collection rotates and what which items are on display. During the summer, you can find him in Israel at a dig sit, currently at Tel Gezer. Students from the Seminary often go with him. Archaeological digs are only for very patient people. It's a slow, deliberate process.
"We use pottery to date different levels of earth during a dig phase," says Arbino, "To find a complete pot is very, very rare. You more often find sherds (that is how it's spelled) or fragments of pottery."
What is also rare? Being able to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, in a quiet little corner of the County, looking at a slice of life from a very, very long time ago.
Details-
The Marin Eakins Archaeological Collection website.
The Collection is located in the library at the GGBTS. It is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00am to 5:00pm.
To get there from points north of Sausalito-
101 South to Seminary Drive exit. Follow the road/U-turn under the freeway. Turn right on Seminary Drive and follow it up to Gilbert Drive, then turn left. The Administration building is at the top of the hill next to two flagpoles. The library is across from the Admin bldg, as shown in this campus map.
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