Day 166 - Lima, Peru

MUSEO DE LA NACION, LIMA (16/06/09)

Back in Lima we paid a visit to the well known National Museum. They had a wide and fascinating selection of artefacts including paintings by Peruvian artists.

In the museum were hundreds of pre-Columbian artefacts like this item that can only be described as a lobster pot.



The detail and paint on the pottery has survived incredibly well in many cases, at least partly to do with the lack of rainfall in many areas of Peru.

Gold artefacts are much rarer due to the fact that most were stolen and melted down by the Spanish and local grave robbers.

A selection of the pottery from one area was covered in these complex geometric designs.

Mummification was extremely wide spread throughout South America before the Spanish conquest.

This pottery figure was found still in the mould.