Museum Gem in Ica, Peru a Must-See
Small Provincial Museum Has Two Excellent Collections
Jun 9, 2009
Whatever else the traveller does or doesn't do in Ica, Peru, one thing they should do is visit the local museum. It's an easy-to-reach, compact gem.
Low Rise Building Shows What Museums Are For
In one of this small town's suburbs and convienently on the road to that other great tourist attraction in Ica, the oasis at Huacachina, the museum is on Ayacucho Road. Back from the road and set in its own dusty grounds, this lowrise white building will tell you all you need to know about some of the local cultures and some things about our own we would prefer to forget.
Some of the photos on display and the labelling of the contents are respectively a bit faded and a bit incomprehensible. For example one label tells us the ancient economy was "based on hunting of extinct megafauna" with weapons "worked by percussion."
Excellent Pottery Display
Still that's a small quibble because most of the stuff is impressive. This is particularly true of the pottery on display.
This ranges from large pots effectively glazed in stripes of bold colour to small pots in any number of styles ranging from simple figures, geometric designs – some of them quite catchy and modern – to stylised and beautiful representations of birds, fish people and animals.
Humourous and Artistic Take on Nature
One of the best humorous pieces is a pot shaped like a monkey carrying a plate of fruit.
But what catches the eye is the emphasis on birds. There are two particularly graceful kestrels that wouldn't look out of place in a contemporay and unpmarket giftshop, a representation of hummingbirds that needs more light to appreciate its full beauty.
The Mummy Collection
The museums offers more than ceramics. There is one small gallery given over to mummies. The hot, dry climate in this part of the world and its rich heritage have given it a collection of mummies that would delight many a major museum.
Whilst the pottery shows the glory of these ancient civilisations, the mummies qualify it. But isn't that what museums are for, to add to the sum of knowledge and show things previously unknown?
One the one level it's quite innocent. These were are a people with a fondness for hair; one of them has long Rapunzel-like locks that would automatically qualify them for any heavy metal band. Some things just don't change, including hairstyles.
The Darker Side
More sinisterly, the exhibit shows that these were cultures that practiced not only head deformation but also headhunting. The former was done from birth to heighten the skull and make it slope. The line drawings showing how this was done are not easy to look at. There is also something disconcerting about seeing almost conical-shaped skulls just as the skulls taken as trophies are not exactly easy to view and point out a disturbing truth about these societies.
But this museum also tells us one distrurbing thing about the contemporary world.Ours.
Scattered throughout the museums are large scale pictures of things that have gone missing in the cases which were robbed. Just a handful. It is enough though to make the point that despite our own achievements, some things are never safe.
