The British Museum, one of the most fantastic archaeology collections in the world.
The British Museum, one of
the most fantastic archaeology collections in the world.
The Americas collection mainly consists of 19th and 20th
century items although the Inca, Aztec, Maya, Taino and other early cultures are
well represented.
The Kayung totem pole, which was made in the late nineteenth
century in the Queen Charlotte Islands, dominates the Great Court and provides a
fitting introduction
to this very wide ranging collection that stretches from
the very north of the North American continent where the Inuit population has
lived for centuries,
to the tip of South America where indigenous tribes have
long thrived in Patagonia. Highlights of the collection include a spectacular
series of Mayan lintels
from Yaxchilan, a very high quality Mayan collection
that includes sculptures from Copan, Tikal, Tulum, Pusilha, Naranjo and Nebaj
(including the
celebrated Fenton Vase), a collection of turquoise Aztec mosaics
from Mexico (the largest in Europe), important artefacts from Teotihuacan,
several
rare Pre-Columbian manuscripts including the Codex Zouche-Nuttall and
Codex Waecker-Gotter, the Squier and Davis collection of prehistoric mound
relics from
North America, a group of Zemi Figures from Vere, Jamaica, a number
of prestigious pre-Columbian gold objects from Colombia and ethnographic objects
from across the Amazon region including the Schomburgk collection. (Wikipedia)
