Descripción
By the end of 1871, the British Museum had acquired over thirty archaeological objects recovered from the Macabí Islands, located 13 kilometers off the northern coast of Peru. According to the museum's archives, these items were extracted from guano deposits by laborers employed by British companies that were exploiting this natural resource under an agreement between Peru and the United Kingdom. The objects include ceramics, textiles, and seashells, but it is particularly notable for a set of wooden sculptures depicting mythological beings, figures inside buildings, and naked prisoners with ropes tied around their necks. Due to the style the lot is associated with the Moche, a culture which developed in the North Coast of Peru between AD 1-800. The Macabí objects, never before studied, represent an unprecedented discovery for the study of Andean archaeology and the early formation of collections in Peru. Their imminent move to Europe left a huge void in the study of Ancient Peruvian cultures. This paper explores the historical context and significance of this discovery, situating it within the broader process of collection-building at the close of the 19th century, a time when the understanding of the past was just beginning to take shape. It also traces the objects´s trajectories from their discovery to their eventual arrival at the British Museum, including the negotiations between the guano traders, dealers and museum curators. The paper further examines the mid-20th-century correspondence between scholars from Europe and the Americas, which sought to understand the objects' meaning and relevance (see for example George Kubler, 1948. Towards Absolute Time: Guano Archaeology). Finally, it reflects on the future of this collection, highlighting its first public presentation in the exhibition Peru: A Journey in Time at the British Museum in 2021.| Período | 2 jul. 2025 |
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| Título del evento | 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (ICA) - 150 años. Novi Sad, Serbia, 28 de junio - 03 de julio de 2025 |
| Tipo de evento | Congreso |
| Número de la conferencia | 22.06 |
| Ubicación | Novi Sad, SerbiaMostrar en mapa |
| Grado de reconocimiento | Internacional |