The place seems a jumble, one man's collection of pre-Pizarro artifacts and (strangely) a collection of world weaponry. Apparently there was a scandal in which much of the collection was deemed fraudulent but what remains is said to be real. And there is a LOT.
Carter, being 6 and male, wanted to talk and talk about the weaponry. Suits of armor, crossbows, daggers. But the collection also included items from more modern eras...SS daggers, dictator's rifles, etc. Having so much crammed together, and the continuum from blunderbuss to machine gun all laid out together, it removed some of the naive romance of medieval weaponry.
Downstairs, through a vault door, is the gold (and other antiquities). It really is quite amazing to see the amount of gold, all hand-worked. Glittering jewelry and accessories, ceremonial tools and trinkets, even a whole wall covered in decorative, pounded gold leaf. There were some ancient textiles, carved fetishes, and even a few mummies and trophy heads. Carter decided to close his eyes in that room (not because he was particularly freaked out, he just said "Omigosh, that is GROSS!") A couple of items we recognized as very similar to items shown in our reading of Tintin in Temple of the Sun, clearly Hergé did some reasearch. On the way out, we got Carter a pan flute at the gift shop and walked back to the hotel.
My verdict? It wasn't cheap, it seemed an unscholarly jumble, but still...I can't remember the last time I've seen so many new things all at once.
yeah, even after weeding out the fake stuff, there's a staggering amount of loot that was taken from the incas. there are museums like this all over the hemisphere---we saw similar booty in san jose, costa rica. (not to mention cairo! but that's another continent altogether).
ReplyDeletethanks so much for creating this diary and sharing with us...we love it & it helps us feel so much less left behind. big hugs to you all & a gold lifesaver to CDB!