Pre-Columbian and American Indian Art Collection May 1, 2010

The museum's collections of Pre-Columbian and American Indian art are diverse and comprehensive. The Pre-Columbian collection explores the entire artistic history of this vast region, until European conquest. It contains works of art in stone, wood, ceramic, gold, silver, feathers, fiber, and shell representing peoples of traditional cultures from Mesoamerica, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, including Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Mixtec, Aztec, Nazca, Chimu, Inca, and Taino. Highlights of the Pre-Columbian collection include fine Mayan pottery and stucco heads, a Paracas poncho, a Huari feathered mantle, a Maya ballgame vessel, a Taino effigy duho, a Mixtec gold eagle lip plug, and an Aztec wooden sculpture of the goddess of water, Chalchiuhtlicue.