Regional Museum of Ica, Peru

The Regional Museum of Ica "Adolfo Bermudez Jenkins" (Spanish: Museo Regional de Ica "Adolfo Bermúdez Jenkins") is an archeological museum in Ica, Peru.

The museum focuses mainly on the different indigenous cultures that inhabited Peru.

Entering the Ica Museum

Ica region
Ica is a city and the capital of the Department of Ica in southern Peru.

While the area was long inhabited by varying cultures of indigenous peoples, the Spanish conquistador Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera claimed its founding in 1563.
Evidence of prehistoric indigenous civilizations has been found in the nearby deserts, such as that of Paracas.
Other cultures include the Chincha and the Inca, the latter of whom ruled this area beginning in the 14th century.
See more at Ica, Peru - Wikipedia.

Chart of cultural periods of Peru
Cultural Development:

Late Horizon - 1470-1533 CE - Inca
Late Intermediate - 1100 CE - Ica-Chincha
Middle Horizon - 650 CE - Wari
- Pinilla
- Atarco
- Pacheco
Early Intermediate - 200 CE - Nazca

Late
Middle
Early

Transition - 200 BCE - Topará

Transition Paracas - Nazca

Early Horizon - 800 BCE - Paracas

Late
Middle
Early

Initial - 1600 BCE - First agro-pottery groups

Disco Verde
Pernil Alto
Mastodonte

Archaic - 5000 BCE - Incipient farmers

Otuma
San Nicolás II
Pernil Alto
Aldea de Santo
Domingo
La Yerba II y III

Lithic - 10000 BCE - The first inhabitants

Pampa de Santo
Domingo
San Nicolás I
Abrigo I
Pampa de Lechuza

See more at Periodization of pre-Columbian Peru - Wikipedia.

Burial Bundle Scheme
Diagram of a funerary bundle wrapped in mats, cactus nets, penguin and camelid skin, discovered in the Cabezas Largas Ossuary from 3500 BCE.

Layers:

Reed cloak
Mat
Mat
Cactus screen
Vegetable fiber fabric
Vegetable fiber fabric
Vegetable fiber net
Camelid skin
Camelid skin

Chavín culture (1000 BCE - 300 BCE)

Chavín in Ica?
It shows the presence of Chavín in the region, in the early phase of Paracas, which could have given an important impulse to the subsequent rise of this society in its late phase.

Cup
Geometrized feline design.

Textile fragment
Feline drawing.

Cooking pot
Character drawing of Oculate Being.

Terracotta vase

Paracas culture (800 BCE - 200 BCE)

Paracas architecture
The few known Paracas settlements were probably small populated centers with simple architecture, groups of semi-underground houses, small houses with quincha and adobe walls.

In the late phase of Paracas' heyday, monumental clay ceremonial architecture appears; with mounds such as Huaca Soto, Huaca Santa Rosa and Cerro del Gentil in the Chincha valley, and the Ánimas Altas - Ánimas Baixas complex in the Callado sector of the Ica valley.
In late Paracas, there is also a population increase with extensive settlements such as Tajahuaca and Cerro Prieto in Ica.
Notable coastal populated centers such as Cerro Colorado with its underground villas in Paracas Bay, as well as Chucho, Carhuas and Morro Quemado in Paracas Independence Bay.
It also highlights the presence of small farming settlements, such as the Jauranga site in Palpa.

The Oculate Being
With this name we know an anthropomorphic being considered the primordial divinity of the Paracas.

Its first representations appear on ceramic vases from the site of Puerto Nuevo, in Paracas Bay, around 800 BCE.
With the subsequent strong influence of Chavín, the character is replaced by icons of foreign culture.
In the late Paracas phase, all Chavín influence is abandoned and the character reappears reinforced with a series of attributes such as serrated appendages coming from various parts of the body, generally represented as decapitating human heads.
These iconographic innovations increased and reinforced the character's mythical character.
One of the representative geoglyphs of Late Paracas is that of the Oculate Being located on the Pampa de Nazca.

Schematic section of a funerary bundle from the Paracas Necropolis.

Paracas funeral cloak
On the southern coast of Peru, the dead were wrapped in this type of textile cloaks and buried in the world below.

The funerary mantles were used by the inhabitants of the southern coast of Peru to wrap the body of their dead in multiple layers, along with offerings, thus creating funerary bundles that were then deposited in large semi-subterranean graves in the desert of the peninsula of Paracas.
The dead symbolically became seeds loaded with sacred messages woven into the cloaks.
This mantle represents a feline (earthly world) that has two legs, like birds (upper world), and an elongated body like snakes (below world). This mythological being that brings together characteristics of the three worlds symbolizes the Andean worldview and is repeated throughout the mantle, in different sizes and directions.
The designs have been embroidered with camelid fiber threads dyed red, yellow and green.
The fabrics found in this area were preserved for a long time thanks to the dryness of the southern coastal deserts. This funerary mantle is approximately 3,000 years old.

Topará culture (200 BCE - 200 CE)

Topará ceramics
Topará ceramics show remarkable technological development in the quality of the pastes and in controlling the temperature of the kiln.

The gourd-shaped bottles with double spouts and handles stand out - a belted bridge.
White slip was used and their vessels are generally monochromatic, while in the Nazca 1 style they are polychromatic and with incised lines.

Bottle
Representation of felines.

Bottle
Falcon representation.

Sculptural bottle
Representation of lucumas.

Anthropomorphic bottle
Representation of a fisherman.

Sculptural bottle
Representation of batrachians.

Bottle
Representation of mythological beings and stylized heads.

Bottle
Representation of mythological being and trophy heads.

Bottle
Representation of mythological being.

Nazca culture (200 CE - 650 CE)

Nazca textiles
Embroidery continues into the middle and late phases of the Nazca culture. Likewise, the carpet is characteristic of the late Nazca phases.

Early Nazca pottery
The style of early Nazca pottery, contemporary to Cahuachi, was naturalistic (monumental) in character, which allows the motifs represented to be clearly distinguished.

In his designs there are several mythical characters of his own, with antecedents in the embroidered fabrics of the Paracas Peninsula, highlighting the Anthropomorphic Mythical Character, considered the main Nazca deity due to his recurrence.
Natural representations abound: human figures, plants, animals, fish, birds, reptiles, in addition to trophy heads that are commonly associated with mythical characters.

Late Nazca pottery
The naturalistic style of representations remained until the middle period of the development of Nazca society, when little by little it became stylized until the late period, where a greater abstraction of the drawings is observed, giving way to a polyvalent style.

Its stylistic complexity is incomparable, marked by the innovation of abstract and complicated motifs with an abundance of colors and symbolic content.

Pitcher
Anthropomorphic representation with wave design.

Bottles
Representation of birds with headdress (left) and representation of a mythological character (right).

Sculptural bottle (left) and dish (right)
Representation of a falcon (left) and representation of a fish (right).

Female sculpture
Mythological drawings.

Sculptural vases
Representation of a face.

Pitcher
Representation of a mythological being.

Pitchers
Representation of a stylized character (left) and representation of faces of mythological beings (right).

Bottle
Representation of a warrior character.

Life with music
As in all cultures with great social development, music has always been a prominent cultural expression that was linked to civic and ceremonial events.

The Nazca continued to use the instruments known to the Paracas: drums, antaras, flutes and trumpets manufactured in their own style.
In Cahuachi, an offering of intentionally broken antaras was discovered.

Drum
Representation of swifts.

Musical instruments

Top: Vase with representation of anthropomorphic characters.
Left: Antara.
Center: Sculptural bottle representing a drum with a feline character.
Right: Antara.
Bottom: Antara with representation of swifts.

Antara
With representation of swifts.

Bottle
Represents a farmer (harvest of corn, knives and chili peppers).

Bottle
Represents a farmer.

Bottle
Represents a fisherman.

Cooking pot
Represents an anthropomorphic being.

Bottle
Represents a farmer.

Vase
Represents warriors.

Bottle
Represents a farmer.

Anthropomorphic pitcher
Represents a musician.

Trumpet
Represents a mythological being.

Anthropomorphic pitcher
Represents a musician.

Nazca Lines
The production of large geoglyphs on the slopes and stony plains of the desert would have begun around 800 BCE, during the early phase of Paracas society.

With the Nazca culture, this practice became a cultural expression that reached surprising levels in terms of quantity and size of the representations, in addition to the variety of designs that were executed in its more than 600 years of development.
Nazca geoglyphs are classified into two types: biomorphic (representations of flora and fauna) and geometric (spirals, lines, trapezoids and swept fields).
Almost all the biomorphic designs (the hummingbird, the spider, the monkey, etc.), due to their naturalistic style, were made in the Early or Monumental Nazca phase, at the same time as the production of geometric geoglyphs, which tend to be more abundant and larger during the Late Nazca period.
The Nazca geoglyphs are found from the Chincha Valley north to the south of the Río Grande de Nazca Basin, but are mostly concentrated in the Palpa area and, above all, in the world-famous Pampa de Nazca.

The aqueducts
The valleys in the south of the Nazca Pampa have a lower water flow than those in the northern part, so the absence of surface water in the rivers is greater during the year. This motivated the search for underground water sources in the valleys of Nazca, Taruga and Las Trancas, where an ingenious hydraulic system known as aquaducts was built, through which underground water was captured and brought to the surface.

An aquaduct normally has three components: The underground section is made up of channels, from which the water was collected, and which, every certain distance, have vertical tubular ducts, better known as "eyes or vents", which allow access to carry out cleaning and maintaining underground canals.
A second surface section consists of an open pit canal that carried the water to a reservoir or "well - pond", where it was stored and distributed to the crop fields. It is estimated that the water was also used for domestic purposes.
According to archaeological investigations, 42 aqueducts have been identified, most concentrated in the Nazca valleys, of which about 20 are still in use. This ingenious hydraulic technology of the ancient Nazca has remained in force for approximately 1,500 years. In the world there was only one similar technology and it was that of the qanats of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back about 3000 years.

Wari culture (650 CE - 1100 CE)

Wari culture (650 CE - 1100 CE)
Middle Horizon Period.

Around 600 CE the city of Wari began to form, a large urban center in the Ayacucho region. Over time, the city constituted the center of power of an imperial state that expanded throughout almost all of the Central Andes, from Cajamarca in the north to Cusco in the south. It had its origins in the Ayacucho populations of the Huarpa culture with religious influences from the Tiahuanaco culture and the polychromy of the Nazca style in their pottery art.
Its presence in the Ica region is well represented by the Maymi sites in the Pisco valley, where one of the few ceramic production centers of the period has been discovered; Pinilla, in Ocucaje, which defines a late Wari style and Huaca del Loro in Nazca, where we find a small circular temple with remains of stone architecture, and another in the shape of a “D”, typical of Wari cerimonial architecture. There are, in addition, several other settlements and cemeteries in the middle and upper parts of the valleys of the Río Grande de Nazca Basin and in other valleys in the region.

Ceramics
In its first period, the most notable changes of the Wari presence in the region are observed in pottery, where the fine and elaborate Nazca ceramics were replaced by a simpler and less polychrome one, known as Loro.

Other Ayacucho ceramic styles, such as Chakipampa and Robles Mogo, also have their Iqueño versions.
A characteristic of the iconography of this period in general is the recurrence of the God of the Staffs Tiahuanaco.

Ceramics
The second period of the empire was that of its greatest expansion, dominance and prestige, and two pottery styles appeared in the region: Atarco and Pachacámac.

Atarco is reminiscent of the Nazca antecedents, particularly for its polychrome and the double-spout bottle with ribbon handle-bridge.
In this second period, the God of the Staffs was no longer represented, but rather the winged characters that accompanied him in the well-known Puerta del Sol of Tiahuanaco.
Starting in the third period, the Wari state began to decline until its collapse. The Ica Pinilla and Soisongo styles were developed, the first, defined from vessels from the town center of the same name in Ocucaje, and the second, from a sector of the Nazca valley.

War weapons
Wari was an imperial state, whose rulers were supported by a military apparatus that allowed them to impose their power in the extensive territory under their rule.

His army had weapons typical of its time that included shields, spears, slings, bronze weapons, bows and arrows, the latter unknown in previous periods.

Sculptural pitcher (left) and sculptural bottle (right)

Left: Sculptural pitcher. Represents a lama.
Right: Sculptural bottle. Zoomorphic representation.

Sculptural bottle
Represents a jaguar.

Cup
Represents stylized felines.

Bowl
Represents a skull.

Jar
Represents warriors.

Sculptural vessel
Represents a priest.

Textiles
Wari fabrics were very beautiful and distinguished by their bright colors.

They worked on brocade, the warp pattern, double canvases, painted canvases and many other techniques.
But the specialty of Wari was the tapices, known for being among the finest in the world. Among clothing items, there was a predilection for tunics or unkus.
An evolution in the decoration of Wari textiles has been proposed based on their iconography, which would originate with a realistic and conventional style, derived from Tiahuanaco motifs, towards a geometrization of ideological icons, including the distortion of the most complex motifs: the winged beings carrying staffs.

Unku
It has representations of zoomorphic heads and geometric designs.

Four-point caps
They are similar to those of Tiahuanaco. It has a quadrangular shape and characteristic textile appendages emerge from its upper corners.

It is a garment typical of Wari textiles, presumably to be worn by individuals of high social status.

Funeral bundle
On both sides are scepters.

The scepter on the left side has drawings of pelicans.
The scepter on the right side has an anthropomorphic design.

Wood carving

Ica-Chincha culture (1100 CE - 1470 CE)

Ica-Chincha culture (1100 CE - 1470 CE)
Late intermediate period.

Around 1100 CE the collapse of the Wari state occurred, with several lordships and curacazgos emerging in the central Andes with their own cultural expressions and geographical areas of domination. The lordships of Lambayeque, Chimú, Chancay, Ychma, Chancas, Huancas, among others, correspond to this period.
In this region, the culture known as Ica-Chincha developed, which, in reality, was made up of the Señorío de Chincha, the Señorío de Ica and the Poroma culture in the Río Grande de Nazca Basin. All three were independent socio-political entities, but shared the same style in arts and crafts.
The Lordship of Chincha, whose domain extended to the Pisco valley, had its center of power in La Centinela, while that of Ica had it in the Tacaraca Complex. This did not happen in the Río Grande de Nazca Basin, but extensive urban concentrations were built such as those of Huayurí and Pinchango Alto in Palpa, and La Tiza in Nazca.

Ceramics
The Ica-Chincha ceramic style shows many innovations in terms of vessel shapes and style of representations.

Its iconography includes geometric and figurative designs (birds, fish, felines, etc.) geometrized, using mainly the colors black, white and red on a red ocher background.

Sculptural pitcher
Anthropomorphic representation with sculpture.

Sculpture and figurine mold

Textiles
Textile artisans will master practically all the techniques known in the pre-Hispanic Andean world, which include feather fabrics.

As in the case of pottery, their garments are decorated with designs that tend to be geometric.

Wood carving
Wood carving was one of the quite developed crafts, particularly in the lordships of Chincha and Ica.

Among the objects produced, oars and rudders were finely carved for use on travel boats along the Peruvian coast.

Inca culture (1470 CE - 1533 CE)

Inca culture (1470 CE - 1533 CE)
Late horizon period.

The first Inca incursion into the region would have occurred during the government of Cápac Yupanqui. It was a protocol visit and not a conquest. The definitive annexation of the region occurred around 1470 during the second great expansion of Tahuantinsuyo led by the Inca Túpac Yupanqui.
Ica became part of the Chinchiaysuyo and administrative control and tribute centers were established in all the valleys of the region. Where there were centers of power, such as in La Centinela in Chincha and the Tacaraca Complex in the Ica Valley, the Incas built their buildings on top of the existing ones, and, where there were none, they built sets of completely new buildings for the control of power of the conquered populations. This last group includes Tambo Colorado in Pisco, Tambo de Huayurí and Pueblo Nuevo in Palpa, as well as Tambo del Collao and Paredones in Nazca.

Yupana (left), knife (center) and tiana (right)

Left: Yupana in whalebone.
Center: Knife with lama head representation.
Right: Tiana in pacae wood.

Ceramics
In the conquered territories, the Incas imposed both their architectural planning patterns and their artistic style.

In ceramics, new forms of vessels were made, decorated mostly with geometric motifs in two main styles: the Imperial Inca style, clearly Cusco, and the Regional Inca style, which includes local or regional versions of the previous one.
Inca-Chimú style vessels are also found as offerings in burials in this region at the same time.

Sculptural bottle
Representation of a person carrying vessels.

Quipu (left) and unku (right)

Left: The quipus were knotted cords that hung from a primary rope. They were made of cotton and camelid fibers. Its history dates back to the Wari era. For the Incas they were the main accounting record system for information related to various aspects of the administration of the empire, with officials specialized in its management.
Right: As in Wari times, the tunic or unku was a very common garment with checkerboard designs, many of these very elaborate with geometric and polychrome designs known as tokapus, which were once thought to be some type of writing. Unkus with these designs were reserved for individuals of high social levels. In general, Inca clothing for the nobility was called cumbi, while the coarser garments, called abasca, were for use by the general population.

Quipu

Tiana
In pacae wood.

Bioarchaeology hall

Bioarchaeology hall
In this room, human remains of settlers from Ancient Peru are exhibited. The sole purpose is to allow the interpretation of various cultural and biological aspects of these populations, now disappeared.

This is done with respect and understanding of the feelings of human dignity of all peoples, as indicated in article 6.7 of the Code of Deontology of the International Council of Museums.

Pre-Columbian hairstyles
A variety of styles have been found in this art, which was practiced by both men and women of all the cultures of Ancient Peru: chignon, cerquillo, braids, wigs, etc. A feature of social hierarchy that today is evidence of the concern, also, of the ancient Peruvian settler for his personal grooming.

The artifacts used for this purpose range from combs to headdresses, from the simplest to the most sophisticated.
The diversity of the best-known hairstyles was found in the tombs of the Paracas and Nazca cultures.

Trophy heads / Offering
Decapited human heads considered as war or ritual trophies were of great importance as offerings to the gods or as charms of power given by the dead. It is usual to find them at the base of walls of ceremonial buildings.

Once the head was separated from the body, the occipital hole was enlarged to pull the brain out, the eyes sockets stuffed with cotton cloth and the lips sealed with cactus spines.
Finally, a perforation was practiced in the center of the forehead to put a cord. This way the head was carried with the hands or tied to the waist, as seen in Nazca ceramics and textile iconography.

Head deformation
The artificial deformation of the head was a custom practiced in ancient times in many peoples of the world. However, it is in Ancient Peru where the greatest variety of types of deformed heads has been discovered.

The most impressive are those of the Paracas culture and many of them have been found, mainly in funerary contexts in sites such as Chongos (Pisco Valley), Cerro Colorado and Cabezas Largas (Paracas Peninsulas), in Callango and Ocucaje (Ica Valley) among other.
This practice usually occurred from birth and during the child's growth, by compressing the skull with the placement of boards, girdles, caps, pads or a special crib. The reasons for this custom would be ethnic distinction on the one hand and aesthetics on the other.

Head trepanation
This practice was carried out by many ancient cultures of the world and in Peru Paracas stands out.

It is a surgical operation that ancient healers performed using different techniques (scraping, sawing, etc.) and instruments (stone knives, tweezers, spoons, etc.), possibly resorting to the use of various herbal drinks (coca, etc.) or chicha to reduce or suppress pain.
The reasons for this practice would have been to disappear the pain due to some splintering of the bones of the skull fractured in a battle and, in other cases, under ideological beliefs, the eviction of the bad spirits that were causing evil in the body.

Grave of a child
Age: Approximately 8 years old. Height: 1.07 m. Site: Agua salada, Nazca. Culture: Nazca.

The medical diagnosis of Dr. Márvin J. Allison indicates an infectious lesion of the spinal column in the lumbar region, infection at the base of the right lung, right kidney and liver, fusion of the vertebrae near the sacral bone and paralysis of the lower limbs or bone tuberculosis.

Mummy
Culture: Nazca. Procedence: Ullujalla, Ica. Sex: Masculine.

As it happens in others parts of the world like Egypt, southwest of U.S.A, China, Aleutians Islands and Chile, the Peruvian South Coast have the same desert climatic conditions that allows the preservation of the soft tissues of human remains.

Funerary pottery vessel
Provenance: Changos, Pisco Valley. Culture: Paracas Necropolis (100 BCE - 100 CE).

Pot containing the remains of a baby.
This is one of the many forms of burial used in pre-Hispanic times in Peru.

The Mother
Procedence: Murga, Pisco. Culture: Ica-Inca (approx. 1500 CE).

Woman buried in funerary pot with baby on her womb.
Her grave goods contain reed and cerimonial wooden tool, gourd with food, textiles, gypsum offering, weighing scale made of copper and bone.