The Bruning Museum was inaugurated in 1966 and it is located in two blocks of
the principal park in Lambayeque, Peru.
It was based on the collections of Hans Heinrich Brüning, a German researcher.
The more than 1500 pieces come from different indigenous cultures, including
an invaluable textile collection and ceramics of Chimu and Vicus. Thousands of
golden objects are kept in sealed rooms, including funeral masks of copper,
ceremonial vessels, an extraordinary necklace and jewelry of Mochica and Chimu
cultures, as well as pieces of the Lambayeque culture.
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Entrance
The building where it is located, designed by the architect Celso Prado
Pastor in a modern style, was inaugurated in 1966 with funding from the
German government.
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Naylamp
In its gardens, the figure of Naylamp, founder of the dynasty of the
Lambayecan kings, stands out.
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The mythical landing of Naylamp on the Peruvian coast
The facade displays a colourful mural with local motifs that narrates
the mythical landing of Naylamp on the Peruvian coast.
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Ceramics over time
Formative period
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Late or Transitional Formative Ceramics
(200 BCE - 100 CE).
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Mochica culture
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Pampa Grande
The architectural complex of Pampa Grande, the largest and most
extensive administrative and ceremonial urban center in northern Peru
(middle Lembayeque Valley). Three monumental buildings and 300 hectares
must have housed around 15,000 inhabitants.
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The advanced level of technological and artistic development achieved
by the Mochicas in all areas such as ceramics, architecture,
metallurgy, navigation and hydraulics, was achieved thanks to proper
administration and a solid ruling elite.
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Nature was widely dominated by the Mochica people, evidencing their
great technological and economic development.
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Mochica ceramics
Realistic pottery allows us to verify both the production of food plants
and the dominant fauna, many of which still exist today.
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The Priestess of Chornancap - Sican/Lambayeque culture
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The Priestess of Chornancap
At the end of 2011, archaeological excavations in Chornancap reached one
of the most important episodes with the discovery of the tomb of the
Priestess of Chornancap, buried in the Elite residence south of
Chornancap, accompanied by eight young women, as well as her
possessions, symbols, emblems, ornaments of rank and power, among which
stand out fine objects of: ceramics, metals, textiles, wood, shells,
among others. Confirming in this way the important leading role and
authority that she represented in life and during her death.
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The Priestess of Chornancap represents one of the most conspicuous
rulers during the late period of the Lambayeque culture. According to
the remains documented in her funerary context, this character
fulfilled political, religious and semi-divine functions.
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This female character was immortalized in many of the artistic
representations that appear in the materiality, in addition, the
evidence of offerings belonging to later periods reflect the ancestry
of the character that lives in the social memory of her people.
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Recreation of the tomb of the Priestess of Chornancap
Funerary context found in the residence of Élite, south of the temple of
Chornancap.
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The Priestess, buried at the age of 50, was accompanied by 8 young
women and a small camelid. Each character was found in a flexed
sitting position, surrounding the main burial, located according to
the four cardinal directions. Two to the north, three to the east, two
to the south and one to the west. One of the companions on the east
side only has her head visible.
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Due to the quality of the goods found in her tomb, the main character
represents a Ruler and Priestess, who exercised her power in the final
period of the Lambayeque culture and with her death became the most
important female mythical ancestor, linked to the Moon and the Sea.
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Objects recovered in the funerary bundle and grave
In the funerary bundle and grave, archaeologists recovered over three
hundred bracelets, earrings, and other objects made of gold, silver, and
burnished copper-gold alloys, in which predominate the image of Ñaymlap,
the eponymous founder of the Lambayeque culture.
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Three important pectorals adorned the remains, one showed the
anthropomorphic wave of the ocean, and another displayed the
hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), used in
shamanic vision ceremonies.
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Fine Cajamarca style ceramics, many necklaces made of amber, precious
and semi-precious stones, as well as thousands of small beads made of
imported seashells such as conus (conidia) and spondylus
(spondylea) from Ecuador’s south coast, and sacrificial copper
knives (tumi) were also found in the bundle.
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The body of the priestess was covered with two mantles, one of which
had small lunar-shaped copper discs stitched on the fabric, designed
as the mythic wave associated with the ocean.
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Reconstructed image of the Priestess of Chornancap
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Reconstructed image of the Priestess of Chornancap
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Reconstructed image of a character with a ritual vessel in each
hand.
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Reconstructed image of the Lord of the Spondylus
Upon reaching the bottom of the priestess’ grave, the archeologists dug
about five feet further down to ascertain that there was nothing left
below through eventual water seepage. To their surprise, they found
another buried body, that of an adult male, thirty to forty years of
age, lying flat on his back on an east-west alignment.
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He was not wrapped into a bundle, nor were the remains of a coffin
found. This burial sequence is unknown elsewhere in Andean America.
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In the grave were found large and small globular ceramics and metal
offerings, as well as copper knives (tumi).
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However, the most striking find were two groups of ten shells of
spondylus bivalve (spondylus princeps), placed on each side of
his head, and one shell in each of his hands.
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Reading the iconography of the silver vessel with evidence from
Chornancap
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Female deity of the Lambayeque culture found in Chornancap
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Miniature bunk bed
Fine miniature bunk bed made of shell and turquoise appliqué.
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Silver bowl
Silver bowl with fine external embossing.
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Scenes on the silver bowl
Complex scenes finely embossed on the outside of the silver bowl.
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Ceremonial scepter
Ceremonial scepter made in gold.
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Rings
Gold, silver and pearl sphere rings.
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Inca empire
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Inca (1430 - 1532 CE)
Between the years 1463 and 1471, the Incas and their imperial armies
conquered the northern coast of Peru, which until then had been
dominated by the Chimu empire. The region of Lambayeque thus became the
Tawantinsuyu, which came to cover a large part of South America.
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The Incas took Cuzco as the capital of the empire and the centre of
the world, where their emperors and principal administrators resided.
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The territory was divided into 4 suyos, referring to the cardinal
points: Antisuyo (East), Collasuyo (South), Chinchaysuyo (North) and
Contisuyo (West).
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The most admirable aspect of the Incas was their magnificent
political, administrative and military organization, based on an
aristocratic society presided over by the Inca, an emperor with divine
character, then the nobility, the officials and finally the people
formed by artisans and peasants.
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The Ayllu was the basic unit of society and the economic base was
based on agriculture and livestock.
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The Incas developed to their maximum all the different techniques used
in the various conquered regions, both in agriculture, conservation
and storage, food preparation, architecture, metallurgy and political
organization, for which they developed a wide network of roads and
control of their extensive territory.
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In Lambayeque many of the large and existing population centers were
recovered, especially Cinto and Collique, which constituted one of the
largest urban concentrations found by the Spanish in the 16th century.
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Inca ceramics
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Top: Paccha with representation of a character and a feline on a
totora raft.
- Bottom left: Pacchas with representation of snake.
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Bottom center: The arybalo, also called urpus, has the most
representative form of Inca ceramics. It is a jar with a flared mouth,
a long neck, a voluminous body and a conical base. They came in
various sizes, from small to those that were the height of a
person.
Their use was purely utilitarian, to transport water and contain
drinks such as chicha, as well as to store dry foods.
The smallest ones were used in ceremonial rites, as payments to the
earth, and they were also often placed in the burials of the deceased.
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Bottom right: The Paccha Inca was a ceramic object used in rituals or
propitiatory ceremonies with earth and water.
Through this ceremonial object, liquids such as chicha were poured
onto the earth, which according to the beliefs of the time, was to
ensure fertility and abundant crops.
The representations of animals that these ritual objects have,
probably refer to the various regions of the Inca Empire.
- Bottom far right: Pacchas with a representation of a deer.
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Pacchas
- Left: Pacchas with a representation of a deer.
- Right: Pacchas with representation of snake.
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See also
Source
Location
