Archeological Museum "Rafael Larco-Herrera" in Lima

This is a museum created by Rafael Larco-Herrera to display the collections of his father, archeologist Rafael Larco-Hoyle and his own. There are golden jewels, textiles and pottery, with a special gallery dedicated to the erotic vases (which will not be displayed here).

More info at:
http://www.museolarco.org/

More pictures
http://www.go2peru.com/spa/lim_foto01.htm

Lima Pottery

Bottle with a house and llamas

Nazca Pottery

Colouful, completely covered by drawings, delicate finish... Unmistakeably Nazca

Nazca bottles

A hawk

A human figure

Nazca trophy heads

Nazca would keep trophy heads, as shown by these vases

Wari pottery

Moche Pottery: portraits

A musician playing the drum

A man sleeping

A portrait vessel

More Moche portrait vases

Moche pottery: Curious portrait vases

In these portrait vases, the man seems to have a fly agaric on top of his
head. When I asked, they told me that they used "San Pedro" cactus as hallucinogens and not mushrooms and supposedly, what looks like a mushroom is part of the headdress. However, I still find it odd that a headdress would look as a mushroom!

..

Moche pottery: wrestlers

This vase depicts wrestlers. The curious thing is, it seems the wrestling consisted in pulling each other´s hair.

Moche pottery: Zooantropomorphic fgures

The Crabman

Figure with an owl's mask

Moche pottery: Animals

A crab

Llamas fighting

A lizard

Recuay pottery

A bottle with the form of a pumpkin

A monkey and fruits

Three birds

More Recuay pottery

This double bottle depicts two Spondylus clams or "Mullu", as they were coomonly called. Spondylus clams have a pink shell which was used in jewellery for pectorals, bracelets ad other ornaments. However, they were apreciated not only for their beaut but also because of their sacred value: Spondylus clams live in warm waters, in Ecuador , an only appear in the northern coast of Peru during "El Niño" years, when the rains come and there are good crops. So, Spondylus were a symbol of fertility and abundance and that's why they became sacred.

Cupisnique bottles

Two owls

A feline

Inka pottery

A "kero " (wooden cup)

An "Urpu" or"Phuñuy" , also called (wrongly) "aryballos", for the similitude with the Greek vessel