Inca and Pre-Inca Cultures

This assemblage of artifacts represents three civilizations that succeeded one another, each fading or collapsing with another taking its place. Lambayeque or Sican culture developed in the North Coast of Peru around 750 AD with its capital at Batán Grande. After centuries of prosperity, Batán Grande was largely abandoned, perhaps in part due to climatic events, and a new capital was established at Túcume around 1100 AD.

Around 1350 AD, the coastal Chimú conquered the Lambayeque region, including Túcume, and extended their influence along the entire desert area running along the North Coast of Peru is an excellent environment for preservation. Among the holdings are examples of exquisitely woven textiles of the Chimú and ceramics.

In 1470 the highland Inca in turn conquered the Chimú, creating the largest empire in the pre-conquest Americas. Inca holdings exhibited here include ceramics, used for the production, storage, and transport of chicha (corn beer), and kerosene or serving vessels for these beverages. Many of these objects are transitional, harking to the material culture forms of the Chimú. Beginning in 1532 AD, contact with the Spanish brought diseases that decimated indigenous populations, and warfare enslaved populations, and physically destroyed communities which marked the destruction of the Inca empire.