Museums of the Andes. Great museums of the world

In 142 magnificent new color photographs, the ceramics and textiles of precolumbian peru all specially selected from Andean public and private collections.
millennia before the Incas established one of
the most highly organized societies in the history of man, there was a succession of civilizations in the highlands and coastal plains of peru rivaling those of mexico or any in pre columbian america. They built pyramids and temples, developed surprisingly advanced metallurgy of gold, silver and copper, engaged in impressive agricultural practices which included guano fertilization and complex irrigation canals, and went to sea in reed boats for deep sea fishing and coastal trade.
All this we know not from any written record writing was non existent in the Andean world but from two categories of artifacts, its ceramics and its textiles. The rich legacy of Peruvian pottery provides a more abundant source of information about a pre historic people’s way of life than almost any except that from ancient Greek vases. From graphic depictions of deities to portrait heads of startling realism, there is an infinite variety of human, animal, vegetable and demonic representation. The art reached its height in the stirrup-spout vessels and other jars of the Mochica period (ca. 100 B.C. to ca. A.D. 900), comprising battle and sacrifice scenes, poignant human characterizations and mysterious combinations of animal and supernatural beings.