Museo Arqueológico San Miguel de Azapa, Archaeological museum in San Miguel de Azapa, Chile
The Museo Arqueológico San Miguel de Azapa, run by the Universidad de Tarapacá, occupies a building 500 metres from the village of San Miguel de Azapa on the Ruta A-27. Its palm-lined entrance courtyard forms a rotunda with 13 petroglyph blocks, some carved on more than one face, and a bust of anthropologist Max Uhle. Inside, display cases hold textiles, basketry, ceramics and 15 Chinchorro mummies kept under controlled temperature, light and humidity.
The museum was founded in 1967 and belongs to the Universidad de Tarapacá. It is reached by the rural Ruta A-27 shortly before San Miguel de Azapa. In the mid-1970s, 13 petroglyph blocks were moved to its entrance courtyard to save them from losses caused by Arica's growth and new farmland in the Azapa valley.
The collection displays textiles and ceramics that show how people in the region lived and worked. You can see how these objects were used in daily life and what skills the ancient craftspeople possessed.
The museum is located outside Arica and opens Tuesday through Sunday. Plan enough time to explore the exhibitions at your own pace and learn about the archaeological findings.
The Chinchorro room holds fifteen mummies of fetuses, newborns, children and adults up to 35 years old, kept in vaults with controlled temperature, light and humidity. The dry desert climate of the Azapa valley helped preserve them. Researchers used computer programs to reconstruct the facial features of the Chinchorro and Atacama peoples from the remains.
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