Museo Arqueológico de Santiago, Art and private museum in Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro, Santiago, Chile

The Museo Arqueológico de Santiago occupies one room of the Museo de Artes Visuales, entered through that museum on Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro in the Lastarria neighborhood. Its collection of over 3,000 pieces of Chilean indigenous archaeology includes clothing, hats, jewellery and baskets dating as far back as 1000 BC. In 2011 the archaeological collection was transferred to the Museo Precolombino.

The museum opened in 1981 and became a central institution for preserving and displaying archaeological findings from pre-Columbian civilizations. Its collection documents thousands of years of human settlement across different parts of Chile.

The permanent exhibition displays objects from the daily life of indigenous communities, including textiles, ceramics, and carved pieces from different regions of Chile. These works reveal how the original inhabitants used their environment and expressed their traditions.

The museum is entered through the Museo de Artes Visuales, which occupies the same building on Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro in the Lastarria neighbourhood; the archaeological collection is housed in one of its rooms. Since 2011 the more than 3,000 pieces have belonged to the Museo Precolombino, so check there for the collection itself.

The museum opened in 1981 to house a Chilean archaeology collection that had toured abroad for years as the exhibition "Chile indígena", sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2011 its more than 3,000 pieces from Chile's original peoples were transferred to the Museo Precolombino.