Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

ANNUAL REPORT - A 2007. ÉV - ADRIÁNA LANTOS: ...And Then the Incas Arrived - Treasures from Peru Before the Spanish Conquest

in the most accentuated part of the exhibition space, in a large showcase placed in the axis of the corridor linking the Ionic and Pergamon halls. These displays included jewellery made of gold, silver, semi-precious stones (turquoise, crisocola, sodalite), as well as spondylus princeps shell symbolising the power held by their owners. The artefacts of the Recuay culture (0-600 AD, north highlands), including its characterisINTERIOR VltW OF THE EXHIBITION tic pottery decorated with negative painting, were placed in the museum's Ionic Hall. Entering the Pergamon Hall visitors were greeted by the sight of polychrome vessels of various designs originating from the Nasca culture (0-600 AD, south coast), which flourished at the same time as the Mochica culture. Some of the exhibited vessels had features resembling geoglyphs, which were etched into the desert sand and stretched along for kilometres (some of these were projected on the wall of the exhibition hall). Of special significance was an iconographie element, the so-called trophy head, which was clearly visible on several artefacts, modelled in different mediums (ceramics, textile and metal). Some outstanding works were produced in the textile-making of the Nasca culture, which transmitted the traditions of the Early Horizon Paracas culture, but its metallurgy was less developed both technologically and aesthetically speaking. In contrast to the loosely arranged route in the Ionic Hall, the installations in the Pergamon Hall were placed in a tighter order. In this part of the exhibition artefacts of two different cultures of the Intermediate Period, the less well-known Sihuas culture (100 BC-300 AD, the southern fringe of the Central Andes) and the Tiahuanaco culture (200 BC-1100 AD, south highlands), which once existed on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The Tiahuanaco culture is regarded as the cradle of Inca culture. The third unit of the exhibition presented the Middle Horizon (600/650-1000 AD) and the Huari culture (600/650-1000 AD). The Huari Empire had a unified political and administra-