The Cañari Collection of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels: Spotlight on a Forgotten Collection

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Cañari culture from the pre-Hispanic period covered a large territory in the Ecuadorian Andes (in the provinces of Cañar, Azuay and surrounding areas). The Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels house about forty objects from this important and complex cultural group. For several months now, a spotlight has been put on this diversified collection, which includes ceramic, metal and stone artefacts. Until recently, they were forgotten in the storage since their donation, almost 150 years ago, with no cultural nor chronological attribution. A recent extensive study of this collection has made it possible to attribute these objects to the Cañari culture, as well as to carry out archival research, and to organize a conference and study days on the material in the presence of eminent specialists of this culture. These unique opportunities have allowed us to work jointly on this collection. The results presented here have increased our knowledge of this collection, given us a better understanding of the material, and made this highly interesting collection better known.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53037