CULTURE-COSTA RICA: Pre-Columbian World Revealed in Gold

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, Oct 15 2002 (IPS) - Costa Rica’s Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold, one of the most important such institutions in the world, recently re-opened its doors with a new layout and presentation to demonstrate how Central American indigenous peoples lived during the era 500 to 1500 A.D.

The museum collection comprises 920 pieces, including gold, ceramics and carved stone, produced by the people who lived in what is today Costa Rican territory.

“The prior exhibit was very artistic and presented the pieces individually, while the new showing is more anthropological because the items are presented within their context,” Dora Sequeira, director of the Banco Central Museum Foundation, told IPS.

The pieces today appear in the environment in which they were utilised, which required the addition of life-sized human indigenous figures, said Sequeira, whose Foundation is in charge of the Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold.

The new design of the museum entails maps, drawings, informative texts about the evolution of the various indigenous cultures and multimedia scenarios that recreate how and where the gold pieces were used.

These three-dimensional reproductions include warriors and shamans (spiritual guides) as well as natural panoramas of forests, complete with sounds typical to the setting.

“We are very pleased with the results, and now we can offer the international community an attractive and informative historical presentation,” said the director.

The Costa Rican museum is one of four of its kind worldwide, exhibiting the richness of the gold pieces elaborated prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in what would later be known as the Americas. The three other museums are found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The Costa Rican exhibition is located in two below-ground levels of the Plaza de la Cultura, a park set in the heart of San José through which thousands of workers, entrepreneurs and tourists pass each day.

“Most of these gold pieces were ornaments symbolising status and they also served in many roles, such as in exchange between regions, in ceremonial rites and as funeral offerings,” expert Patricia Fernández explained to IPS.

The 920 pieces belonging to the museum collection range in size from one to 18 centimetres. The human figures wrought in gold are unique in that they often include animal traits.

The goldworks were created using two metalworking techniques employed by pre-Colombian cultures: foundry and hammering of pieces of gold.

Fernández, museum curator and editor of the Costa Rican guide to the gold pieces, said that throughout the exhibit, one discovers how the items were utilised by societies that were both complex and hierarchical.

“The gold pieces were ornaments designating prestige, which is why the new museum design attempts to show them in their social context,” she said.

The Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold first opened its doors in 1985, and since then has become a primary destination in the Costa Rican capital for local and international tourists alike.

The new layout is the first time that the original museum design has been overhauled, and marks an attempt to attract thousands more among history lovers and the merely curious.

The research that went into the new museum guide represents six years of work, while the construction of the new displays for the gold pieces took approximately eight months.

María Vargas, a 10-year-old girl visiting the museum for the first time, told IPS, “It’s incredible! I love this museum! And I think it will help me with what I am studying at school.”

Admission to the refurbished museum is the equivalent of two dollars for Costa Rican citizens, and five dollars for foreigners.

The museum authorities have made detailed information available on the Internet, in Spanish, at:

www.museosdelbancocentral.org.