On 8th August, the opening of the exhibition “The Elite Wari Craftsmen of Castillo de Huarmey” took place at the Andres del Castillo Museum in Lima. The exhibition presents unique artefacts attributed to the Wari culture, discovered during the excavations at Castillo de Huarmey. The team of involved archaeologists includes researchers from the University of Warsaw.

Twelve centuries ago, in a Peruvian desert on the Pacific coast, on the outskirts of the first empire of pre-Columbian Andes, called Wari by archaeologists, a new centre of power was established, with Castillo de Huarmey as its capital. Centuries before the Inca rose to power, the rulers of the Wari Empire developed a unique culture that created rare works of art and architecture.

Castillo de Huarmey is an archaeological site located in Peru studied from 2010 by Polish and Peruvian researchers. The excavation works are led by Prof. Miłosz Giersz from the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Thanks to the efforts of archaeologists, the exhibition “The Elite Wari Craftsmen of Castillo de Huarmey” has been opened at Andres del Castillo Museum in Lima. The exhibition presents the last discoveries in the so called “Gallery of Craftsman Elites”, considered by the Archaeology magazine as one of the most important archaeological findings worldwide in 2022.

Unique artefacts

At the exhibition, the visitors can observe the rich grave furnishings, craftsman’s tools and objects of daily use, which testify to the high social status of the buried people. Among the discoveries are, for example, gold and silver jewellery, metal tools, textiles, painted skins and objects symbolising the professions of the deceased that were deposited in the tombs. The researchers point out that Castillo de Huarmey was not only the burial place of the elite and the cult of the ancestors, but also an important administrative centre of the Wari Empire and a centre for the production of the best quality arts and crafts.

The exhibition was prepared by the Polish Society for Latin American Studies, the Andres del Castillo Museum in Lima and the University of Warsaw, as part of the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological project.

The custodians of the exhibition are Prof. Miłosz Giersz, the head of the Department of Archaeology of the Americas at the UW’s Faculty of Archaeology, and Prof. Patrycja Prządka-Giersz from the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity at the UW’s Faculty of „Artes Liberales”.

The exhibition is opened until 15th September.