ARCHAEOLOGY

Peru is the heritage of Pre Inca and Inca cultures. Nonetheless we must be aware that whenever the name of Peru is mentioned, it is spontaneously associated with Machu Picchu and the Empire of the Incas; an extraordinary civilisation, the most advanced in terms of culture, politics and economy, but which came to light only during the last 100 of the 12.000 years of the existence of Andean pre Hispanic cultures.

The overwhelming and unavoidable challenges imposed by the Andes demanded ingenious responses on their inhabitants. These challenges gave way to magnificent cultures, many of which were very different among them, differences that can be explained by a variety of reasons, but most of them derived from the diverse geography they faced as a result of the high mountain ranges which isolated them from each other, the rich coastal and highland valleys and the several ecological systems in which these cultures flourished.

Thus, as a first approach we shall mark the striking geographic and ecologic differences between the northern and southern Peruvian Andes which led to culturally independent civilisations, somehow linked by a common outcome.

We have devised two approaches for our visitors to study our pre Inca and Inca cultures.