 | The Peabody Museum's exhibit on Machu Picchu will include a road such as those paved by the Incas, as well as a 25-foot-long panorama of the view from the ancient site. Lining the sides of the exhibit hall will be display cases containing artifacts recovered from Machu Picchu, including gold beakers and bowls, pottery and elaborate textiles. |
The Peabody Museum of Natural History has announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has given $351,000 to support the upcoming exhibition "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas," which will open on Jan. 26.
The grant was awarded to Yale anthropology professor Richard L. Burger, director of the Peabody Museum and the project's principal investigator, and Lucy C. Salazar, a manager at the Peabody and co-principal investigator.
Awarded by the NSF's Elementary, Secondary and Informal Education Division, the grants support projects that "provide rich and stimulating opportunities outside formal school settings where individuals of all ages, interests and backgrounds increase their appreciation and understanding of science, mathematics, engineering and technology."
The NSF grant will allow the exhibit to increase public awareness and understanding of the power of scientific archaeology by demonstrating how it has made possible a textured understanding of the Inca royal estate of Machu Picchu and Inca civilization in general.
Components of the exhibit will emphasize the interdisciplinary links of the sciences (chemistry, astronomy, engineering, environmental sciences, mathematics and biology) to the social sciences (anthropology) and other disciplines (history and Latin American studies) through the study of Machu Picchu. The museum is also developing a curriculum for grades 7-9 which will be built around national standards in science, mathematics and the social sciences.
The exhibit will invite visitors to "travel" into the past, first to Machu Picchu with the 1911 Yale Peruvian Scientific Expedition, and then further back to when Machu Picchu functioned as an Inca country palace in the late 15th century A.D.
It will include dioramas, topographic models, thematic video displays and computer interactives, and hundreds of actual objects recovered from Machu Picchu. These materials will be used as a springboard for a discussion of archaeological science and the way in which knowledge of relevant aspects of ecology, astronomy, metallurgy, human biology and other scientific subjects have proved to be critical in order to understand the purpose of Machu Picchu and why it was abandoned.
The Peabody's "Machu Picchu" exhibition has also received funding from the William Bingham Foundation, the Connecticut Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and generous individuals.
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