Located in the circular, glass-plated, landmark building of Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana is one of the country’s largest collections of Ecuadorian art, with magnificent works of pre-Hispanic and colonial religious art. The Sala de Arqueología showcases more than 1000 ceramic pieces dating from 12,000 BC to AD 1534; displays in the Sala de Oro (Gold Room) include a magnificent radiating, golden sun mask; and the Sala de Arte Colonial (Colonial Art Room) showcases masterful works from the Quito School.
The mazelike archaeological exhibition space begins with arrowheads from Ecuador’s first nomadic hunter-gatherers, then continues with the Valdivia culture (Ecuador’s first settled agriculturalists) and ends with the Inca. En route are magnificent pieces, including ‘whistle bottles’ from the Chorrera culture, figures showing skull deformation practiced by the Machalilla culture, wild serpent bowls from the Jama-Coaque, ceramic representations of tzantzas (shrunken heads), ‘coin axes’ from the Milagro-Quevedo culture and the famous ceremonial stone chairs of the Manteños.
