After class yesterday, instead of look around, we decided to go to the Inca Museum. It is a large museum that documents the Incas and other groups of people who lived here before the Incas. It had many drawing of what scientists think the pre-Incan people looked like as well as many dioramas and artifacts (such as pieces of pottery, mortars and pestles, jewelry, tools, etc.). All of the signs were in Spanish and only a few had an English translation but, surprisingly, we were able to piece together what they meant.
One of the most interesting exhibits was mummies and preserved skulls. Some of the skulls had been trepanned, which was an operation in which they cut out a circular hole about the size of a golf ball from the skull. We read later that the purpose of this operation was to relieve seizures, migraines, and other conditions. Also, it was emergency surgery to relieve pressure on the brain and to get out bone chunks. The weapons they used were rocks on strings, maces, and clubs with metal stars on the end. So blows to the head were common.
The museum was housed in a colonial building with an enclosed courtyard and two stories, with wooden beams and paintings on the ceilings. We were not allowed to take photos in the museum, but this website shows many of the types of things we saw.
http://www.precolumbiangold.com/inca.htm
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