British Museum Plan

Americas The Americas collection mainly consists of 19th and 20th century items although the Paracas, Moche, Inca, Maya, Aztec, Taino and other early cultures are well represented. The Kayung totem pole, which was made in the late nineteenth century in the Queen Charlotte Islands, dominates the Great Court and provides a fitting introduction to this very wide-ranging collections that stretches from the very north of the North American continent where the Inuit population has lived for centuries, to the tip of South America where indigenous tribes have long thrived in Patagonia. Highlights of the collection include Aboriginal Canadian objects from Alaska and Canada collected by the 5th Earl of Lonsdale and the Marquis of Lorne, the Squier and Davis collection of prehistoric mound relics from North America, a selection of pottery vessels found in cliff-dwellings at Mesa Verde, a collection of turquoise Aztec mosaics from Mexico (the largest in Europe), important artefacts from Teotihuacan and Isla de Sacrificios, several rare pre-Columbian manuscripts including the Codex Zouche-Nuttall and Codex Waecker-Gotter, a spectacular series of Mayan lintels from Yaxchilan excavated by the British Mayanist Alfred Maudslay, a very high quality Mayan collection that includes sculptures from Copan, Tikal, Tulum, Pusilha, Naranjo and Nebaj (including the celebrated Fenton Vase), a group of Zemi Figures from Vere, Jamaica, a number of prestigious pre-Columbian gold and votive objects from Colombia, ethnographic objects from across the Amazon region including the Schomburgk collection, two rare Tiwanaku pottery vessels from Lake Titicaca and important items from Tierra del Fuego donated by Commander Phillip Parker King.

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Room 26 - Stone pipe representing an otter from Mound City, Ohio, USA, 200 BC - 400 AD

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Room 2 - Stone tomb guardian, part human part jaguar, from San Agustín, Colombia, c. 300-600 AD

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Room 1 - Maya maize god statue from Copán, Honduras, 600-800 AD

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Room 24 - Gold Lime Flasks (poporos), Quimbaya Culture, Colombia, 600-1100 AD

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Room 27 - Lintel 25 from Yaxchilan, Late Classic, Mexico, 600-900 AD

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Room 24 - Bird pectoral made from gold alloy, Popayán, Colombia, 900-1600 AD

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Room 24 – Rapa Nui statue Hoa Hakananai'a, 1000 AD, Wellcome Trust Gallery

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Room 27 - Double-headed serpent turquoise mosaic, Aztec, Mexico, 1400-1500 AD

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Room 27 - Turquoise Mosaic Mask, Mixtec-Aztec, Mexico, 1400-1500 AD

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Room 2 - Miniature gold llama figurine, Inca, Peru, about 1500 AD

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Room 25 - Part of the famous collection of Benin brass plaques, Nigeria, 1500-1600 AD

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Room 25 - Detail of one of the Benin brass plaques in the museum, Nigeria, 1500-1600 AD

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Room 25 - Benin ivory mask of Queen Idia, Nigeria, 16th century AD

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Room 24 - Hawaiian feather helmet or mahiole, late 1700s AD

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Great Court - Two house frontal totem poles, Haida, British Columbia, Canada, about 1850 AD

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Room 25 - Mask (wood and pigment); Punu people, Gabon, 19th century AD

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Room 25 - Otobo masquerade in the Africa Gallery, Nigeria, 20th century AD

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Room 25 - Modern interpretation of kente cloth from Ghana, late 20th century AD