The Juan B. Ambrosetti Museum of Ethnography ( es, Museo Etnográfico "Juan B. Ambrosetti") is an Argentine museum overseen by the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and located in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Overview

An estate on an eight-hectare (20 acre) property in Buenos Aires'

Nueva Pompeya Nueva Pompeya (Spanish for ''New Pompei''), often loosely referred to as Pompeya, is a neighbourhood in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the South side, it has long been one of the city's proletarian districts steeped in the tradit ...

ward became the site of a homemade museum in 1866, when 14-year-old

Francisco Moreno Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as ''Perito'' Moreno (''perito'' means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as on ...

and his father classified and mounted their extensive collection of fossils and artifacts, gathered in excursions along the property and surroundings. The younger Moreno organized his collection as a public display, and with funding from the

Province of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, inaugurated the Anthropology and Ethnography Museum of Buenos Aires in 1879.Museo Etnográfico Ambrosetti: Historia
Moai Kavakava 4

Featuring over 15,000 artifacts, the collection was ultimately transferred to the new

La Plata Museum The La Plata Museum ( es, Museo de la Plata) is a natural history museum in La Plata, Argentina. It is part of the (Natural Sciences School) of the UNLP ( National University of La Plata). The building, long, today houses 3 million fossils an ...

in 1888. Explorations in the

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gro ...

region conducted at the time by

naturalist

Juan Bautista Ambrosetti Juan Bautista Ambrosetti (August 22, 1865May 28, 1917) was an Argentine archaeologist, ethnographer and naturalist who helped pioneer anthropology in his country. Life and work Ambrosetti was born in Gualeguay, Entre Ríos Province, in 1865. He ...

led to an extensive, new collection, however, and in 1904, the latter inaugurated the University of Buenos Aires Museum of

Ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

. The museum became the first in Argentina to introduce guided

excursion An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes. Public transportatio ...

s for its patrons, and travels along the Inca road system resulted in the 1908 discovery of

Pucará de Tilcara The Pucará de Tilcara is a pre-Inca fortification or '' pukara'' located on a hill just outside (approximately a 15-minute walk) the small town of Tilcara, in the Argentine province of Jujuy. The location was strategically chosen to be easily def ...

, among the best-preserved ruins of settlements by Pre-Inca cultures in the area. Elaborate

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

and over 3,000 other relics were recovered and catalogued in the following three years, and most were added to the collections of the Museum of Ethnography. The settlement itself was declared a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 2003.UNESCO World Heritage
/ref> Dr. Ambrosetti died in 1917, and its management was continued by his collaborators, Drs.

Salvador Debenedetti Salvador Santiago Lorenzo Debenedetti (March 2, 1884September 30, 1930) was an Argentine archaeologist, anthropologist and educator. He was involved in the restoration of Pucará de Tilcara, an ancient fortification in what today is Jujuy Prov ...

and Félix Outes. The museum was relocated to its present location in the city's

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

ward in 1927; the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

structure had been designed by

Pedro Benoit Pedro Benoit (February 18, 1836 – April 4, 1897) was an Argentine architect, engineer, and urbanist best known for designing the layout of the city of La Plata. Life and times Pedro Benoit was born in Buenos Aires in 1836 to María Josefa ...

for the School of Law, and completed in 1878. Many of the collections of archeology and anthropology of the

Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum ( es, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia) is a public museum located in the Caballito section of Buenos Aires, Argentina. History and overview The museum owes it ...

were assigned to this museum in the decade of 1940, despite this, the institution became largely overshadowed. It was bolstered, however, by the 1958 creation of a Degree in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

by the University of Buenos Aires, and the institution was subsequently transferred to the university's School of Philosophy and Letters.

References

External links

* {{authority control Museums in Buenos Aires Archaeological museums in Argentina Pre-Columbian art museums University of Buenos Aires School buildings completed in 1878 Museums established in 1904 1904 establishments in Argentina University museums in Argentina Ethnographic museums in South America 1866 establishments in Argentina