If you’re in Japan, and you have never been (or have no plans to go) to any of the three major areas of Pre-Columbian culture, then you should check out this exhibit at the Fukuoka City Museum (time is running out!) The Mayan artifacts come from Guatemala and Campeche, Mexico, and they represent a decent collection for being outside of the Maya area. For the real deal, I recommend the Museums of Anthropology in Mexico City and Merida (and all the Mayan pyramids!) I haven’t been to the Peabody museum at Yale, which I understand has many of the goodies taken in the early part of the 20th C., but it’s on my list. The museum in Mexico City has a definitive collection of Aztec artifacts, and nothing beats walking through the ruins of the pyramids at Tenochtitlan. I have nothing but the Nazca exhibition to compare with the Inca display, but Peru is on my list of places to visit. The exhibition in Fukuoka is trying to do too much. It is hard to do justice to each culture in just one display. But, as I started this entry out, if this is all you can do, then go check it out.
