Museo Valdivia, Santa Elena Province, Ecuador

3FuturoValdivia 5:00 PM Oct 8, 2019

Evidence of a 6000 year old culture
Venus of Valdivia is the symbol of an almost 6000 year old culture, possibly a matriarkat, and the Museo Valdivia shows authentic pieces, although a fare share has been taken to museums in Quito and Guayaquil.

3PANC J 5:00 PM Aug 24, 2018

A local museum in desperate need of national help
The archaeological site of Valdivia holds an important spot in the history of archaeology in Latin America. It is the site of the earliest discovered pottery in the Americas and shows a long sequence of occupation going back 6000 years. While the museum is in a nice setting and have very enthusiastic staff and young docents, the actual exhibits are disappointingly bad. Each room corresponds to a time period and consists of miscellaneous assortments of objects set on shelves in fairly random order with absolutely no contextual explanation. Clearly the museum has not had the helping insights of any museum professionals, nor archaeologists in its development. This is not the fault of the museum administration, in my view, but the fault of whatever national governmental ministry is responsible for museums. On the plus side, there is an excellent shop right next door to the museum that sells replicas of Valdivia and Ecuadorian pottery that is very well crafted and a reasonable price. For those who might be interested in the actual archaeological site of Valdivia, from what we can tell, the Museum is built right on top of it and there is nothing visible left on the surface.