double argh...

i don't know which i hate more, aol or dial-up. i was just about finished with a long blog about how disappointed we were with the Machu Picchu exhibit at the museum of nature and science when i got disconnected...grrrr.

anyway, we thought the exhibit was a bit cheesy...had already illegible description tags that were placed in illogical locations, making for even more useless reading...and of the 400 artifacts that were on display, nearly 1/4 of them were probably assorted small items such as spindle whorls, bone needles, and little gold trinkets. i'm sorry, but you don't need thirty of each, especially when they're all alike.

there were some very nice interactive stations though, which dispensed some good history and audio examples of the Quechua language. and there were numerous examples of everyday Inca items (i.e., quipus, keros, aryballos.

you know, i might just be jaded because i've visited Machu Picchu twice...and seen some freakin' amazing Inca artifacts in the National Museum of Peruvian Archaeology, Dumbarton Oaks (D.C.) and the Field Museum (Chicago). i do understand that this wasn't purely an Inca exhibit, showcasing the best of the culture. the MP exhibit at DMNS commemorates the 1911 discovery of the site by Hiram Bingham, who was a professor of Latin American Studies at Yale. therefore, the majority of the artifacts in the exhibit are from the three expeditions that Yale financed him between 1911 and 1915. i'm wondering if the Peabody Museum (on Yale's campus) wasn't able to procure more of Dr. Bingham's photos of the expeditions... after all, the 'fieldwork' yielded more than eleven thousand black and whites of the site!!!!

ah well. i guess i shouldn't be offended by the layout of the exhibit, nor by the 2nd floor hokey dig for the kiddies. at least it's a concerted effort on the behalf of the museum to 'inform the masses' of something that's not easily accessed by more than half of the world's population. after all, Denver is quite lucky to be one of the six cities that will house this exhibition over a two year tour.

so...although it may not mean anything, i'd recommend that my handful of local readers check out the Machu Picchu exhibit at DMNS before it closes on May 9th because after that, you'll have to go to Houston to see it ;) and after you finish seeing the exhibit, check out the rest of the museum, especially the gems and minerals. only after that will you think the $9 you spent on admission was worthwhile heh