Art of the Ancient Americas

The Princeton University Art Museum contains one of the most significant collections of art of the ancient Americas in the United States. The collection encompasses an array of objects created over 5,000 years, from present-day Chile to the Arctic, with particularly comprehensive and significant holdings in art from Mesoamerica, the central Andes, and the Central American isthmus. Comprised primarily of portable works in ceramic, stone, gold, and other precious metals and materials, the collection provides valuable insights into a range of artistic and cultural practices. Olmec objects in ceramic, jade, and serpentine are particularly substantial, as are later polychrome vessels and figurines in ceramic from the Maya region, including the chocolate-drinking cup known as the Princeton Vase and vessels with exceptional representations of the Maya ballgame. Mochica ceramic vessels represent the technical apex of this particular culture as it flourished on the north coast of Peru. The Museum also has considerable holdings of Chimú, Chancay, and Inca textiles, including a substantial fragment of the so-called Chimú Prisoner Textile. 

Photographs of potentially culturally sensitive belongings have been withheld from the online collections catalogue. The records for funerary objects are not available online. For questions concerning Native North American belongings at Princeton University or NAGRPA, or for information about scheduling an in-person or virtual visit, please contact MaryKate Cleary, Curator of Provenance at marykate.cleary@princeton.edu.  For more information about Native American & Indigenous inclusion at Princeton, please see the University’s website. In its geographical, chronological, and technical breadth, the collection provides an exceptional opportunity for expanding paths of inquiry and the interpretation of the arts of ancient Americas.