Bogotá’s Gold museum

Bogotá’s Gold museum

Bogotá’s gold museum ´has been working since 1939, it’s located in “Calle 16 con carrera 6ª” in Bogotá, Colombia. The Museum has about thirty-four thousand pieces in gold and tumbaga (this is the name of the alloy between gold and copper), about twenty-five thousand pieces in pottery, stone, shell, bone and textiles. The museum show pieces of different Indian cultures: Calima, Muisca, Nariño, Quimbaya, Zenú, Tairona, San Agustín, Tierradentro, Tolima, and others.

The museum make some temporary exhibitions everywhere in the world, spreading the Colombian cultures though there are some pieces preserved in Bogotá’s site and won`t leave because of its importance as the “Balsa Muisca” and the “Poporo Quimbaya” (this are two gold pieces that are very important because of its historical and cultural value).

The Balsa Muisca was found in Pasca, it represents the ceremony of the Offering in Guatavita’s Laguna. In this region was created Dorado’s Legend because of the great production of gold pieces and the ceremonies and rites.

In the museum there are five exhibition rooms:

Working of metals: are described the techniques of mining and manufacture of ancient metallurgy.

People and gold: its shows the use of metals.

Cosmology and symbolism: It shows the mythic topics, the shamanism and the zymology of metals.

The offering: a room that shows the ancient Indian ceremony of the offering.

The Exploratorium: it’s a room that shows what the museum preserve and its importance.

Every day lots of foreign people go to visit the museum so the museum staff has some translator people and the texts are in both languages (Spanish and English).

The museum has good security, every night the museum is very well closed, there are many cameras, and there are many security people around the museum.

The museum has about 2000 staff including cleaning ladies, security people and explaining people (this people explain the different pieces in the museum to people with questions or doubts).

The museum has everywhere signals to go to a fast exit in case of emergency.