Las colecciones de restos humanos de la expedición del Pacífico y los museos españoles

Abstract

The so-called Pacific Expedition (1862-1866) was the last of the great transoceanic expeditions organized by Spain in the nineteenth century and is well known thanks to the studies of several scholars. Less has been investigated on the vicissitudes after his arrival in Spain of the human remains and ethnographic collections gathered during the trip. In addition to other skeletal remains, mainly skulls, a series of mummies were brought to Spain, along with their grave goods, from the archaeological site of Chiu-Chiu (Bolivia, now Chile) by Manuel Almagro in 1864. This article is dedicated to reconstruct as thoroughly as possible the history of these collections in different museums and the studies that were undertaken on them.