Location: Moreno 340. San Telmo
Phone: 4345-8196 / 7
The museum was created in 1904 by scientist Juan Bautista Ambrosetti as an anthropological museum, investigation and educational centre for the general public. It stands out for both the quality and quantity of the more than 6,000 pieces which ethnographic and archeological objects from Argentina, Oceania, Africa, Asia, the Andean Cultures and Indigenous North Americans Cultures.
The 1880 building was the project of architect Pedro Benoit Jr.; it was originally used by the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires but the museum has been there since 1927.
The museum has vast collections of archeology, ethnography and biological anthropology. It mainly specializes in aboriginal peoples of the present Argentine territory and other areas of the American Continent though it also treasures objects from diverse regions of the world.
Most of the archeological material comes from Northwestern Argentina and Patagonia; the museum has mostly financed itself from its founding onwards. The wider collection of anthropological treasures come from what was called, at the beginning of last century, “The Primitive World”, ceramics, pottery, fabrics and textiles from the Andean pre-Columbian vases from Greece, funerary offerings from Central America and even prehistoric Japanese ceramics.
The biological anthropology area has more than 10,000 bones from all over the world and even some well preserved mummies.
The ethnographic collection consists mainly of the material culture of ethnic groups which populated Argentina, but there is also feather works art from the Chaco region, Pueblo Indian ceramics, African and Eastern Island carvings, pieces from Oceania and cult and ritual objects belonging to diverse religions.
There is also a specialized library and a photography and documentary archive.