Keepers of memories. Pre-Columbian Peruvian workbaskets in the Anthropology and Ethnology Museum of Florence

Pre-Columbian workbaskets were common inside burials, especially in coastal Andean regions. They mostly contained tools and raw materials related to textile production, but there were also some elements (e.g. Spondylus shells) not strictly connected to a practical use. Workbaskets are mentioned in many contributions by scholars and researchers but unfortunately rarely studied in detail. The Pre-Columbian collections housed in the Anthropology and Ethnology Museum in Florence include four Peruvian workbaskets. As no in-depth study has ever been published on them, this contribution aims to provide a detailed analysis of their structure and contents.