Title
Mural paintings in Ancient Peru: The case of Tambo Colorado, Pisco Valley
Date Issued
21 December 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Wright V.
Pacheco G.
Torres H.
Huaman O.
Watanave A.
Suchomel M.R.
Suescun L.
Moulin C.
Sandoval P.C.M.
Publisher(s)
Routledge
Abstract
Tambo Colorado is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the Southern Peruvian coast, because of its stunning architecture, its extraordinary pictorial decoration, and its strategic location in the section of the Great Inca Road. The Research Project Tambo Colorado considers necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis encompassing nature of the materials (archaeometric analysis) as well as a proper understanding of their conservation status of its architecture. In this regard interdisciplinary research provides the necessary tools to achieve these goals. For this reason our team is integrated by archaeometrists, engineers, conservators and archaeologists. Due to of this transdisciplinary approach, one of the main objective is the study of painting technology developed by the craftsmen of the site. The first results obtained, thanks to an analytical strategy combining observation and elemental and structural analysis (colorimetry, SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD and SXRD), allow us to identify the coloring materials used. These data enabled to reconstruct the operational chain followed to elaborate the murals (since the pigments extraction to the making of the murals) but also to consider and develop a suitable surfaces conservation plan.
Start page
11
End page
21
Volume
1
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Historia Arqueología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85020866388
Source
Science and Technology of Archaeological Research
ISSN of the container
20548923
Sponsor(s)
Véronique Wright is a Doctor in Ethnology, Anthropology and Prehistory, specialist in Pre-Columbian Archaeology and Archaeometry applied to colouring materials. Researcher of the French Institute of Andean Studies (IFEA) in Lima, she is currently in charge of the archaeological and archaeome-trical investigations of the Archaeological Research Project Tambo Colorado funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus