Title
Characterization of the Inkaterra rock shelter paintings exposed to tropical climate (Machupicchu, Peru)
Date Issued
01 March 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Inc.
Abstract
During last decades, rock shelter paintings have been described as the most magnificent expression of the scenes of ancient daily lives culture in graphic form. In the scientific field, different analytical techniques have been used for the characterization of different pigments present in the pictographs from rock shelter paintings. Example of this are the Inkaterra rock shelter paintings, which are placed in one of the most impressive and unknown natural setting, located in the town of Aguas Calientes, belonging to the lands of the Hotel Machupicchu Pueblo, forming part of Machupicchu Archaeological Park (Peru) and are composed by many different geometric pictographs. In this work, apart from micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled to Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) have been used to ascertain the molecular and elemental composition of the rock substrate as well as of the different pigments used to create the pictographs visible on the Inkaterra rock shelter. In this sense, black, red and orange pigments were analyzed, identifying the use of carbon, hematite and beta-carotene respectively. Thus, thanks to this work it has been demonstrated that the orange color was not present in the original painting, but it is caused due to microbiological colonizations favored by the climate conditions of the area.
Start page
422
End page
428
Volume
137
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Química analítica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85040762729
Source
Microchemical Journal
ISSN of the container
0026265X
Sponsor(s)
This work has been funded by the Analytical Research and Innovation Project (ref. IT742-13 ), funded by the Basque Government , and by the UFI Global Change and Heritage Project (ref. UFI11-26 ), funded by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Authors are grateful also to the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, to the Decentralized Culture Directorate of Cusco-PAN Machupicchu directorate and to Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel for his kindness and the treatment given. Technical support provided by the Raman-LASPEA laboratory of the SGIker (UPV/EHU, MICINN, GV/EJ, ERDF and ESF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus