Archaeometry and Mural Paintings in Ancient Peru: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Apprehend the Prehispanic Artisan Painters

Summary

Mural art is an artistic expression common to most of the Prehispanic societies and it was often investigated though iconographic point of view. Nevertheless, the recent researches particularly on Moche mural paintings (1st-8th century) have demonstrated the archaeometry contribution to study these polychromic vestiges. Indeed it constitutes a valued tool to apprehend these ancient societies and to preserve its exceptional painting patrimony.

Thus, until 2012, a new research project is developed in the marks of the program named "Origines, Héritages et Dynamiques" of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima. It aims to comprehend the origins of Prehispanic mural art and its spatiotemporal evolution up to the Spanish Conquest. Thanks to a transdisciplinary approach, the main objective is to characterize the pictorial technology in order to reconstitute the "chaîne opératoire" established by the painters along the time.

Though several cases from Ventarrón (2500-1600 BC) with the oldest murals in Peru, up to Tambo Colorado Inca fortress, it is possible to draw up a panorama of this artistic expression. The results obtained allow us to understand the significance and the interest of using such a protocol to investigate mural paintings, as well as patrimony conservation and technical and anthropological issues.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Mural Painting and the Ancient Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage