The Field Museum’s Colonial Period Polychrome Tiana: A Conservation Study of Materials and Techniques

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Field Museum’s collection holds the only known Colonial era tiana, or carved wooden stool, from Peru. This important object was among the inaugural collections at the Museum, entering the collection at its founding in 1893 just after Chicago’s World’s Fair, the Columbian Exposition. The remarkable polychromed tiana with two felines carved fully in the round supporting the seat, has been the subject of considerable study by scholars. This rare object has only been loaned on three occasions. The surface decoration is generally recognized as similar to that of Colonial polychromed qeros, or wooden ceremonial vessels, involving pigments mixed with resin and inlaid into shallow carved areas. Yet, the intact nature of the polychromy and the rarity of the object have not allowed for destructive analyses. Consequently, no technical studies have been carried out to date to characterize the pigments and resin. This paper presents preliminary results of non-destructive analysis of the materials and techniques used to make the tiana. We consider the results in the context of recent work on qeros, and discuss implications for the biography of the tiana.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22913