This talk presented how the works of restoration and conservation in the Inca, 1000 years old Temple of Pachacamac were conducted. The importance of this temple relies in the fact that is the only temple with painted designs in its walls besides the fact that it was one out of the two oracles in Inca times.
The main guidelines for this project were 2: maximum research and minimum intervention.
Research stage focused on several aspects:
- The record of the structure of the building
- The recuperation of partially erased designs from the mural paintings, as well as a research of the painting instruments that were used for the elaboration of these murals.
- The analysis and identification of most of the pigments
- An stratigraphic analysis
- The record of environmental conditions and
- The evaluation of the materials previously used in conservation treatments
Regarding the interventions they were focused on the conservation of:
- The walls that were cleaned, hydrated and consolidated.
- The paintings
- The plaster which was consolidated with cactus gel recovering ancient Inca techniques
- The adobe blocks which were consolidated and repositioned to its original position
- The installation of roofing and wind breakers that are made out of Bamboo. This material was carefully chosen because of its weight to harm the less possible the structure of the temple.
What I appreciated the most of the work of Miss Pacheco is the respect of original techniques employed by Incas, which are sustainable, and that up to now had proven to be effective, and unlike to promote microorganism colonization as one might think. Her work raise some interesting questions about the green pigment used on paintings, and its identification is still to be made. I will definitely follow up the progress of these works at the Pachacamac Inca Temple with a lot of interest.