ORAL PRESENTATIONS Listed in programme order Technical analysis of archaeological Andean painted textiles Rebecca Summerour1*, Jennifer Giaccai2, Keats Webb3, Chika Mori2, Nicole Little3 1National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (NMAI) 2Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (FSG) 3Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution (MCI) 1*
[email protected] This project investigates materials and manufacturing techniques used to create twenty-one archaeological painted Andean textiles in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (NMAI). The textiles are attributed to Peru but have minimal provenience. Research and consultations with Andean textile scholars helped identify the cultural attributions for most of the textiles as Chancay and Chimu Capac or Ancón. Characterization of the colorants in these textiles is revealing previously undocumented materials and artistic processes used by ancient Andean textile artists. The project is conducted as part of an Andrew W. Mellon Postgraduate Fellowship in Textile Conservation at the NMAI. The textiles in the study are plain-woven cotton fabrics with colorants applied to one side. The colorants, which include pinks, reds, oranges, browns, blues, and black, appear to be paints that were applied in a paste form, distinguishing them from immersion dyes. The paints are embedded in the fibers on one side of the fabrics and most appear matte, suggesting they contain minimal or no binder. Some of the brown colors, most prominent as outlines in the Chancay-style fragments, appear thick and shiny in some areas. It is possible that these lines are a resist material used to prevent colorants from bleeding into adjacent design elements.