Five Years of Conservation Collaboration

Inaugurated January 19, 2008

Huaca Malena is a pre-Inca ceremonial complex. During the period of regional development, 400–500 A.D., it functioned as an administrative and religious center. Between 700 and 1100 A.D. the upper platform was used by the Wari culture as a cemetery.

To the ancient Peruvians, textiles played a fundamental role in the dispersion of political and religious ideology. They were used to clothe the body, both in life and in death, as well as for social functions such as paying taxes. Every hand-weaving technique invented anywhere in the world was also known to the ancient Peruvians, which illustrates their ingenuity and resourcefulness.

It is this unique textile legacy that has brought North Americans to the Municipal Museum of Huaca Malena every January since 2004 to collaborate with Peruvians in the conservation of artifacts from the collection. In the last five years over forty textiles, mummy bundles, and mummified heads have been conserved by forty-four participants in this collaborative effort.

By exhibiting the textiles that we have preserved you can share in our voyage of discovery and see for yourself the many stories pre-Columbian textiles tell.

Fiber

The fibers represented in this exhibit come from plants and animals.

The plant fibers are from cotton blossoms, and other stems and leaves. Animal fibers are camelid (such as alpaca hair), leather from animal skins, even human hair and bird feathers. All of these may be used to construct a piece of cloth or as ceremonial ornaments.

Cotton is grown on the coast of Peru and alpaca are raised in the highlands. This tells us that there was trade between different areas of Peru. Fibers may be spun into thread, twisted, plied, looped, or knotted. They are then used to construct fabrics using various techniques such as weaving and knitting.

Structure

The ancient Peruvian concepts of balance and reciprocity have a metaphor in woven structures. At Huaca Malena, thirty-two weave different structures have been found.

The earliest textiles were made with a single thread resulting in open structures such as fishing nets. This evolved into knitting and needle-knitting. Needle-knitting is a structure in which loops are connected to each other to make fabric or fabric embellishment.

When two sets of threads are interlocked, a woven fabric is created. The first set of threads is called the “warp,” and the threads that are interwoven with the warp are called “weft.” When warp and weft are combined in an over-one-under-one manner, the resulting fabric is called “plain weave.”

Gauze is a more complex textile in which the yarns are often highly twisted, making the fabric light and elastic. Sometimes pairs of warp yarns are crossed before the weft is woven in, creating a geometric pattern. Designs can also be created in gauze by combining warp crossing and embroidery.

Decoration

Textile decorations communicate. They represent elements from nature and people’s lives, customs and beliefs. The evolution of weaving techniques and structures make possible more and more complex and refined decorations.

The simplest way to decorate a textile is to use different natural colors. Some of the earliest textiles used different colors of cotton or alpaca to create basic designs such as stripes, plaids and other geometric forms. The choice of colors became much greater by dyeing fibers with natural materials.

Later textiles were created with more complex decorative techniques such as tie dye, brocade and tapestry. Some of the most visually intricate textiles use color, design and technique to depict forms such as animals, sacred beings, and people.

Through decoration, textiles provide a glimpse of the beliefs and world views of our ancestors.

Hats

It is fascinating to see the wide variety of clothing worn by the ancient Peruvians. The role of hats goes beyond the simple job of protecting your head from cold, sun or rain, which is shown by the great variety of forms and functions.

Covering your head was a symbolic way to show important political, social, economical, ethnic, and gender differences. The head is the highest and most prominent part of the body and is a privileged place from which to display these different messages.

We can see many types of different hats in the collection from Huaca Malena. Turbans, head bands, caps, headdresses and wigs—made of perishable materials such as cotton, camelid fiber, human hair, leather, vegetable fibers, and feathers—survive today despite the harsh climate of the desert and speak to us of the importance of hats in ancient times.

Childhood

Children in ancient Peru learned important life skills through play. Later, as adults, these skills contributed to the vitality of the community.

Girls learned how to weave at an early age because textiles were very significant, both practically and symbolically. The first structures a girl would learn how to weave were the most simple. This loom on display, for example, shows a plain weave structure with threads of un-dyed cotton.

Boys were introduced to textiles in a different way: they wore clothes, carried bundles, and they may have learned to hunt with a sling. Sometimes men wove as well.

Each person’s clothing was significant. A shirt, for example, could indicate class or social role through the use of form, color and design. The meaning of clothing and textiles was so specific that, after death, each person’s clothing (even clothing they no longer used) was buried with them.

Conservation

Conservation is a field that connects art, cultural heritage and material science in order to preserve cultural objects and understand their context.

Who is a conservator? A conservator is a museum professional with knowledge of materials and chemical processes of deterioration, manual dexterity and artistic sensibility, and an understanding of traditional practices and techniques.

Why is conservation important? Conservation s undertaken to:

• Stabilize an object to allow it to be studied and/or exhibited
• Aid understanding of the materials and techniques used, which reflect the values of the society in which it was made.
• Prevent further damage by creating appropriate storage mounts which support delicate objects, and by providing a secure storage environment with stable temperature and relative humidity.