Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum will stabilize 907 well-documented archaeological ceramics from its Central and South Coast Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina collections by removing the soluble salts that threaten the preservation of critical surface detail and the integrity of the vessel bodies. Conservators will immerse the ceramics in a series of baths of deionized water until conductivity readings indicate that no more salts are migrating into the soak bath. Severely damaged surfaces will require physical consolidation prior to soaking. The collections are a primary research resource for anthropologists, human biologists, and archaeologists investigating topics as wide ranging as sourcing clays and pigments, social organization of ceramic production, and relationships between local groups and imperial colonizers during the Wari and Inca periods.