Mexique: specialists save pre-Columbian murals

EFE

Source - http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2012/08/08/mexican-specialists-save-pre-columbian-murals/#ixzz22zC30BRN

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Experts have made significant strides in preserving Mexico's pre-Columbian pictorial heritage, carrying out restoration projects at 44 archaeological sites over the past two years, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

The National Pre-Columbian Mural Conservation Program, launched in 2010, has analyzed and carried out restoration work at 101 sites - covering 133 sq. meters (1,430 sq. feet) - that contain these types of artistic manifestations, ranging from fragments of less than a meter (yard) to large-scale murals.

The program's goal is to preserve pictorial manifestations considered of priority importance because pre-Columbian civilizations made them as means of communication and for artistic purposes, the INAH said in a statement.

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"Never before had we been able to render judgment in such a short period of time on the state of conservation of such a large number of spaces with pictorial representations," Lilia Rivero Weber, coordinator of INAH's Cultural Heritage Conservation division, said.

The program has focused thus far on priority projects involving pre-Columbian murals of great historical and aesthetic value that pose a daunting challenge in terms of their preservation.

The archaeological zone of Cacaxtla, located in the east-central state of Tlaxcala, contains murals that were created between A.D. 800-1000 and are considered highly valuable because of their impeccable craftsmanship and unique iconography.

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Archaeologists, engineers and chemists are participating in the project and working to eliminate impurities and preserve the paintings, Rivero Weber said.