THE MIMBRES JOURNEY: HOW SHIFTING CONTEXTS NECESSITATE A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CONSERVATION APPROACH

Abstract

Produced between AD 1000 and 1130, Mimbres Classic Pottery ranks among the most valuable Native American creations. In 2004, a large treatment project was undertaken by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology to reduce dark, disfiguring staining and overpaint left by an early restoration campaign on 35 bowls excavated between 1923 and 1928. The shifting contexts and uses of the ceramics throughout their 1000-year existence, the lack of materials investigation, the current sensitivity of these funerary artifacts under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the tenacity of the stains, required a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment. Original field records were revisited; art historians, archaeologists, the museum's Indian Advisory Panel, scientists and other conservators were consulted. The team successfully reduced staining, employing an ammonium bicarbonate and paper pulp poultice adapted from fresco conservation techniques, while simultaneously respecting the beliefs of descendant populations and addressing the needs of the museum.