The Nasca drum project illustrates how modern analytical techniques borrowed from the natural sciences can aid a conservator in evaluating and restoring an ancient object.
The ceramic drum is a musical instrument belonging to the Nasca culture of Peru and dates to about 300 A.D. It is a hollow, clay vessel, shown here upside down. Originally, the knob-end rested between the musician's knees and a skin was stretched tight ly over the wide mouth to produce sound.
Although the drum had been in the Krannert Art Museum's collection for nearly thirty years, it was only recently that curators noticed flaking and deterioration of the surface. Was the flaking due to poor adhesion of the slip to the surface, or possibly absorption of salts from the burial environment? Or, were the flak es part of a non-ceramic restoration? The drum was finally evaluated by a conservator in 1992.
Careful examination and analysis revealed extensive restoration after substantial breakage and loss. Missing fragments were filled in with fired clay sections and joined to the original edges with a natural resin. Small gaps and irregularities were fill ed in with tinted plaster. The restorer then painted on his own birds, in a Nasca style but with with larger dimensions and different orientations than the originals, and fixed the new surface with at least one coating of shellac.
The conservator removed all previous restoration materials from the Nasca drum and cleaned the pieces to reveal the original slipped decoration. After reassembling, the drum was the centerpiece of a conservation exhibit in the spring of 1996.
