Applique: The term “appliqué” is used to describe a separate piece of clay that is applied to the ceramic vessel, it is generally applied for ornamentation or decoration, it is unlikely to have a functional purpose.

Incisions: A clay surface is cut or a design created (usually narrow lines) with a sharp instrument, such as a small stick, reed, knife. This is carried out on the surface of ceramic vessels while the clay is still wet, prior to being fired.

Mummy Bundles: Mummy bundles refers to a Paracas funerary practice. Deceased individuals were wrapped in layers of textiles that included funerary goods such as baskets, ceramics, metal ornaments, and foodstuffs.

Post-fire painting: Post-fire painting is a technique that was used by the Paracas culture and other indigenous societies. Colored paint was applied to a vessel after the vessel had been fired, resulting in vibrant colors, rather than applied to the vessel prior to its firing.

Reed stamped: reeds from marshes or riverbeds were used to create decorative elements on ceramic vessels. This was done by “stamping” the vessel’s surface with the reed while the clay was still wet, prior to firing.

After working with Agisoft Photoscan off and on through the semester students overall preferred to work with the Pro version of the software and found the following resources helpful for tips in carryout out the required workflow, editing photos, etc.

https://dinosaurpalaeo.wordpress.com/category/photogrammetry/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EELoTXJxoiA

http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/anima/2016/07/20/agisoft-photoscan-use/

https://thehaskinssociety.wildapricot.org/photogrammetry/#h.w9248wr3m4zq

DeLeonardis, Lisa. “Encoded Process, Embodied Meaning in Paracas Post-Fired Painted Ceramics,” in Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Cathy Costing, pp. 129-166. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, 2016.

Deleonardis, Lisa. “Interpreting the Paracas Body and it’s value in Ancient Peru,” in The Construction of Value in the Ancient World, edited by John K. Papadopoulos and Gary Urton, pp. 197-217. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012.

Paul, Anne. “Paracas Necropolis Bundle 89: A Description and Discussion of its Contents” in Paracas Art and Architecture: Object and Context in South Coastal Peru, edited by Anne Paul, pp. 172-221. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991.

Peters, Anne. Funerary Regalia and Institutions of Leadership in Paracas and Topara. Chungara: Revista de Antropologia Chilena 32, no. 2 (2000): 245-252.

Proulx, Donald. A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography: Reading a Culture through its Art. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006.

Proulx, Donald. “Paracas and Nasca: Regional Cultures on the South Coast of Peru” in Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William Isbell, pp. 563-585. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008.

Sawyer, Alan. Ancient Peruvian Ceramics: The Nathan Cummings Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966.

Stone-Miller, Rebecca. Art of the Andes: From Chavin to Inca, 3rd edition. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2012.

Thank you to the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for allowing us to study your Paracas collection. Thank you to Jesse Merandy, Director of BGC’s Digital Media lab for your help with this project.

This project was completed by students in the Spring 2017 BGC course Inca and their Ancestors: Andean Objects, Technologies, and Issues of Conservation taught by Alicia Boswell.

Course participants included: Lolly Burrows, Ann Carlisle, Christina DeLeon, Emily Field, Sasha Nixon and Sarah Reetz.