Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation
2004 - Leymebamba Museum/Mallqui Center: Museography And Conservation
The Leymebamba Museum, inaugurated in June 2000, holds over 200 mummies and funeral offerings from the Laguna de Los Cóndores. In May of 1997 the Mallqui Center organized the archaeological recovery of this collection.
The collection requires modern techniques to control the risk of deterioration due to high humidity levels and temperature changes in the region. To date, the museum has been able to develop its activities with support from the Institute for Bioarchaeology, Discovery Channel, and grants from the Austrian and Finish governments, as well as private assistance and community contribution.
Funds provided through the Ambassadors fund will allow completing a series of pending assignments necessary for the museum to improve its functioning conditions, with a modern museography and a better conservation laboratory.
The project will take the following measures:
- Design and print exhibition material with information on the mummy collection,
- Implement appropriate conservation treatments for organic artifacts,
- Provide the exhibition areas and the storage rooms with equipment to monitor climatic conditions.
Urgency of the Project
The Museum is located in a highly humid area of the Amazon region, which affects the state of conservation of the collection. The museum has not had the funds to provide the appropriate treatment for the collection. Therefore, this is an emergency project that demands immediate action before the collection is irreversibly damaged. Thanks to the Ambassador’s Fund support, all mommies will be conserved in optimal conditions with controlled humidity levels and adequate illumination through careful climatic monitoring.
Educational Component
The Leymebamba Museum has two main objectives:
- Serve as a conductor for educating young members of the community about the relationship between their local identity and their regional cultural heritage,
- Become an international icon for tourism.
As a community museum, the museum is in close contact with the children, teenagers and the general community to protect and take care of the patrimonial area. This work is coordinated with the museum’s scientist and conservator, who teach about the ancient societies and also instruct on appropriate conservation measures for the zone. The museum helps to promote and emphasize our relationship with the past.
The Ambassadors Fund will help to prevent deterioration of the museum’s collection and will allow for it to be available to the general public and to national and international researchers. Interested professionals will be able to study the mummies and provide a deeper insight to the cultural and historical value of each piece, possibly presenting new studies that would benefit art historians and anthropologists worldwide.